Search Results for ross

First Title value, for Searching Ross, John Wilson ( - 2013)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2023-11-30
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E010000-E010999/E010500-E010599
Occupation Dental surgeon
Details John Wilson Ross was a dental surgeon from Truro, Cornwall
Resource Identifier RCS: E010539
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Ross, Kevin Fitzmaurice ( - 2000)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

First Title value, for Searching Ross, Daniel (1812 - 1877)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

First Title value, for Searching Smith, Ross (1920 - 1971)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2014-10-14 2015-04-30
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/378294378294
Occupation ENT surgeon
Details Ross Smith came from the Ashburton district of New Zealand, and from St Andrew's College went to Otago University where he graduated MB, ChB in 1945 and as a student won a university blue for rugby football. During his resident year at Christchurch Hospital he married Biddy MacDougall, and in 1946 came over to the United Kingdom to obtain the FRCS in 1948 and to gain experience of otolaryngology at the Royal National Throat Nose and Ear Hospital, London. Smith returned to New Zealand in 1949 and was appointed consultant ENT surgeon to Christchurch Hospital and soon established a busy private practice. By 1961 he had become senior ENT surgeon to the hospital, but also managed to combine medical work with business and farming activities in which he was equally successful. He was greatly appreciated by colleagues and patients alike, because in spite of his many interests his primary duty was always to his patients, and to his home and family. He was at the height of his professional and business career when he and his wife were both killed in a motor accident near Rotarua on 14 August 1971, leaving behind them their daughter and twin sons.
Resource Identifier RCS: E006111
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Bloom, Ross (1915 - 1973)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

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/377837377837
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon
Details Ross Bloom was born in Leeds on 2 January 1915; his father was a shopkeeper and his mother's maiden name was Fanny Castenberg. He was educated at Cardiff High School and graduated from the University of Wales in 1937, taking the London MB BS, the same year. He obtained the prize for the best first year medical student. He held several house appointments in Cardiff and was greatly influenced by Lambert Rogers. He lectured to many students and to doctors who had escaped the Nazi tyranny, helping them to obtain English qualification. In 1942 he joined the Army and was posted to India, where he saw service until 1946 as officer in charge of a surgical division. He reached the rank of Colonel and was discharged with the honorary rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. After the war he was senior orthopaedic registrar at the Middlesex Hospital under Philip Wiles 1947-1950, when he was appointed consultant orthopaedic surgeon to the Wessex Regional Hospital Board, which at that time covered Wessex and the Isle of Wight. In 1955 he was appointed to a similar position in the Bournemouth and East Dorset Hospital Group, a post he held till his untimely death on 25 September 1973 aged fifty-eight. During this time he became a Fellow of the British Orthopaedic Association. Ross Bloom was a quiet-spoken, hard-working, dedicated man, liked and respected by all his colleagues, staff, and patients. General practitioners always found him ready and willing, at whatever hour of day or night, to make a domiciliary visit, giving their patients relief and reassurance. He fought his last illness with quiet dignity and composure. He was survived by his wife, née Edna Sattin, whom he married in 1942, their two sons and daughter-in-law.
Resource Identifier RCS: E005654
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Adie, Ross McMillan (1938 - 2015)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Sarah Gillam
Publication Date 2016-02-19
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/381224381224
Occupation General surgeon
Details Ross McMillan Adie was a general surgeon in Victoria, Australia. He was born on 14 February 1938, the son of Godfrey David Adie, an accountant, and Beatrice Mavis Adie née Burgess. His uncle, William John Adie, was a neurologist in London. Adie was educated at Essendon High School and went on to study medicine at Melbourne University, qualifying in 1962 with honours in medicine, obstetrics and gynaecology. He spent the next five years training at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, and then in 1968 became a lecturer in surgery at the University of Singapore. A year later, he went to the UK, as a registrar at Hammersmith Hospital in London. He also gained his FRCS in 1969. In 1970, he was a research fellow at Cleveland Metropolitan Hospital, Cleveland, USA. He subsequently returned to Victoria, Australia. Outside medicine, he enjoyed golf and fly fishing. He married Janet Margaret McColl in 1961. They had a son and two daughters. Adie died in 2015.
Resource Identifier RCS: E009041
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Burton, Ross Fordyce (1922 - 2012)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Sarah Gillam
Publication Date 2020-08-12
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E009000-E009999/E009700-E009799
Occupation Radiologist Radiotherapist
Details Ross Fordyce Burton, known as ‘Peter’, was a consultant radiotherapist in Auckland, New Zealand. He was born on 19 September 1922 in Auckland, New Zealand, the son of Percy Robert Burton, a school principal, and Millicent Evaline Burton née French. He attended school in Opotiki, then at Brixton Road School in Mount Eden, Auckland and at Mount Albert Grammar, where he played tennis, cricket and football and gained a university scholarship. He spent a preliminary year at Auckland University and then went on to Otago Medical School, where he spent five years, qualifying in 1946. He became an anatomy demonstrator and was a teacher in the anatomy department. He was subsequently a house surgeon at the Mater Misercordiae and Middlemore hospitals in Auckland. In 1949 he went to London where he studied for his FRCS, which he gained in 1953. During his time in London he was a locum casualty officer at the Royal Northern Hospital. He also spent time in Cambridge, where he trained in radiotherapy. He returned to Auckland in 1954 and began working as a radiotherapist at Auckland Hospital. Five years later he became the head of the department. He retired in 1987. During his retirement he played golf and farmed sheep. He was married to Leonore. He had two sons, Peter and Simon, and two grandchildren.
Resource Identifier RCS: E009764
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Ross, John Graham (1926 - 2014)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

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/380232380232
Occupation General surgeon
Details John Graham Ross was a general surgeon at Saint Boniface Hospital and Victoria Hospital in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. He was born on 4 June 1926 in Greenock, Scotland, the son of Alexander Ross, an architect, and Katherine Forsyth Ross née Allander, the daughter of an engineer. He was educated at Aberdeen Grammar School and Hymers College, Hull and then, from 1944 to 1947, served in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve as a sub lieutenant. Following his demobilisation, he went to Queen's College, Oxford and St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical School, where he was a Brackenbury scholar in surgery and gained the Willett medal for surgery and the Walsham prize in surgical pathology. He qualified in 1953 and gained his FRCS in 1958. He held house and registrar posts at Barts, and was then a registrar in Ipswich and Sheffield and a senior registrar in Leeds. He subsequently emigrated to Canada, where he joined Saint Boniface Hospital. He was a partner at the Saint Boniface Clinic for 30 years. He became a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Canada in 1967. Outside medicine he enjoyed gardening, golf and philately. In 1953, he married a Miss Neil. John Graham Ross died on 4 August 2014. He was 88. He was survived by his widow Lynne, his children (Kate, Liz, Fiona, Malcolm and Caroline) and ten grandchildren.
Resource Identifier RCS: E008049
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Ross, Harvey Burton (1928 - 2018)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Tina Craig
Publication Date 2018-05-18 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/381851381851
Occupation General surgeon
Details Harvey Burton Ross was a consultant surgeon at the Royal Berkshire Hospital, Reading. Born on 1 October 1928 in London, he was the second son of James Patterson Ross KCVO (1st Baronet of Whetstone, Surgeon to King George VI and Queen Elizabeth II) and his wife, Marjorie Burton née Townsend, a former ward sister at St Bartholomew’s Hospital (Barts). His father was a former president of the college and his elder brother, James Keith, was also a fellow and a distinguished cardiac surgeon. After attending preparatory school at The Hall in Hampstead, he was educated at St Paul’s where he was a senior scholar. He studied medicine at Bart’s Hospital Medical School and qualified MB, BS in 1952. While there he was mentored by John Percival Hosford and Edward George Tuckwell. Following graduation he did his national service in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve and remained in the service for many years retiring with the rank of surgeon lieutenant commander. In 1955 he was prosector in anatomy at the college. After undertaking research at Oxford and at the Multnomah Hospital in Portland, Oregon, he returned to Bart’s as a consultant in 1968. He was given specific responsibility to perform vascular shunts in patients with advanced liver cirrhosis. Four years later, in 1972, he returned to more general surgery and took up a consultancy at the Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading. At that hospital he worked with George Leonard Bohn and Conrad Latto and, by the time he retired in 1993, was acknowledged to be one of the foremost breast cancer surgeons in the country. An enthusiastic and accomplished cricketer, he also got great pleasure from gardening and fly fishing. On 20 October 1962 he married Nancy Joan Hilliam. They had three children, Edward Patterson (born 1963), Imogen (born 1970) and James Hilliam (born 1972). In 1988 he married Susan Christine Blandy. When he died from the complications of Lewy body disease on 18 February 2018 aged 89, he was survived by his third wife Anne, his children and six grandchildren.
Resource Identifier RCS: E009447
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
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First Title value, for Searching Ross, William Mackie (1922 - 2011)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Sarah Gillam
Publication Date 2011-11-11 2014-06-06
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001500-E001599
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373762373762
Occupation Radiologist
Details William Mackie 'Bill' Ross was head of radiotherapy at Newcastle General Hospital and a former president of the Royal College of Radiologists. He was born in Glasgow on 14 December 1922. His father, Harry Caithness Ross, was a professional golfer in Durham; his mother, Catherine Ross née Mackie, was the daughter of a gardener. Ross was educated at Neville's Cross Primary School and then Durham Johnston School, where he gained a state scholarship to study medicine at King's College, University of Durham. He qualified MB BS in 1945, after following the shortened wartime course. He held house surgeon and house physician posts at the Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle, and was subsequently a registrar and then a senior registrar in radiotherapy at Shotley Bridge Hospital. He gained his diploma in radiotherapy in 1948. During his training he was particularly influenced by John Hamilton Barclay and Christopher John Lester Thurgar. From 1951 to 1953, he carried out his National Service in the Royal Army Medical Corps, as a specialist in radiology to the British troops in Austria. In 1953 he was appointed as a consultant in radiotherapy in Newcastle, and continued in this post until his retirement in 1987. From 1973 he was consultant in charge of the Northern Regional Radiotherapy Centre, and also an honorary lecturer and head of the department of radiotherapy at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne. He was also chairman of the medical staff committee at Newcastle. During his long association with radiotherapy at Newcastle, Ross helped ensure an effective service was delivered to patients in all parts of the region, in particular to the more peripheral districts. To this end, he was instrumental in developing smaller units in Cleveland and Cumbria, which retained links to the larger Newcastle base. Throughout his career, Ross was involved in clinical trials, including the King's/Cambridge breast cancer trial and the British National Lymphoma Investigation. With the backing of the North of England Cancer Research Campaign, he also developed an oncology centre at Newcastle General Hospital. Ross was president of the northern council of the BMA (on two occasions), president of the British Institute of Radiology, the section of radiotherapy of the Royal Society of Medicine and of the North of England Surgical Society. From 1983 to 1986 he was president of the Royal College of Radiologists. He then became secretary of the Conference of Medical Royal Colleges (later to become the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges). From 1985 to 1989, Ross was chairman of section of radiotherapy of the European Association of Radiology (EAR). He then became treasurer of EAR, remaining in post through the organisation's transition to become the European Society of Radiology and during the establishment of the European Congress of Radiology. In 1993 he was awarded the Society's Boris Rajewsky medal. Ross served with distinction in the Territorial Army, becoming an honorary colonel in charge of 201(N) General Hospital. Outside medicine, he enjoyed car rallying. He was a member of local motor clubs, and a member of the Institute of Advanced Motorists. Once he retired and had returned to Durham, he joined the local branches of Probus and the National Trust. In April 1948 he married Mary Burt, a primary schoolteacher. They had three children - Heather, Hilary and Duncan - and five grandchildren. They celebrated their diamond wedding anniversary in 2008, but Mary died later that same year, in November. William Mackie Ross died on 15 March 2011, aged 88, after a short illness.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001579
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Wakefield, Alan Ross (1917 - 1985)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Brian Morgan
Publication Date 2011-11-30 2013-04-24
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001600-E001699
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373859373859
Occupation Hand surgeon Plastic surgeon Plastic and reconstructive surgeon
Details Alan Ross Wakefield, known as 'The Vicar', was an Australian plastic and hand surgeon of international renown. He will be particularly remembered for writing, with Sir Benjamin Keith Rank, the classic text *Surgery of repair as applied to hand injuries, etc* (Edinburgh/London, E & S Livingstone), first published in 1953 with three further editions. The importance and value of this book extends beyond 'the hand': the classification the authors introduced of wounds into 'tidy' and 'untidy' continues to be cited in most papers and books on trauma. The son of George Thomas and Florence Ann Wakefield, he was educated at Melbourne Grammar School and then at the medical school at Melbourne, qualifying in 1941. On completion of his basic training, he joined the Royal Australian Army Medical Corps and served in New Guinea, Brisbane and Heidelberg Military Hospital, where he joined the No 2 maxillofacial and plastic unit. It was here he learnt his plastic surgery from Rank. Wakefield ended his military service in 1946 as a captain and with the Pacific Star medal. Following his demobilisation, he became an honorary assistant plastic surgeon at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, and passed his MS and FRACS in 1947. He then travelled to the United Kingdom and spent a year training in plastic surgery. He passed his FRCS in 1948. He returned to Melbourne, as a plastic surgeon at the Royal Children's Hospital and at the Repatriation Hospital, Heidelberg. As head of the plastic surgery department at the Royal Children's Hospital he successfully developed the hospital's reputation, especially for cleft lip repair. As well as his epic work on hand injuries, he published work on cleft lip and palate, and on intersex problems. On trips to the United States he developed many long-lasting contacts. In 1964 he was invited to give the founder's lecture at the American Society for Surgery of the Hand. In later years, he retired from private practice, but retained his Royal Children's Hospital appointment. When his role there ended, he became medical director of the Victorian Plastic Surgery Unit. He was also a farmer, and bred sheep and cattle. He was president of the Murray Grey Beef Cattle Society, and did much to develop this new breed of beef cattle. He also grew roses and was a keen exhibitor and show judge. He married twice. By his first wife, Mary, he had four children and six grandchildren. His second wife was Valerie. Alan Ross Wakefield died following a long illness on 22 July 1985 at his home in San Remo, Victoria, Australia.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001676
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Nicholson, Oliver Ross (1922 - 2013)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Peter Robertson
Publication Date 2013-11-08 2014-06-06
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/376804376804
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon
Details Ross Nicholson was the formative figure in New Zealand orthopaedic surgery through the second half of the 20th century. Born in Auckland, New Zealand, on 12 October 1922, Ross was educated at Auckland Grammar School, received his medical degree from the University of Otago, and trained in orthopaedic surgery in Auckland (from 1950 to 1951) and in Britain, primarily at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital, London (from 1955 to 1956) under the guidance of Sir Herbert Seddon. Upon his return to New Zealand, Ross took up a consultant position at Middlemore Hospital in 1957, where he remained in public practice until 1987. In parallel, he operated a very busy and successful private practice based at Mercy Hospital in central Auckland. Ross led the explosion in specialised surgical techniques that charaterised his era. He was at the forefront of Charnley hip replacement surgery in New Zealand, opening this option for reconstruction and disability relief to a whole generation of grateful patients. The national scoliosis service was both established and lead by Ross, and he was at the forefront of the management of spine trauma. Despite these special interests, Ross was a generalist, and no area of orthopaedic care was outside his sphere of expertise. In 1956 Ross was appointed as an ABC (American-British-Canadian) travelling fellow, the first New Zealander to receive this honour. He travelled extensively and interacted with the international orthopaedic community, and without doubt he was the face of New Zealand orthopaedics, being recognised and admired globally. He became president of the New Zealand Orthopaedic Association in 1982, having held every position of significance within the association before that point! This extended his international profile, and he became associated with many orthopaedic societies around the world, travelling and lecturing through the 70s, 80s and 90s. Ross was committed to academic orthopaedics, lecturing within the University of Auckland, developing the orthopaedic academic unit within the department of surgery at the university, and then establishing the chair in orthopaedic surgery. Without doubt the major contribution Ross gave New Zealand orthopaedics was his rigorous commitment to clinical excellence. He established the New Zealand orthopaedic training program and was lead examiner for the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons. His clinical method focused on excellence in the practice of history, examination and patient evaluation. Ross demanded very high standards, demands that some of his juniors feared, yet later were immensely grateful for during clinical practice. This commitment to clinical excellence continued throughout his career, and Ross remained a willing invitee to the final fellowship exam preparation courses through into his 80s. Outside clinical medicine, Ross was involved in almost every aspect of medical life conceivable. His participation was too great to itemise, yet ranged from hospital management to committees for government advice, from teaching appointments for medical and related students, to board memberships of multiple patient support societies and foundations, and from journal editorial board memberships through to multiple trustee and expert advisory positions. As a result of this influence upon the community, Ross received the OBE in 1976. Despite this extensive commitment to the profession, Ross was very active in the outside world. He was a passionate about New Zealand rugby, as a player in his youth and then surgeon to the Auckland Rugby Union. He was a keen participant in squash and sailing, and a devotee of the Auckland Racing Club, where he became a life member. To mark Ross' 90th birthday he was the guest at a large gathering of colleagues and friends. His own humorous and detailed review of aspects of his life was matched by many contributions that were laced with reflections of excellence, commitment, humour and candor! All of his colleagues present were able to reflect on an outstanding career focused upon the betterment of patient care and the relentless pursuit of excellence in clinical standards. Ross Nicholson died on 13 July 2013, aged 90, after a brief illness. His wife Pauline passed away in 2011; his daughter Caroline Thorburn and his two grandsons survived him.
Resource Identifier RCS: E004621
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Ross, Donald Nixon (1922 - 2014)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Sir Terence English
Publication Date 2014-08-15 2014-09-19
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/378011378011
Occupation Thoracic surgeon
Details Donald Ross was one of the foremost British cardiac surgeons of his generation and was renowned for his innovations, superlative surgical technique and clinical acumen. He was also recognised as a great mentor for the many young surgeons who trained under him. He was born on 4 October 1922 in Kimberley, South Africa, of Scottish parents and studied medicine at the University of Cape Town, graduating with first class honours and the university gold medal. While there he was a direct contemporary of Christiaan Barnard and when Barnard went to Minneapolis for his surgical training, Donald Ross went to Britain, where he honed his surgical skills under Ronald Belsey in Bristol. However, his important move was to Guy's Hospital in 1953, where he became a senior registrar to Sir Russell (later Lord) Brock, who was one of the pioneers of British cardiac surgery. Ross flourished under his influence and in 1958 was appointed Brock's consultant colleague, so that the two men, each with very different skills, were able to establish the cardiothoracic unit at Guy's as one of the best in the country. With the advent of open heart surgery, Ross was soon expanding his interest and research into many aspects of the rapidly developing specialty, both in paediatrics and adult surgery. He was largely responsible for the Guy's-Ross heart-lung machine and had an abiding interest in the use of biological tissue rather than mechanical substitutes for replacing heart valves. In 1962 he was the first to use a homograft for replacement of the aortic valve. Later he expanded this concept, developing what became known as the 'Ross procedure', where the diseased aortic valve was replaced with the patient's own pulmonary valve, after which a homograft was placed in the pulmonary position. This was a particularly attractive option for young children as the re-implanted valve was shown to grow with the patient. In 1963 he was encouraged to split his practice between Guy's and the National Heart Hospital, where he joined Sir Thomas Sellors, another distinguished pioneer of cardiac surgery. It was there in May 1968 that he performed Britain's first heart transplant, Barnard having done the world's first in Cape Town six months earlier. The patient lived for 45 days and when two more case in 1968 and 1969 were unsuccessful, largely because the control of immunological rejection was imperfectly understood, a moratorium was placed on further attempts at heart transplants in the UK. This lasted for 10 years until the programme at Papworth Hospital was started. Donald Ross continued with an immensely arduous practice at both Guy's and the Heart Hospital and the latter became a Mecca for visiting surgeons to watch the master at work. In addition to his busy schedule at home, he travelled widely abroad to lecture and to operate and he had the distinction of introducing open heart surgery to India and Egypt. His following became such that surgeons who had trained under him or had been influenced by him established the Donald Ross Surgical Society. He was also in great demand at surgical meetings throughout the world and was honoured by many international colleges and surgical societies. Sadly and somewhat inexplicably, he was never awarded a British honour, which many felt was his due. His interests outside surgery included riding and breeding Arabian horses. With his first wife, Dorothy, he had a daughter, Janet, who is a consultant dermatologist. His second wife, Barbara, was his devoted and cheerful companion for the last 14 years of his long life. He died on 7 July 2014, aged 91.
Resource Identifier RCS: E005828
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Finemore, Ross Gordon (1940 - 2023)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

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
Details Ross Gordon Finemore was a general surgeon who worked in rural communities in Queensland and New South Wales, 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: E010504
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
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First Title value, for Searching Ross, Arthur Macleod (1863 - 1907)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

First Title value, for Searching Ross, Daniel McClure (1850 - 1924)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

First Title value, for Searching Ross, Robert Ainslie (1876 - 1965)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

First Title value, for Searching Ross, Harold James (1903 - 1982)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

First Title value, for Searching Faulkner, Ebenezer Ross (1876 - 1939)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2013-06-05
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E004000-E004999/E004000-E004099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/376221376221
Occupation ENT surgeon
Details Born in 1876, he graduated MD at Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, and came to London, where he took postgraduate courses at University College, King's College, and St Thomas's Hospitals. He settled in practice at New York as a specialist in diseases of the ear, throat, and nose. From 1922 to 1925 he was a member of the staff at the New York Policlinic Medical School and Hospital, and was afterwards surgical director of the Manhattan Eye, Ear, and Throat Hospital. He died of coronary thrombosis on 29 May 1939 at 570 Park Avenue, New York. Publications:- Inflammatory affections of frontal, ethmoid, and sphenoid sinuses, contributed to *Nose, Throat, and Ear*, edited by C Jackson and G M Coates, Philadelphia, 1929. The intranasal sinus operation, with special instruments. *Laryngoscope*, 1920, 30, 115. A new method of exposing the pituitary. *Ibid*. p. 750. The treatment of intranasal suppuration. *New York State med J*. 1921, 21, 118.
Resource Identifier RCS: E004038
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
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First Title value, for Searching Ross, Leslie Norman (1903 - 1951)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2014-05-06
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E005000-E005999/E005300-E005399
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/377506377506
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born about 1903 he was educated at Queen's University, Belfast and St Bartholomew's Hospital in London. He qualified in 1924 and was awarded the McQuilty scholarship. He served as senior demonstrator of anatomy in the medical school at Belfast and held various house appointments at the Royal Victoria Hospital and at the Craigavon Hospital, Strandtown. He was also resident medical officer to the Ulster Volunteer Forces Hospital. Coming to London he took the Fellowship in 1932, though not previously a member; earlier in the year he had taken the Fellowship of the Irish College. He was appointed to the staff of the King Edward Memorial Hospital, London, W13, and during the second world war was a surgeon under the Emergency Medical Service organised by the Ministry of Health. Ill-health forced him to retire, and he lived for some time at Pagham, Sussex. He entered the Holloway Sanatorium, Virginia Water as a patient in 1949, and died there in January 1951. He was survived by his brother A G Ross FRCSI.
Resource Identifier RCS: E005323
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Smith, Norman Ross (1897 - 1965)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2014-10-14
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E006000-E006999/E006100-E006199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/378295378295
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon
Details Educated in Australia, he graduated from the University of Sydney in 1920 and then came to London, where he worked at St Mary's and Guy's Hospitals. After taking the Fellowship in 1923 he held resident posts at St George's, the West London and the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospitals. He then married and settled as an orthopaedic surgeon at Bournemouth. He established orthopaedic departments in the two chief hospitals in the town, and was on the staff at Boscombe and Poole hospitals also. He was orthopaedic surgeon to the Shaftesbury Society's Victoria Home for Crippled Children for twenty years. Under the National Health Service he became consulting orthopaedic surgeon for the Bournemouth and the Dorset Hospital Groups. He retired in 1962. In spite of ill health, which he bore with stoicism for many years, Ross Smith took an active part in professional and local affairs. He was a founder, and for ten years chairman, of the Dorset County Association for the Disabled and a governor of the British Provident Association's Bournemouth branch. He served on the Bournemouth Borough Council's health committee for ten years, and was a council member of the Non-teaching Hospitals Medical Staffs Association. In the British Medical Association Ross Smith was an exemplary honorary secretary of the Bournemouth division for six years, including the difficult period 1945-48 between the end of the second world war and the beginning of the National Health Service, and was chairman of the division for 1955-57; he served also on the Central Consultants' and Specialists' Committee. He heard with great pride that he had been elected an Honorary Fellow of the Association a week before his death on 24 August 1965, aged 68. His wife Freda survived him, but they had no children; they lived at 33 Tower Court, West Cliff Road. He was an unassuming, kind and hospitable man.
Resource Identifier RCS: E006112
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Stansfield, Frederick Ross (1904 - 1983)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

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/379868379868
Occupation General practitioner Obstetrician and gynaecologist
Details Frederick Ross Stansfield was born at Ilkley, Yorkshire, on 28 September 1904, the son of a cotton manufacturer. His early education was at Ilkley Grammar School before entering the University of Leeds and St Bartholomew's Hospital for medical studies. He qualified in 1928 with honours in medicine and two years later passed the FRCS. He served as house surgeon at Queen Charlotte's Hospital and later as resident medical officer at the Chelsea Hospital for Women. After passing the London MD in 1932 and winning the gold medal he settled in general practice at Ipswich where he also obtained an appointment as visiting gynaecologist to the hospital. Before the outbreak of war he had built up his obstetric and gynaecological hospital practice to the extent that he was able to devote all his time to the specialty and discontinue general practice. At the time of the introduction of the National Health Service in 1948 he was appointed consultant gynaecologist and obstetrician. In addition to his heavy professional commitment in Ipswich he was a frequent attender of the meetings of the Section of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the Royal Society of Medicine. He retired from practice in 1969. His first marriage was in 1932 and they had two sons, Richard and Ian. After the death of his first wife in 1959 he remarried in 1963. His second wife is Eileen Hopkins, a nursing sister. His outside interests were gardening and sailing and he was particularly proud of winning the Harwich to Hook of Holland race in 1958. He died from carcinoma of the colon on 8 October 1983 aged 79 and is survived by his second wife and the two sons of his first marriage.
Resource Identifier RCS: E007685
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Ross, James Cosbie (1904 - 1989)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2015-07-21
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/379831379831
Occupation General surgeon Urological surgeon Urologist
Details James Cosbie Ross was born in Liverpool on 17 May 1904. He was the son and grandson of doctors, his father being James Ross, a general practitioner in Walton, Liverpool. His mother was Delia Cosbie and James, as the eldest child, took the name of Cosbie. James used this name and linked Ross as 'Cobbie Ross'. He was educated at Liverpool University Medical School. All his life, pre- and postgraduate was spent in Liverpool. He qualified MB, ChB in 1925 with honours and distinction in medicine, passed the MRCS, LRCP the same year, gained the Fellowship in 1930, and the Liverpool ChM in 1931. Cosbie Ross was appointed to the staff of the Liverpool Royal Infirmary in 1932 as a general surgeon. He continued at this hospital until 1945 when on the appointment of Charles Wells as Professor, he was transferred to the Royal Southern Hospital as a senior. He was particularly influenced in his training by Sir Robert Kelly. He showed a progressive interest in urology and in 1943 gave a Hunterian Lecture entitled 'Injuries of the urinary bladder'. At the Royal Southern Hospital he founded a urological unit, one of the first such units in the north west of England. Here he worked on tuberculosis of the renal tract and on urological problems association with spinal injury. He wrote many papers on genitourinary tuberculosis and contributed urological chapters in several textbooks. He wrote a textbook himself *Essentials of surgery for dental students* and he was the lecturer in surgery to the Liverpool School of Dental Surgery for many years. Maybe he will find a place in the Guinness book of records as he wrote no less than seventy-nine articles on urological subjects and some twenty-four on the neurological bladder. Ross indeed did pioneer work in relation to the urological problems of spinal cord injury. He became assistant editor of the journal *Paraplegia*, edited by Sir Ludwig Guttman, 'father' of the spinal unit at Stoke Mandeville. He was appointed director of urological studies at Liverpool University where he was also Chairman of faculty. He was an external examiner to the University of Manchester. He was made an honorary member of the British Association of Urological Surgeons and became President of the Moynihan Chirurgical Club. His interests included shooting, fishing, walking (including long distances on Hadrian's Wall and the Pennine Way), sailing and collecting early English watercolours. He acted as honorary appeals director for the final phase of the building of the Anglican Cathedral at Liverpool. His last book was in conjunction, with his brother - *A gifted touch* - a biography of Agnes Jones, the friend and collaborator of Florence Nightingale. He married Muriel Orton in 1934, having one son, Andrew, and one daughter, Lindy. His wife died in 1963. His son, who also qualified at Liverpool, is a gynaecologist at Middlesbrough. A few months before he died he was awarded the 1989 medal of the International Medical Society for Paraplegia, of which he was a foundation member. He died on 15 September 1989 having developed a paraplegia from secondary malignant disease in the spine, the primary being prostatic.
Resource Identifier RCS: E007648
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Wheatley, Percival Ross (1909 - 1988)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2015-08-14
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E007000-E007999/E007700-E007799
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/379958379958
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon
Details Percival Ross Wheatley was born in Westbury, Wiltshire on 4 May 1909, the son of Reverend Percival Wheatley, a Congregational minister and Margaret, née Wallis, the daughter of a dental surgeon. He won a scholarship to St Dunstan's College, Catford, for his early education and later gained an open scholarship to Guy's Hospital Medical School where he was awarded the Michael Harris Prize for anatomy. He qualified in 1933 and after completing a post of house surgeon to the ear, nose and throat department at Guy's Hospital went to Bristol General Hospital as house surgeon and casualty officer. In 1935 he was granted a short service commission in the Royal Army Medical Corps and was posted to Egypt to join a cavalry field ambulance. He resigned his commission after a year in order to get more civilian experience, but rejoined in September 1939 and went to France as a surgical specialist with 7th General Hospital. He passed the FRCS in the following year and after the fall of France returned to England to undergo training as an airborne officer. He was second in command of the 16th Parachute Field Ambulance at the time of the North Africa landings in 1942 which was the first occasion in which British airborne forces were used operationally. He commanded the field ambulance in the following year when landings were made in Sicily and Italy and was awarded the DSO. In autumn 1944 he was assistant director of medical services of 44th Indian Airborne Division when it was renamed 2nd Indian Airborne Division. Although it trained for airborne landings in the Far East with a view to recapturing Malaya, the division was never used for that purpose except for one battalion which dropped on the mouth of the Rangoon river in Operation Dracula which coincided with sea-borne landings in the spring of 1945. Immediately after the Japanese surrender the division supplied the majority of parachute medical teams which were dropped by 'Liberators' in Siam, Malaya, French Indo-China and Indonesia as the harbingers of help to allied prisoners of war and civilian detainees. At the end of the war he returned to surgery and developed a keen interest in orthopaedics. He served as surgical specialist in Catterick, Hamburg, Singapore, Japan and Millbank where he was joint Professor of Military Surgery in 1959. In 1960 he was seconded to the Ghana Army as surgical specialist and subsequently was consultant surgeon to the Far East Land Forces from 1963 to 1966 and to the British Army of the Rhine from 1966 to 1967. He then became Director of Army Surgery and Consulting Surgeon to the Army from 1967 to 1969 and during these years was honoured by the Queen who appointed him Queen's Honorary Surgeon. After retiring from the Army he was surgeon to P&O Lines for eight years before finally retiring from practice. In addition to publications in surgical and orthopaedic journals he contributed a chapter to *Basic surgery* edited by LC Oliver. Throughout his Army career, whether in an administrative or a professional capacity, he always endeavoured to get away from headquarters and visit peripheral units encouraging and supporting junior staff. He was a much-liked and respected chief. Apart from his professional activities, Wheatley's main interests were philately and sailing. In 1939 he married Joan Brock and they had one son, Roger, who is an airline pilot. He died on 20 January 1988, aged 78, after a long illness and is survived by his wife and son.
Resource Identifier RCS: E007775
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Broster, Lennox Ross (1889 - 1965)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2013-12-20 2014-07-18
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E004000-E004999/E004800-E004899
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/377025377025
Occupation General surgeon
Details Lennox Ross Broster was born in South Africa in 1889, and received his early education at St Andrew's College and the Rhodes University College (now Rhodes University), Grahamstown, Cape Province. Elected to a Rhodes Scholarship in 1909, he entered Trinity College, Oxford, to study medicine, and from there went on to Guy's Hospital for his clinical training, graduating BM BCh in 1914. While at Oxford he held the appointment of lecturer and demonstrator in anatomy. He served in the RAMC in the first world war and was with the British Expeditionary Force in France and Flanders until 1918, first with the 44th Field Ambulance, then as Deputy Assistant Director of Medical Services in charge of the medical administration of the Tank Corps with the rank of Major. He was twice mentioned in dispatches, and in the 1919 Birthday Honours was appointed OBE. He proceeded to the DM in 1919 and the MCh in 1922; he was admitted a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England in 1921. Broster decided to stay in England to pursue a surgical career. His immediate post-graduate appointments included those of house-surgeon at the Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford, surgical officer to out-patients at Guy's Hospital, and surgical registrar at Charing Cross Hospital. In 1922 he became assistant surgeon at the Queen's Hospital for Children, Hackney Road, and in the following year obtained a similar appointment at Charing Cross Hospital. Although his active connexion with the Queen's Hospital for Children, to which he became a full surgeon in 1927, ended in 1930, he maintained his association with Charing Cross Hospital, where he attained the status of full surgeon in 1933, continuing as consulting surgeon to the end of his life. For some 30 years he was consulting surgeon to the Bute Hospital, Luton, acting in a similar capacity to Chesham Cottage Hospital, Dunstable Hospital, and Beckenham Hospital, and to the Church Army. He had been examiner in clinical surgery for the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, and Leeds, and a former chairman of the Court of Examiners of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, and examiner in clinical pathology for the College. He was a Huntarian Professor of the College in 1934, when he discussed the adrenogenital syndrome. Broster had been a member of Council and one of the Honorary Secretaries of the Royal Society of Medicine, and was elected an Honorary Fellow of the Society in 1958. In 1936 Broster toured the United States and Canada, delivering lectures on the adrenal gland, and in the following year gave the Mayo Foundation Lecture at Rochester, Minnesota. In 1941 the American Surgical Association invited him to deliver a lecture on war surgery at White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, and in 1942 elected him an Honorary Fellow. In 1940 he delivered a William Withering Lecture at Birmingham University. In 1948 he toured South Africa at the invitation of the South African Medical Association, and in 1950 he acted as visiting professor of surgery in the University of Cairo. Broster gave a good deal of his time to the furtherance of the aims of the British Medical Association. In 1938 he succeeded Dr W Watkins-Pitchford as the representative of the South African Branches on the Council of the Association. He remained a member of the Council until the end of the 1945-6 session, when the Medical Association of South Africa was formed as an independent entity, affiliated to the BMA. In October 1954 the Medical Association of South Africa awarded him its Bronze Medal for his great services to the medical profession in that country. When the British Medical Association held its Annual Meeting at Manchester in 1929 he acted as one of the honorary secretaries of the Section of Surgery, and at Liverpool in 1950 he was a Vice-President of the Section. He became chairman of the committee of management of the Empire (now Commonwealth) Medical Advisory Bureau and International Medical Visitors' Bureau in 1950, in succession to Sir Hugh Lett. Broster was formerly a governor of London House and of the Sister Trust, and a member of the management committee of the Dominion Students Hall Trust to which he left a generous legacy. He also served on the council and the academic council of the British Postgraduate Medical Federation and on the management committee of the Postgraduate Medical School of London at Hammersmith. Broster was a rugby football blue at Oxford, and in later life became president of the United Hospitals Rugby Football Club. He was also a keen golfer. He married in 1916 Edith M V Thomas. He had paid particular attention to the disorders associated with tumours of the adrenal glands. This group of diseases includes masculinization in women and other types of intersexuality, and many sufferers from these distressing conditions were restored to normality by operative treatment at Broster's hands. Apart from his achievements in the surgery of the ductless glands he was a sound general surgeon, and he had taken a prominent part in the affairs of the medical institutions of London. Broster retired in 1954 to Soulbury, near Leighton Buzzard, but soon suffered a slight stroke from which he made a good recovery. He died at his home after a short illness on 12 April 1965, survived by his wife and their three daughters. Publications: *The adrenal cortex*, with H W C Vines. 1933. *The adrenal cortex and intersexuality*. 1938. *Endocrine man*. 1944.
Resource Identifier RCS: E004842
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Ross, Sir Ronald (1857 - 1932)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2013-10-23
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E004000-E004999/E004500-E004599
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/376718376718
Occupation General surgeon Tropical medicine specialist
Details Born at Almora in the Kumaon Hills, about the centre of the Himalayan range, on 13 May 1857 the eldest of the ten children of Lieutenant-General Sir Campbell Claye Ross, KCB (1824-92), by his wife, Matilda Charlotte Elderton. He was sent to England in 1865, was educated at Ryde and at Springhill School near Southampton, where he showed some talent and was placed first in all England at the Oxford and Cambridge local examinations. In October 1874 he entered St Bartholomew's Hospital and acted as dresser to Sir William Savory, but held no resident appointment. He was unqualified house surgeon at Shrewsbury Infirmary for six months in 1877-78 and ship's surgeon in the Alsatia, Anchor line, in 1879. He was gazetted surgeon IMS on 2 April 1881, having been posted to the Madras Presidency. He served at various stations until June 1888 when he came to Europe, took a course of bacteriology under Emanuel Klein, and returned to Bangalore as staff surgeon in 1889. He then began his life's work in connexion with malaria. Alphonse Laveran, a French Army surgeon, working in Algeria from 1878-80 had identified a living cause for the disease, as a microscopic protozoal organism which had an asexual phase coincident with the acute stage of the fever and a sexual phase the fate of which was unknown. Patrick Manson had discovered that mosquitoes ingested filariae with the blood of patients suffering from elephantiasis, and suggested to Ross that malaria parasites might pass in the same way or might infect healthy persons who swallowed, in drinking water, mosquitoes or even the germs themselves which had been excreted by the insects. Ross to elucidate the problem made many dissections of mosquitoes and distinguished Culex the pot-breeding mosquito and Stegomyia. Continuing his work he discovered the malaria plasmodium in the stomach of Anopheles, the pool-breeding mosquito, on 20 August 1897 whilst working in the hospital at Begumpett near Ootacamund, and in July 1898 he demonstrated it in the ducts and salivary glands of the insect. Working with birds, as Laveran had already done, Ross then extended his results to humans. He proved that the malaria organism was not passed directly from victim to victim by the mosquito, but that it underwent regular changes in its life history within the insect, which did not become infective to a new host for twelve days in the case of human malaria. Ross left the Indian Medical Service in 1899 and after a journey to West Africa was appointed professor of tropical medicine in University College, Liverpool. In 1901 he lectured in the United States, in 1907 went to study malaria in Mauritius, and in 1913 for the same purpose to Cyprus. During the war he served in Alexandria and in 1917 was appointed consultant on malaria with the rank of lieutenant-colonel in the RAMC(T). He resigned his post at the University of Liverpool, came to London, was made consultant in malaria to the Ministry of Pensions, and founded at Putney Heath the Ross Institute and Hospital for Tropical Diseases. The Institute was opened by HRH the Prince of Wales in 1926. Ross was also editor of *Science Progress* from 1913 till his death. At no time a rich man, Ross sold the papers connected with his discoveries in malaria. They were bought by Lady Houston for £2,000 and were presented by her to the Ross Institute, where they are now preserved. In 1929 a "Ross Award Fund" was collected by scientific friends which amounted to £15,513. He married in 1889 Rosa (d 1931), daughter of A B Bloxham, a lady of much talent who contributed greatly to the success of her husband's work. He died on 16 September 1932. Many honours came to Ross, but somewhat late in life. He was awarded the Parkes' memorial gold medal at Netley on 20 March 1895; the silver medal of the Society of Arts in 1901; the Cameron prize, Edinburgh University, in 1902; the Nobel prize in medicine in 1902; the Barclay bronze medal of the Asiatic Society, Bengal, in 1903; the Royal gold medal of the Royal Society in 1909; besides other distinctions conferred by foreign governments and societies. Ross's nature was complex. Coming of a highly artistic family, both in music and water-colour sketching, he added some skill in mathematics and the dogged perseverance, amounting to genius, which enabled him to unravel the life history of the malarial plasmodium. He failed to appreciate, however, that great discoveries need time to be appreciated, and his life was embittered by what he considered to be deliberate official neglect of his work. His poetry was of a high order of merit, more especially the privately printed *In Exile*, a suite of verses written 1890-97. Publications: *Instructions for the prevention of malarial fever*. University Press, Liverpool, 1899; 6th edition, 1901. *Malarial fever, its cause, prevention, and treatment*. University Press, Liverpool, 1902; translated into German, 1904 and into modern Greek, 1906. *Mosquito brigades and how to organise them*. London, 1902 (*Lpool Sch Trop Med*, Memoir 2). He wrote several mathematical papers, in addition to his purely scientific papers, which appeared chiefly in the *British Medical Journal* and the *Indian Medical Gazette*, and the poems and romances.
Resource Identifier RCS: E004535
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Cochrane, Archer William Ross (1872 - 1963)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2014-02-03
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E004000-E004999/E004900-E004999
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/377145377145
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born on 22 November 1872 he was trained at St Bartholomew's Hospital, qualified in 1894 and, after serving his Hospital as external midwifery assistant, was gazetted Surgeon-Lieutenant in the Indian Medical Service (Bengal) 1896. He saw active service on the North-West Frontier in 1897-98, and was awarded the Malakand campaign medal with clasp. He took the Fellowship in 1898, and was promoted Captain in 1899, Major in 1907, Lieutenant-Colonel in 1915, and Colonel in 1922. He retired to England in 1929, and died at Eastbourne on 5 April 1963 aged 90, survived by his wife. Publication: *A guide to the use of Tuberculin*, with C A Sprawson, London, Bale 1915,181 pages.
Resource Identifier RCS: E004962
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
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First Title value, for Searching Stephens, Carl Ross Ewen (1916 - 1963)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

First Title value, for Searching Steen, Denis James Ross (1906 - 1978)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2015-03-19
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/379158379158
Occupation General surgeon
Details Denis Steen devoted 30 years of his career to the community at Weymouth, a skilful surgeon who showed kindness and concern for his patients, generating loyalty, respect and affection among his medical, nursing and ancillary colleagues. He was born on 5 November 1906, the son of James Ross, a general practitioner of Ilford, Essex. After Chigwell School he was educated at Clifton College, Bristol, and at Emmanuel College, Cambridge (1924-1927), with an exhibition scholarship. With a university open scholarship to St Thomas's Hospital in 1927 his medical education and surgical training was completed at St Thomas's, the Norfolk and Norwich and the Bristol General Hospitals, at some time working under Sir Max Page and R V Cooke. He served the Wessex HMC and was a fellow of the Association of Surgeons. He gave unstinting service to Weymouth throughout the second world war. A progressive illness, which he endured with great fortitude caused his premature retirement in 1965. He married Ruby (Robin) Ellen Wooding in August 1934 and he enjoyed a happy and supportive marriage. In earlier years he was proficient at skiing, tennis and golf. He died on 13 December 1978, survived by his wife and two daughters.
Resource Identifier RCS: E006975
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
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First Title value, for Searching Smith, George Malcolm Ross (1936 - 2008)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2009-02-26
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Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000500-E000599
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372780372780
Occupation General surgeon
Details George Smith was a consultant general surgeon at Scarborough General Hospital. He was born on 19 August 1936 in Nainital in the foothills of the Himalayas. His father was a civil engineer in the Indian Service of Engineers and his mother was a dentist, who had graduated from Edinburgh in the early 1930s. He sent to Woodstock School, in Mussoorie, India, an American school, for a year and then was sent to the Edinburgh Academy as a boarder, where he excelled academically, enjoyed all sports, and won a cup for the best junior piper. From the Academy he won the Palmer anatomy scholarship to St Mary’s Hospital Medical School, where he gained a scholarship to study for a BSc in anatomy, for which he was awarded first class honours. He then withdrew from St Mary’s to study clinical medicine at Oxford, where he entered Christchurch College, qualifying BM BCh in 1962. He then did house jobs at the Radcliffe, followed by a year as demonstrator of anatomy in Edinburgh. He then completed house surgeon jobs at the Birmingham Accident Hospital, in the burns unit at Great Ormond Street and was senior house officer at Cardiff Infirmary. He went on to be a surgical registrar at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge. In 1967 he became lecturer in the professorial unit at the Westminster Hospital under Harold Ellis, from which he passed the Oxford DM thesis and MCh examinations. In 1968 he became senior registrar at St George’s Hospital, which rotated to the Norfolk and Norwich, Winchester, and the Royal Marsden hospitals. In 1973 he was appointed consultant surgeon at Scarborough General Hospital. There he practised the full range of general surgery, continued to publish extensively, and was highly regarded. He retired in 1997. A quiet, reserved man, with a dry sense of humour, he had many outside interests, including cricket and supporting the Scottish rugby team. He died on 1 August 2008, leaving a widow Angela and a son (Robert) and daughter (Charlotte).
Resource Identifier RCS: E000597
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
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First Title value, for Searching Taylor, Robert Murray Ross (1932 - 2003)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-10-26
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Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000100-E000199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372322372322
Occupation Transplant surgeon
Details Ross Taylor was a consultant surgeon, director of the transplantation unit at the Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle, and a pioneer of kidney transplantation. He was born in Calcutta, India, on 10 December 1932, the son of George Ross, a medical practitioner, and Helen Baillie Murray. The family had a strong medical tradition: a grandfather and three uncles were also doctors. Ross was educated at Coatbridge Secondary School, Lanarkshire, and the University of Glasgow. After house officer posts in Ballochmyle Hospital and Kilmarnock Infirmary, he served for two years in the Parachute Regiment in Cyprus and Jordan, treasuring his red beret for the rest of his life. On demobilisation, he trained in surgery in Bishop Auckland. He was part of the team in Newcastle that did their first transplant in 1967. He was appointed as a consultant at the Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle, in 1970, and remained in the north east until 1995. He was also a visiting consultant surgeon at Berwick Infirmary. Although he did not limit himself to transplant surgery, also performing a range of other operations, it was in the field of transplantation that Ross distinguished himself. He personally performed more than 2,000 transplants, including four in one period of 24 hours. He was President of the British Transplantation Society from 1986 to 1989, of the North of England Surgical Society from 1990 to 1991, the UK Transplant Multi-Organ Sharing Group from 1987 to 1990, and was Chairman of the British Transplantation Society Transplant training committee from 1986 to 1993. He campaigned hard for a policy of legislation for ‘required request’, which would oblige emergency room doctors to broach the sensitive subject of organ donation to grieving families. He was also involved in drafting the Human Organ Transplant Act, which made commercialisation of human tissue illegal. He took an active part in fundraising, for which he ran four marathons and ran the Great North Run no less than 13 times, raising more than £500,000 from these activities. He was Chairman of the Transplant Games for 15 years, and chaired the Transplant Patients Trust, which seeks to support families in financial hardship as a result of renal failure, for which he was appointed CBE in 1997. As a trainer, he was patient and encouraging, and many of his research fellows went on to win Hunterian professorships and other surgical prizes. Five of his trainees went on to lead major transplant centres in the UK. Ross had a passion for sports, especially tennis, golf and cricket, and loved the music, from Gilbert and Sullivan to jazz. He died on 24 October 2003, and is survived by his wife Margaret née Cutland, whom he married in 1959, and four children, Linda, Jill, Bill and Anne, who is a medical practitioner.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000135
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
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First Title value, for Searching Ross, James Tyrrell Carter (1823 - 1897)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

First Title value, for Searching Ross, Sir James Keith (1927 - 2003)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-10-19 2007-09-13
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/372307372307
Occupation Cardiac surgeon
Details James Keith Ross was a leading cardiac surgeon, and one of the team that performed the first cardiac transplant in Britain. He was born in London on 9 May 1927. His father, Sir James Paterson Ross, was later to become professor of surgery at St Bartholomew’s Hospital, Surgeon to the Royal Household and President of the College. His mother, Marjorie Burton Townsend, had been a surgical ward sister at Bart’s. Keith was profoundly influenced by his maternal grandfather, Frederick William Townsend, who taught him to work in wood, a practical education in hand-eye coordination, which laid the foundation of his exceptional surgical skill. Another influence was his godfather, Sir Thomas Dunhill, who, whilst recuperating from a hernia repair, gave Keith a trout rod and insisted on demonstrating it whilst in his pyjamas in the middle of Harley Street. Keith attended the Hall School, Hampstead, and then St Paul’s, where he was the senior scholar. He went on to Middlesex Hospital medical school, where he won the Asher scholarship in anatomy and the Lyell medal in surgery. Qualifying in 1950, he became house surgeon to Thomas Holmes Sellors, won the Hallet prize in the primary FRCS and then did his National Service in the Royal Naval Reserve, mostly at sea. On returning to the Middlesex, he passed the FRCS in 1956 and began a training in cardiothoracic surgery at the Brompton Hospital and as a Fulbright scholar with Frank Gerbode in San Francisco, where his research into the fate of grafts in the heart led to a thesis for his masters in surgery and a Hunterian professorship. He was promoted to senior registrar in 1961 at the Middlesex and Harefield hospitals, and to part-time consultant at Harefield in 1964, and later at the Central Middlesex and Middlesex hospitals. In 1967, he gave up these posts, which involved a good deal of stressful travelling, to join Donald Ross at the National Heart Hospital. He was by now at the top of the tree, recognised both in Britain and abroad. His personal series of 100 consecutive homograft aortic valve replacements with only two hospital deaths was, at the time, unrivalled. It was with surprise that his contemporaries learned that he had moved to Southampton, though those who knew him better understood that he felt he was needed there, and it was his duty to go. Arriving in Southampton in 1972, he was joined the following year by James Monro, who had just returned from a year with Barrett-Boyes in New Zealand, and brought expertise in paediatric cardiac surgery. Together they built up a first rate team, accepting only the highest standards and insisting on a strict audit, both of the short-term results and of quality of life after cardiac surgery. The reputation of the department attracted young surgeons from abroad, in particular from Boston, to work in his unit and to support this he organised a cardiac surgical fellowship. Once the unit was well established, he started a second open heart programme at King Edward VII Hospital, Midhurst. He was postgraduate dean and then President of the Society of Cardiothoracic Surgeons. He was elected to the Council of the College in 1986. He was awarded a fellowship in 1989 and the Bruce medal of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. He succeeded his father to the baronetcy in 1980. Keith was a man of great personal charm, with a high sense of duty, fortified by a solid faith. He was perhaps at his happiest whilst fishing, be it on a Highland salmon river or on the Test. He was also a keen sailor and woodworker, and a talented artist – painting took up much of his time once he had retired. Twice he had pictures accepted for the Royal Academy summer exhibition and, to his glee, sold them both. In 1956, he married Jacqueline Annella Clarke, a Middlesex Hospital nurse. They had four children – a son, Andrew Charles Paterson, an officer in the Royal Marines who succeeds him as third baronet, and three daughters (Susan Wendy, Janet Mary and Anne Townsend). There are eight grandchildren. In 2000, he underwent an operation by his old team to replace his aortic valve. Ironically, it was a procedure he had pioneered. He made an excellent recovery, but nearly a year later developed a dissecting aneursym of the aortic arch: this too was treated with initial success, but he died suddenly on 18 February 2003 in his old hospital.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000120
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
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First Title value, for Searching Forbes-Ross, Frederick William (1867 - 1913)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2011-12-21
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/373977373977
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born in December, 1867, in the island of Jamaica. He was of good Scottish family, the eldest son of Sir David Palmer Ross, CMG, Surgeon General of British Guiana. When a lad of 13, in weak health, he entered Dover College, but left it robust and well grounded in knowledge. He received his professional training at the University and Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, where he was Gold Medallist and Senior Prizeman in Anatomy. He was also Demonstrator of Anatomy at the Royal College of Surgeons, Edinburgh. He continued his education at the University College and the Middlesex Hospitals, at Berlin, and in Paris. He was at one time Civil Surgeon to the Guards' Hospital, London, and Clinical Assistant at the Samaritan Hospital, the North London Hospital for Consumption, and the Children's Hospital, Paddington Green. He was also Surgeon to the Kensington General Hospital, whence he contributed several cases to the medical journals. Latterly he wrote a good deal in the lay press. He practised at 53 Harley Street, and died in New Cavendish Street, W, on September 18th, 1913. He was survived by Mrs Forbes-Ross, who was a daughter of Sir William Hooper, KCSI, at one time President of the Medical Board of the India Office, and by whom he had two children. A personal friend wrote an apologia which well describes the manner of man Forbes-Ross was, and accounts for his comparative failure in high professional circles:- "Dr Forbes-Ross's strong personality and extraordinary abilities must inevitably have brought him into the front rank of his profession had he not been cut off in the plenitude of his powers. The recognition which was already his due was delayed by the fact of his being a free-lance in his profession and far too outspoken in his criticism of medical red tape and his denunciations of hospital abuses and appointments. It also went against him that his name appeared so frequently and prominently in the lay press. This gave a false impression that he was a self-advertiser, but it was in reality rather due to his own overflowing vigour and the keenness of his interest in all current questions. His energy was great. He was always championing some cause or fighting some battle, discovering a new food or making an industrial invention, while at the same time satisfying the demands of a large practice. He had a large clientele, especially among American visitors and the theatrical profession. As a surgeon, though intensely nervous, as he himself admitted, before an operation, he was coolness and accuracy itself when he had once begun. His absolute confidence - one might almost call it cocksureness - gave the patient that entire belief in him which goes such a long way towards cure. Like most medical men he was lavish of time and skill on the poorest patients. When called in to operate in a case which had long been in local hands, he insisted - quite openly and above board - that a part of his fee should go to the local practitioner. His vehemence, and indeed his volubility, when his feelings were aroused were as pronounced as his abhorrence of shams and trickery and unfairness of all sorts was great…. He had a decided vein of superstition and what may be called uncanniness in his character." "There is no doubt," adds his friend, "that had he been successful in gaining a position in a good hospital he would have proved himself a valuable officer and loyal colleague, and one whose fertile brain and dexterous hands were calculated to advance both the science and the art of surgery." As it is, he was a prolific medical inventor. Among his inventions may be mentioned: a traveller for opening deep-seated abscesses, a pilot catheter for evacuating blood-clot from the bladder, a retainable bulldog crushing clamp for hemorrhage, and an inhaler for the continuous administration of oxygen. He also advocated a method of obviating post-operative pain by the administration all over and all around the site of the proposed manipulations of multiple injections of a sterilized solution of quinine and urea hydrochloride. Publications: *Intestinal Intoxication in Infants*, 1897. *Bacteriology of Infantile Diarrhoea, and its Treatment* (Thesis). "Observations on Certain Features exhibited by Cells (Leucocytes) and their Relation to Cancer." - *Brit. Med. Jour.*, 1905, ii, 1101. "Two Cases illustrating Sciatica of Abdominal Origin - Laparotomy." - *Lancet*, 1906, I, 89. "Fulminating Appendicitis: Ligature-Temperature." - *Ibid.*, 1911, ii, 683. *Septic General Peritonitis in Children: Practical Points in its Surgery and Successful After-treatment*, 8vo, illustrated, London, n.d. Translation of Bruck's *Diseases of Nose, Mouth, Throat and Larynx.* A work on *Cancer*, published in the last months of his life. "A Case of Abdominal Suppuration with Large Inguinal Hernia." - *Trans. Liverpool Med. Inst.*, 1891.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001794
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Lowdon, Andrew Gilchrist Ross (1911 - 1965)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2014-09-11
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/378086378086
Occupation General surgeon
Details Andrew Lowdon was born on 12 April 1911 at Greenock, the son of Rev. C. Ross Lowdon and Alison Gilchrist his wife. He commenced his education at the Greenock Academy, but completed his school days at the Royal High School in Edinburgh where he remained to do his medical course at the University. He had a distinguished undergraduate career, winning the Ettles Scholarship and the Leslie Gold Medal, and after qualifying in 1936 and holding house appointments at the Royal Infirmary and the Royal Hospital for Sick Children, he obtained the FRCS Ed in 1939. It was during this period that he came under the influence of David Wilkie and James Graham, to whom he often referred later with gratitude. When war broke out he was already in the Territorial RAMC and was therefore called up at once and spent the next two years as a surgical specialist in Palestine. He subsequently served with the Eighth Army from Alamein to Tunisia, and then in the Sicilian campaign. In 1944 he returned to Britain, and as Lieutenant-Colonel in charge of a surgical division in No 6 General Hospital he was involved in the final phase of the war in NE Europe. He was twice mentioned in dispatches and was appointed OBE in 1944. After demobilization in 1945 he returned to Edinburgh and was invited by Professor Learmonth to join his unit and spent the following nine years as lecturer and then senior lecturer in the University department of surgery. This was a very important period for him, because it not only gave him the experience of academic work which influenced the rest of his life, but it also seems certain that Learmonth's method of organizing regular meetings at which representatives of all the specialist units in his department of surgery were able to discuss matters of common interest laid the foundation for Lowdon's interdepartmental teaching programme when he went to Newcastle. This he did in 1954 when he was appointed Professor of Surgery in the University of Durham, the Chair subsequently being transferred to the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. As surgeon to the Royal Victoria Infirmary he was distinguished especially for his contributions to the surgery of the alimentary tract; but the reforms in the medical school which he pioneered in collaboration with his medical colleague Professor George Smart were so outstanding that they aroused interest throughout the British medical schools, and exerted an influence which spread far beyond Newcastle. It was therefore not surprising that when the deanship of the School became vacant in 1960 Lowdon was appointed to it, and in this appointment he was so successful that in 1965 he was made Pro Vice-Chancellor of the University, and also a member of the Royal Commission on Medical Education. Andrew Lowdon's wisdom, enthusiasm and concern for the welfare of his fellows made him a natural leader, and students loved him. In 1936 he was Senior President of the Royal Medical Society of Edinburgh, and in 1956 President of the University of Durham Medical Society. He was honorary President of the British Medical Students' Association in 1960, and that same year he was honoured by the University of Sydney by election as Norman Paul Visiting Professor. The Royal College of Surgeons of England elected him to the Fellowship ad eundem in 1959. The mere recital of all these activities is sufficient to indicate how he must have taxed his reserves of energy, and it was presumably overstrain which accounted for his sudden death at the age of 54, which occurred on 2 September 1965 while he was out walking on the moors. In 1948 he married Glenys Mairi Macdonald Donaldson, who was also medically qualified. She and their four children survived him.
Resource Identifier RCS: E005903
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Ross, Sir James Paterson (1895 - 1980)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-05-25 2012-03-09
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000200-E000299
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372420372420
Occupation General surgeon
Details James Paterson Ross, the eldest of four sons of James Ross, an official in the Bank of England, and of May (née Paterson), was born in London on 26 May 1895. After early education at Christ's College, Finchley, he entered St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical School in 1912, with an entrance scholarship in science. He was an outstanding student and was awarded the Treasurer's Prize and a junior scholarship in anatomy and physiology. His studies were interrupted during the first world war when he served as a sergeant dispenser to the 1st London General Hospital but was released and returned to Bart's in 1915. He qualified with the Conjoint Diploma in 1917 and, after three months as a house surgeon to Cozens Bailey and Girling Ball, he entered the Royal Navy as a Surgeon-Lieutenant and was demobilised in 1919. After the war, Paterson Ross, as he was generally known, graduated in 1920 with distinction in surgery and forensic medicine and was awarded the Gold Medal. At Bart's he served as a demonstrator of physiology in 1920 and pathology, 1921-22. He passed the FRCS in 1922 and the MS in 1928. Shortly after he went to Boston for neurosurgical training under Dr Harvey Cushing by whom he was received almost as a member of the family. Returning to London in 1923 he joined Professor George Gask's newly established surgical professorial unit at Bart's. Together with Gask there developed a special interest in surgery of the sympathetic nervous system and Ross was awarded the Jacksonian Prize in 1931 for his essay on this subject. In the same year he gave a Hunterian Lecture on the treatment of cerebral tumours with radium. In 1933 he gave a second Hunterian Lecture on *Sympathectomy as an experiment in human physiology*, and was Hunterian Professor for the third time in 1939 when he lectured on *The effects of radium upon carcinoma of the breast.* During the period between the two world wars he was greatly influenced by Sir Thomas Dunhill who served first as assistant director and then associate surgeon to the professorial unit. Ross also influenced by Geoffrey Keynes's work on breast carcinoma and succeeded Keynes as private assistant to Lord Moynihan for the latter's London practice. On George Gask's retirement in 1935 Ross succeeded to the Professorial Chair at the age of 40. He had never been entirely happy in private practice and was admirably suited to this academic appointment, being an excellent teacher of undergraduates. He was a most competent clinician and a sound operator in his special fields though never entirely at ease with difficult technical work. On the outbreak of the second world war he moved with his unit to the Bart's sector hospital at Hill End, St Albans, and moved house there. He sometimes remarked with envy, though without rancour, on the excellent and undisturbed conditions under which his colleague Learmonth worked in his Edinburgh professorial unit during the war. However, at St Albans, he did conduct investigations into the bacteriology of war wounds and war injury of blood vessels. Before and at the beginning of the war Ross was responsible for organising the neurosurgical casualty service in London and East Anglia, though neurosurgery at Hill End was done by John O'Connell. After the war his unit was re-established at Bart's, but by then his time was increasingly occupied by committee work with little opportunity for research and publication. He was appointed civilian consultant surgeon to the Royal Navy and consulting surgeon to King Edward VII Convalescent Home for Officers, at Osborne, and the Papworth Village Settlement. He had been elected to the Council of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1943, became Vice-President, 1952-54, Bradshaw Lecturer in 1953 and President, 1957-60. From 1954 to 1957 he was Dean of the Institute of Basic Medical Sciences at the College and Arthur Sims Travelling Professor in 1957. In 1949, when King George VI had developed signs of serious ischaemic symptoms in one leg, at the suggestion of the then Sergeant Surgeon, Sir Thomas Dunhill, Paterson Ross and James Learmonth were called into consultation and then undertook a lumbar ganglionectomy operation. Both surgeons were created KCVO. Sir James Paterson Ross subsequently attended Sir Winston Churchill, assisting Dunhill with the repair of a large inguinal hernia. Dr Langton Hewer was the anaesthetist on that occasion and has related with piquant relish that Ross was treated by Dunhill as though he was still a house surgeon! Ross was appointed Surgeon to H.M. Queen Elizabeth II in 1952. Subsequent to this he received many honorary fellowships and degrees in the U.K., the Commonwealth and the U.S.A. On terminating his Presidency and vacating his Chair at Bart's he was created a Baronet. In the same year he succeeded Sir Francis Fraser as Director of the British Postgraduate Medical Federation, where he stayed until 1966. He remained actively interested in the College Court of Patrons and served as a Hunterian Trustee for the rest of his life. His obituarist in *The Times* was Sir Geoffrey Keynes who stated that Ross would be remembered as an outstanding technician and that it was his mental capacity, sound judgement and sympathetic understanding of patients which marked him out. He was not a prolific writer, but shared with Sir Ernest Rock Carling the editing of *British surgical practice*, a work in several volumes. Jim, as he was known to his friends, gained the affection of many of his colleagues, students and patients; but there were some people with whom he did not establish a warm relationship and easy rapport, and whom he judged badly. This was possibly due to an innate shyness and reserve, for he was a man of high ideals, humanity and selflessness. He married a Bart's ward sister, Margaret Townsend, in 1924. She was a great supporter of him throughout his career though she predeceased him in 1978. They had three sons, the first of whom died in infancy. The elder surviving son, Keith, is a cardiothoracic surgeon at Southampton, and the younger is a general surgeon at the Royal Berkshire Hospital, Reading. Sir James died in Oxford on 5 July 1980, during a convivial gathering of fellow professors, and is survived by his sons, the elder of whom inherited the Baronetcy.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000233
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Johnson, David Skeffington (1942 - 2008)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Ross Campbell
Publication Date 2015-10-29 2016-05-11
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E008000-E008999/E008500-E008599
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/380779380779
Occupation General surgeon
Details David Skeffington Johnson's forebears were notably medical. His father Alex Johnson was a well-known surgeon on the staff of Prince Alfred Hospital. St Ignatius College, Riverview was the school where he was dux; excelling in Latin and Greek. As well he was runner-up in the Cooper Scholarship Examination for Classics. It seems likely that love of the classics was founded then and continued ever after. He suffered polio at a young age which affected one leg, but did not deter involvement in cricket and rugby. His tertiary education was at Sydney University Medical School where in 1967 he was awarded the Robin May prize for "outstanding leadership and good fellowship". This was an early recognition of qualities for which he will always be remembered. In September 1969 David and Kristin Kerr were married and he then began a Post Graduate Education for four years in England. He spent twelve months as a Senior House Officer at Guy's Hospital. This was followed by an appointment for two years as Surgical Registrar at Bournemouth during which time he obtained the FRCS. Returning home he began practice at Parramatta Hospital. New Guinea was visited several times, often in a locum capacity, where his surgical skills were greatly appreciated. He also travelled to Micronesia with the World Health Organization. With the opening of Westmead Hospital, David was appointed Staff Specialist Surgeon. Major interests are recorded as surgical Gastroenterology and history of surgery. He became recognized as an ardent teacher and organizer of educational sessions. Visitors from developing countries were catered for and training arranged. He pioneered the Death and Complication Sessions and the College recognised all this valuable help with an appropriate award. For most of his life he undertook and enjoyed extensive travel, with a strong classical bent. Featured were visits to a wide range of countries, The Levant and Middle East were important because of his archaeological interest, but it did not stop there he and Kristin found traveling in Burma fascinating. Later in life the travel became more eclectic, David and Kristin walked to "Barnhill" on the Hebridean Island of Jura where George Orwell wrote "1984". His last voyage in November 2007 was to French Polynesia including the island of Hiva Oa, in the Marquesas, where Paul Gauguin is at rest. As a collector, David had extreme talent and interest in New Guinea artefacts, especially from the Sepik River area. One special enjoyment was searching for books when he would see something which might interest a friend and acquired it to be passed on when they met. For me, he found the History of Sydney Hospital from 1811-1911 by J Frederick Watson which I still cherish enormously. Sometimes he would return home with a piece of masonry from a distant shore, always with a tale to tell. Gregarious seems to be a word designed for David. We will always have in mind superb friendship, especially those wonderful luncheons so ably catered for by Kristin and David. He seemed able to recognise problems in his friends and colleagues, but more than that he would share some of the burden and help ease the distress which they were experiencing. The graduates of 1967 were completely correct in awarding the Robin May Prize for "outstanding leadership and good fellowship". As Chris Geraghty wrote "They had seen in him the qualities all his friends later came to appreciate; energy, generosity and fierce intellect." David is survived by Kristin and their son Dominic. The Dalton Chapel of St Ignatius College, Riverview was overflowing with those attending the Mass of Thanksgiving. His favourite music from "The Mission" (Gabriel's Oboe); Jupiter; and Nimrod were such an appropriate and meaningful selection. As we left there came to mind: "But now, at last his work is ably done. He is in the nearer presence of the God he served well."
Resource Identifier RCS: E008596
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Richards, Derek James (1934 - 2017)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Kenneth R Ross
Publication Date 2017-07-12 2017-12-08
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/381541381541
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon
Details Derek Richards was a consultant orthopaedic surgeon at Eastbourne District General Hospital, East Sussex. He was born on 12 November 1934 in Middlesbrough to William Richards and Grace Winifred Richards née Funnell. A younger sister, Barbara, was born four years later. As a child during the Second World War, Derek recalled hiding beneath the kitchen table with his mother and sister whilst the Luftwaffe bombed the industrial centre. Middlesbrough was the first major town and industrial centre to be bombed, the first attack being on 25 May 1940. Derek's father was teaching in a local school at that time. His primary education was at Middlesbrough Preparatory School. In his early teens, the family moved to Lichfield in Staffordshire, where Derek's father had been appointed headmaster at King Edward VI School. Founded in 1495, alumni included Samuel Johnson and David Garrick. Derek was a pupil there and achieved academic and sporting success, being appointed head boy and also captain of rugby, as well as achieving a place to read medicine at Jesus College, Cambridge in 1951 at the age of 17. Following three years at Cambridge, Derek continued his clinical training at Guy's Hospital, winning prizes in ophthalmology and bacteriology and obtaining the conjoint diploma and his Cambridge medical degrees. Whilst at Guy's, he continued to be an active first team rugby player, his large frame making him a formidable front row opponent. Following qualification, he was appointed as a house surgeon at Guy's Hospital to Hedley Atkins, who was later to become the first professor of surgery at Guy's and president of the Royal College of Surgeons, not to mention president of Guy's rugby club. Atkins was of the 'old school', calling Derek by his surname for the first four months of the post, subsequent to which he referred to him as 'Derek' or 'Buster', Derek's nickname in the rugby fraternity. No doubt this appointment stimulated him to pursue a career in surgery and, following his pre-registration year, Derek became a demonstrator in the anatomy department of Guy's Medical School. Having passed the primary fellowship in 1961, he set about his surgical career, obtaining a rotating senior house officer post in Bristol working for, amongst others, Bob Horton, consultant general surgeon, and Robert Milnes Walker, the first surgeon to hold the chair of surgery at Bristol University. These posts proved to be an excellent training ground, with Derek passing the final FRCS in 1964. Whilst in Bristol, he met Angela Maton, a student nurse, whom he married in 1962. By this stage, Derek's surgical interests were directed towards orthopaedics, and he and Angela moved back to London, renting a flat in Lewisham, which he euphemistically called Blackheath. Following a short spell of general surgery at St John's Hospital, Lewisham, he was appointed as an orthopaedic registrar to John Stanley Batchelor and Tim Stamm at Guy's Hospital. This was august company, Batchelor being eponymously known for his modification of the Grice subtalar fusion and also the frog spica used in the treatment of congenital hip dislocation. This post was followed by his appointment as a senior registrar in orthopaedics at University College and Whittington hospitals in London. In 1969, he was appointed as a consultant in orthopaedic surgery at Eastbourne District General Hospital, joining Stanley Aubrey Jenkins. For the first five years he also had sessions at Cuckfield Hospital, but subsequently for the rest of his career also visited Uckfield Community Hospital, where he was elected president of the League of Friends and was later instrumental in its redevelopment in the 1990's. A fast operator, Derek quickly built up a large NHS and private practice. Taking his share of departmental, hospital and regional administrative work, he was also elected president of the Eastbourne Medical Society in 1993. He retired from clinical work in 1994. Derek was 'larger than life' in every respect. For most of his career, he weighed more than 20 stone but, despite this, was able to play golf and particularly enjoyed shoots with his friends in the Sussex countryside. A family man, with two sons and two daughters, Derek was very much at home with Angela, entertaining at their country house in Buxted and, more latterly, enjoying time at their house in Tarn-et-Garonne, France. His general bonhomie hid a sharp and retentive mind, which enabled him to recall his patients and also to be an excellent raconteur. Despite four hip replacements and two knee replacements, rendering him somewhat immobile, he continued in good health until the last few months of his life, spending his last weeks at Uckfield Hospital. He died on 16 May 2017, at the age of 82. His memorial service at St Margaret the Queen Church, Buxted was attended by a large gathering of friends, colleagues and former patients. He was survived by his wife Angela and four children, Michael, Liz, Simon and Alice. Simon, his younger son, has followed his father's footsteps, and is an orthopaedic consultant in Bournemouth.
Resource Identifier RCS: E009358
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Campbell, Dorothy Rose (1902 - 1982)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

First Title value, for Searching Rose, Dame Hilda Nora (1891 - 1982)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2015-02-24
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E006000-E006999/E006800-E006899
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/379017379017
Occupation Obstetrician and gynaecologist
Details Born on 11 August 1891 to John Shufflebotham, a Birmingham grocer, Hilda was educated at King Edward's High School for Girls and at the University of Birmingham where, with the reluctant consent of her father, she studied medicine. She graduated BSc in 1914 and MB ChB two years later, and obtained a wealth of practical experience, especially in obstetrics, during the war when many of her senior colleagues were away in the forces. She also held postgraduate appointments at the Birmingham and Midland Hospital for Women and the London Hospital. It is said that her competence so impressed her seniors that one of them offered to resign in her place if she could obtain her FRCS and this she did without difficulty in 1920. Soon after her appointment as consultant to the Maternity and Women's Hospital in Birmingham she acquired an enormous practice especially among her colleagues' wives. When, in 1943 Professor Sir Beckwith Whitehouse died, she was appointed his successor, holding the Chair of Obstetrics and Gynaecology in the University for the next eleven years. She had taken the MRCOG in 1935 and was made FRCOG the next year. She became President of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists in 1949 - characteristically insisting that her predecessor, the royal gynaecologist Sir William Gilliatt remain in office long enough to admit the Queen (now the Queen Mother) to the Honorary Fellowship. She was created DBE in 1951 and Honorary LLD of her own university in 1958. She married a colleague, Bertram Lloyd, in 1930 and their supremely happy marriage ended in 1948 when he died after a long period of ill health through which Dame Hilda nursed him with loving care. In 1949 she married Baron Theodore Rose (qv) with whom she had graduated in 1916. They retired early together to live near Ross-on-Wye. Baron Rose died in 1978 and Dame Hilda moved nearer to Birmingham where she continued an active social life in the University and hospital, even superintending all the details of her 90th birthday party before dying on 18 July 1982, one of the most distinguished women doctors of her generation.
Resource Identifier RCS: E006834
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Albert, Moss (1914 - 2007)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Sarah Gillam
Publication Date 2020-08-12
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E009000-E009999/E009700-E009799
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon
Details Moss Albert was an orthopaedic surgeon in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. He was born on 18 April 1914 in the East End of London, the son of Barnett Albert and Lilian Albert née Rabinowitz, and studied medicine at University College London. He qualified in 1937. He was a house physician at University College Hospital, a senior house officer and resident surgical officer at Loughborough General Hospital and a surgeon for the Ministry of Pensions Hospitals in Leeds and Liverpool. In 1939, when the England and Wales Register was being recorded, he was a medical practitioner in Bath. During the Second World War he joined the Royal Army Medical Corps. He was a lieutenant in 1944 and served in India and Burma. In 1950 he immigrated to Canada, to Lethbridge in Alberta, where he was associated with the Campbell Clinic. While in Lethbridge he helped establish the city’s first rehabilitation facility. In 1963 he moved to Edmonton, where he was a surgeon at the Misericordia Hospital until 1971. He then spent five years at the Workers’ Compensation Rehabilitation Clinic. He retired in 1976. In 1949 he married Doreen Davis. Albert died on 31 January 2007 at the age of 92. He was survived by his wife, three sons, Adrian, Russell and Colin, and two grandsons, Jeffrey and Bryan.
Resource Identifier RCS: E009756
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

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
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Rose, Michael Barritt (1940 - 2016)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Keith Vaughton
Publication Date 2016-07-29 2017-10-19
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/381411381411
Occupation Urological surgeon Urologist
Details Michael Rose was a highly-respected urologist who worked all his consultant life in Swansea, south Wales. He was born on 4 September 1940 whilst his parents were visiting the Philippines on holiday from south China. His mother, Dorothy Rose née Barritt, went into early labour following treatment with quinine for a bout of malaria. His father, John Richard Rose, was a surgeon who had studied at Queens' College, Cambridge and trained at St Thomas' Hospital, London. In 1932, he became a Methodist missionary doctor in south China, which is where Michael was brought up as a small boy. At the age of one Michael and his parents were incarcerated by the Japanese following their invasion of China. The family suffered much hardship, brutality, hunger and fear until the end of the Pacific war in 1945. Just a year later the family returned to China, where his father was rebuilding the Methodist hospital, only to experience evacuation again as Westerners were thrown out of the country by Communist rebels. Michael started his formal schooling in 1948 at Kent College, Canterbury. From here he gained a place at Queens' College, Cambridge to read medicine. At university he enjoyed cross country running and squash, and throughout his life he had a keen interest in the natural world and natural history. His other interest was bell ringing and it was through this shared enthusiasm that he met his future wife Hilary (née Griffiths) when they were both ringing at Trumpington Parish Church. They were married in the summer of 1964. After qualifying, Michael did house officer and senior house officer posts in Taunton, Canterbury, Bath and Bristol, before returning to St Peter's Hospital, Chertsey. From there he was appointed to the senior registrar rotation in urology at Leeds in 1975. He started his consultant career in Swansea in 1977. He was given the responsibility for developing the embryonic urology service and by the time he retired in 2000 there were three consultant urologists. He had a particular interest in endoscopic surgery and stone disease having written his MChir thesis on the 'Urinary inhibition of renal stone formation'. He, with colleagues, introduced percutaneous stone surgery and extracorporeal lithotripsy to Swansea. He was clinical lead urologist and programme director in urology for a number of years. He was first secretary and then chairman of the Welsh Urological Society. In 1994, his department was short-listed for Urology Team of the Year. In 1992, he invited the British Association of Urological Surgeons to hold their autumn meeting in Swansea. A year earlier, Michael took part in a six-month exchange with George McGirr, a consultant urologist from Whangarei in New Zealand. In his time as a consultant Michael published several papers in the *British Journal of Urology* and in the *Annals* of the Royal College of Surgeons. Outside medicine, Michael continued his enthusiasm for bell ringing and his love of the natural world, which complemented the interests of his wife Hilary, who has a PhD in botany. Together they had two sons; Richard is a teacher and Philip is a professional photographer. After his retirement, Michael fulfilled a long-held ambition by studying English literature at Swansea University, for which he was awarded a first-class degree in 2010. Sadly, Michael was diagnosed with a progressive lung condition in the early 1990's. This caused his health and fitness to deteriorate relentlessly, leaving him severely debilitated and dependant on supplementary oxygen. He coped courageously with this illness, keeping himself as active as possible. He died on 11 July 2016 aged 75. He is remembered by all who worked with him as a kind and caring doctor, a talented surgeon with a compassionate personality; a true gentleman.
Resource Identifier RCS: E009228
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Moss, James Percy (1933 - 2010)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Chris Stephens
Publication Date 2023-07-18
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E010000-E010999/E010300-E010399
Occupation Orthodontist
Details Jim Moss was head of the department of orthodontics at University College London Dental School and a leading figure in British orthodontics and the international orthodontic community. He was born on 29 May 1933, one of five children of Percy Randolph Moss, a butcher, and Margaret Moss née Hollands and brought up in north London. He attended Preston Manor County School, Wembley, where he was head boy. He entered University College Dental School and qualified in 1956. He joined the orthodontic department at University College and worked under Willy Grossman, a refugee from Prague and a world authority on functional jaw orthopaedics. Jim progressed through the department as registrar, senior registrar, senior lecturer and consultant, finally becoming professor and head of the orthodontic department when Grossman retired in 1984. When the University College London Dental School closed in 1990, he joined the orthodontic department at the Royal London Hospital until his retirement in January 2004. Jim devoted almost all his professional life to supporting the British Society for the Study of Orthodontics (BSSO), which he joined in 1964. He was its treasurer from 1971 to 1979, president in 1980 and its editor and curator until 1994, when the British Orthodontic Society was founded. He remained a curator for the Society until his death. Jim was the Northcroft lecturer of the BSSO in 1987, was granted a BSSO special service award and elected to life membership of the British Orthodontic Society. Jim lectured widely throughout the world and was the John Valentine Mershon Memorial lecturer of the American Association of Orthodontists (AAO) in 1974 and 1984. In 2004 he received the AAO Louise Ada Jarabek Memorial International Orthodontic Teachers and Research Award. Jim was a member of the board of the Faculty of Dental Surgery of the Royal College of Surgeons of England from 1984 to 1998, during which time he served as chairman of its postgraduate education committee and its examinations committee in orthodontics. He was elected as the vice dean of the Faculty of Dental Surgery in 1994. He was the College’s Charles Tomes lecturer in 1985 and the T C White lecturer of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow in 1989. Jim Moss was instrumental in furthering knowledge of the Begg technique in Britain and established the UK Begg Study Group, based at the University College London Dental School in the early 1970s. Jim was also a very active member of the European Begg Society of Orthodontics and was later its president. In 1986, following the publication of the UK’s Schanschieff Report into unnecessary dental treatment, Jim agreed to chair the UK’s Occlusal Index Committee. As a result of its work, the Government provided funding to develop the IOTN (index of treatment need) and PAR (peer assessment rating) indices, which was now used to justify and evaluate NHS orthodontic practice throughout the UK. However, Jim Moss will perhaps be best remembered for his longstanding commitment to the European Orthodontic Society (EOS), which he joined in 1964. He was its honorary secretary from 1984 to 2001 and was elected EOS president in 1996. During his leadership the Society flourished and expanded. Membership from former Soviet Bloc countries was encouraged and delegates and speakers from all over the world went to the EOS Congress. His wife Mary was immensely supportive of this work and was frequently by his side at EOS meetings. (Jim appeared at an EOS competition in Brighton dressed as King Henry VIII and Mary was his queen.) Jim went on to help set up the European Board of Orthodontists, which was established in 1996 and was both its secretary and an examiner. He was also instrumental in involving the European national societies in the EOS and set up the Forum of National Societies in 1998 with representatives from European Federation of Orthodontic Specialist Associations. Jim gave the EOS Sheldon Friel Memorial lecture in 2002, the year in which he was made an honorary member of the Society. Jim Moss became a fellow of the World Federation of Orthodontists, which was established in 1996 and became an honorary member in 2005 in recognition for his outstanding service to orthodontics. He was due to receive an award for his services at the EOS Congress in June 2010 in Slovenia. Unfortunately, he was by this time too unwell to attend, and his award was presented to his family at Jim’s memorial service at High Barnet Baptist Church, where he had been a preacher, organist and teacher. The bedrock of Jim’s life was his beloved wife Mary (née Evans), and Jim devoted the last years of his life to caring for her during a prolonged terminal illness. Jim died on 14 June 2010 at the age of 77 and was survived by his three children, Richard, Elizabeth and Tim.
Resource Identifier RCS: E010355
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Gross, Charles ( - 1899)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2008-05-01 2012-03-14
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/372690372690
Occupation General surgeon
Details Studied at Guy's Hospital, and was for many years Medical Superintendent of St Saviour's Infirmary, Westmorland Road, Walworth, South London. Becoming a barrister-at-law, Middle Temple, he retired from his post and practised at 3 Elm Court, Temple, and in 1890 was living at East Dulwich Grove, and after 1894 at 112 Westbourne Grove. He died at Tonbridge, Kent, on Aug 28th, 1899.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000506
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Rose, Arnold ( - 1989)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

First Title value, for Searching Thomson, Charles Edmunds (1807 - 1880)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2012-12-20
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E003000-E003999/E003200-E003299
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/375447375447
Occupation General surgeon
Details Educated at St Bartholomew's Hospital and at the Worcester Infirmary. He practised at Ross, Herefordshire, where he was Surgeon to the Dispensary and to the Hereford, Ross, and Gloster Railway. He died, after his retirement, at his residence, 9 Berkeley Square, Bristol, on March 20th, 1880.
Resource Identifier RCS: E003264
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Cross, Richard (1818 - 1882)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2011-09-06 2011-09-07
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/373522373522
Occupation General surgeon
Details Educated at Guy's Hospital. He began to practise in Scarborough in 1840, shortly afterwards going into partnership with Thomas Weddell, who died in 1862. He practised for more than forty years in Scarborough, and was a prominent public man. At one period he was Physician to the Royal Scarborough Sea-Bathing Infirmary and a member of the Committee of the Cliff Bridge Company. He was for thirty-six years Medical Officer to the Ancient Order of Foresters Friendly Society. Elected a member of the Scarborough Corporation on November 1st, 1849, when he headed the poll for the North Ward, he was re-elected with regularity until 1862, when he was made Alderman. He was Mayor in 1860-1861, and retired from civic duties in 1874. He was also a Magistrate for the Borough and a Trustee of the Municipal Charities, Medical Referee for the Railway Passengers and the Imperial Union Accident Companies, Surgeon Major on the Staff of the East and North Riding Brigade of the Yorkshire Artillery Volunteers, Ordnance Surgeon for Scarborough, Fellow of the Royal Medico-Chirurgical and Obstetric Societies, London, and a member of the British Medical Association. He was greatly honoured and esteemed for his professional and social qualities, his courtesy and geniality rendering him very popular. He was eulogized by John Marshall (qv) in his "Presidential Address" before the Medico-Chirurgical Society in March, 1883, as "eminent in both private and public practice", for his character, and as "an admirable example of a large class of provincial practitioners". Latterly Cross was in partnership with his son, Thomas Brown Cross, MA Cantab, MRCS. His professional address in Scarborough was 6 Queen Street. His death occurred on November 19th, 1882, about twelve hours after he had submitted to an amputation above the knee, for a tedious and painful disease of that joint. His funeral was celebrated with military honours and attended by the volunteers, the Mayor and Corporation, and others. Publication: "A Table of Obstetrical Studies." - *Lancet*, 1866, ii, 274, 456.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001339
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Cross, William (1810 - 1875)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

First Title value, for Searching Rose, Caleb (1820 - 1895)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

First Title value, for Searching Moss, John (1922 - 1997)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2015-11-18
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/380983380983
Occupation Ophthalmologist Ophthalmic surgeon
Details John Moss was a former ophthalmic surgeon at Stoke Mandeville. He was born in Birmingham in 1922 and attended Bishop Vesey School, Sutton Coldfield. At Birmingham University Medical School during the war, he was of the generation of students who regularly did fireguard duties and worked as house surgeons before qualifying. He established an early interest in 'eyes', before qualifying MB ChB in 1946. After National Service as a Captain in the Royal Army Medical Corps in Germany, he returned to the Birmingham Midland Eye Hospital, passing his diploma in ophthalmology in 1953. With rotations, he became a senior registrar; in 1958 he was appointed consultant ophthalmologist at the Royal Buckinghamshire Hospital in Aylesbury. After amalgamation, he moved to Stoke Mandeville Hospital as ophthalmic consultant, where he worked until his retirement. He was one of the first surgeons in the UK to perform a kerato-odonto-prosthesis. He passed his FRCS in 1974 and was a founder Fellow of the Royal College of Ophthalmologists in 1989. He had a gift for languages. At an early age he had learnt to speak fluent Welsh and became a member of the Aylesbury Welsh Society, and before attending an ophthalmological congress in China he learnt Mandarin Chinese. He was interested in the history of the Netherlands and was a keen student of the Dutch language. He was a keen canoeist and a regular squash player until his late sixties. He espoused the medicinal benefits of gin, especially when combined with sweet and dry vermouth. He is survived by his wife Barbara, sons Philip and John, four grandchildren, two elderly Citroens, a large collection of books on languages, astronomy and science fiction, and a rather miserable and confused cat called Hilda. He died from acute leukaemia on 14 April 1997 at Stoke Mandeville Hospital.
Resource Identifier RCS: E008800
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Barratt, Joseph Gilman (1819 - 1896)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2009-11-18
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000700-E000799
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372950372950
Occupation General surgeon
Details Educated at St George’s Hospital. Practised at Ross, Herefordshire, and was then House Surgeon to the Bath United Hospitals. Moving to 8 Cleveland Gardens, London, W, he was in practice there for many years, and was Physician-Accoucheur to the St George’s and St James’s Dispensaries. He was a Fellow of the Royal Medico-Chirurgical Society and the Obstetrical Society, also a member of the Pathological Society. His death occurred at Netley Abbey on June 23rd, 1896.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000767
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Kilshaw, John Hensor ( - 1994)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2015-09-15
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/380311380311
Occupation General surgeon
Details John Kilshaw was educated at Manchester University where he gained first class honours in physiology in his BSc in 1956 and qualified MB ChB in 1959. After qualification he held house posts and registrarships at Ancoats Hospital and Withington Hospital, Manchester, and at the Manchester Royal Infirmary. He was consultant surgeon to the Furness General Hospital, Barrow-in-Furness. He died on 19 May 1994, survived by his wife, Anne, three children, Nigel, Beverley and Diane, and grandchildren Ross and Jack.
Resource Identifier RCS: E008128
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Rose, William senior (1814 - 1890)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

First Title value, for Searching Rose, William junior (1847 - 1910)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2012-11-14 2013-02-01
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E003000-E003999/E003100-E003199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/375332375332
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born at High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, on July 18th, 1847, the son of William Rose (qv) and nephew of Sir Philip Rose. He came of a race of surgeons, and, as his biographer, Sir John Cockburn, KCMG, says - "He affords a striking instance of the coincidence of an hereditary faculty with circumstances peculiarly favourable to its development.... He was nursed in an atmosphere of the healing art. Long before he entered as a medical student at King's College he had learnt from his father, the leading surgeon in High Wycombe, something more than the rudiments of the profession, with the result that having the end in view, he was able to appreciate more thoroughly than the younger and less experienced students the meaning and bearing of the teaching facilities which a great medical school affords. Endowed by nature with an exquisite sense of touch and manual skill, he lost no opportunity of cultivating a wonderful dexterity in manipulation, which made him a most expert operator. "As a boy he was the fortunate possessor of a fine turning lathe and well-equipped workshop. Here he spent most of his leisure, and served his appren¬ticeship in handicraft. The hand that for the first time touched the instruments of surgery was already ripe with experience in handling all manner of tools. "William Rose was not one who required to practise with the saw on the human femur. He was possessed of prodigious strength. It was one of the sights of student days to see him with one hand grasp a heavy chair by the top rail, extend it at arm's length, and by sheer power of wrist raise it to a horizontal position. But this strength was tempered and regulated with a wonderful tactile sensibility. His touch conveyed a sense of restrained power, which commanded confidence and rallied the recuperative power of a patient. There was a veritable virtue in the laying-on of his hands." William Rose entered the Medical School of King's College Hospital in his twentieth year and was a resident pupil with Henry Power (qv) during his student life. After taking the Fellowship in 1874 he acted for a time as House Physician at the Brompton Hospital. Early in his career he attracted Sir William Fergusson's (qv) attention, and assisted that great operator in his private practice, taking rooms, by his advice, in Old Cavendish Street instead of carrying on the family practice at High Wycombe as his father had hoped. Having been successively House Surgeon and Surgical Registrar to King's College Hospital, he was appointed Assistant Surgeon in 1876, became full Surgeon in 1885, and Consulting Surgeon in 1902. During the five-and-twenty years that Rose served on the staff of King's College Hospital he built up for himself a great reputation as a practical surgeon, while his name became familiar to many generations of students because of his participation in the authorship of a most popular textbook on surgery. From being Fergusson's dresser he rose to be his colleague, participating with the master in all his great operations. A colleague, once his dresser, has described Rose's marvellous dexterity, his skill with his instruments, and his jealous care of them. To an onlooker who knew how instruments should be used it was a great pleasure to watch Rose operating. Though he had large and apparently clumsy fingers, they were in reality extraordinarily dexterous. To see his fingers working inside a small mouth when operating upon a cleft palate, or to watch him using the finest catgut in the finest curved needle in a hare-lip operation, was to feel that one had met a master surgeon - one in whom co-ordination between brain and finger-tips was absolutely perfect. His kindness to patients under his care was seen best by the house surgeons in charge of his beds or by the ward-sisters, for he was not a man to make any display of this side of his character. He would often come to the hospital at the dinner hour or at teatime in order to see for himself how the patients fared. It was no good telling Rose that such-and-such a patient took his food well, for to say this was to create a suspicion in his mind that there was something wrong, and nothing would satisfy him but to see for himself. This was a little point upon which he was often misunderstood. He would seem to disbelieve what was told him by house surgeons and dressers, sisters and nurses. In reality, he was not so much testing their accuracy as their judgement; he was training them to be sound in making reports, and in the value of evidence which lay before their eyes. Rose was devoted to animals, and his love of horses was well known. He was a first-rate whip - "A coach team or tandem were as a plastic mass in his hands." He was constantly seen driving his four-in-hand, and is said to have caused a window to be made at the end of his hall, through which he could look at his beloved horses in their presumably very clean stable. He shot well and his hall was adorned with antlered trophies. He was a musician and played the drum admirably! His hospitality was boundless, and his dinners to his dressers were grand events in these young men's lives. He had a keen sense of humour: told a story well, and his laugh, which could be heard in the next street, was infectious. His common sense often stood him in good stead. As Surgeon to the Great Eastern and London, Brighton & South Coast Railways he was an expert witness in railway cases, and often saved the Companies from being imposed upon in Maims for damages. Asked, for instance, to report on a case of alleged spinal concussion, he found the patient in bed and apparently bedridden. Rose had been kept waiting a long time before being admitted to see the patient, but was able to diagnose the case as one of flagrant malingering, when on putting his hand into one of the man's boots under the bed he found it was warm! In 1880 he married Marian, youngest daughter of Mr Robert Clark, solicitor, but had no children. A portrait of Professor Rose accompanies his biography in the *Lancet*. His London address was 17 Harley Street, W, and his country house was at Penn, near High Wycombe. Here he dispensed hospitality and was much beloved by his poorer neighbours, whom he charitably benefited by his surgical skill and experience. He died on May 29th, 1910, and at the time of his death was Emeritus Professor at King's College, as well as Member of its Council and Hon Fellow, these honours having been conferred on him at his retirement from the Professorship of Surgery in 1902, when, as before mentioned, he was made Consulting Surgeon at King's College Hospital. He was also Consulting Surgeon at the Royal Free Hospital, and to the Stanhope Street Dispensary, the London, Brighton and South Coast and the Great Eastern Railway Companies, St John's Hospital, Twickenham, the High Wycombe Cottage Hospital, and the Eagle Insurance Company. He was at one time Consulting Surgeon to the Westminster General Dispensary and Senior Surgeon to the Actors'Association. Publications: *A Manual of Surgery for Students and Practitioners* (with ALBERT CARLESS, FRCS), 12mo, London, 1898; 12th ed, 8vo, plates and illustrations, London, 1927. Professor Rose's literary reputation is securely founded on this classic. It was the best text-book of surgery in the English language for students not aiming at the highest examinations, and was frequently republished in New York. "Case of Double Hare-lip in Man aged 30." - *Brit Med Jour*, 1883, i, 202. "Recurrent Aneurism of the Superficial Femoral Artery after Ligature of the External Iliac, treated by Excision of the Sac," 8vo, London, 1885; reprinted from *Med Soc Proc*, 1884, vii, 75. "Gunshot Wound of Knee-Joint." - *Med Soc Proc*, 1888, xi, 355. "Wound of Median Nerve; Suture." - *Ibid*, 1889, xii, 300. "Severe Injury of the Wrist-joint, with Division of Nerves, Vessels and Tendons, treated by Conservative Surgery," 8vo, London, 1887; reprinted from *Med Soc Proc*, 1887, x, 348. "Removal of the Gasserian Ganglion for Severe Neuralgia." - *Lancet*, 1890, ii, 914. (This operation was done by the maxillary route, which was afterwards superseded by the Hartley-Krause route.) *On Harelip and Cleft Palate*, 8vo, illustrated, London, 1891. "General Surgery."-*Year Book of Treatment*, 1895-6. "A Few Details in the Operative Treatment of Inguinal Hernia," 12mo, London, 1892; reprinted from *Med Press and Circ*, 1891, lii, 546, etc. *The Surgical Treatment of Neuralgia of the Fifth Nerve* (*Tic Douloureux*), 8vo, London, 1892. All these papers "display him as the careful, skilful, practical surgeon".
Resource Identifier RCS: E003149
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Rose, Caleb Burrell (1790 - 1872)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

First Title value, for Searching Moss, William Boyd (1829 - 1916)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2012-08-22
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E002000-E002999/E002700-E002799
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/374943374943
Occupation General surgeon
Details Practised in Ceylon, and retired about 1885. He lived to be the senior FRCS after the death of Richard Barwell (qv) in 1916, and died at Chiswick on November 17th, 1916. His remains were cremated at Woking.
Resource Identifier RCS: E002760
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Corner, Edred Moss (1873 - 1950)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2013-06-06
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E004000-E004999/E004000-E004099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/376256376256
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born on 22 October 1873 at the Manor House, Poplar, the fifth son and ninth of the ten children of Francis Mead Corner, MRCS, JP, a general practitioner, who had married his cousin Anne Corner. The family derived from Lythe, near Whitby, Yorkshire. He was educated at Epsom College, where he was head prefect, captain of the XV and a member of the cricket XI, and throughout life took a keen interest in his old school. He was honorary secretary of the Old Epsomian Club 1907-20 and subsequently its president, and was a generous subscriber to the centenary fund which he inaugurated. He was a scholar and prizeman of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, and took first-class honours in the natural sciences tripos part 1 in 1894. In the same year he took the London BSc. At St Thomas's Hospital, where he received his clinical training, he won further scholarships. At the Cambridge MB BS examination 1898 he was placed first in every subject, a distinction probably unique. He took the Conjoint qualification this year, and proceeded to the Fellowship at the end of 1899; the Cambridge master of surgery degree, then considered the blue riband of achievement, he took in 1906. Corner's intellectual ability was matched by his exceedingly tall, robust, and commanding personality. He served as house surgeon at St Thomas's and at Leeds General Infirmary, and was elected assistant surgeon to St Thomas's in 1900. He was extremely popular as a demonstrator and lecturer. Corner built up a large private practice at 37 Harley Street, and served on the honorary staff of the Hospital for Sick Children, Great Ormond Street, and at the Purley and Wood Green Hospitals. He was also surgeon to Epsom College. During the war of 1914-18 he was commissioned in the RAMC and promoted major. He was consulting surgeon to Queen Mary's auxiliary hospital at Roehampton, and organized an amputation clinic at St Thomas's. Corner was interested in nearly every aspect of surgery, but more particularly in orthopaedics and abdominal surgery. At the College he delivered the Erasmus Wilson lectures in 1904 on "Acute infective gangrenous processes (necroses) in the alimentary tract", and the Arris and Gale lectures in 1919 on "The nature of scar tissue and painful operation stumps". He was a vice-president of the Medical Society of London and of the Harveian Society, to which he delivered a Harveian lecture. In the British Medical Association he was secretary of the section for the diseases of children at the 1907 annual meeting, and vice-president of the section of orthopaedics in 1912. He sat on the board of advanced studies in London University, and was a visitor for King Edward's Hospital Fund. In his younger days Corner was an experienced mountaineer; he was also a learned mycologist, and an appreciative student of architecture. He married in 1903 Henrietta, daughter of James Henderson of the Gows, Ivergowrie, Dundee. Corner was reaching the peak of a most distinguished surgical career in the years immediately following the first world war, when he was struck down in his late forties by a familial degenerative nervous disease, whose progressive severity he bore with stoical resignation for nearly thirty years, dying at the age of seventy-six after long endurance of total blindness and severe lameness. On abandoning his consulting practice in London in 1921 he was for a time superintendent of a convalescent home at Great Missenden. He died at his own home Stratton End, Beaconsfield on 2 May 1950, survived by his wife, their son, who was a lecturer in botany at Cambridge, and their two daughters. Publications:- *Clinical and pathological observations on acute abdominal diseases*. London, 1904. *The surgery of the diseases of the appendix*, with W H Battle. London, 1904. *The operations of general practice*, with I H Pinches. London, 1907; 2nd edition 1908; 3rd edition 1910. *Diseases of the male generative organs*. London, 1907. *Male diseases in general practice*. London, 1910.
Resource Identifier RCS: E004073
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Cross, Francis George (1870 - 1940)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

First Title value, for Searching Cross, Francis Richardson (1848 - 1931)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2013-06-20
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E004000-E004999/E004100-E004199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/376303376303
Occupation Ophthalmic surgeon
Details Son of the Rev Joseph Cross, MA, who matriculated from Magdalen Hall, Oxford, 11 November 1812, was vicar of Merriott south Somersetshire, married Caroline Richardson and was afterwards precentor of Bristol cathedral. Francis Richardson Cross was born 26 November 1848 and was educated at Crewkerne Grammar School until he entered as a medical student at King's College Hospital. Here he acted as house surgeon in charge of the eye wards, was sub-dean, medical tutor, and evening lecturer on physiology. He also served as assistant demonstrator of anatomy. In 1896 he was elected a Fellow of King's College. He was for a short time resident medical officer at the St Pancras Infirmary, after which he attended clinics in Vienna, Berlin, Paris, and Utrecht, where he came under the influence of Professor Snellen the ophthalmologist. His interest in the subject being thus aroused, he became clinical assistant at the Royal London Ophthalmic Hospital on his return to England. In 1878 he joined the medical school at Bristol as lecturer on anatomy, was elected assistant surgeon to the Bristol Royal Infirmary in September 1878 and surgeon in January 1879. He held this post until 1885 when, deciding to specialize in ophthalmic surgery, he was elected ophthalmic surgeon to the infirmary and held office until July 1900. He then resigned, was elected a governor, and retained his interest in the institution until 1925, having been elected a vice-president in 1919. During his tenure of office as surgeon to the infirmary, he was dean in 1880 of the medical faculty of University College, Bristol, which had not then been raised to the status of a university. In 1882 he was appointed surgeon to the Bristol Eye Hospital and raised the institution to a high state of efficiency. His first house surgeon was Herman Snellen, the son of his old teacher at Utrecht. He remained upon the active staff until November 1925 when he resigned and received the complimentary title of consulting surgeon, remaining a member of the committee until his death. In 1891 he was president of the Bristol Medico-chirurgical Society, and in the same year he was president of the ophthalmological section at the Bristol meeting of the British Medical Association. From 1898 till 1914 he was a member of the council of the Royal College of Surgeons of England and delivered the Bradshaw lecture in 1909, "On the brain structures concerned in vision and the visual field" (printed Bristol 1910). From 1912 to 1915 he was president of the Ophthalmological Society of the United Kingdom. In 1901 he delivered the annual oration at Medical Society of London on "Some landmarks in the progress of medical science". He married in 1880 Eva Beatrice, who died 1920, daughter of Captain Hawkes, RN, and by her had three daughters. He died on Sunday, 12 July 1931, at Worcester House, Clifton, Bristol and was buried at Alveston, Gloucestershire, after a largely attended funeral service in Bristol cathedral. Cross was one of the last ophthalmic surgeons who began life as a general surgeon and afterwards specialized in his subject. He had many interests outside his profession. As a young man he was well known in the athletic world, winning the 100 yards in the inter-hospital sports in record time. Settled at Bristol, he took an active part in the social and municipal life of the city. He served as sheriff in 1897 and was presented with a silver cradle to mark the birth of a daughter during his year of office. He was made a Justice of the Peace in 1902 and took an influential part in securing the foundation of the university in 1909, where he became lecturer and later reader in ophthalmology. He was president of the Grateful Society in 1889, of the Dolphin Society in 1911, and of the university Colston Society in 1916. During his tenure of these offices he was successful in collecting large sums for charitable purposes. He was throughout a keen sportsman, hunting with the Duke of Beaufort's hounds. He also took a great interest in the breeding of stock. He acted as chairman of the Bristol centre of the St John Ambulance Brigade, and for very many years was chairman of the Bristol School for the Blind. The welfare of the blind was always very near his heart and he was instrumental in obtaining new and better premises for the Royal School for the Blind. As a man he stood well over six feet in height with great breadth of shoulder, fine upright carriage, and a profusion of hair which became white early in life. He was a fine speaker and was everywhere an influence for good. He left £50 each to the Bristol Eye Hospital, the Bristol Royal Infirmary, King's College Hospital, London, the University of Bristol, and the School of Industry for the Blind; and a number of medical books from his library were presented by his daughter to the Royal College of Surgeons. A portrait painted in 1920 by Miss B Bright hangs in the senate room of the Bristol University, and there is a replica in the Bristol Eye Hospital. It is an excellent likeness.
Resource Identifier RCS: E004120
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Rose, Frank Atcherley (1873 - 1935)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

First Title value, for Searching Rose, William George (1887 - 1969)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

First Title value, for Searching Rose, Ian Falconer (1912 - 1967)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2014-10-06
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E006000-E006999/E006000-E006099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/378271378271
Occupation General surgeon
Details The son of Lt-Col A Macgregor Rose DSO, RAMC of Aberdeen, Ian Rose was born on 3 December 1912. He was educated at Oriel College, Oxford, and proceeded to St Bartholomew's Hospital where he graduated in 1937. After qualification he held several resident posts at Bart's and took his MA degree in 1938. On the outbreak of war he was commissioned in the RAMC in No 131 Field Ambulance. Promoted to Captain in 1940 he was taken prisoner in Belgium and spent the next five years caring for British and Allied prisoners of war sick. In 1945 he led 1200 British prisoners of war from a camp near Danzig westward, to be liberated by the 7th Armoured Division. After demobilization he spent some months in hospital before returning to civilian life. He was then appointed MBE for his wartime services. Rose held appointments at St Andrew's and Metropolitan Hospitals while studying for his Fellowship, which he obtained 1947. He then became registrar at Hillingdon Hospital and after that senior registrar at St Peter's Hospital and later at the Royal Marsden. From 1954 to 1958 he was senior surgical registrar at Chase Farm Hospital Enfield before becoming deputy senior surgeon at Manor House Hospital. At that time the illness of Sir John Nicholson placed a heavy burden on his shoulders which he cheerfully undertook. In June 1964 he was injured in a car and soon after was overtaken by the disease which was to prove fatal. He spent nearly a year in hospital before being able to return to his patients despite being in constant pain and only being able to walk with the aid of a stick. For Ian Rose medicine was a vocation to which he devoted his whole life and the Manor House Hospital was indeed fortunate in having such a man on its staff. He died after a long illness on 12 October 1967 at the age of 54; he was survived by his wife.
Resource Identifier RCS: E006088
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Cross, Alexander Galbraith (1908 - 1996)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

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/380063380063
Occupation Ophthalmic surgeon
Details Alexander Galbraith Cross was born in London on 29 March 1908, the son of Walter Galbraith, a bank manager, and his wife Mary Stewart, née McKeich, a farmer's daughter. He was educated at King's College School, Caius College Cambridge, and St Mary's Hospital, where he was a University Scholar and won the Cheadle Gold Medal and the Broadbent Prize. He qualified MB BCh and MRCS LRCP in 1933 and went on to hold house physician and house surgeon posts at St Mary's and Moorfields, obtaining his FRCS in 1936. In 1937 he played fly half for St Mary's in their cup winning side. He served in the RAF Voluntary Reserve from 1941 to 1946 as a wing commander, and was adviser in ophthalmology to the South East Asia Air Forces, based in Burma. After the war he became consultant ophthalmic surgeon to St Mary's and Moorfields (and many other hospitals), served as dean of the Medical School at St Mary's from 1951 to 1960, and in 1967 became dean of the Institute of Ophthalmology. He served as a co-opted member (ophthalmology) on the Council of the Royal College of Surgeons between 1962 and 1967. Other responsibilities included the Presidency of the Faculty of Ophthalmologists from 1968 to 1971, Chairmanship of the Ophthalmic Group Committee from 1963 to 1971 and civilian consultant in ophthalmology to the Royal Navy in 1946. He was also ophthalmic surgeon to St Dunstan's and the Royal National Institute for the Blind. In 1939 he married Eileen, the niece of the then professor of surgery at St Mary's, C A Pannett. He enjoyed sports (rugby and later tennis, golf and squash) gardening and, an unsuspected accomplishment, tapestry. He died on 4 February 1996, survived by his wife, daughter Diana, a physiotherapist, and two grandchildren, Alison and John.
Resource Identifier RCS: E007880
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Rous, Marcus Cole (1903 - 1955)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2014-05-16
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E005000-E005999/E005300-E005399
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/377524377524
Occupation General surgeon
Details Cole Rous was a brilliant teacher of surgery and after twenty years at the University of Cape Town became Professor of Surgery there in 1947. Unfortunately ill-health forced him to resign in 1948. He was vice-chairman of the steering committee of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of South Africa, incorporated just before his death. He was President of the Cape Western branch of the Medical Association of South Africa in 1955. He made a deep impression with his Public Lecture to the South African Medical Congress at Johannesburg in 1952. He lived a vigorous intellectual and outdoor life, being interested in philosophy, psychology, the classics, music, and art, and active in flying, yachting, fishing, and carpentry. He practised at African Life Buildings, St George's Street, Cape Town. He died suddenly on 18 November 1955 aged 52.
Resource Identifier RCS: E005341
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Rose, Baron Theodore (1892 - 1978)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2015-03-09
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/379084379084
Occupation General surgeon
Details Baron Theodore Rose was born on 21 July 1892 and educated at King Edward's School, Birmingham, and the Birmingham Medical School. He graduated BSc in 1914 and MB ChB in 1916. After resident posts at Cardiff, Bristol and the Royal Northern Hospital, London, he took the FRCS Edinburgh and became resident surgical officer at the old Queen's Hospital, now the Birmingham Accident Hospital. In 1919 he was appointed assistant surgeon to the General Hospital and shortly afterwards took the FRCS and the ChM. He rapidly established an extensive consulting practice and, in addition, provided loyal and diligent service to the West Bromwich, Walsall, and Tamworth Hospitals for many years before the National Health Service. Though a true general surgeon he always had an especial interest in malignant disease and for many years pioneered the application of radium and x-ray treatment to its management. He detested administrative work but in 1947 found himself elected chairman of the medical advisory committee when the NHS was imminent. To the surprise of many, he proved to be an excellent and statesmanlike leader who fulfilled this difficult role with distinction and success. Though a bold and rapid operator, the Baron, as he was universally known, was an outstanding clinician and one of the great teachers of the Birmingham School. He demanded high standards and incompetence or inefficiency infuriated him. He distrusted many of the innovations of the post-war era and almost broke the hearts of several generations of his devoted house surgeons by his aversion to intravenous drips. The majority of these, painstakingly established with much effort and loss of sleep, he would order removed in a peremptory manner because he 'could not abide a ward festooned with bottles'. The General Hospital was his pride and joy and his comments on the 'other places' seldom repeatable. Behind his formidable exterior lay a kindly Christian man, widely read, and with an abiding interest in the countryside and all things pertaining to it. The death of his first wife, Dora, in 1947 was a tragic blow, but in 1949, to the delight of their many friends, he married his former 1914 classmate, Dame Hilda Lloyd (see next entry). In 1953 he retired to the peace and quiet of Herefordshire, where he and Hilda spent many years of happy retirement. He continued to fish his beloved Wye to the last and died while tending his beautiful garden in the late evening. With his death a generation of Birmingham surgeons and countless students lost a respected teacher and valued friend. He was survived by his wife and the son of his first marriage.
Resource Identifier RCS: E006901
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Rose, Thomas Frederick (1911 - 1987)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

First Title value, for Searching Rose, Gordon Kenneth (1916 - 1999)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2015-12-04
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/381069381069
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon
Details Gordon Rose was an orthopaedic surgeon who pioneered the development of walking orthoses (surgical appliances). He was born in Coventry on 28 April 1916, and qualified in medicine at Birmingham in 1940 with the gold medal in surgery. He then joined the RAMC, serving throughout the war in the Middle East, where he came into contact with John Charnley, the pioneer of hip replacement surgery. After the war he did junior surgical jobs in Birmingham, before being appointed as the sole orthopaedic surgeon to Shrewsbury Hospital and to the Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital in Oswestry in 1950. He spent a year at Rancho Los Amigos in California, studying the biomechanics of gait, which became his life-work. He applied gait recording to the treatment of club foot, and later developed an orthosis, the 'swivel walker', which enabled children with spina bifida to stand and walk. He pioneered and presided over the Orthotic Training Council. He was appointed OBE in 1981. He was much sought-after as a speaker, and was noted for his prodigious memory for jokes and anecdotes. He was deeply involved in the planning of the new Royal Shrewsbury Hospital, which was opened in 1977. In 1940, he married Molly Lavender, who was a general practitioner. She was tiny and frail, but vivacious and deeply religious; a contrast with Gordon in every way. When she died suddenly in 1987 he gradually took on her pastoral role in the community. He died on 13 November 1999, survived by his two sons.
Resource Identifier RCS: E008886
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Rose, John Richard (1910 - 1998)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2015-12-04
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/381070381070
Occupation General practitioner General surgeon
Details Born in Sandwich, Kent, on 30 September 1910, John Richard Rose's father, William Richard Rose, was a wholesale grocer, JP, county councillor and was twice Mayor of Sandwich. His mother was Beatrice Matilda Paragreen, a musician and poet, and a governor of St Thomas's Hospital. He was educated at Sir Roger Marwood's School, from which he won a scholarship to Queens' College, Cambridge. From Queens' he won an exhibition to St Thomas's Hospital, where he was much influenced by Cyril Nitch, Romanis and Mitchiner. Barrett was his surgical tutor. After qualifying, he became a house surgeon at St Thomas's and then went to China as a surgeon to the Methodist Missionary Society. He then joined the Hong Kong Volunteers in 1939. There he was interned in a Japanese civilian camp near Canton from 1942 to 1945. On being released, he returned to his missionary work in China for another four years, becoming Professor of Surgery to the Canton Medical School (Lingan University) in 1947, and Chairman of the South China Medical Relief Society. He became an expert in ancient Chinese scripts and watercolour painting. He was then sent to Sierra Leone, where he qualified as a witch doctor in the Mende Tribe in 1957, a life appointment. He then returned to the UK, where he was a GP in Kent and Cumbria. He married Dorothy Barritt, and had one son, Michael, who also became a surgeon, and two daughters, Janet and Alison. This marriage ended in divorce and he later married Elizabeth Loyns and had two sons, Richard and Stephen. He published *A Church born to suffer* (London, Cargate Press) in 1951, a history of the first 100 years of the Methodist Church in South China, and an autobiography *Traveller's joy* in 1991. He died on 6 November 1998.
Resource Identifier RCS: E008887
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Rose, Jeffery Samuel (1924 - 2018)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2023-07-04
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E010000-E010999/E010200-E010299
Details Jeffery Samuel Rose was a consultant orthodontist at the 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: E010281
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Rose, James Dudfield (1908 - 1992)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

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/380446380446
Occupation General surgeon
Details James Dudfield Rose graduated MB BS from the medical school in Newcastle (then part of Durham University) in 1930 and went to Germany in 1936 to study gastroscopy, returning with a permanent impression of the rise of Nazism. Commissioned in the Royal Army Medical Corps, he was evacuated from Dunkirk, was at the siege of Tobruk, and was sent to the liberated concentration camp at Belsen. After the war he returned to become consultant surgeon at Newcastle General Hospital and the Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle upon Tyne. He specialised in biliary tract surgery; with colleagues in Lyons he published early work on biliary manometry. He became president of the North of England Surgical Society and retired from surgery in 1977. Always fascinated by heretical ideas, after retiring he practised homoeopathy and became interested in Catharism. He was an accomplished photographer, weaver and embroiderer and loved Northumberland, its history, landscape and culture. He died of cerebrovascular disease on 7 May 1992 aged 84 years, and was survived by his wife, his son, a physician, a daughter and four grandchildren.
Resource Identifier RCS: E008263
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Fernandez, Thomas Francis (1815 - 1897)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2011-12-07
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001600-E001699
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373875373875
Occupation General surgeon
Details Fernandez, Thomas Francis (1815-1897). Born in London in 1815, and educated at St George's Hospital and University College. He entered the Medical Department of the Indian Army in 1838, and served until 1863, when he retired with a pension. He settled in practice in Ross, Herefordshire, in 1867, and was at one time Medical Officer of Health for the Ross Urban District and Union. His death occurred after a short illness at his residence, Brookfield, Ross, on May 4th, 1897. Publications: Prize Thesis on "Hysteria". *Observations on Medical Education*, 1857.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001692
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Sinclair, Geoffrey William Gladstone (1929 - 2014)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

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/378979378979
Occupation General surgeon
Details Geoffrey William Gladstone Sinclair was a general surgeon in Melbourne, Victoria at Box Hill Gardens Medical Centre, Cotham Clinic and St George's and Box Hill hospitals. He was born on 10 November 1929 and was educated at Scotch College. He gained his FRCS in 1959 and was also a fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons. He was a passionate teacher. Outside medicine, he enjoyed language, literature, music, cricket, surfing and golf. He was married to Marjorie (née Woodfull). They had five sons, Robert, Ross, Ian, Andrew and James, a daughter, Catriona, and 17 grandchildren. Geoffrey William Gladstone Sinclair died on 19 July 2014, aged 84.
Resource Identifier RCS: E006796
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Hindle, John Frank ( - 1997)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

First Title value, for Searching Foss, Martin Vincent Lush (1938 - 2008)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2008-10-17
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000500-E000599
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372746372746
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon Trauma surgeon
Details Martin Foss was a consultant trauma and orthopaedic surgeon at Luton and Dunstable Hospital. He was born in Bristol on 12 February 1938, the son of George Lush Foss, a general practitioner, and Eileen Isabelle née Buller. His paternal grandfather, Edwin Vincent Foss, was also a general practitioner. Martin was educated at St Michael’s Preparatory School and at Marlborough, from which he entered Jesus College, Cambridge, going on to University College Hospital for his clinical course. After qualifying he became house surgeon to David Matthews and Doreen Nightingale at University College Hospital and then house physician to Lord Amulree at St Pancras Hospital, the UCH geriatric unit. Between 1964 and 1966 he worked for Donal Brooks and Kenneth Stone as orthopaedic and casualty senior house officer at the Barnet General Hospital, followed by a further year as an orthopaedic senior house officer at the North Middlesex Hospital. This was followed by two years as general surgical registrar at the Whittington Hospital, during which time he passed the FRCS of both colleges. He then specialised in orthopaedics and trauma, first as an orthopaedic registrar at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital and then as a senior orthopaedic registrar at University College Hospital. In 1973 he was appointed consultant orthopaedic and trauma surgeon at the Luton and Dunstable Hospital. He retired in 1996, having served as medical director of the Luton and Dunstable NHS Trust from 1991 to 1996. Martin undertook the full range of orthopaedic surgery in a very busy unit on the M1 motorway, but had a special interest in paediatric orthopaedics. His only publication was on bone density, osteoarthritis of the hip and fracture of the upper end of the femur in 1972. At Cambridge he played a full part in college life and won his oar in the successful first VIII. He loved the outdoor life, birdwatching, painting, walking and, after he retired, travelling. He was a lifelong freemason, gaining high office as provincial grand master for Bedfordshire. He married Anthea Noelle Johnson in 1963 (they divorced 1992), with whom he had two daughters, Victoria Charlotte and Caroline Louise. He died on 2 February 2008. Alan Lettin
Resource Identifier RCS: E000563
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Voss, Francis Henry Vivian (1860 - 1940)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2014-01-09
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E004000-E004999/E004800-E004899
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/377041377041
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born on 9 August 1860 at Hackney in London, the sixth son and seventh child of Robert Voss, solicitor, who came of a Welsh family settled for many centuries in Glamorganshire, and Charlotte Phillips Smith, his wife. He was educated at Stafford College, Forest Hill, and at the London Hospital, where he acted as house physician to Hughlings Jackson, FRS, and was afterwards resident medical officer at the Whitechapel Infirmary. He went to Bowen, Queensland to act as a locum tenens for Dr Thurston, leaving London on 22 September 1885 in HMS *Quetta* and anchoring in Moreton Bay on 18 November. A year later he moved to Rockhampton, where he was attached to the Women's Hospital. The Hospital at that time had a maternity ward under the control of the local Benevolent Associa¬tion. He enlisted the ladies' committee, and with their help it became a well-equipped and efficient charity. From 1888 to 1927 he acted as the Government Medical Officer, and in 1900 he built a private hospital known as Hillcrest. He became a Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons when it was founded in 1927, and in 1929 he moved to Sydney, where he died on 15 February 1940. He married Lottie Kerrod White (d 3 November 1926) on 11 January 1888, and was survived by two sons and three daughters. Three of these children entered the medical profession: Paul Ernest Voss, FRACS, of Bolsover Street, Rockhampton, Queensland, Florence Mary Voss, MB Sydney, and Kerrod Bromley Voss, MB, radiologist to Prince Henry Hospital, Sydney. Voss was a general practitioner of a high type, whose chief interest lay in the practice of Listerian surgery. He had wide interests outside his profession, was deeply religious, was well-read, and as chairman of the Girl's Grammar School Trust at Sydney took an important part in schemes for their higher education. He was a past master in freemasonry of the Rockhampton Lodge No 106, and was a past grand deacon of the United Grand Lodge of Queensland.
Resource Identifier RCS: E004858
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Wood, Cyril George Russ (1869 - 1938)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2013-12-18
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E004000-E004999/E004800-E004899
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/376993376993
Occupation Ophthalmic surgeon
Details Born at Bath on 3 August 1869, the only son of Cyril J Wood, journalist, and his wife, *née* Candy. Educated at Bath and at the University of Bristol, his main interests were devoted at first to pathology but, influenced by F Richardson Cross, he soon turned to ophthalmology. He was appointed surgeon to the Southport Infirmary and to the Southport Eye, Ear, and Throat Hospital. In 1900 he was elected surgeon to the Eye, Ear, and Throat Hospital at Shrewsbury, where he did much good work, and made a reputation in Shropshire and Mid-Wales. When the Oxford Ophthalmological Congress was established in 1909 Russ Wood was a founder and an ardent supporter. He became its honorary secretary in 1928 and the master in 1935. He served as president of the Midland Ophthalmological Society and delivered the Middlemore lecture in 1927. He retired from practice at Shrewsbury in 1931, was elected assistant surgeon and pathologist to the Oxford Eye Hospital, and at the same time became lecturer in the Oxford postgraduate course in ophthalmology, and examiner in ophthalmology at the Queen's College, Belfast. In 1898 he married Fanny Mein (d. 1935), daughter of Dr Charles Steele, of Clifton, Bristol, and they had three daughters. He died at Iffley, Oxford, on 26 September 1938. He left £250 to the Shropshire Eye, Ear, and Throat Hospital, Shrewsbury. Russ Wood was a man of many interests, a keen amateur actor, a great walker, and a good historian. Publications: Choroidal sclerosis. *Ophthalmoscope*, 1915, 13, 374. A note on the comparative values of artificial illuminants. *Trans Ophthal Soc UK* 1922, 42, 267.
Resource Identifier RCS: E004810
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Stephens, Horace Elliot Rose (1883 - 1959)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2014-06-25
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E005000-E005999/E005500-E005599
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/377751377751
Occupation Naval surgeon
Details Born on 4 January 1883 the son of the Rev Horace Stephens, Rector of Handley, Cheshire, he was educated at Christ College, Brecon, Manchester University and, for his postgraduate studies, the London Hospital. While at Manchester he played Rugby for the University and also represented Cheshire and Lancashire. He obtained a prize for clinical medicine while a student at Manchester Royal Infirmary, where after qualification he served as house surgeon. For a time he acted as junior demonstrator of anatomy at Manchester University. In 1910 he joined the Royal Navy as a surgeon and in August 1914 was appointed to HMS *Eclipse*, in April 1915 transferring to the battlecruiser *Lion*, Admiral Beatty's flagship at the Battle of Jutland, after which Stephens was commended for his services, becoming staff surgeon in 1916, and in 1921 being appointed to the RN Hospital, Plymouth as operating surgeon. In 1920 he visited the United States at his own expense and, as a result of this visit, he became a personal friend of the Mayo brothers. In 1922 he was promoted Surgeon-Commander and in 1932 Surgeon-Captain. At various times he served on the Atlantic, Mediterranean, China, North America and West Indies stations and at Haslar, Devonport and Chatham Hospitals. After a period of illness in 1935, he became Professor of Naval Hygiene and Director of Medical Studies at the RN medical school at Greenwich. He was promoted Surgeon-Rear-Admiral in 1939 and appointed to the RN Auxiliary Hospital at Kingseat, retiring on 4 January 1943. He was President of the United Services Section of the Royal Society of Medicine in 1933, giving an address on "The Influence of Wars on the Craft of Surgery". He was the author of numerous papers in particular "Surgical Experiences at the Battle of Jutland", and he contributed to Keen's *American Textbook of Surgery* with an article on surgery in fighting ships. He married in 1911 Frances Mary Butt by whom he had a son and a daughter, Mary, who married Surgeon-Rear-Admiral R W Mussen. Stephens retired to Trearddur Bay, Anglesey, where he was a keen golfer, and died on 18 February 1959 survived by his wife and two children.
Resource Identifier RCS: E005568
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Doble, Henry Tregellas (1865 - 1946)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2013-05-01
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E003000-E003999/E003900-E003999
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/376145376145
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born 7 June 1865, the fifth child and second son of Henry Tregellas Noble, chemist, and his wife, *née* Dennis. He was educated at Tavistock and in London, and took his medical training at St Mary's and St Bartholomew's Hospitals, qualifying at the age of thirty-six. He served as clinical assistant at the Hospital for Sick Children, Great Ormond Street, and Clinical assistant in the dermatological department at St Mary's, and was senior house surgeon at the Great Northern Central Hospital, London. He settled in practice at Oldham, Lancashire in partnership with Dr T D C Ross, and was appointed assistant surgeon to the Royal Infirmary there. In 1919 he moved to Yelverton, Devon, and retired in 1925 to Trevaunance, Barton Cross, Torquay. Doble married in 1905. He died at Torquay on 28 December 1946, aged 80, survived by his wife and daughter.
Resource Identifier RCS: E003962
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Ryan, William Burke (1810 - 1874)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2012-11-21
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E003000-E003999/E003100-E003199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/375368375368
Occupation General surgeon
Details The son of Michael Ryan, of Old Town, Queen's County; he studied in Dublin, and carried on for many years a large practice at Sutton Coldfield; he then practised at 40 Norfolk Terrace, Bayswater, and was Surgeon to the South Middlesex Rifle Volunteers. About a month before his death, and whilst in the best of health, he went over to Dublin and "spent the night in an hotel bedroom infested by gases from an adjacent watercloset". He died a fortnight later, probably of typhoid, on June 4th, 1874, at New Ross, Wexford. His photograph is in the College Album. He was buried in the Roman Catholic Cemetery at Kensal Green. He had paid special attention to the subject of infanticide, and gained in 1856 the Fothergillian Medal of the Medical Society of London. He had besides, in 1857, read a paper to the Medical Society "On a Case of Arsenic Poisoning by a Large Dose, where the Symptoms were Unusually Delayed and Suffering Prolonged". Publication:- *Infanticide*, 12mo, London, 1862.
Resource Identifier RCS: E003185
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Bharucha, Darashah Rustanji (1905 - 1994)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

First Title value, for Searching Rhind, James Ronald (1943 - 2005)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-01-13
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/372366372366
Occupation General surgeon
Details Ron Rhind was a general surgeon with an interest in urology based in Hartlepool. He was born in Calcutta on 7 July 1943, where his father, James Albert Rhind, was a general surgeon. His mother was Dorothy Cornelia née Jones. From Sedbergh School Ron went to Leeds to study medicine and did house jobs there after qualifying in 1965. He remained on the surgical rotation, working in Yorkshire hospitals and developing a special interest in urology thanks to the influence of Philip Clarke, R E Williams and Philip Smith, to whom he became senior registrar before going to the Institute of Urology as an RSO. He became a consultant surgeon at Hartlepool General Hospital, where he continued to practice general surgery but concentrated increasingly on urological work. Small, dapper and bustling, Ron was full of energy and self-confidence which was sadly dented in 2001 when, already ill with cancer, he was accused of making errors in the treatment of patients with carcinoma of the bladder and faced with a GMC enquiry. He married Valerie Ross, a nurse, in 1968. They had a son and daughter. He died on 12 March 2005.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000179
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Fisher, Sir John William (1788 - 1876)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2011-12-14
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/373923373923
Occupation General surgeon
Details Son of Peter Fisher, of Perth, by Mary, daughter of James Kennay, of York, was born in London on January 30th, 1788. He was apprenticed to John Andrews and was educated at St George's and Westminster Hospitals. He was appointed Surgeon to the Bow Street patrol in 1821, and was promoted to the post of Surgeon-in-Chief to the Metropolitan Police when the Force was established in 1829. The University of Erlangen conferred upon him the honorary degree of MD in 1841. He was never a Member of Council of the College of Surgeons, as is stated in the *Dictionary of National Biography*. He received the honour of knighthood on September 2nd, 1858, and retired on a pension in 1865. He married: (1) Louisa Catherine, daughter of William Haynes of Kibworth Harcourt, Leicestershire (d.1860); (2) Lilias Stuart, second daughter of Colonel Alexander Mackenzie of Grinnard, Ross-shire. He died at 33 Park Lane, London, on March 22nd, 1876, and was buried in Kensal Green Cemetery. His will was proved on April 22nd, the personalty being sworn under £50,000. Fisher is described as a good practitioner, honourable, hospitable, and steadfast in duty.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001740
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Webster, Donald Robertson (1912 - )

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Sarah Gillam
Publication Date 2014-02-24 2016-04-15
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E005000-E005999/E005000-E005099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/377216377216
Occupation General surgeon
Details Donald Robertson Webster was professor of surgery at McGill University and surgeon-in-chief of the Royal Victoria Hospital, Montreal, Canada. He was born on 7 January 1912, the son of a doctor from Pictou, Nova Scotia, and graduated from Dalhousie University in 1925. After postgraduate studies at McGill, where he gained a PhD in physiology and experimental surgery in 1932, Webster joined the staff of the Royal Victoria Hospital, Montreal. From 1939 to 1945 he served in the Royal Canadian Navy. Following his demobilisation, he returned to Montreal and became director of the McGill department of experimental surgery. He researched into factors which influence gastric secretion and also became an authority on foot immersion or trench foot, caused by prolonged exposure in cold water, as well as frost-bite injury. He later became surgeon-in-chief at the Royal Victoria. He retired to Pictou, Nova Scotia, with his wife. He received an honorary fellowship from the Royal College of Surgeons in 1962. In 1945 he married Jane Kern Ross. They had two children, Janet and Donald, and three grandchildren. His date of death is unknown, but his wife Jane was a widow when she died in 2009.
Resource Identifier RCS: E005033
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching McCredie, John Andrew (1923 - 2003)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

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/381335381335
Occupation General surgeon
Details John Andrew McCredie, known as Jack, was professor of surgery at the University of Western Ontario. He was born on 8 September 1923 in Annahilt, County Down, Northern Ireland. His father, Andrew McCredie, was a draper; his mother was Agnes McCredie née McCandless. He was educated at the Royal Belfast Academical Institution and then studied medicine at Queen’s University, Belfast. He held junior posts at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast. He particularly remembered being influenced by Harold Rodgers in Belfast and by Warren Cole at the University of Illinois, Chicago. He gained his fellowships of the Royal Colleges of Surgeons of England and of Edinburgh in 1951. In 1956, he was awarded the Jacksonian prize. He was later appointed as professor of surgery at the University of Western Ontario. He published papers on cancer, specifically chemotherapy and immunology, and edited *Basic surgery* (New York, Macmillan, London, Baillière Tindall, c.1977). He also volunteered with CARE Medico. In 1951, he married Eithne Josephine Ewing. They had five children – John, Kevin, Eithne, Desmond and Ross – and eight grandchildren (Brynn, Sean, Keira, Sarah, Geraldine, David, Sadie and Willie). John Andrew McCredie died on 9 July 2003. He was 79.
Resource Identifier RCS: E009152
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Selby, Edmond Wallace (1871 - 1943)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2013-10-30
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E004000-E004999/E004500-E004599
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/376765376765
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born at Lewisham, London, SE, on 9 December 1871, the fourth child and second son of Edmond Selby, wine merchant, and his wife, *née* Ross. He was educated at a private school kept by a Mr Ballance at Lewisham, and entered University College, London with an Andrews scholarship in 1886. In 1887 he entered as a medical exhibitioner at University College Hospital, won gold and silver medals and subsequently served as assistant demonstrator of anatomy and demonstrator of physiology. He settled in practice at Doncaster becoming surgeon to the General (now Royal) Infirmary and Dispensary, and eventually consulting surgeon. He lived first at 20 South Parade and from 1905 at 13 Hall Gate. In 1921 on his appointment as a regional medical officer of the Ministry of Health he settled at Crescent House, Hillary Place, Leeds, and in 1925 was living at Ben Rhydding, Yorkshire. In 1928 he moved to Bromley, Kent, and was promoted a divisional medical officer of the Ministry in 1930. He retired in 1935 and subsequently lived at 116 Otley Road, Leeds 6. He had been created OBE in 1920. Selby married twice: (1) in 1892 Edith Mary Vercoe, by whom he had a son and two daughters; and (2) in 1908 his first wife's sister, Lily Vercoe, by whom he had one son. He died at Guildford on 26 July 1943, aged 72.
Resource Identifier RCS: E004582
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Bateman, Arthur Daunt (1913 - 1994)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

First Title value, for Searching Beattie, William Martin (1911 - 2001)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2015-09-15 2015-10-16
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/380281380281
Occupation General surgeon
Details William Beattie was a consultant surgeon in Liverpool. He was born in Sheffield on 1 February 1911. He was the second child of James Martin Beattie, Professor of Bacteriology at the University of Liverpool and Margaret Crow née Kettle. He was educated at Fettes, from which he won an open exhibition to Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge. He returned to Liverpool to study clinical medicine and after qualifying did junior appointments at Liverpool Royal Infirmary and Walton Hospital, Liverpool, where he worked for Sir Robert Kelly and J Cosbie Ross. During the war he served in Palestine, India, Burma and East Africa, reaching the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. On demobilisation he returned to Liverpool as consultant surgeon to the United Liverpool Hospitals, Sefton General Hospital, and Runcorn Hospital. He was a clinical lecturer at the University. He was a stalwart of the Liverpool Medical Institution, serving as general secretary and vice-president. In 1943 he married Margaret Elizabeth née Vyrnwy-Jones, a nurse. They had a son (a dental surgeon) and daughter. He was a keen gardener and cited as his hobbies car maintenance and canal cruising. He reluctantly took full retirement at 70 and, after Margaret died in 1990, he moved to Wiltshire and continued to enjoy his gardening and the company of his four grandchildren. He died on 31 July 2001 and his son-in-law, John E Morgan contributed a moving obituary of him to the *British Medical Journal*.
Resource Identifier RCS: E008098
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Zlotnik, Joanna Marcia Catherine (1943 - 2014)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

First Title value, for Searching Bancroft-Livingston, George Henry (1920 - 2007)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2007-11-08
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000400-E000499
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372600372600
Occupation Obstetrician and gynaecologist
Details George Bancroft-Livingston was a consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist at the Lister Hospital, Stevenage. He was born in Ross, California, on 13 October 1920, one of two children of Henry Livingston, a diplomat, and Barbara née Bancroft. He was educated at Stonyhurst College, Lancashire, from the age of eight, the second of three generations to attend the school. He went on to study medicine at Middlesex Hospital, qualifying in 1944. From 1946 to 1949 he served as a squadron leader in the RAF, based in Wales. Formerly a senior registrar and research assistant at the Middlesex Hospital, he moved to Belfast in 1953 and became the Barnett tutor in obstetrics and gynaecology in 1954, and subsequently lecturer in midwifery and gynaecology at Queens University, Belfast. He moved to England in 1958 to take up the post of consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist to the North Herts Hospital, Hitchin, and the Luton and Dunstable Hospital, before moving to the Lister Hospital in Stevenage. He was awarded his FRCOG in 1960, and went on to examine for the college, especially in Northern Ireland and Basra, Iraq. George married Stella Pauline Deacon in 1950. They had a son, Mark, who became a general practitioner, and four daughters. George upheld his Catholic faith during his professional life, steadfastly refusing to undertake any abortion work as a gynaecologist. He retired in 1985 and became a Brother of the Order of St John in 1996, receiving his ten-year medal of service posthumously at his funeral. He died suddenly on 16 April 2007 after a short illness.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000416
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Ferguson, Robert James (1864 - 1931)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2013-06-05
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E004000-E004999/E004000-E004099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/376226376226
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born 15 October 1864, the son of Robert Ferguson, grocer and baker, of Ballymena, Co Antrim. He was educated at the Ballymena Intermediate School and matriculated at Queen's College, Belfast, in 1881. He graduated in the Royal University of Ireland in 1867, and then practised for a time in partnership with Cuthbert Blundell Moss-Blundell at 245 South Norwood Hill, London. He acted as clinical assistant at the Samaritan Free Hospital and as gynaecological registrar at the Kensington Hospital. Having been elected surgeon to the Kensington and Fulham General Hospital, he sought to become a consulting surgeon and lived at various addresses in Queen Anne Street and Harley Street. In 1911 he left London and settled at Canterbury, where he resumed general practice as partner of F R Cassidi, MD, TCD, and was appointed surgeon to the Kent and Canterbury Hospital in 1912, a post he held until 1925 when he was made consulting surgeon. He married Gertrude Kate Williams on 5 August 1896, and had one son, James Arthur Ross Ferguson, who was killed in action at Ypres, aged 17, a lieutenant in the Royal Sussex Regiment. Ferguson died suddenly at his house, 25 New Dover Road, Canterbury, on 2 March 1931, and was buried at St Martin's, Canterbury. He is described as a dour Ulsterman, who had quarrelled with his father on account of a stepmother. He had cut himself off from his family so completely that neither his wife nor his partner knew anything about his early history.
Resource Identifier RCS: E004043
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Baynes, Trevor Lewys Stanhope (1911 - 1988)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Sir Barry Jackson
Publication Date 2015-04-24 2018-05-24
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/379329379329
Occupation Obstetrician and gynaecologist
Details Trevor Lewys Stanhope Baynes was born on 19 February 1911 in Brockley, Kent, the only son of an insurance official, Evan Lewys Baynes and his wife Ethel. He attended Lewisham Park Preparatory School and Dulwich College, before becoming a medical student at St Bartholomew's Hospital, London, winning the Bentley Prize in 1937. His junior hospital jobs were at St Bartholomew's Hospital, where he was house surgeon to the surgical unit during which time he was greatly influenced by Sir James Paterson Ross. He was demonstrator in pathology from 1937 to 1939. During the war he served as Surgeon Lieutenant-Commander in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, taking part in the Salerno and Normandy landings. After the war he returned to St Bartholomew's as chief assistant in obstetrics and gynaecology before being appointed consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist to St Albans Hospital, the Bolingbroke Hospital, the Royal Waterloo Hospital and St Peter's Hospital, Chertsey. During his early consultant years he worked enormously long hours with very little junior staff support. Nevertheless, he found time to write the *Handbook of gynaecology* published in 1951 and to pursue an active interest in lawn tennis. In later years he became Chairman of the Surrey Branch of the Family Planning Association and Chairman of the Surrey Branch of the British Medical Association. He was a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Barbers. He died on 26 August after a long and distressing illness survived by his wife, Jean, and two daughters, Shelagh and Moira.
Resource Identifier RCS: E007146
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Bailey, Alison George Selborne (1915 - 1997)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

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/380642380642
Occupation General practitioner Medical Officer
Details Alison George Selborne Bailey, known as 'Joe', was larger than life. He was born on 19 July 1915, the son of George Frederick Selborne Bailey, a general practitioner and Mabel Yardley Guard, a midwife. He was educated at Radley, and Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, where he spent much of his time rowing. He was captain of boats at both institutions. He went to St Bartholomew's for his clinical training, where he was considerably influenced by James Paterson Ross, Harold Wilson, Geoffrey Keynes and later by Harold Gillies and Archibald McIndoe. It was while he was a student at Bart's that he developed Crohn's disease, and was successfully operated on by Michael Harmer - the story of which was amusingly recounted in the *Lancet* in 1986. He followed his father into general practice. He occasionally made his rounds on horseback, and became famous for his skill in manipulation. He continued to coach crews from Radley, Cambridge and Oxford. He was honorary medical officer to the Royal Windsor Racecourse for more than 20 years, as well as several local hunts. His Rolls was always parked under the same oak tree at Henley. He married Christine Marguerite Delfosse, a trainee architect, in 1947. They had four children, Alison, Margaret, George and William. A gourmet, wit, enthusiast and good companion, he was co-opted to the Council in 1986 and made FRCS by election in 1988. He died on 8 November 1997.
Resource Identifier RCS: E008459
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Iregbulem, Lawrence Mmadu (1938 - 2018)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Tina Craig
Publication Date 2018-06-19 2021-06-16
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/381870381870
Occupation Plastic and reconstructive surgeon
Details Lawrence Iregbulem was a plastic and reconstructive surgeon at Cambridge Private Hospital. Born in Ifakala, Nigeria on 9 November 1938, he was the eldest child of Philip Iregbulem, a businessman, and his wife, Elizabeth. He was educated at St Patrick’s College, Calabar, Nigeria which he attended as a boarder and was a senior prefect in his final year. He studied medicine in London and trained at St Bartholomew’s Hospital (Barts), graduating MB, BS in 1962. After working as a dresser to Sir James Patterson Ross at Barts, he did house jobs at the Royal Marsden Hospital where he was mentored by Wilfred Peter Greening. Moving to the Royal Postgraduate Medical School and the Hammersmith Hospital, he became registrar in plastic and reconstructive surgery to James Calnan. In 1971 he passed the fellowship of the college. He was appointed consultant plastic surgeon to the Middlesborough Hospital, the South Tees Hospital, the Hartlepool General Hospital and the South Tees Acute Hospitals NHS Trust. Returning to Nigeria, he worked as a reconstructive surgeon at the National Orthopaedic Hospital in Enugu. He was a research fellow of the plastic unit of the Hammersmith Hospital and of the Royal Postgraduate Medical School. A member of the New York Academy of Sciences and the European Academy of Cosmetic Surgery, he was also an associate professor of the British Association of Plastic Surgeons and past president of the Nigerian Society for Burn Injuries. He died on 10 May 2018, aged 79 and was buried in Borehamwood, Hertfordshire.
Resource Identifier RCS: E009466
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Hirsh, Anthony Victor (1945 - 2018)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Tina Craig
Publication Date 2018-11-20 2021-11-11
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E009000-E009999/E009500-E009599
Occupation General surgeon
Details Anthony Victor Hirsh was born in London on 16 August 1945. He was the eldest child of Bernard, a designer and tailor, and his wife, whose maiden name was Biber. After early education at Hamlet Court Road Primary School in Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex, he attended Westcliff High School where he was a member of the *30* club. He studied medicine at Westminster Medical School (with an entrance scholarship in 1965 and a Nuffield travelling scholarship in 1967) and graduated MB, BS from King’s College London in 1968. At the Westminster Hospital he was mentored by Harold Ellis, to whom he was house surgeon in 1968, and the following year he was a resident obstetric assistant. He acknowledged the influence of several obstetric surgeons at the Westminster: Sir Arthur Bell, Arthur Briant Evan and Roger de Vere. In 1970 he moved to Guy’s as a lecturer in anatomy and worked with the cardiac surgeon Donald Ross. Other house jobs followed at King’s, St Peter’s Hospital, and the Institute of Urology in London as he began to specialise in andrology. He passed the fellowship of the college in 1973 and became a consultant general surgeon at Whipps Cross Hospital. Eventually he became a consultant in the andrology clinic at the Wanstead Hospital and also ran a private practice in Wimpole Street. He was a member of the BMA, the RSM and the British Andrology Society. In 1972 he married Miss Richman and they had a daughter, Nicole Joanne. Outside medicine he enjoyed riding and electronics. He died on 30 March 2018 aged 72.
Resource Identifier RCS: E009536
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Walker, Alan John (1918 - 2003)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Tina Craig
Publication Date 2016-07-29 2019-08-06
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/381415381415
Occupation General surgeon
Details Alan John Walker was a consultant surgeon in Vernon, British Columbia, Canada. Born in Putney, London on 13 June 1918 he was the son of Arthur George Walker, a dairyman, and his wife Meliora Amelia née Segar, who was a florist. The second of their three children, he was the only son. Initially educated at Wington School in Putney, he then attended Epsom College as an entrance scholar and Ann Hood exhibitioner. He studied at London University and at St Bartholomew’s Hospital with an Epsom entrance scholarship. At Barts, as a registrar in the surgical professorial unit, he was mentored by Sir James Patterson Ross and Clifford Naunton Morgan. He then moved to Leeds General Infirmary as a senior registrar and worked with George Armitage. During the second world war he served in the RAMC from September 1941 to March 1946 and passed the College fellowship that year. In 1951 he took the post of chief of surgery at the Drumheller General Hospital in Alberta, Canada and remained there throughout his career. He was director of the Alberta Medical Association from 1967, chairman of the AMA Committee on Cancer from 1971, member of the General Council of the Canadian Medical Association from 1972 and sat on the Drumheller School Board from 1958 to 1968. He enjoyed attending the rotary and Masonic events and was a past president of the Alberta Music Festival Association. He married Lorna Garven Jack in 1941, she came from a medical family as her father, two brothers and an uncle were all physicians. He died on 10 January 2003 aged 84.
Resource Identifier RCS: E009232
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Hayman, Frank Keith (1893 - 1953)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2014-02-26
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E005000-E005999/E005000-E005099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/377222377222
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born at Bristol on 28 January 1893 the only child of Frank Hayman, dentist, and Florence Emily Tucker his wife, his grandfather having also been a dentist at Bristol, he was educated at Clifton College and Bristol University, qualified through London University in 1916, and served in the RAMC till the end of the war in 1919. He settled at Great Yarmouth in 1921 in general practice, his partners being R K Ross and R Stuart, both Members of the College. He was appointed assistant surgeon (1925) and surgeon (1927) to the Great Yarmouth and Gorleston General Hospital, and served as secretary of the East Norfolk division of the British Medical Association 1928-30. The war years 1939-45 were a period of great strain for him, with many casualties by land and sea; his elder son, a medical student, was killed in action in the RAF in 1942. Hayman suffered a stroke in 1945 and retired from his practice; he was elected consulting surgeon to the Hospital at Great Yarmouth. After working for the Ministry of Pensions, he settled in a country practice at Sharnbrook, Bedfordshire in 1946, where he was able to carry on useful work in a number of villages for seven years. He married in 1921 Mary Coslet Edwards, who survived him with one of their two sons and their daughter, a State Registered Nurse. He died at his home, Royden House, Odell Road, Sharnbrook, on 9 January 1953, a fortnight before his sixtieth birthday. Hayman was an inventive craftsman, much addicted to gadgets of his own devising. He built himself a motor-caravan, in which his family enjoyed many holidays. He was a good swimmer and diver, and played the piano well.
Resource Identifier RCS: E005039
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Horton, John Edwin (1931 - 2012)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Sarah Gillam
Publication Date 2014-12-24 2017-04-18
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/378787378787
Occupation General surgeon Military surgeon
Details John Edwin Horton was a surgeon in Auckland, New Zealand. He was born in London on 1 June 1931, the son of Edwin Horton, a member of the family which co-owned the *New Zealand Herald*, and Celeste Helene Horton née Bouillon. At the outbreak of the Second World War, the family returned to New Zealand. Horton was a boarder at St Peter's School in Cambridge in the Waikato region of the North Island, and then at King's College, Auckland. In 1950 he began studying medicine at Otago University, qualifying in 1955. He was a house surgeon in Auckland for two years and then travelled to the UK for postgraduate studies. He gained his fellowship of both the Royal Colleges of Surgeons of England and Edinburgh. In 1964 he returned to New Zealand and was appointed as a surgical tutor specialist at Green Lane Hospital, a full-time surgical position. He also taught at the Auckland sub-faculty of the University of Otago. In 1968 Horton joined the New Zealand Armed Services' medical team in Vietnam at the Bong Son Hospital, Binh Dinh province, where he treated civilians as well as military casualties. After completing his tour of duty, he returned to Auckland and was appointed as a part-time member of staff at Green Lane Hospital. After retiring from Green Lane, he continued his private practice at St Mark's Clinic in Remuera. He finally retired in the early 1990s. He was member of the Northern Club and the Auckland Golf Club. He was also chairman of the board of governors of his old school, St Peter's. He was married twice. His first wife was Margaret née Ross. They had three children. In 1976, he married Judith née Turner. They had two children. John Edwin Horton died on 3 April 2012, aged 80.
Resource Identifier RCS: E006604
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Macrae, Donald Edward (1916 - 1977)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2015-02-03
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/378901378901
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon
Details Donald Macrae was born on 8 February 1916 and educated at Oundle School. After medical training at St Bartholomew's Hospital he graduated in 1938 and served as house surgeon to Professor Paterson Ross. He then joined the staff of the Lord Mayor Treloar Hospital, Alton, as a resident medical officer. In 1939 he transferred to the Morland Clinics, then the private hospital of Sir Henry Gauvin. During the second world war Sir Henry accepted the care of an entire Belgian orthopaedic hospital for children at the Morland Clinics for which Macrae became almost entirely responsible. Following Sir Henry's death he became superintendent of the renamed Sir Henry Gauvain Hospital which took care of some very advanced surgical tuberculosis cases from the Channel Islands and elsewhere. Following the war, Macrae completed his Final FRCS in 1951. In 1954 his hospital was absorbed into the NHS and he was appointed orthopaedic consultant to the Southampton Group of Hospitals and the Lord Mayor Treloar Orthopaedic Hospital. Although he continued to maintain his interest in the regional bone and joint tuberculosis unit, in which he had sole charge, he also developed a practice in the surgery of trauma. Jock Macrae was a most stimulating person and a loyal friend and colleague. A man of integrity and industry, he never forgot a patient and never abandoned a difficult problem. He was a scrupulous surgeon, a painstaking teacher and greatly loved by those he trained. In his early years he had developed a delightful lakeside garden and devoted many of his winter evenings to an impressive stamp collection. He married a Bart's sister and was survived by his wife, two daughters and a son when he died on 19 July 1977, aged 61 years.
Resource Identifier RCS: E006718
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Orr, Kevin Bridson (1927- 2019)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Tina Craig
Publication Date 2019-12-18
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E009000-E009999/E009600-E009699
Occupation General surgeon
Details Kevin Bridson Orr was born in Balmain, Sydney on 17 July 1927, the son of Clarence Montague Orr and his wife Vera Ruth née Bridson. He studied medicine at Sydney University and qualified in 1950. From 1950 to 1951 he was resident medical officer at the Grafton Base Hospital in Grafton, New South Wales before travelling to the UK. At the Red Hill County Hospital in Surrey he worked as a surgical registrar from 1954 to 1956 when he took up a similar post at the Essex County Hospital in Colchester, staying there until 1958. He passed the fellowship of the college in 1955. Returning to Australia, he joined the staff of the St George Hospital, Kogarah, Sydney in 1963 and remained there as a consultant general surgeon until he retired in 2004. He also undertook various departmental and committee roles within the hospital and became a senior lecturer in surgery both at the St George and the University of New South Wales from 1999 to 2005 when he was made emeritus senior lecturer. He was a fellow of the Royal Australasian College Surgeons and a member of the Australian Medical Association. Among a wide variety of interests he enjoyed bushwalking, golf, photography, listening to music and the study of theological science. On 16 December 1950 he married Shirley Hope née Frost and they had five children; Sandra Carol, Karen Elizabeth, Diane Margaret, Stuart Kelvin Ross and Iain Phillip Angus. Their youngest son, Iain, was born with Down’s syndrome and, against accepted medical advice at the time, his parents decided to keep him living at home with them. Eventually, in spite of his disability, he became his father’s carer. Kevin died on 9th October 2019 aged 92, survived by his children, 15 grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren.
Resource Identifier RCS: E009695
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Watkins, Wolfe Kildare Milton Colston (1925 - 2000)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2015-12-08
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E008000-E008999/E008900-E008999
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/381166381166
Occupation General practitioner General surgeon
Details 'Dare' Watkins was born in Bristol on 29 December 1925. His father, Henry Herbert Watkins, and mother, Brenda Florence née Taylor-Milton, were both dentists. He was educated at King William College, Isle of Man, where he was an enthusiastic sportsman. Later, he went to Liverpool University Medical School, where he qualified in the minimum time with a distinction in pharmacology. He did house jobs at the Royal Southern Hospital under Cosbie Ross and Sefton General Hospital in Liverpool, and for six months in the neurosurgical unit at Frenchay, Bristol. He then did a four year commission in the Royal Australian Navy, which started with a training course at Portsmouth, where he became a keen sailor. Once he arrived in Australia he chose to specialise in tropical medicine and was posted to HMAS *Tarangau* and found himself responsible for the health of Japanese prisoners of war on Manus Island. He returned to England as a demonstrator of anatomy in Liverpool, and to sit the FRCS. From 1954 to 1955 he worked as a surgical registrar at Broadgreen. He returned to Australia and set up in private general practice in Mildura. He was a Rolls-Royce enthusiast, and once discovered a 1912 Silver Ghost abandoned in the outback, which he retrieved and rebuilt. In 1952, he married Janet ('Cat') Margaret Stanley née Wild. They had two sons, Andrew Mark Colston and Simon Mark Colston, and two daughters, Fiona Mary Stanley and Sophia Elizabeth Stanley. Their elder son, Andrew, became director of paediatrics at the Mercy Hospital. In 1996 Dare was fitted with a pacemaker and was later found to have a carcinoma of the lung from which he died on 19 August 2000.
Resource Identifier RCS: E008983
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Elizabeth Alexandra Mary, Queen Elizabeth II (1926 - 2022)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2022-09-16
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/386009386009
Occupation Member of the UK Royal Family
Details Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II was an honorary fellow and visitor of the Royal College of Surgeons of England and, during her long reign, attended the College on several occasions. On 5 December 1951, as Her Royal Highness Princess Elizabeth, she visited the College to receive her honorary fellowship and sign the roll of honorary fellows. She was greeted by the then president Sir Cecil Wakeley and the vice presidents Philip Henry Mitchiner and Sir James Paterson Ross. On 5 May 1953, just a month before her coronation, she visited Lincoln’s Inn Fields to lay the memorial stone of the College buildings, which were to be renovated and extended following bomb damage during the Second World War. In September 1957 Her Majesty the Queen gave her royal assent to a new charter of the College. A year later, an announcement was made by Buckingham Palace to the effect that Her Majesty would be described as visitor to the Royal College of Surgeons of England; the title is one of the few titles automatically assumed by the new sovereign on the accession to the throne. In November 1962, Her Majesty the Queen and His Royal Highness Prince Philip visited the College to formally open the completed post-war buildings. On 21 November 1989 Her Majesty the Queen and His Royal Highness Prince Philip made their final visit to the College. They were greeted by the then president Terence English and vice presidents Phyllis George and David Evans, toured the Hunterian Museum and College Library and signed the visitors’ book.
Resource Identifier RCS: E010155
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Row, Allan Warren Linford (1894 - 1978)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

First Title value, for Searching Coulthurst, Jessie Blossom (1898 - 1985)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2015-05-08
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E007000-E007999/E007200-E007299
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/379412379412
Occupation Benefactor
Details Jessie Blossom Coulthurst (née Henderson) was born in 1898 and married John William Coulthurst MA, JP, the great-grandson of one of the founders of the internationally known firm of bankers, Messrs Coutts and Co. Throughout her life she lived in the Skipton area of Yorkshire where she was a local Justice of the Peace and did much work with Women's Voluntary Services during and after the war. She was awarded the OBE in 1967, was a member of the British Horse Society and rode to hounds with the Craven Harriers. In 1957 she made a generous donation to the College which was used to provide an additional reading room in the Library, now known as the Coulthurst Room, as well as providing for the upkeep of the room, the provision of books and the publication of the *Lives of the Fellows*. On 10 October 1957 she was welcomed into the Library by Sir Archibald McIndoe who formally introduced her to Sir James Paterson Ross, the President, who handed her a presentation key and invited her to unlock the doors of the new room. Mrs Coulthurst then named the room in memory of her late husband, Mr J W Coulthurst, whose picture was placed inside the entrance. During the ensuing years further generous gifts were received including the building of the Rare Book Room in 1963 to accommodate the Library's collection of historical books. On 9 May the same year she was made a member of the Court of Patrons. Eighteen years later her continuing beneficence was recognised by awarding her an Honorary Fellowship of the College. Sir Alan Parks who presented her with the honorary diploma expressed the thanks of the College for her loyalty and help. Mrs Coulthurst died on 13 March 1985, aged 86.
Resource Identifier RCS: E007229
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Mangat, Teja Singh (1930 - 2004)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-12-19
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000300-E000399
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372497372497
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon
Details Teja Mangat was a consultant orthopaedic surgeon at Dudley and Stourbridge Hospital and retired from clinical practice in 1995, after which he continued medico-legal work. Born on 7 May 1930 in Nairobi, Kenya, he was the fifth son of Waryam Singh Mangat, a pioneer who went to Kenya in 1908 and practised as an accountant, and Bachimt Kaur. His early education was at the Government Indian Primary School from 1935 to 1941, and the Government Indian High School from 1942 to 1946 in Nairobi. Going to the UK, he spent a further year at Woolwich Polytechnic before entering University College London for his pre-clinical course. His clinical education followed at University College Hospital Medical School. Following house appointments at the City Hospital, Nottingham, his interest in orthopaedics was kindled when working as senior house surgeon to Ross-Smith at Boscombe Hospital, Bournemouth, in 1956. Before taking his primary FRCS he spent time as a demonstrator of anatomy at his alma mater during 1957, passing the final FRCS in 1960. After this he returned to Africa and became surgical registrar at the Aga Khan Hospital in Nairobi. On returning to England, he became a senior registrar at the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital, Birmingham, and Birmingham Accident Centre, where he gained much experience under the supervision of F G Allen and M H M Harrison. He enjoyed the personal injury side of medico-legal work, in addition to wider orthopaedic interests, being an active member of the Birmingham Medico-Legal Society and of the British Orthopaedic Association. Teja Mangat was extremely athletic, gaining colours at medical school in tennis, squash, hockey and athletics. He continued his sporting activities in Stourbridge and became a founder member of the local squash club, playing for the Worcestershire county side. He married Sharon Ahhwalia, daughter of G B Singh of Eldoret, Kenya, in 1961. They had two daughters, Tejina and Sharleen. Teja Mangat died on 29 July 2004.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000310
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Marlow, Frederick William (1877 - 1936)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2013-10-30
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E004000-E004999/E004500-E004599
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/376734376734
Occupation Obstetric and gynaecological surgeon Obstetrician and gynaecologist
Details Born at Cartwright, Durham County, Ontario, Canada, on 25 May 1877, the son of Nelson Marlow and Ann Parr, his wife. He was educated at Port Perry and took honours at Trinity Medical College, Toronto, in 1900. He served for a year as house surgeon at St Michael's Hospital, and then proceeded to London, where he studied at University College, Middlesex, and King's College Hospitals. Returning to Toronto, he was appointed assistant surgeon at St Michael's Hospital in 1904, became surgical registrar at the Toronto General Hospital and was attached to the gynaecological service, then under Professor J F W Ross, until 1911. Two years later (1913) he was appointed associate professor of gynaecology in the University of Toronto, and he became the senior attending gynaecologist at the Toronto General Hospital. He was also on the staff of the Wellesley Hospital and of St John's Hospital. During 1903-06 he was demonstrator of anatomy in the University of Toronto. In 1913 he became a founding Fellow of the American College of Surgeons; in 1919 he was president of the Ontario Medical Association, and in 1928 he was elected president of the Toronto Academy of Medicine. Marlow joined the Canadian Army Medical Corps as a private when it was organized in 1900 and rose to the rank of lieutenant-colonel. During the war he was ADMS for military district No 2, and was Inspecting Officer of the CAMC throughout Canada. He married in 1903 Florence Elizabeth Walton of Thorold. She survived him but without children, as their daughter had died in 1916. During the last two years of his life Marlow busied himself with a farm. He died suddenly on 22 August 1936 and was buried, after a largely-attended funeral service, at St Paul's Church, Toronto. He is described as a man of commanding presence, keen, forceful, an indefatigable worker, a ready speaker, and of pleasing personality.
Resource Identifier RCS: E004551
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Graham, Samuel Lewis (1881 - 1968)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2014-08-04
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E005000-E005999/E005700-E005799
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/377935377935
Occupation General surgeon Obstetrician and gynaecologist
Details Graham was born on 5 June 1881, won an Andrewes Entrance Scholarship to University College Hospital, and qualified with the Conjoint Diploma in 1905. After taking his university degrees in 1907, he specialised in obstetrics and gynaecology, and held resident posts at Soho Hospital for Women and Westminster Hospital. He took his Master's degree and Fellowship in 1912. He had settled at Birmingham in 1910 as demonstrator of anatomy in the Medical School, and in 1912 joined the staff of the Maternity Hospital and also the Hospital for Women in 1913. He was appointed honorary obstetric officer to the Queen's Hospital in 1921, and lecturer in obstetrics and gynaecology at the University in 1926. He was also on the staff at St Chad's Hospital and the West Bromwich Hospital. Throughout his professional life he carried on a successful private practice. Graham retired at the early age of fifty-four, and went to live in the West Highlands of Scotland. During the second world war he and his wife went to live at the Royal Infirmary, Inverness, where he turned to general surgery and worked hard in helping surgical colleagues throughout the North of Scotland. After the war the Grahams returned to Dornie, near Kyle of Lochalsh in Ross-shire, where they entertained most hospitably. Graham was very proud of his Rolls-Royce 'Silver Ghost', bought at the end of the first world war, with an open body he had himself designed. It was a familiar sight while he lived in Birmingham, and he drove it for forty-eight years, till his death. Graham and Mrs Graham were keen mountain climbers and members of the Midland Association of Mountaineers; they were expert photographers and after showed their fine slides when lecturing about their climbing experiences. Graham died suddenly on 23 April 1968 while on a visit to friends at Oban, aged 86; his wife survived him. They had been married sixty years, since February 1908.
Resource Identifier RCS: E005752
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Hay, Bruce Macffarlane (1913 - 1985)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

First Title value, for Searching Cairns, John Edward (1925 - 1986)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2015-04-27
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/379352379352
Occupation Ophthalmic surgeon
Details John Edward Cairns was born on 15 August 1925 the son of T D Cairns, a Northumberland shepherd. After early education in the single room school in his local village he won a scholarship to King Edward VII Grammar School in Morpeth and later went to King's College, University of Durham to read classics as he intended to become a schoolmaster. In 1943 he was called up for military service and was commissioned in the Indian Army as Lieutenant. On demobilisation in 1947 he decided to make a career in medicine and entered St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical School. He qualified in 1953 and served as house surgeon to Sir James Paterson Ross and house physician in the professorial unit before being appointed house surgeon to the ophthalmic department under Henry Stallard. At this stage he decided to embark on a career in ophthalmology and after passing the primary Fellowship in 1957 was appointed to the junior staff at Moorfields. He passed the FRCS in 1963 and was appointed consultant ophthalmic surgeon at Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge, in the following year. In addition to a large clinical workload he developed an interest in the treatment of glaucoma and perfected the operation of trabeculectomy as well as modification of iridectomy and latterly internal trabecular surgery. This work was published in a two volume textbook on the treatment of glaucoma. He served as Vice-President of the Ophthalmological Society of the United Kingdom and as a member of the board of governors of the International Association of Ophthalmic Surgeons. He was characteristically a perfectionist, not only in his work but also in his hobby of gardening, winning the Challenge Cup at his local village show on many occasions. Sadly his active professional life was cut short by the onset of leukaemia and he died on 22 January 1986. He is survived by his wife Denise and two sons, Hugh and Neil. A memorial service was held on 14 February 1986 in the Chapel at Addenbrooke's Hospital.
Resource Identifier RCS: E007169
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Routledge, Roy Trevor (1918 - 1995)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

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/380505380505
Occupation Plastic surgeon Plastic and reconstructive surgeon
Details Roy Routledge was born in Bexhill-on-Sea on 10 May 1918, the son of Robin Coghill Horner Routledge, an engineer, and Gwyneth May, née Davies. He was educated at Bexhill-on-Sea Grammar School and St Bartholomew's Hospital, where he represented his medical school as a flyweight boxer. He qualified in 1942 and in the same year married Patsy Bates, the sister of a school friend, so beginning a lasting and happy marriage spanning more than fifty years. After leaving Bart's he served in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve for five years on naval escort duties in the Atlantic and Far East. After the war he spent two years in general practice, but his ambitions always lay with surgery. He obtained his first experience of surgery with Rainsford Mowlem at Hill End Hospital, St Alban's, and of burns work at Birmingham Accident Hospital in the MRC Research Unit. His training included the posts of registrar at Great Ormond Street Hospital and surgical registrar at Folkestone. He became a Fellow of the College in 1950 and was appointed senior registrar in plastic surgery at Frenchay Hospital in 1952. He developed an interest in cancer of the head and neck while he was working at Frenchay and was later to broaden his experience in this field by taking up a WHO Fellowship in Copenhagen in 1958, working with Siems Siemssen. In 1961 he was appointed consultant and continued to develop his interests, teaming up with Jack Ross, his colleague in oral surgery. In 1980 he was elected President of the British Association of Plastic Surgeons. In 1981 he was awarded the third Stein Lectureship of the Danish Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery. For relaxation Routledge grew orchids, painted, read and spent time on his canal boat. He died on 26 May 1995 survived by his wife, a son, Kit, who is an architect, a daughter, Gabrielle, who is a secretary, and four grandchildren, Tom, Lucy, Hannah and Joshua.
Resource Identifier RCS: E008322
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Wapnick, Simon (1937 - 2003)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-10-26
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/372328372328
Occupation Anatomist
Details Simon Wapnick was an anatomist based in New York. He was born on 25 October 1937 in Pretoria, South Africa, the son of Percy Jacob Wapnick and Fanny née Levitt. He was educated at Pretoria Boys’ High School and then went on to the University of Pretoria Medical School. He held house appointments at Pretoria General Hospital and Harari Hospital, in the then Rhodesia. In 1964 he went to London, where he was a locum registrar at St Stephens and King George’s Hospitals, London, and followed the basic science course at the College and the Fellowship course in surgery at St Thomas’s. In 1965 he was a senior house officer at Great Ormond Street. From 1966 to 1969 he worked as a registrar and clinical tutor at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School in Hammersmith. In 1969 he returned to Africa, as a lecturer and senior lecturer at the department of surgery at the Godfrey Huggins School of Medicine, Rhodesia. From 1972 he was a specialist surgeon at the department of surgery, Ichilov Hospital, Tel Aviv, Israel. He then emigrated to the US, where he was a surgeon at Brooklyn Veterans Administration Hospital in New York. He subsequently taught gross anatomy at Ross University Medical School in the Dominican Republic and at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. At the time of his death, Simon was an assistant professor in the department of cell biology and anatomy at New York Medical College. He taught gross anatomy to first year medical students and facilitated a postgraduate gross anatomy course for various residency programmes. He wrote papers on a range of topics, including skeletal abnormalities in Crohn’s disease, diverticular disease, hiatus hernia, and carcinoma of the oesophagus and stomach. He was actively interested in various Jewish organisations in Israel and in Africa. He married Isobelle née Gelfand, the daughter of Michael Gelfand, the author of books on tropical medicine and on the Shona people, in 1962. They had two daughters (Janette and Laura) and a son (Jonathan), and three grandchildren (Chloe, Jordan and Michael Joshua). A keen marathon runner, Simon Wapnick died on 26 May 2003 of an apparent heart attack, while out jogging in Central Park.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000141
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Rawsthorne, George Brian (1937 - 2008)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by John Blandy
Publication Date 2011-06-09
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001200-E001299
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373426373426
Occupation General surgeon
Details George Brian Rawsthorne was a consultant surgeon at Leighton Hospital, Crewe. He was born on 5 May 1937 in Liverpool, the second of the four children of Joseph Lewis Rawsthorne, a master builder, and Caroline Dorothy Ball, a physiotherapist. He was educated at Huyton Hill Preparatory School, Windermere, and Wrekin College, Shropshire, where he was captain of swimming. It was while he was doing his National Service in the RAMC as a corporal at Netley Hospital that he observed the medical staff and decided he too could do medicine. On demobilisation he studied at Birkenhead Technical College to get the necessary A levels and then applied to every medical school in the country in alphabetical order: Aberdeen was the first to accept him. There he was president of both the physiology and rowing clubs. He did his house jobs at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary and Woodend Hospital, Aberdeen, was a demonstrator of anatomy, and then became a senior house officer for two years. He held registrar appointments in Liverpool, finishing with a position on the professorial unit. He was seconded as a locum consultant to Leighton Hospital, Crewe, in 1973, succeeding to the substantive post at the end of the year. At Crewe he was a postgraduate clinical tutor, he set up a medical audit unit (together with his anaesthetic colleague) and was chairman of the district medical advisory committee. In 1988 he was the prime mover in establishing a private hospital in the grounds of Leighton Hospital. In 1995 he became the lead consultant of cancer services and, two years later, lead breast surgeon. He retired in 2002. He played tennis until worsening asthma meant be could no longer continue. He was a keen fly fisherman and photographer. He built his own Ford special and was a keen watercolourist. In 1966 he married Anne Margaret Mackenzie, from Tain Easter Ross. Both Anne's parents were GPs and she became a clinical assistant in psychiatry at Leighton Hospital. They had two daughters, Nicola, a teacher, and Karen, a solicitor who defended cases of medical negligence. Rawsthorne died from carcinoma of the oesophagus on 10 June 2008.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001243
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Robertson, Douglas James (1919 - 2005)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-12-19
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000300-E000399
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372504372504
Occupation General surgeon
Details Douglas Robertson was a consultant general surgeon at the Royal Hospital, Sheffield. He was born in London in 1919 of Scottish parents. His father, Falconer Robertson, was a banker, and his mother, Jane Mary Duff, was a teacher. Douglas was educated at the Stationers’ Company School. He entered St Bartholomew’s Hospital at the age of 17 in 1936, being interviewed by Sir William Girling Ball. He passed the Primary at the age of 20 and qualified in 1942, winning the gold medal in obstetrics and the Brackenbury prize in surgery. He was invited by Sir James Patterson Ross to be his house surgeon on the professorial unit, but Douglas had already joined the Royal Navy and soon found himself as a surgeon lieutenant on Arctic convoys. Later he was posted to Ceylon with the Fleet Air Arm. He returned to Bart’s in 1946 and at once became interested in the new specialty of vascular surgery. He was appointed second assistant to Sir Edward Tuckwell in 1947 and chief assistant to the surgical unit under Ross in 1950. Having won a travelling fellowship, he took the opportunity to visit the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Eric Hüsfeldt in Copenhagen and Sir James Learmonth in Edinburgh. He was a Hunterian Professor at the College in 1954. He was finally appointed consultant surgeon to the Royal Hospital, Sheffield in 1955. At the Royal Hospital he continued to practise a wide range of general surgery and to build up a large practice. He was secretary and later president of the Moynihan Club, and was a moving figure in establishing St Luke’s Hospice, under the aegis of Dame Cicely Saunders, the first such hospice to be set up in the provinces. He married Alison Duncombe, née Bateman, a medical social worker and had two daughters, Joanna and Fiona. He was a popular figure, clever, quick-witted, funny, mercurial and very effective. A contemporary recorded that ‘there was never any hurry or worry about his surgery’. He enjoyed driving fast cars, music, reading and walking in the hills of Galloway, where they had a second home. He died on 7 December 2005.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000317
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Walker, Frederick Herman Aitken (1900 - 1981)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2015-03-24
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E007000-E007999/E007000-E007099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/379206379206
Occupation General surgeon Orthopaedic surgeon
Details Frederick Herman Aitken Walker, the only child of Frederick, a cotton manufacturer, and of Edith Walker, was born on 1 July 1900 at Clayton Le Moors, Lancashire. He was educated at Calday Grange School, West Kirby, Cheshire, and, after one year as a medical student at Liverpool University he moved to Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, before entering St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical College. On qualifying in 1925 he was house surgeon to the surgical professorial unit at St Bartholomew's. After teaching in the anatomy department of the Medical College and becoming senior demonstrator he returned to the surgical unit as chief assistant to Professor George Gask, Thomas Dunhill and James Paterson Ross. In 1934 he went to work at Reading with Leonard Joyce and was appointed surgeon to the Royal Berkshire Hospital in 1938, remaining there until his retirement in 1966. Poor health kept Walker from active service during the second world war but, with all his colleagues away, he had a hard time working virtually single-handed. With the coming of the NHS he became deeply interested in administration and was chairman of the hospital management committee from 1957 to 1966, an unusual situation for an active member of the consultant staff in any such hospital. He is remembered there for his administrative achievements as well as for his surgical skill which he attributed to his early training at St Bartholomew's Hospital. Likewise, many generations of registrars and house surgeons at Reading were, in their turn, grateful to him for his example and training. Walker had also been on the board of management of the Wingfield Morris Hospital, Oxford, and was a member of the British Orthopaedic Association as well as a fellow of the Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland. He was appointed CBE in 1964. He married Edna Forbes Gibbon in 1928 and they had one son who died in 1956. Following his retirement he and his wife went to live in Denmark, and he was survived by her when he died there after a long illness on 26 April 1981.
Resource Identifier RCS: E007023
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Davies, Horace Luther (1910 - 1971)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2014-07-22
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/377878377878
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon
Details Horace Luther Davies was born on 21st April 1910, at Birkenhead. He went to Woodchurch Road Junior School and Birkenhead Institute. He received his medical training at the University of Liverpool, qualifying in 1932 and then proceeding to the Master of Orthopaedic Surgery degree in 1935, and Master of Surgery in 1939. He was Robert Gee Fellow and demonstrator in human anatomy and histology in the Medical School from 1932 to 1934. He was the Lady Jones Research Fellow in Orthopaedic Surgery at the University of Liverpool from 1939 to 1940. He held resident posts at the Liverpool Royal Hospital and Birkenhead General Hospital, and was assistant orthopaedic surgeon at Bootle General Hospital. While he was at the Liverpool Royal Infirmary he was influenced by Sir Reginald Watson Jones, Robert Kennon and Cosbie Ross. He became consultant orthopaedic surgeon to St Catherine's Hospital, Birkenhead from 1946 to 1967. He was a Member of the Executive Committee of the British Association of Sport and Medicine and was elected to its Honorary Life Membership; he was also Honorary Medical Officer of the English Schools Athletic Association, and Honorary Orthopaedic Consultant to Tranmere Rovers Football Club, Birkenhead. While in practice he lived at Prenton, Birkenhead, but retired to Naphill, Buckinghamshire about 1967, having suffered a cerebral haemorrhage. He married Lilith Esme Osborne BA, daughter of the Reverend George and Mrs Osborne of Birkenhead in 1939, and had two sons and a daughter. The elder son, Michael Osborne Davies is a general practitioner in Madeleg, Staffs. His hobbies included golf and swimming, and he was a member of the British Astronomical Association and British Interplanetary Society. He was President of the Liverpool Astronomical Society for three years. He was also a member of Prenton (Birkenhead) Literary and Debating Society, and was its President in 1967. After further strokes he died at his home in Naphill, near High Wycombe on 31 August 1971 aged 61. Publications: The unstable semilunar bone. *Lancet* 1948, 1, 831. Quintus metatarsus valgus. *Brit med J* 1949, 1, 664. Diabetic gangrene. *Brit med J* 1951, 2, 1254.
Resource Identifier RCS: E005695
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Henry, Adrian Needham (1930 - 1991)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

First Title value, for Searching Austin, Lester Drogo Cameron (1910 - 1991)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2015-09-02
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/379983379983
Occupation General surgeon Orthopaedic surgeon
Details Drogo Austin was born in Colombo, Ceylon on 17 October 1910, the son of Lester Austin, a banker in the National Bank of India who claimed descent from the Commissar General of the British Army which had captured Ceylon from the Dutch. His mother was Ethel Elfreda, née Nicolle. He was educated at Royal College, Colombo and entered Ceylon Medical College in 1929. He qualified in 1935 with first class honours, joined the department of medical and sanitary services and served in junior posts in the General Hospital, Colombo, as well as in Galle, Trincomalee and Jaffna. He was also a demonstrator in pathology and district medical assistant. In 1945 he came to England for postgraduate study under Grey Turner, Ian Aird, Sir James Paterson Ross and Sir Reginald Watson-Jones, and passed the FRCS in 1948. On returning to Ceylon he was resident surgeon, assistant surgeon to the orthopaedic clinic and finally consultant surgeon to the General Hospital, Colombo, in 1951. A meticulous and conscientious surgeon and a popular teacher, he examined for the MB BS and MS degrees and was President of the Ceylon College of Surgeons and the Sri Lanka Medical Association. Austin retired form surgical practice in 1970, and was elected an honorary Fellow of the Sri Lanka College of Surgeons in 1971. In 1975 he took up a position as orthopaedic consultant to the John F Kennedy Memorial Medical Centre in Monrovia, Liberia. There he remained for nine years, and was awarded the honorary Fellowship of the West African College of Surgeons. Outside surgery, Austin was particularly interested in wild life conservation, and was Vice-President of the Wild Life and Fauna Protection Society until 1975. He had a great interest in photography and often entertained guests at his home with a display of slides of leopards, deer, elephants and bears which he had 'shot' with his camera. He was a keen angler and an enthusiastic cook, often producing excellent meals while out on jungle safari trips. He married Alice Eleanor (Nora) Loos in 1936, and they had a son, Nigel, and two daughters. Austin died on 28 June 1991 aged eighty, having undergone an oesophagectomy for cancer a few months earlier.
Resource Identifier RCS: E007800
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Marshall, Robert Desmond (1926 - 2011)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Sarah Gillam
Publication Date 2021-05-05
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E009000-E009999/E009900-E009999
Occupation General surgeon
Details Robert Marshall was a consultant surgeon at Prince Henry’s Hospital, Melbourne. He was born on 3 May 1926 in Nihill, Victoria, Australia, the son of Charles Jeremiah Marshall and Catherine May Marshall née Bofill. His four siblings all had careers in medicine and allied professions: Betty became a general practitioner, Gwen a physiotherapist, and Vernon and Donald both became surgeons. Marshall studied medicine at the University of Melbourne and qualified in 1948. From 1951 to 1973 he lectured in anatomy at the University of Melbourne and subsequently worked at the Royal Melbourne Hospital. He then went to the UK for further training, to Hammersmith Hospital. He gained his fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons of England in 1955. He returned to Australia, where he assisted Ernest Edward ‘Weary’ Dunlop at the Royal Melbourne Hospital. From 1963 to 1991 he was a consultant surgeon at Prince Henry’s Hospital. He continued his private practice until the last year of his life. He was on the Victorian branch council of the Australian Medical Association, the Victorian regional committee of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons and served as chairman of the committee of chairmen of the Senior Medical Staff Associations. He cowrote *Principles of pathology in surgery* (Oxford, Blackwell Scientific, 1980) and, drawing on his comprehensive knowledge of anatomy, *Living anatomy: structure as the mirror of function* (Carlton South, Victoria, Melbourne University Press, 2001). This led to him being awarded a doctor of medicine from the University of Melbourne in 2006. In 2001, to honour the contributions to surgery of Robert and his brothers Vernon and Donald, Monash University set up the Marshall Prize in Surgical Training. Outside medicine, he found time for skiing and trekking in the mountains, his two great passions. In 2009 he published *K2: lies and treachery* (Ross-on-Wye, Carreg Ltd), an account of the 1954 ascent of K2 by the Italian mountaineer Walter Bonatti. Two years earlier he had given a presentation on Bonatti to the Italian Alpine Club in fluent Italian. Marshall died on 29 January 2011 at the age of 84. He was survived by his wife Phyllis (née Sinclair), whom he married in 1951, and five children Diane, David, Robert, Andrew and Lisa.
Resource Identifier RCS: E009963
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Tonks, John Wilson (1888 - 1931)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2013-11-27
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E004000-E004999/E004700-E004799
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/376901376901
Occupation General surgeon Obstetric Surgeon
Details Born on 14 February at 43 Oxford Street, Wednesbury, the son of Samuel Tonks, retired commercial traveller, and Edith Jennie Ross Wilson, his wife. He was educated at Queen Mary's Grammar School, Walsall under J A Alldis and H Bompas Smith. Admitted to Caius College, Cambridge on 1 October 1906, he was elected an exhibitioner in 1907 and a scholar in 1908. He graduated BA in 1908, after being placed in the first-class in part 1 of the Natural Sciences Tripos. Proceeding to University College, London, he took the Fellowes silver medal in surgery and the gold medal in medicine. In 1914 he joined the firm of Sir Josiah and Dr Arthur Court of Staveley, Derbyshire, a large and busy general practice in a coal and iron district. He entered the Army in the following year at the beginning of the war, and worked as surgical specialist first in Bombay and afterwards in the tenth Burma division. During this period he was specially commended by the Government of Burma for services rendered to a wounded officer away in the hills. Tonks travelled seventy-four miles through difficult country on a pony, taking upwards of thirty hours on the journey, performed a major operation upon the patient under the most primitive conditions, and was rewarded with success. He returned to Staveley in 1919, and was appointed surgeon to the Chesterfield and North Derbyshire Royal Hospital, where he soon became known for his surgical skill. In 1929 he gave up general practice, having been appointed obstetric surgeon to the Chesterfield Maternity Hospital in July 1922. He was also consulting surgeon to the Derbyshire County Sanatorium at Walton near Chesterfield. Tonks married on 10 July 1915 Ellinor May Evans, who survived him with one son. He died at 15 Gladstone Road, Chesterfield on 4 May 1931 and was buried at Staveley, Derbyshire. Tonks was a good organizer and an all-round athlete. He once said that, with the exception of bowls, he did not know of any game he had not played.
Resource Identifier RCS: E004718
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Clarke, Samuel Henry Creighton (1912 - 2004)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-09-14
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000000-E000099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372224372224
Occupation Urological surgeon Urologist
Details Henry Clarke was a consultant urological surgeon in Brighton and mid Sussex until his retirement in December 1976. He was born in Derby on 1 January 1912, the son of Samuel Creighton Clarke, a general practitioner in Derby and the son of a gentleman farmer from Newtownbutler, Ireland, and Florence Margaret Caroline née Montgomery, a descendent of the Montgomery who accidentally killed Henry II of France in a jousting match in 1559. Clarke was educated at Monkton Combe junior and senior schools, and then went on to St Bartholomew’s medical school, where he was a medical clerk to Lord Horder and a surgical dresser to Sir James Paterson Ross. From 1937 to 1938 he was a casualty officer, house surgeon and senior resident at the Royal Sussex County Hospital, Brighton. He enlisted in July 1939, joining the 4th Field Hospital, as part of the British Expeditionary Force. In 1940, at Dunkirk, he organised the evacuation of men on to the boats, under aerial attack. He left Dunkirk on one of the last boats out. In 1942 he was sent out to North Africa, and was present at the Battle of El Alamein. At the end of the North African campaign, as part of the 8th Army, he took part in the invasion of Italy. He ended the war as a Major in the RAMC. After the war, he returned to Bart’s, where he was much inspired by A W Badenoch. After appointments at Bart’s, as a chief assistant (senior registrar) and at St Peter’s Hospital for Stone (as a senior registrar), he became a consultant in general surgery at the Luton and Dunstable Hospital in 1950. In 1956 he was appointed as a consultant urological surgeon to the Brighton and Lewes, and mid Sussex Hospital groups. He was a member of the council of the British Association of Urological Surgeons from 1961 to 1964, and a former Chairman of the Brighton branch of the BMA. He married Elizabeth Bradney Pershouse in 1947 and they had a daughter, Caroline Julia Creighton. There are three grandchildren – Rachel, Brittany and Alexander. He was interested in rugby, tennis and golf, and collected liqueurs and whiskies. He retired to St Mary Bourne, and became an active member of his parish. He died from heart failure on 15 September 2004.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000037
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Fowler, Charles Edward Percy (1866 - 1941)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2013-06-19
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E004000-E004999/E004100-E004199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/376287376287
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born on 27 January 1866 at Milverton Court, near Taunton, Somerset, only son of Charles Edward Fowler, a landowner, and Margaret Goldsmith, his wife. He was educated at Clifton College and at the Bristol Medical School and St Mary's Hospital, London. Fowler was commissioned as surgeon-lieutenant on 29 July 1893, promoted surgeon-captain and captain, RAMC on 29 July 1896, and major on 30 January 1905. He was assistant professor of military hygiene at the Royal Army Medical College from 1903 to 1907, then medical officer of health at Gibraltar from 1907 to 1912. While holding this appointment he accompanied Sir Reginald Lister, the British Minister in Morocco, on a mission to the Sultan at Fez in 1909. After leaving Gibraltar he worked for a time with Sir Ronald Ross on the Malaria Commission in Mauritius, and at one time during the four years' war was engaged on malaria control in India. He was appointed instructor at the Army School of Sanitation on 17 February 1913, and retired on half-pay on 4 February 1914. He rejoined for active service on the outbreak of war in August 1914, was gazetted brevet lieutenant-colonel on 3 June 1917 and lieutenant-colonel on 26 December in the same year, and colonel, AMS on 21 March 1918. He was appointed a staff sanitary officer on 27 July 1915, and Assistant Director of Medical Services on 20 January 1919. He served as DADMS in the Aldershot Command from 1914 to September 1916, and as ADMS Sanitation with the Egyptian Expeditionary Force as well as in India. He was mentioned in despatches several times and was decorated OBE in 1917. Fowler married on 2 October 1894 Mary Dorothy Hopper Boulton who survived him with one son, Major A G H Fowler, MC, Coldstream Guards, and one daughter, who married Lt-Col R B Colvin, Grenadier Guards. He died after a long illness at Garth End, Wickham Bishops, Essex on 21 January 1941. Mrs Fowler died on 8 May 1942. Fowler had been a keen sportsman, and enjoyed tiger shooting when in India. Publications:- Outbreak of food poisoning after a Christmas dinner. *J Roy Army med Corps*, 1909, 13, 271. Mediterranean fever in Gibraltar in 1909. *Ibid*. 1910, 15, 54. Malarial fever in Gibraltar. *Ibid*. 1911, 16, 625. A short note on blood culture. *Ibid*. 1912, 18, 574.
Resource Identifier RCS: E004104
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Taylor, Gerard William (1920 - 1995)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

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/380581380581
Occupation General surgeon
Details Gerard William Taylor was born in Natal, South Africa, on 23 September 1920, the son of William Ivan Taylor, an engineer. His early education was at Bemrose School, Derby, and he then entered St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical College, qualifying in 1943. After junior hospital appointments he served in the Royal Army Medical Corps from 1944 to 1947 in France and Egypt. After demobilisation he was awarded the Hallett prize in the primary Fellowship and having been appointed surgical registrar at Redhill passed the final examination in 1948. He was a Fulbright scholar and assistant resident at Stanford University Hospital, San Francisco, in 1950 to 1951, training under Dr Emile Holman and Dr Frank Gerbode, and after his return was a reader in surgery at St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical School and honorary consultant surgeon to the hospital in 1955. He had acquired considerable expertise and surgical experience and in addition pursued academic research in conjunction with Professor J B Kinmonth into the value of lymphangiography to elucidate the pathology of lymphoedema. Further research was carried out into the treatment of atheromatous occlusion of limb arteries using stored homografts, woven Teflon and knitted Dacron. The techniques and results were described in a Hunterian lecture given in 1962. This clearly demonstrated the value of femoro-popliteal bypass surgery in limb salvage. In 1960 he succeeded Sir James Paterson Ross as Professor of Surgery in the University of London and director of the professorial surgical unit at St Bartholomew's Hospital. In addition to a heavy surgical workload he chaired many academic and hospital committees and was invited to be visiting professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, the University of Melbourne and in New Zealand. He was examiner to the Universities of London, Cambridge, Liverpool and Birmingham, and to Trinity College, Dublin. He was also consultant vascular surgeon to the army. He never stood for the Council of the College but served as President of the Association of Surgeons, the Surgical Research Society and the Vascular Society of Great Britain and Ireland. After retiring from his chair in the University of London he spent three years from 1984 to 1987 as Professor of Surgery at King Khalid University in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. He married Olivia Gay in 1955 and they had one son, now a consultant anaesthetist, and one daughter. He died on 3 January 1995, survived by his wife and children.
Resource Identifier RCS: E008398
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Farndon, John Richard (1946 - 2002)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2015-10-29
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E008000-E008999/E008500-E008599
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/380775380775
Occupation General surgeon
Details John Farndon was professor and head of surgery at Bristol. He was born on 16 February 1946 in Rotherham, Yorkshire. He was educated at Woodhouse Grammar School, Sheffield, and studied medicine at Newcastle Medical School, where he gained two prizes, a scholarship and a first in anatomy. Ray Scothorne, the professor of anatomy, introduced him to the study of endocrine disease. After junior posts in Newcastle, under Ivan Johnson and Ross Taylor, he spent two years at Duke University, North Carolina, as a research fellow under Sam Wells, which culminated in an MD thesis on phaeochromocytoma. He returned to Newcastle as senior lecturer in surgery, and honorary consultant surgeon, where he increasingly specialised in endocrine and breast surgery. He was appointed professor of surgery and honorary consultant in Bristol in 1988. He made important contributions to the understanding of the way in which phaeochromocytomas released their hormones, thus improving the pre-operative management of these patients. In carcinoma of the breast, he was to characterise those patients who would and would not respond to hormone therapy. He served on many committees, including those dealing with policy, trials, and breast screening, and was editor of the *British Journal of Surgery* from 1992, where he increased the number of reports of randomised controlled trials, and cut back on case reports - efforts which were repaid in the growing international reputation of the journal. He was president-elect of the Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland, and a former President of the British Association of Endocrine Surgeons, and of the Bristol division of the BMA. He was an excellent teacher, chaired the curriculum committee and coordinated students' electives. He was associate clinical director of the Bristol Royal Infirmary when concerns were first raised about paediatric heart surgery, and his efforts were praised in the subsequent report by Ian Kennedy. He was increasingly concerned at the inadequate provision within the NHS for surgical patients, and its knock-on effects on undergraduate and surgical education. Like others in his department, he used his income from private patients to support his research staff. He married Christine Louet, a breast screening nurse, in 1972. They had two sons, Mark (who became a surgeon) and James, and one daughter, Emily. He died from a heart attack on 6 February 2002.
Resource Identifier RCS: E008592
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching McCormick, Robert (1800 - 1890)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2012-07-06
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E002000-E002999/E002500-E002599
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/374778374778
Occupation General surgeon
Details The son of Robert McCormick, a Surgeon in the Royal Navy; born at Runham, near Great Yarmouth, on July 22nd, 1800, of an Irish family long settled in Co Tyrone. He was a pupil at the United Borough Hospitals in 1821, and entered the Royal Navy as an Assistant Surgeon in 1823. He served in the West Indies for two years, and was invalided in the summer of 1825. He spent a year in a cutter in the North Sea, and then volunteered for Arctic service with Captain William Edward Perry. He sailed with him in the *Heckla* on the Spitzbergen expedition in the summer of 1827, and on his return was promoted Surgeon on June 27th, 1827. Two years later he was again ordered to the West Indies, and within three months was again invalided. He was appointed to a surveying brig on the Coast of Brazil for a few months, and in 1828 was on a sloop engaged in blockading the Dutch coast. He was sent to the West Indies for the third time, and was once more invalided. He was then placed on half pay for upwards of four years, and spent the time in studying natural history and geology in various parts of England and Wales. He was appointed to the *Erebus* in 1839 and went to the Antarctic with Captain James Clark Ross in the double capacity of surgeon and naturalist. The expedition returned to England in 1843, but it was not until September, 1845, that McCormick was appointed to the *William and Mary* yacht at Woolwich. Two years later he was attached to the *Fisgard*, the flagship at Woolwich Dockyard, from which he was superseded in 1848. In 1852, whilst Surgeon to the North Star, he joined a search for Sir John Franklin in an open boat and returned to England without success in October, 1853, and for this he received the Arctic Medal in 1857. He was promoted Deputy Inspector of Hospitals on May 20th, 1859, but was never so employed, and was put on the retired list in July, 1865, without being given the honorary rank of Inspector of Hospitals, though he was awarded a Greenwich Hospital pension in 1876. He died on October 25th, 1890. McCormick had considerable ability as surgeon, explorer, and naturalist, but was lacking in tact. Publications:- *Narrative of a Boat Expedition up the Wellington Channel in the Year* 1852, 4to, London, 1854. *Voyages of Discovery in the Arctic and Antarctic Seas and Round the World*, 8vo, 2 vols, London, 1884. There is a detailed autobiography and portraits at different ages.
Resource Identifier RCS: E002595
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Painter, Neil Stamford (1923 - 1989)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2015-07-02
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/379743379743
Occupation General surgeon
Details Neil Stamford Painter was born in London on 23 February 1923, the only son of Robert Painter, a consulting engineer, and Dorothy, née Matthews, a concert soprano. He was educated at St Michael's School, Otford, Kent and obtained a scholarship to Woodbridge School, Suffolk. On leaving school he entered the Fleet Air Arm as a pilot serving from 1941 to 1946; he was mentioned in despatches for operations in the Aegean in 1944 and later provided air support for the invasion of Rangoon. On demobilisation he entered St Bartholomew's Medical School, qualifying in 1952. After junior posts at various London hospitals he was appointed prosector in the department of anatomy at the Royal College of Surgeons under Professor G W Causey in 1955 and, in the following year, after passing the FRCS he became registrar to the surgical professorial unit of St Bartholomew's Hospital under Sir James Paterson Ross and Professor G W Taylor. During these years he maintained his association with the Channel Air Division of the RNVR and continued to fly until 1957 when the weekend squadrons were disbanded. In 1959 he became senior registrar at the Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford, where, under the supervision of Dr S C Truelove he studied the pressure in the colon in healthy patients and those afflicted with diverticular disease and undertook research into the effects of drugs on these pressures. He was thereby able to demonstrate the mechanism responsible for the production of diverticula, publishing the results in *Gut*, his MS thesis and in his Hunterian lecture in 1963. Two years later he was appointed consultant surgeon to Manor House Hospital, Golders Green, while there, in addition to an active professional life, he pursued his research on colonic pressures, publishing papers on the effects of dietary fibre and the value of bran in diverticular disease. His book, *Diverticular disease of the colon: a deficiency disease of Western civilization*, was published in 1975 and revolutionised the therapy of the disease. He travelled widely attending international meetings and was elected a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons. He served as a Council member and Vice-President of the Section of Surgery of the Royal Society of Medicine. He married Joyce Constance Wright in 1954 and they had two sons both of whom are engineers. His main hobby was photography which was a continuation of some of his work in the Fleet Air Arm when aerial photography was part of his duties. He died suddenly on 6 August 1989.
Resource Identifier RCS: E007560
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Hosford, John Percival (1900 - 1991)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2015-09-09
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/380195380195
Occupation General surgeon
Details John Hosford was born in London on 24 July 1900, the son of Benjamin Hosford, a medical practitioner in Hornsey, Essex, and his wife Anne, née Haines. He came from a remarkable medical family, three brothers, two cousins and two uncles all being doctors. He was educated at Highgate School and St Bartholomew's Hospital, where he qualified in 1922. He held junior posts at St Bartholomew's and then became demonstrator in anatomy there. After surgical registrarships at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital and St Bartholomew's he became assistant to the professorial unit at Bart's and then assistant surgeon there in 1936. He wrote a popular students' textbook on fractures and dislocations in 1939, but eventually had to give up his interest in orthopaedics because of a rapidly expanding practice in general surgery. At the outbreak of war, much of Bart's was moved to Hill End Hospital, St Albans, and Hosford took charge of one of the surgical units there under the Emergency Medical Service. In 1946 he was appointed full surgeon to St Bartholomew's and also to the King Edward VII Hospital for Officers and the Nightingale Hospital. As a young man he was much influenced by such great surgeons as Girling Ball, Paterson Ross, Thomas Dunhill and Berkeley Moynihan (later Lord Moynihan of Leeds) gaining considerable experience from these early associations. He was a very fine technician, especially in abdominal, breast and thyroid surgery, and an outstanding teacher of both undergraduate and postgraduate students. He was appointed Hunterian Professor of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1932, lecturing on hydronephrosis, and he also wrote important papers on peritoneoscopy, partial gastrectomy and stones in the common bile duct. He became a member of the Court of Examiners of the RCS in 1956, and examiner in surgery to the universities of Oxford, London, Sheffield and Belfast, and was also a member of Council of the Association of Surgeons. John Hosford was a modest, gentle person, a good listener and a kindly chief who was greatly respected by his patients and colleagues alike. He retired early at the age of 60 and went to live in the mountains of Portugal, returning to Essex 24 years later. He was a keen traveller, gardener and lover of the countryside. He died at the age of 90 on 10 February 1991 following a fall, when he sustained several fractured ribs and an extrapleural haematoma. He was survived by his wife Millicent, whom he married in 1932, and by a son, John, and daughter, Elizabeth. On his death he was described as 'the last of the gentlemen surgeons'.
Resource Identifier RCS: E008012
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Jones, Arthur Edward (1919 - 1999)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2015-11-06
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/380856380856
Occupation Radiotherapist
Details Arthur Jones was a pioneering radiotherapist. He was born in Wrexham, North Wales, on 1 February 1919. His father, Edward Hugh Jones, died when he was young and he was brought up by his mother, Margaret Lloyd Jones. He was educated at Grove Park School, where he became interested in physics, and his decision (at the age of 17) to become a radiotherapist was encouraged by his mother. He won the Jeaffreson entrance exhibition to Bart's in French and mathematics, and there proceeded to gain a dazzling number of awards. He gained scholarships in anatomy and physiology, the Harvey prize in physiology, the Wix prize, the Brackenbury scholarship, the Dame Dorothy Jeffreys exhibition, the Dodd memorial award and the Wall bursary. Girling Ball was the Dean, but his real hero was Frank Lloyd Hopwood, the Professor of Physics. He was dresser to Paterson Ross, who was the clinician who influenced him most. On qualifying, he was house physician to Christie and house surgeon to Douglas Northfield at the London, who kindled his interest in the nervous system. On joining the RAMC, he served at the Military Hospital for Head Injuries at St Hughes, Oxford, along with Walpole Lewin, under Sir Hugh Cairns and Sir Charles Symonds, ending as a Major in charge of a neurological centre in Hamburg, where he became an expert in the management of head injuries. On returning to Bart's after the war, he served as chief assistant to I G Williams, and, in 1950, he was appointed consultant (at the age of 30), as deputy director in the radiotherapeutic department. He became physician to the department in 1961 and director in 1972. In 1974, the title of Professor of Radiotherapy was conferred on him by the University of London, the first such title to be awarded to an NHS consultant. He was Vice-President of the Royal College of Radiologists from 1967 to 1968, and was co-opted to the Council of the Royal College of Surgeons to represent radiology in 1973. He was Hunterian Professor in 1960, and was made an FRCS by election in 1978. He was much sought after to lecture abroad and served on innumerable committees. He was Dean of the Medical College at Bart's from 1968 to 1969. He was particularly interested in music and the history of art. He married Caroline Bonsor in 1945. They had one daughter, Deirdre Anne, and one son, Daril Peregrine Lloyd, a dental surgeon. He died on 4 July 1999.
Resource Identifier RCS: E008673
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching McGrigor, Ronald Buchanan (1920 - 1991)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2015-09-21
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/380370380370
Occupation General surgeon
Details Ronald McGrigor was born in London on 1 January 1920, the son of Dalziel McGrigor and Dorothy Macgregor Drysdale. His father was a radiologist in the RAMC. He was educated at Stowe School and Trinity College Cambridge, where he passed the Natural Sciences Tripos in 1940 and then went to St Bartholomew's Hospital for his clinical studies. He qualified MRCS LRCP in 1942. After working in the casualty department at Bart's he joined the RAMC and spent four years in the army, in the course of which service he was awarded the MBE (Military Division) and took part in the D-Day landings in Normandy. His unit was one of the first to go to the relief of the Belsen concentration camp. He returned to Bart's, where he worked in turn for J B Hume and later for Sir James Paterson Ross. In 1948 he was awarded a travelling fellowship by the University of London to study at Ann Arbor University, Michigan, and the work that he did there became the subject of his thesis for the MCh, which was accepted in 1953, the year in which he obtained his Fellowship of the College. He was then appointed consultant surgeon at Redhill Hospital, where he worked until ill health forced him to retire in 1983. He had a replacement heart valve and was then able once again to devote his full energies to the post of Chairman of the Friends of East Surrey Hospital. In this post he dedicated himself to raising enough money to provide a scanner suite which, on its completion in 1991, was named in his memory. McGrigor was a quiet man of great charm who had a delightful sense of humour. He was married twice, first to June Mary Casswell in 1950, by whom he had three children. His son Alastair entered the RAF legal division. There were two daughters - Fiona, who was a nurse before she married, and Sheena, who became a teacher. His first wife died in 1972 and he then married Elizabeth Emery, née Nicholson, who had two children from her previous marriage. As an undergraduate he rowed for the 1st/3rd Trinity both on the Cam and at Henley. In his retirement he was a keen skier, hill walker and ornithologist. When the weather was not suitable he took an interest in the restoration of furniture and upholstery. He died on 26 October 1991.
Resource Identifier RCS: E008187
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Figgins, Loris Freda (1927 - 2023)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Sarah Gillam
Publication Date 2025-03-11
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E010000-E010999/E010700-E010799
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon
Details Loris Freda Figgins was a consultant orthopaedic surgeon in Melbourne. She was born in Melbourne on 30 May 1927 and attended Deepdene State School and then Methodist Ladies College. During the holidays she picked peaches in Doncaster, gathered redcurrants outside Hobart and compressed Queensland maple for use in the manufacture of Mosquito bombers. She went on to study medicine at Melbourne University. As a medical student she worked as a nurse at Sunbury Mental Hospital, an experience which had a big impact on her. She had to delay her final medical school exams as she had developed chickenpox, picked up from a newborn with the infection. While waiting to finish medical school, she worked in the pathology department at the Queen Victoria Hospital. She was subsequently an intern in the Frankston orthopaedic section of the Royal Children’s Hospital, where she cared for children with chronic bone and joint disease. While at Frankston, she met one of her mentors, the surgeon John B Colquhoun. Her next position was at Austin Hospital. Here she set up a research project on the effect of anaemia in infections, observing that in extensive bone infections with associated soft tissue abscesses, drainage was often necessary to optimise the effect of antibiotics and transfusions. In 1961 she travelled to the UK. With the help of Sir James Paterson Ross, she found an appointment at Harlow Wood Orthopaedic Hospital in Nottinghamshire. Here she treated many miners with knee and back injuries, the result of crouching in the narrow mining tunnels. Back in London, she achieved the primary fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. She then worked in general surgery at Copthorne Hospital in Shrewsbury. After three years and having passed the second part of her fellowship, she returned to Australia on a cargo ship as a ship’s doctor, arriving back in Melbourne in early 1964. She was asked to help establish a Trade Union Clinic at Footscray, Victoria, to treat and prevent employment-based injuries, and ended up staying there for nine years. After a major internal strike, the clinic was closed. She decided to start a private practice and became a consultant orthopaedic surgeon at Dandenong Hospital. She left Dandenong Hospital in 1987 and retired in 1997. She wrote an autobiography *Where angels fear to tread: a pioneering female orthopaedic surgeon*. She met her husband Dave at a safety convention, where he worked as one of the safety officers. They made their home in Berwick, near the border with New South Wales. Figgins died on 29 December 2023. She was 96.
Resource Identifier RCS: E010722
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Rugg-Gunn, Andrew (1884 - 1972)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2014-10-06
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E006000-E006999/E006000-E006099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/378265378265
Occupation Ophthalmic surgeon
Details Andrew Rugg-Gunn was born on 26 November 1884 at Altandhu, Ross and Cromarty, in north-west Scotland, the eldest of the five children of John Douglas Gunn, a school-master, and Mary Maclean his wife. He was educated and graduated in medicine from the University of Edinburgh in 1907. He then went into general practice at Lochbroom. He had already begun to specialise in ophthalmology when the first world war broke out in August 1914. He was commissioned in the RAMC, but was evacuated with typhoid from the Gallipoli campaign in 1915; when he recovered he was posted to India, as an ophthalmic specialist with the 16th Indian Division. After the war he settled in London, made postgraduate study at St Bartholomew's, and was appointed to the staff at the Western Ophthalmic Hospital, the Central Middlesex and Metropolitan Ear, Nose and Throat Hospitals, and at the Cripples Training Centre at Stanmore. He took the Fellowship in 1925. Rugg-Gunn was active in several societies, particularly the Chelsea Clinical Society, of which he was secretary and then President, the Hunterian Society, the Medico-Legal Society, and the Medical Society of London. He served on the Council of British Ophthalmologists and on the Council of the Section of Ophthalmology in the Royal Society of Medicine. Rugg-Gunn was a skilful maker and user of instruments: he designed a binocular ophthalmoscope and was a pioneer in prescribing contact lenses. He wrote often in the ophthalmic journals, especially on retinal detachment, and published a useful textbook, *Diseases of the eye* in 1933. Outside his profession his chief interest was in Scandinavian antiquities, and he travelled widely in Europe and Asia. He was President 1934-36 of the Viking Society for Northern Research, and published his, the *Osiris and Odin origin of kingship* in 1940. He was a keen mountaineer, and in later life took up gardening. Rugg-Gunn was married to Gertrude Smith in 1906, and following her death, to Cecilia Mary Graham-Wells in 1938. He died on 1 September 1972 aged eighty-seven, after suffering for some years from severe arterio-sclerosis. He was survived by his wife, and by the daughter and two sons of his first marriage; one son, Mark Andrew Rugg-Gunn, became FRCP, and a granddaughter and her husband were both medically qualified. Publications: Data concerning radiation and protective glasses with a note on retinoscopes. *Brit J Ophthal* 1934, 18, 65. A case of recurrent aphthous uveitis with associated ulcus vulvae acutum (Lipschutz). *Brit J Ophthal* 1947, 31, 396.
Resource Identifier RCS: E006082
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Birks, Melville (1876 - 1924)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2010-03-04 2015-06-12
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000800-E000899
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373069373069
Occupation General surgeon Occupational health specialist
Details The following was published in volume one of Plarr's Lives of the Fellows. Was a student of Adelaide University and Hospital, and at the London Hospital, acting at the former as House Physician and House Surgeon. He practised for many years at Petersburg, South Australia, and later became Surgeon Superintendent of the Broken Hill and District Hospital, New South Wales. He died in or before the year 1925. Publications: "Mine Accidents at Broken Hill and District Hospital." - *Med. Jour. Australia*, 1918, i, 507. "Health Conditions at Broken Hill Mines." - *Jour. State Med.*, 1921, xxxix, 121. See below for an amended version of the published obituary: Melville Birks was surgeon superintendent of Broken Hill Hospital from 1913 to 1923 and an authority on industrial diseases. He was born on 30 January 1876, the son of Walter Richard Birks and Jemima Scott Birks. He was educated at state schools and at Way College, and then attended Roseworthy Agricultural College in South Australia. He was awarded a silver medal and his diploma of agriculture in 1896. He went on to study medicine at the University of Adelaide, gaining his medical degree in 1902. He served for a year at Adelaide Hospital as a house surgeon and then went to England, where he spent three years. He gained his FRCS in 1907. While in London he met Miss MacIntyre, daughter of P B MacIntyre of Ross-shire, Scotland, a crofters commissioner, and they married shortly afterwards, on 5 March 1909. He returned to South Australia, where he practised at Peterborough until 1913. While he was in the town he was also involved in civic affairs and served for a time as mayor. He was then appointed surgeon superintendent at Broken Hill. Here he made a study of miners' diseases. He was also a referee under the Workers' Compensation Act; he had a reputation for fairness and was respected by both miners and employers. He worked for long hours in the operating theatre, supported only by nursing staff. After some time at Broken Hill he began to suffer from ill health. In 1918 he was granted leave for a year. He went to Europe and America with his wife and family, and made a study of occupational diseases, visiting factories and hospitals. He attended a Medical Congress in Brussels, where he read a paper on lead poisoning. He returned to Broken Hill in 1920, but in August 1922 his health broke down once again and he was advised to go to the eastern states of Australia. He was in a private Melbourne hospital for 11 months and then in Melbourne General Hospital for a further three months. He returned to his mother's home in Adelaide in December 1923 and died there on 24 April 1924 at the age of 48. He was buried in Payneham Cemetery, Payneham South, South Australia. He was survived by his wife and their children - two sons and a daughter. Sarah Gillam
Resource Identifier RCS: E000886
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Jewsbury, Percy (1920 - 2008)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Raymond Hurt
Publication Date 2010-10-13
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001000-E001099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373215373215
Occupation Cardiothoracic surgeon
Details Percy Jewsbury was a consultant cardiothoracic surgeon at the Blackpool Victoria Hospital. He was born in 12 March 1920 in Manchester, the son of Sydney Shardlow Jewsbury, a heating and ventilation engineer, and Hannah Harrison Alder, a district nurse. He was educated at Manchester Grammar School and then entered Manchester Medical School, where he won a Rockefeller studentship to Minneapolis, Minnesota. There he qualified MD in 1943, and returned to Manchester to complete his English qualifications, winning the surgical prize in his finals. He was then a house surgeon at the Manchester Royal Infirmary, at the Birmingham Accident Hospital, and then a casualty officer and resident surgical officer at Manchester Royal Infirmary. From 1946 to 1948, he was in the RAMC as a graded surgeon at 77 British Military Hospital Wuppertal, Rhine Army, whilst retaining his position as a supernumerary surgical registrar on Michael Boyd’s unit at Manchester Royal Infirmary and as a general surgical registrar at the Withington Hospital. In Minneapolis he had been taught by Richard L Varco, who stimulated his interest in thoracic surgery and in 1951 he became a senior registrar in thoracic surgery at the Withington Hospital under Graham Bryce and Frank Nicholson, from which he was appointed as a consultant in cardiothoracic surgery at the Victoria Hospital, Blackpool, in 1955, where he remained until his retirement in 1983. His consultant career was at a time when heart surgery was expanding dramatically and, in 1960, together with James Glenie, he initiated open-heart surgery in Blackpool for the closure of congenital septal defects and valve replacement operations. The heart pump for this new technique of surgery was not readily available in those days and Percy persuaded engineers at the nearly British Aircraft Company in Warton to manufacture a pump – this was the situation in the United Kingdom in the early 1960s. All this was in addition to his thoracic work, which included pioneering operations for the resection of post-intubation tracheal strictures and the reanastomosis of the left main bronchus during lobectomy. He also undertook oesophageal resection with colon transplant, and operations for the correction of portal hypertension by spleno-renal and portocaval anastomosis. Like so many of his generation of cardiothoracic surgeons, he was completely dedicated to his work and the further development of open-heart surgery, to the partial exclusion of his home and social life. He was president of the Manchester Surgical Society in 1980, and president of the North West Thoracic Society. In 1945 Percy married Moira Elizabeth Walter, a staff nurse at Manchester Royal Infirmary. They had three sons (David Richard, Brian Ross and Robert Graham), none of whom entered medicine, although one grandson (Hugh Oliver) became an ophthalmologist. In 1969, Percy and Moira retired. His recreations were fell-walking, dingy sailing, golf, music, photography and working in his garage. He died on 17 December 2008.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001032
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Keynes, William Milo (1924 - 2009)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2010-10-13
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/373218373218
Occupation General surgeon Medical editor Writer
Details William Milo Keynes was an honorary consultant surgeon at the Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford, and subsequently a writer and medical editor. He was born on 9 August 1924, the third son of Sir Geoffrey Keynes, a former vice president of the College, and Margaret Elizabeth née Darwin, a descendant of Charles Darwin. Milo was the only one of Sir Geoffrey’s sons who followed him into surgery. (The only other son in a related discipline was Richard, who became professor of physiology at Cambridge.) Milo Keynes was educated at Oundle in Northamptonshire. With family connections in Cambridge – both civic (his paternal grandfather had been mayor) and academic (through his economist uncle, Maynard), the city inevitably became a magnet and Milo chose to study at Trinity College. The cultural and artistic life he enjoyed whilst an undergraduate was cast aside somewhat reluctantly when he went to his father’s hospital (St Bartholomew’s) in London for his clinical studies. There he won the Shuter scholarship in anatomy and physiology (in 1945) and then went on to obtain the Brackenbury scholarship in surgery (in 1948). Following a house appointment on the surgical unit at St Bartholomew’s under Paterson Ross, he spent four years in Cambridge as a demonstrator in anatomy, and then carried out his National Service in the Air Force (from 1950 to 1952). In 1953, he returned to St Bartholomew’s Hospital as a junior registrar. At the end of this appointment, in 1954, he was awarded an Arris and Gale lectureship at the College. He then returned to Cambridge, as a surgical registrar, before leaving on a Nuffield Foundation medical fellowship to Harvard and the Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston. On his return to the UK, he was a senior surgical registrar at St Bartholomew’s, a post which was combined with a research assistantship at St Mark’s. He then became a senior lecturer in surgery at the London Hospital under Victor Dix, from which he went to the Nuffield department of surgery at the University of Oxford as a first assistant, and as an honorary consultant in surgery at the Radcliffe Infirmary. In 1973, he migrated back to Cambridge, where he was a part-time clinical anatomist. While in his Cambridge post, he became an editor of medical books for William Heinemann publishers, and developed a career as a writer and historian. He wrote books on, among other subjects, the history of science, on Isaac Newton, and on Mendelism in human genetics. He edited a book of essays on his uncle, John Maynard Keynes, and wrote a biography of his uncle’s wife, Lydia Lopokova. Milo Keynes died on 18 February 2009.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001035
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Freeman, Ernest Arthur (1900 - 1975)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

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/378715378715
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon
Details Ernest Arthur Freeman was born on 20 September 1900 at Streatham, London, and educated at Westminster City School. He was called up in the last few weeks of the first world war and served as a private in the Royal West Surreys. With his ex-serviceman's grant he entered St Bartholomew's Hospital in 1919 as a London University student, qualifying in 1925, taking the MB BS and the FRCS two years later. After house appointments and a spell as a junior demonstrator in pathology he joined Gask's professorial unit as third assistant in a team comprising Thomas Dunhill, Geoffrey Keynes, and James Paterson Ross. A bright future undoubtedly awaited him in London, but it was not the least of his gestures of independence that he would not join any London hospital promotion race waiting list. What London lost the Midlands gained and he became one of Wolverhampton's outstanding personalities and a well-known and influential figure in Wolverhampton medical circles and in the orthopaedic surgical affairs of the West Midlands. Coming to Wolverhampton in 1931, he was appointed to the Royal Hospital and became senior surgeon in fractures and orthopaedics. He was also on the staff of the Guest Hospital, Dudley, Bridgnorth Infirmary, Brosley and Wenlock Hospitals and Patshull Rehabilitation Clinic. At his manipulation sessions under general anaesthesia it was a masterly exposition of the art to see him put even the most massive man through his full range of spinal movement with effortless ease. In 1940, in the treatment of war casualties, he became associated with Patshull, which through his endeavours became a very active rehabilitation centre. When, later, convoys of wounded began to arrive he formed an orthopaedic unit at Wordsley Hospital which became the catalyst for development of all the other surgical activities of the hospital. The massive amount of work he was able to carry out depended on the elimination of 'dead time'. Secretary and physiotherapist accompanied him at his clinics and he had the full co-operation of anaesthetists and theatre staffs at his lists. He was for long associated with the 'Wolves' and was greatly respected by the players he treated for their injuries. Clear and decisive in thought and speech, he was an excellent and formidable witness in court. Up to a short time before his death he was actively engaged in medico-legal work, making his retirement happy and purposeful. Outside his profession, he greatly enjoyed winter skiing holidays, walking and, in his later years, golf. He was a capable musician, and a lover of fine things. He was married and had one son and daughter. He died on 14 September 1975.
Resource Identifier RCS: E006532
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Cameron, Irving Howard (1855 - 1933)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2013-04-18
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E003000-E003999/E003800-E003899
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/376059376059
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born at Toronto on 17 July 1855, the eldest surviving son of Sir Matthew Crooks Cameron (of the Lochiel Camerons), Chief Justice of Common Pleas, Ontario, and his wife Charlotte Ross Wedd of Maidstone, Kent. He was educated at Upper Canada College and at the University of Toronto, where he studied law for a short time before devoting his attention to medicine. He practised both as surgeon and as general practitioner, but preferred not to be called doctor, as was then usual in the Dominion, since he wished to follow the English custom which entitles a surgeon "Mr". Endowed with great administrative ability he took a leading part in founding the medical faculty of Toronto University out of the old Toronto Medical School in 1887. He was then nominated the first professor of the principles of surgery and surgical pathology. In August 1892 he succeeded Dr W T Aikin as professor of surgery and clinical surgery in the university, holding office until 1920, when he retired and was appointed emeritus professor. During this period he acted as surgeon to the Toronto General Hospital and to the Hospital for Sick Children. During the European war he received a commission, dated 25 July 1915, as lieutenant-colonel in the Canadian Army Medical Corps. He came to England and acted as surgeon to the Red Cross Hospital at Cliveden and to the Ontario Hospital at Orpington, Kent. On his return home he was appointed consultant for Canada, a post involving much travelling to visit disabled soldiers. He was the founder and editor of the Canadian Journal of Medical Science and was chairman of the editorial committee of the University of Toronto Monthly Journal. He was also a founder of the Alumni association of the University of Toronto and acted as its president. He married twice: (1) in 1876 Elizabeth, eldest daughter of Dr W W Wright; (2) Jessie Elizabeth Holland, widow of John Ross Robertson, journalist and philanthropist, who survived him. He was the father of one son and one daughter, children of the first marriage. He died at Toronto on 15 December 1933. Cameron was a brilliant clinical lecturer, a surgeon who introduced Listerian principles at the Toronto General Hospital, but conservative and somewhat averse to operating, and a cultivated gentleman skilled in the classics. Professor Grey Turner records that Cameron lectured in a very weak voice, that he was one of the last to wear an "imperial" beard, and that he was devoted to his ancestry, and as long he was able he came to Scotland every year to pay his respects to his chieftain, Cameron of Lochiel.
Resource Identifier RCS: E003876
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Littlejohn, Charles William Berry (1889 - 1960)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2014-04-28 2017-05-05
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E005000-E005999/E005200-E005299
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/377449377449
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon
Details Born in New Zealand in 1889, son of William Still Littlejohn, he was educated at Scotch College, Melbourne. His father become its headmaster in 1904 and was regarded as one of the great educationalists of his time. Proceeding to Ormond College, University of Melbourne after obtaining in 1906 a University Exhibition in mathematics, mechanics and science, he took his BA in 1909 and was awarded a Rhodes scholarship at Oxford, tenable at New College. While at Oxford he obtained a first in anthropology and rowed for two years in the University Boat Race. In 1912 he rowed at Henley for Leander, who came second to Sydney Rowing Club in the Grand Challenge Cup, but later in the season the same crew reversed their defeat in the Olympic Games at Stockholm. For his clinical studies he went to St Bartholomew's Hospital, qualifying in 1914. On the outbreak of war he joined the RAMC and was severely wounded in 1914, but later in the war was awarded the Military Cross and the Belgian Croix de Guerre. In 1919 he returned to Melbourne and settled in practice in the then new suburb of Ivanhoe, also working in the Royal Melbourne Hospital first as a clinical assistant 1920-23, then as surgeon to out-patients 1924-31, and finally as orthopaedic surgeon 1931-48. During the years 1920-25 he was a surgeon at the Children's Hospital and chairman of the committee of the new orthopaedic branch on Port Phillip Bay. In 1932 he founded the first large modern orthopaedic clinic in Victoria. His interest in rowing he maintained by coaching Scotch College and Melbourne University. 1939 found him in the Australian AMC, and as officer commanding the surgical division of the 4th Australian General Hospital he was present during the siege of Tobruk and devised the Tobruk plaster to facilitate sea transportation of fracture cases to Alexandria. Later he became consulting surgeon to the SW Pacific command. He retired in 1948 and was made consulting orthopaedic surgeon to the Royal Melbourne Hospital, his country house being at Red Hill near Flinders and his town house at Storrington Place, Toorak. A member of the Australian Cricket Board and Victoria Cricket Association he was also a keen tennis and golf player. His only son Ross, MC, was captured and shot after a paratroop attack on the Brenner Pass. He died on 4 August 1960 in Melbourne survived by his wife, his brother Euan Littlejohn MD, and three sisters, one being Jean Littlejohn FRACS.
Resource Identifier RCS: E005266
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Cole, Warren Henry (1898 - 1990)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2015-05-08
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E007000-E007999/E007100-E007199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/379368379368
Occupation General surgeon
Details Warren Henry Cole was born at Clay Center, Kansas, on 24 July 1898. He attended the University of Kansas obtaining his BSc in 1918. His clinical studies were at the Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, and within two years he had graduated as a doctor of medicine. His year as an intern was at the City Hospital in Baltimore and following this he spent five years from 1921 to 1926 in the residency programme at Barnes Hospital, St Louis. In 1924 while still a junior resident and working with Evarts Graham he initiated cholecystography, originally administering the opacifying drug by intravenous injection. This valuable contribution was recognised by the award of the Leonard research prize in 1926. Having completed his residency programme he was appointed instructor in surgery and later Associate Professor of Surgery at Washington University School of Medicine at St Louis. In 1936 he was appointed Professor of Surgery at the University of Illinois College of Medicine, where he remained for thirty years until his retirement in 1966. He established himself as a very able operative surgeon who advanced the frontiers of surgery. He had a particular interest in hepato-biliary surgery and the treatment of tumours of the thyroid gland. He made valuable contributions to the treatment of malignant tumours by a combination of surgery and chemotherapy and guided research into the detection of malignant cells in the venous blood leaving a tumour at operation and also in the peripheral circulating blood. In addition to being the co-author of three surgical textbooks he contributed over three hundred articles to surgical journals. He served as President of the Society of University Surgeons in 1940 and of the Chicago Surgical Society in 1942. In 1950 he was First Vice-President of the American College of Surgeons and was elected President in 1955. He was Visiting Professor at the University of London Postgraduate Medical School in 1951 and in 1958 was awarded the Honorary Fellowship. Professor Ian Aird gave the address outlining his many contributions to a wide range of surgical subjects and the Fellowship was presented to him by Sir James Paterson Ross. He was awarded the Honorary Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh in the same year and in 1979 when the Warren Cole Surgical Society was visiting Dublin he received the Honorary Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. He also received awards for distinguished service from the University of Kansas, Washington University and from the American Cancer Society and a gold medal from the Radiological Society of North America. After retiring from practice he moved with his wife to the town of Asheville in the foothills of the Appalachian mountains, where he enjoyed trout fishing and pigeon shooting. He died on 25 May 1990, aged 91 and was survived by his wife, Clara Margaret Lund Cole.
Resource Identifier RCS: E007185
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Chaudhuri, Bijeta (1899 - 1982)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2014-11-21
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E006000-E006999/E006300-E006399
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/378545378545
Occupation General surgeon Medical Officer Military surgeon
Details Bijeta Chaudhuri was born in 1899 at Shillong to a Brahmin family from Sylhet. He spent his youth in Shantiniketan, matriculated from Patiala and passed his intermediate science exams from Dyal Singh College, Lahore. He graduated MB from Grant Medical College, Lahore, in 1922 then came to London for his Primary Fellowship. He was selected for the Indian Medical Services and returned to India in 1926 where he started his career in Quetta, North-West Frontier Province. He married Dipty Chatterjee, a great-granddaughter of Maharshi Debendranath Tagore, in 1932 returning to England for his Final FRCS in the same year. During his stay in England he was much influenced and remained friends with Sir Cecil Wakeley, Sir Gordon Gordon-Taylor, Sir James Paterson Ross, Sir Harry Platt, Charles Rob and Charles Wells. After his return to India his postings included Delhi, the Andamans and Midnapore. As Captain Chaudhuri he was the senior medical officer of the Andaman Islands where he was regarded highly, not for only his surgical skills but for his improvements in medical and jail administration. He did invaluable work in the Celliar Jail in 1947 where there was not a single death, a fact recognised by both the Home Secretary and the Central Legislation Assembly. During the war he volunteered for overseas services in Malaya, commanding a field ambulance in 1942. He was captured by the Japanese after the fall of Singapore. He was personally commended for his war service by the Supreme Allied Commander. In 1945 he was appointed DIG Prisons during the days of partition and all that followed. He was ADMS during the Indo-Pakistan operations and thereafter he held staff appointments in the Medical Directorate, eventually becoming Director General of Armed Forces Medical Services. His first love was surgery but he was recognised as a brilliant and far sighted administrator, playing a significant role in the reorganisation of the Army Medical Corps with particular attention to the specialist cadre, setting up the Armed Forces Medical College in Poona and increasing the opportunities for improving medical skills. He was a member of the Medical Council in India, showing great interest in the civilian medical services, and especially in the indigenous production of drugs and medical equipment and the establishment of radio-isotope centres and the setting up of several new medical colleges. He retired in 1959 and was made Honorary Fellow of the American College of Surgeons. He led a quiet private life in New Delhi where he died on February 28 1982, survived by his brother Maitreyee.
Resource Identifier RCS: E006362
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Griffiths, John Daniel (1926 - 2001)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2014-07-23 2015-06-03
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E005000-E005999/E005700-E005799
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/377890377890
Occupation General surgeon
Details John Griffiths was one of the leading cancer surgeons of his day, a consultant surgeon at both St Bartholomew's and the Royal Marsden. Born in Llanelli, Wales, on 31 March 1926, he was the younger brother of Evan Griffiths (see above q.v.), and the son of the town's main grocer, Edgar Griffiths, and his wife, Mary Evans. He was educated at Llanelli Grammar School, where his main and abiding loves were sport and music. A keen rugby player, he played for the Welsh Schoolboys and continued playing when he followed his older brother to Barts. After qualifying, he was house surgeon to Sir James Patterson Ross and to O S Tubbs at Hill End. He spent two years as an anatomy demonstrator under A J E Cave, before becoming registrar to Sir Clifford Naunton Morgan, during which time he carried out research into the blood supply of the colon and circulating cancer cells. This led to an Arris and Gale lecture in 1955, and an MS and a Hunterian Professorship in 1958. He won a Rockefeller scholarship to Chicago in 1958, to work under Warren Cole at the University of Illinois. On his return, he became senior registrar to the North Middlesex Hospital, and was appointed to the Royal Marsden Hospital in 1961, which he combined with an appointment to Barts in 1966. He gained a reputation as one of the leading cancer surgeons of his day, with an extensive private practice. He examined for the primary, and for the Universities of Oxford and London, as well as Sri Lanka and Ghana. He was appointed professor of physick to Gresham College, London, in 1984. John had a great interest in politics and was a lifelong member of the Liberal Party, and was courted as a potential parliamentary candidate by both Liberal and Labour parties. As a student at Cambridge he experienced conversion and he was highly respected as a Christian thinker and preacher, and was a member of the council of reference of the Christian Medical Fellowship. He retired from the NHS in 1991, and from practice altogether in 1995. He had been a keen huntsman, but had to give this up in retirement. His interest in the arts continued to develop, he revitalised the Barbican Art Club, attended opera, theatre and concerts, and found time to be chairman of the Barbican Association. He married Rosemary Quick, a Barts dietitian. He died on holiday in France on 10 April 2001, a week after he celebrated his 75th birthday and his golden wedding. He is survived by his wife, daughter, Siân (a professor of public health), four sons, Andrew, Huw, Mark and Jamie, and 12 grandchildren.
Resource Identifier RCS: E005707
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Elkington, George Ernest (1889 - 1986)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

First Title value, for Searching Rundle, Francis Felix (1910 - 1993)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

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/380502380502
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born in 1910, Francis Rundle was educated in Newcastle and graduated from Sydney University Medical School with first class honours and the University Medal in 1932. During his early training in the competitive environment of the university hospitals in London, he won the Jacksonian Prize of the College for his thesis on thyroid disease - a field in which he developed an international reputation. As Rockefeller Travelling Fellow to Harvard and Johns Hopkins Hospital, he became enthused by the American university hospital system and its dedication to clinical research. He returned as assistant to Sir James Paterson Ross at St Bartholomew's Hospital in London, and in 1950 went back to Sydney as honorary assistant surgeon at Sydney's newest teaching hospital, Royal North Shore Hospital, while simultaneously running a large private clinic in Macquarie Street. At the Royal North Shore Hospital he broke new ground by establishing a unit of clinical investigation, one of the first hospital units to promote active research by practising clinicians. He was successful in obtaining a substantial grant from the Wellcome Foundation to build laboratories for experimental surgery and medicine. Rundle was the foundation Dean of the newly created medical school at the University of New South Wales in 1959 and Professor of Surgery, leading the new medical faculty through countless initial difficulties to become one of the larger medical faculties in Australia. He accomplished the upgrading of Prince Henry Hospital, developing its clinical sciences building to house the first clinical academic departments. He participated in the development of the Prince of Wales Hospital and its children's hospital, and negotiated the inclusion of St Vincent's and St George's Hospitals and the Royal Hospital for Women in the teaching facilities of the medical faculty. Rundle was dedicated to the project of educational reform in the medical faculty and, with the conviction that learning was far more productive with clinical responsibility, developed his plan for a shortened undergraduate curriculum followed by two years of graduate education. After retiring as Dean in 1973, Rundle formed the Centre for Medical Education Research, with the support of the World Health Organization. Rundle was warmly admired by those who knew him best for his enthusiasm, energy, loyalty and vision. The rapid growth of clinical research by staff jointly accredited by hospitals and universities has become commonplace, and the thrust for continuing reform in medical education will go on through the influence of centres for research in medical education like the one he founded. He died in December 1993, survived by his wife Peggy and two sons, Julian, a business executive, and Patrick, an otolaryngologist in Sydney.
Resource Identifier RCS: E008319
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Bennett, Donald John (1939 - 2008)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by June Bennett
Publication Date 2015-09-14 2018-03-21
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/380216380216
Occupation Cardiothoracic surgeon
Details Don Bennett was a consultant cardiothoracic surgeon at Sydney Adventist Hospital. He was born on 14 April 1939 in Brisbane, the eldest son of Sir Arnold Lucas Bennett, a barrister, and his first wife Marjory (née Williams), who died when Don and his three siblings were very young. He was then raised by his stepmother, Nancy (née Mellor), and had four half siblings. His great grandfather, Thomas Pennington Lucas, was a medical practitioner and naturalist who emigrated to Australia in the 1870s. Wesleyan Methodism was a strong family influence for several generations. He was educated at Toowong and Ironsides state schools, and at Brisbane Boys' College. He was tall and athletic, being a good swimmer, runner and cricketer, and a bit of 'larrikin' in the Australian tradition. He drove a Second World War Willys Jeep while a student at the University of Queensland and qualified in 1962. He interned at Toowoomba Base Hospital and met a newly-graduated pharmacist, June Bloomfield, and married in 1963. They sailed to England in 1965, where he was a junior house surgeon at Memorial Hospital, Shooters Hill, and then a senior house surgeon at Cuckfield Hospital. He became a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1968. Returning to Australia, he was a registrar in cardiothoracic surgery at the Prince Henry Hospital, Sydney, before relocating to the Pacific (Presbyterian) Medical Center, San Francisco in 1971 as a fellow in cardiothoracic surgery with Frank Gerbode. Mogens L Bramson was on the staff and they were using prolonged partial bypass for critically ill patients. Early in 1972 the family - there were now two young boys - drove an old Chevrolet across the USA in the middle of winter to the Cleveland Clinic, where Donald Effler, the chief of cardiothoracic surgery, had encouraged René Favaloro to pioneer coronary artery surgery. The chief of cardiology was F Mason Sones Jr, who had pioneered coronary angiography. Don was successively a fellow, chief resident and associate staff surgeon there before returning to the Prince Henry Hospital in 1975 as a staff specialist. In 1978, he became the first consultant cardiothoracic surgeon at Sydney Adventist Hospital when they founded a unit there. He retired in 1991. Don was a man without pretension or prejudice and with an acute sense of humour. His working life was consumed by his concern for his patients and his team, and by participating in his boys' school and sporting activities. In retirement golf became a passion, which continued after returning to Queensland in 2002. His final three-year battle with melanoma was conducted with good humour and courage. Don Bennett died on 4 October 2008 aged 69. He was survived by his widow June, sons Ross and Brian, and granddaughters Madison, Ashleigh and Riley.
Resource Identifier RCS: E008033
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

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 Bohn, Gordon Leonard (1913 - 2007)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Marshall Barr
Publication Date 2009-03-13
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000600-E000699
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372785372785
Occupation General surgeon
Details Gordon Bohn was a consultant general surgeon at the Royal Berkshire and Battle hospitals, Reading. He was born in Forest Gate, London, on 17 February 1913, the son of Leonard Gayton Bohn, a ship-owner, and Sophia Bohn (née Cattermole). From the County High School, Ilford, he went to the medical school of St Bartholomew’s Hospital. After two and a half years in junior posts at Bart’s he had already passed the final fellowship examination. Sir James Paterson Ross told him “now is the time to learn some real surgery”. Leonard Joyce, the brilliant honorary surgeon at the Royal Berkshire Hospital, was a Bart’s man who had close links with the surgical professorial unit, so in 1937 Bohn went to the Royal Berkshire in Reading. He dropped a rank to become house surgeon to Joyce. In 1938 he became a registrar and married Freda Stace. When Joyce died in 1939, Aitken Walker became honorary surgeon and Bohn an honoary assistant surgeon. He joined Aitken Walker in private surgical practice and as co-owner of Dunedin Nursing Home, which would later become a large private hospital in a national chain. At the Royal Berkshire Hospital he was promoted to honorary surgeon in 1942, but was soon called to military service. He went with the RAMC to West Africa and Burma, reaching the rank of major. With the coming of the NHS, he was appointed consultant surgeon, becoming active on many local and regional committees. From 1969 he served for a year as head of the British paediatric team in South Vietnam. On his return he plunged into the planning for a new acute services unit being built at Battle Hospital. When it opened as the Abbey Block in 1972, Bohn, who had served at the Royal Berkshire on every surgically related committee from records to sterilising services, totally changed his allegiance: he brought his own surgical unit to the Abbey Block and worked tirelessly to improve the clinical services at Battle until his retirement on his 65th birthday in 1978. Even then, he stayed on to do two years of research. Bohn was a skilled general surgeon, with particular interests in peptic ulcer surgery and paediatrics, equally at home in dealing with a massive haematemesis or pyloric stenosis in a neonate. His mastery of clinical diagnosis was a source of wonder to a succession of surgical registrars. If a junior called with a problem, he would come in at once. In theatre he was calm, quiet and unflappable, much-loved by the nursing staff. Outside work, he was a skilled church organist and choirmaster. He continued as organist in the Royal Berkshire Hospital chapel for many years after retirement. He was completely unostentatious, although his great joy after music was an immaculate vintage Rolls Royce. A short time before both their deaths, Gordon Bohn married Maisie Cook, the ex-superintendent of theatres at the Royal Berks and Battle, who had been his companion for many years. He died on 10 December 2007 in Reading, leaving three daughters (Frances, Elizabeth and Griselda), six grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren. The second daughter, Elizabeth Calder, became an associate specialist in the Derriford Hospital dialysis and transplant unit. Her son, Alistair Calder, is a consultant radiologist at Great Ormond Street Hospital.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000602
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Walker-Brash, Robert Munro Thorburn (1920 - 2006)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2007-06-08
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000300-E000399
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372549372549
Occupation General surgeon
Details Munro Walker-Brash was a consultant general surgeon at Orpington and Sevenoaks hospitals. He was born in London on 15 November 1920, the second son of John Walker-Brash, a general practitioner, and his wife Gloria Lilian née Parker. He was educated privately at Colet Court in Hammersmith and Cliveden Place School, Eaton Square, and then entered Westminster as a King’s scholar, remaining there from 1934 until 1939. He was a chorister for Royal events in Westminster Abbey, including the coronation of King George VI. From Westminster he went up to Christ Church, Oxford, and on to St Bartholomew’s for his clinical training in 1942, spending part of his time in Smithfield during the Blitz, and part at Hill End Hospital, a former mental hospital to which Bart’s students were evacuated. After qualifying, he was house surgeon to Sir James Paterson Ross and John Hosford, by whom he was greatly influenced. He did his National Service in the RAMC, rising to the rank of major, and returned to Bart’s to be junior registrar to Basil Hume. After six months at Great Ormond Street he returned to the surgical unit at Bart’s under Sir James Paterson Ross, and then went to Norwich as registrar to Charles Noon and Norman Townsley, and the Jenny Lind Hospital for Sick Children. He returned to Bart’s in 1954 as chief assistant to Rupert Corbett and Alec Badenoch, progressing after one year to senior registrar on the ‘Green’ firm. He was noted for his dexterity, clinical judgment and teaching ability. At this time senior registrars continued their training in Bart’s sector hospitals, in Munro’s case this was at Southend General Hospital, where he worked with Rodney Maingot, who was also at the Royal Free Hospital, and Donald Barlow, who also worked at the Luton and Dunstable and London Chest hospitals. In spite of spending so much time on the road, both were prolific writers and had thriving private practices. During this period Munro was much influenced by his namesake Andrew Munro, who later moved to the Royal Postgraduate Medical School. Munro’s definitive consultant posts were at Orpington and Sevenoaks hospitals, from 1960 until his retirement in 1984. He used his extremely wide general surgical training and admitted that ‘he was overworked at two peripheral hospitals’. Surgical Tutor at these hospitals for five years from 1970, he said he wrote ‘nothing of importance’. Despite his sizeable frame, his main hobby was riding: he was a show-jumping judge and an early supporter and helper of Riding for the Disabled. He married Eva Frances Jacqueline Waite, a Bart’s nurse in 1945. They had two children, Angela, who became a personal assistant in the legal department at Scotland Yard, and Robert, who emigrated to Auckland, New Zealand, to work as an insolvency accountant. Munro’s wife was diabetic and predeceased her husband, dying in 1985. Following her death, he was befriended by Pauline Smeed. Munro had a fall in May 2006 and died in hospital on 15 September 2006.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000363
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Hunt, Alan Henderson (1908 - 1970)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2014-08-18
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/378017378017
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born in Surrey, on 19 November 1908, the second son of Edmund Henderson Hunt, MCh, FRCS (Eng) and Laura Mary, daughter of Sir James Buckingham. His elder brother, John, was elected a Fellow of the College *ad eundem* for services as a co-opted Member of Council and to medicine. Educated at Charterhouse, where, by reason of his unobtrusive industry and concentration, he was affectionately given the nickname of "The Mole". He won a closed Science Exhibition to Balliol. At Oxford he obtained the Theodore Williams Scholarship in anatomy, played cricket, and was full-back in the team that won the Intercollegiate Soccer Cup in 1931. Later he became a keen mountaineer, in spite of an arthritic hip. After his pre-clinical training in Oxford he entered St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical School, where he was elected a Luther Holden Scholar and became second assistant in the professorial surgical unit under Sir James Paterson Ross. During the second world war his early interest in orthopaedics and the surgery of trauma proved invaluable during the London blitz. He joined the RAMC as a surgical specialist and became a senior surgical officer in a Special Service Brigade (Commandos) with the rank of Major. After demobilization he was appointed surgeon to the Metropolitan Hospital, then St Bartholomew's Hospital and later to the Royal Marsden Hospital. He was senior surgeon at the latter hospitals at the time of his death. His original contributions to surgical thought and technique and his publications covered a wide field, including cancer of the jaw. He was also President of the Section of Proctology of the Royal Society of Medicine. As a young surgeon he investigated the effect of ascorbic acid upon wound healing in mice and man. He did not, however, reveal the fact that he himself was the human experimental animal. He compared the healing of a self-inflicted wound during an ascorbutic stage and when he was on a normal diet. Alan Hunt became mainly interested in abdominal surgery, especially the diseases of the liver and spleen, and achieved an international reputation. He was one of the first British surgeons to perfect the technique of operations for portal hypertension and reported the results of over 700 operations. His book on this condition became a standard work. A superb teacher, both of undergraduates and postgraduates, he attracted many overseas visitors. Though a dexterous and courageous surgeon, his enthusiasm and determination were always tempered with caution and sound commonsense. He was blessed with a boundless sense of humour, coupled with great understanding of his fellow men and deep compassion for his patients. At the Royal College of Surgeons he was Hunterian Professor, Jacksonian Prize winner and, after 6 years of service on the Court of Examiners, he became Chairman in 1966. He was elected to the Council in 1965, an appointment which he cherished, being a Member of Council at the time of his death. Both Alan and his brother had the unique experience of serving on the Council during the same year. Among his non-professional interests were Freemasonry - becoming a Past Senior Grand Deacon - music and gardening. He died on 4 July 1970 aged 61.
Resource Identifier RCS: E005834
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Underwood, William Elphinstone (1903 - 1985)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2015-08-12
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E007000-E007999/E007700-E007799
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/379912379912
Occupation General surgeon
Details William Elphinstone Underwood was born in Birmingham on 20 October 1903, the son of Dr Arthur Underwood MRCS, a general practitioner, and his wife, Phyllis Maud (née Fairclough). His father was a descendant of Dr Michael Underwood, physician to Queen Charlotte, wife of King George III. His early education was at Chigwell House Preparatory School, Birmingham, and at Rossall School after which he entered Cambridge University for his preclinical studies. While there he was one of the founder members and the first honorary secretary of the Cambridge Univerisity Medical Society. He graduated as Bachelor of Arts in 1923 and then entered St Bartholomew's Hospital with a senior entrance science scholarship. He qualified in 1927 and was initially appointed house surgeon to Sir Holburt Waring. He passed the FRCS in 1929 and afterwards was chief assistant to Sir Girling Ball and assistant director of the surgical unit under Sir James Paterson Ross. He was then appointed assistant surgeon to St Bartholomew's Hospital and sub-dean of the Medical College a well as being assistant surgeon to St Andrew's Hospital, Dollis Hill, and Harrow Hospital. He won the Jacksonian Prize in 1936 and was elected Hunterian Professor in 1937. In 1939 he joined the Royal Army Medical Corps as a surgical specialist and later rose to be assistant director of medical services and consulting surgeon with the rank of Colonel. He was twice mentioned in despatches and his war service was recognised by the award of OBE (Mil) in 1943. After demobilisation in 1945 he was appointed Professor of Surgery and Dean of the faculty of medicine to the University of Witwatersrand and chief surgeon to Johannesburg Hospital. He was an excellent undergraduate teacher and was much appreciated by the students but antagonised many people in the department of surgery. He was doing experimental work in valvular cardiac surgery, using dogs and after carrying out a successful operation, details were leaked to the press who published a photograph of a fox-terrier with a black patch on its otherwise white leg. Some time later a reporter phoned him to enquire about the dog's progress and although it had died ten days previously he was told it was in good health. The reporter then requested permission to photograph the animal and another dog was produced with a black patch painted on its white leg. The facts were well known in his department and as soon as his enemies heard of it they reported the deception and lodged a complaint with the South African Medical and Dental Council. A formal enquiry was held and he was asked to resign. He then went to live in Zimbabwe, where for a time he was medical adviser to the Messina group of companies. During his early years his outside interests were rugby, hockey and sailing and in later years swimming, tennis, music and theatre. He married in 1935 and one of his two sons is a research biochemist with the Glaxo-Allenbury consortium. He died on 11 April 1985 aged 81.
Resource Identifier RCS: E007729
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Griffiths, Evan (1916 - 1998)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

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/380829380829
Occupation General surgeon
Details Evan Griffiths was a consultant surgeon at Bridgend Hospitals, South Wales. He was born into West Wales farming stock on 13 December 1916. His father, Edgar Griffiths, owned and ran a grocery business in Llanelli. His mother was Mary Evans. Early schooling was at Llanelli Grammar School, where he displayed a great sporting talent, playing wing three-quarter for Welsh Schoolboys at rugby football. He gained a science scholarship to study medicine at St Bartholomew's Hospital in 1935, and continued to play competitive rugby for Bart's and his home town of Llanelli. In the days when one could take the primary FRCS at second MB level, he overcame this hurdle. After qualifying in 1940, house appointments followed for a year at Bart's, first in casualty, and then with Sir Geoffrey Keynes. From 1942, he worked for a year at the Bolingbroke Hospital under Sir Zachary Cope. Later, as resident surgical officer at the Brompton Hospital, he gained valuable thoracic experience working with pioneers such as Tudor Edwards, J E H Roberts and Sir Russell Brock. Having passed the Edinburgh FRCS in 1943, he entered war service, having already considerable experience in wartime trauma in London. Service as a Squadron Leader in the Royal Air Force gave him added knowledge of the creation, administration and training of personnel for a mobile field hospital during the months leading to the Normandy invasion. After the war he had the responsibility of organising the surgical side of a 'static' hospital in Germany. His sights were always set on surgery, and on demobilisation in 1947 he worked as registrar and research assistant to Ian Aird for one and a half years, before returning to his alma mater. At Bart's he became casualty surgeon and chief assistant to the professorial surgical unit, being greatly influenced by Sir James Patterson Ross. In addition to a clinical assistant post at St Peter's Hospital with Alec Badenoch from 1948 to 1951, during 1951 he held a temporary chief assistant post to Sir Clifford Naunton Morgan's unit at Bart's. He made some important observations and wrote often quoted publications on the blood supply of the pancreas, and also on cancer of the adrenal cortex. At an earlier stage he had written on the results of his investigations into the use of procaine penicillin in surgical sepsis. Evan became consultant general surgeon to the Welsh Regional Hospital Board and mid-Glamorgan management committee at Bridgend in 1951, with some commitments in outlying hospitals and also in Cardiff. Sadly, this very active surgical career was cut short by a stroke in 1959. With considerable physical and mental determination, he took up geriatrics, and was appointed consultant geriatrician in North Wales, setting up a geriatric unit at the Maelor General Hospital in Wrexham, in 1961. There was a strong Polish community in the locality. As a result of his endeavours on their behalf, he was awarded the Polish gold cross of merit. He retired in 1981 and died some 17 years later on 28 July 1998, from a myocardial infarction. Evan married Joan Morris. One of their three sons, Nicholas, is a consultant surgeon in Dover. Joan died two years after her husband and Evan's younger brother, John, also a surgeon, died in 2001 (q.v. see below). They had four grandchildren.
Resource Identifier RCS: E008646
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Guerrier, Timothy Hugh (1941 - 2020)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Jenny Guerrier
Publication Date 2020-11-24 2021-10-08
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E009000-E009999/E009800-E009899
Occupation ENT surgeon Otolaryngologist
Details Timothy (Tim) Hugh Guerrier was a consultant ENT surgeon at the Royal Hampshire County Hospital, Winchester from 1978 to 2003 with a special interest in functional endoscopic sinus surgery (FESS). Tim was the eldest of four sons of Hugh Phillip Guerrier, a consultant general surgeon with an interest in urology at Torbay Hospital, Torquay and his wife Shelagh Marion Guerrier née Streafeild, who trained at the Royal Free Hospital and became a consultant anaesthetist. Her father, William Hugh Raymond Streatfield, read medicine at Queens’ College, Cambridge and St George’s Hospital Medical School, qualifying in 1906. From 1908 he followed a career in general practice. Tim was educated initially at Highgate School until his family moved to Devon and then at Bryanston School. He started to read medicine at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, but after two years decided to commence his clinical studies at Guy’s Hospital Medical School, where he did both his house officer posts and a further six months as a senior house officer to Lord Russell Brock and Donald Ross on the thoracic unit. This was followed by a year as an anatomy demonstrator at the London Hospital Medical School. A move to Bristol for a casualty post and more general surgery resulted in the beginning of his ENT training under Jim Freeman at the Bristol General Hospital. In 1971 Tim moved to a joint junior registrar post at Mount Vernon and Middlesex hospitals, London, working with Douglas Ranger and Roland Lewis. He gained his FRCS in 1972. A year later he became a senior registrar on the Southampton/Poole rotation working in Poole with Alan Bracewell and in Southampton with John Glanville, Douglas Worgan and Noel Morgan. In 1978 Tim was appointed as a consultant ENT surgeon at the Royal Hampshire County Hospital in Winchester. In the 1980s, as a result of the work of Walter Messerklinger in Graz, Austria and his younger colleague Heinz Stammberger, the use of the rigid fibrescope combined with the increasing sophistication of CT scanning led to the development of functional endoscopic sinus surgery. Tim attended one of the early courses conducted by Stammberger and became a keen promoter of FESS in the UK through courses in London, Liverpool and Glasgow. His experience with FESS featured in Tim’s presidential address to the section of laryngology and rhinology of the Royal Society of Medicine in November in 1999. He concluded his address with a cleverly constructed slide showing King Alfred the Great’s well-known statue in the Broadway, Winchester, brandishing not a sword but a rigid endoscope! Tim married Guy’s staff nurse Jenny (née Turner) in 1967. They had five children: a daughter and four sons. None of them have gone into medicine, saying that they would not work the hours their father did! In retirement Tim, who was a friendly, charming and knowledgeable person, enjoyed having time for theatre, concerts, gardening, travel, cooking and seeing his extended family. He became a keen volunteer at the RCS Hunterian Museum and through this joined the Hunterian Society, having to decline the presidency because of ill health. He was involved in the Winchester Festival of literature and music, serving on the committee and as chairman. He also volunteered at Winchester Cathedral. Tim died on 10 October 2020 of metastases from a carcinoma of the caecum diagnosed seven years previously. He was 79.
Resource Identifier RCS: E009879
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Peet, Eric William (1909 - 1968)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

First Title value, for Searching Carling, Sir Ernest Rock (1877 - 1960)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2014-02-03
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E004000-E004999/E004900-E004999
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/377129377129
Occupation Radiologist
Details Born on 6 March 1877, the third son of F R Carling JP of Guildford, he entered the medical school of the Westminster Hospital in 1895; in 1900, while still a student, he volunteered for the South African war, serving with the Imperial Yeomanry Field Hospital and returning to qualify in 1901. The following year he obtained honours and a gold medal in the London MB examination. After a series of house appointments and a period as demonstrator of anatomy, he was appointed to the staff of the Westminster Hospital in 1906. He was also appointed to the Seamen's Hospital at Greenwich and served as consulting surgeon to Chislehurst, Watford, and Hornsey Hospitals. Later he became consultant to King Edward VII Convalescent Home for Officers at Osborne. In the war of 1914-18 he was mobilised as Captain, RAMC(T), with the 4th London General Hospital, later proceeding to Belgium and France as surgical specialist with the rank of Major. After the war he was a pioneer in the use of radium and in 1928 established a radium centre at the Westminster Hospital, setting up there with the help of his son, Francis Carling, the two original radium bombs. In 1929 he published a book of instruction on radium practice in association with J Paterson Ross, and he was made a member of the Medical Research Council and of the Radium Trust. In 1930 as dean of the medical school he rendered most valuable service in the planning and development of the new Westminster Hospital. With the outbreak of war in 1939 he was appointed consultant adviser to the Ministry of Health and Ministry of Home Security and after the war took part in the Ministry's survey of the Hospital Services. He was deeply interested in the social aspect of medicine, being a member of the executive council of the Institute of Almoners, and was associated with the Nuffield Provincial Hospital Trust. He was a member of a number of committees connected with atomic energy, being chairman of the International Commission on Radiological Protection and the Radium Commission of the Central Health Services Council. He was a wise and experienced examiner, having examined at London, Sheffield, and Edinburgh Universities. As a member for ten years and sometime chairman of the Court of Examiners his clinical acumen and administrative ability were universally acknowledged by his colleagues. He was vice-president of the Section of Surgery of the BMA in 1934 and a member of the Association's Fracture Committee. In 1942 he was elected vice-president of the Westminster Hospital in recognition of his services, with special reference to the rebuilding of the Hospital. He was a popular and kindly man, despite his highly critical outlook, inspiring deep affection in all those who worked in association with him. He married Petra, daughter of the Rev E D Rock of Creeting St Peter, Suffolk, by whom he had two sons; she died in January 1959. He died suddenly at his home 49 Hallam Street, W1 on 15 July 1960. A memorial service was held in St Margaret's, Westminster on 3 October 1960. Publications: *Course of instruction in radium practice*. 1929. *British Surgical Practice* (with J P Ross). 1947. *British Practice in Radiotherapy* (with B W Windeyer and D W Smithers) 1955. Ionising radiation and the public health. Harker Lecture 1956.
Resource Identifier RCS: E004946
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Giles, George Michael James (1853 - 1916)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2012-02-08
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/374164374164
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born on December 20th, 1853, the son of Captain George Giles, RN, of Plymouth, and received his professional training at St Mary's Hospital, where he was House Surgeon. He served as a Civil Surgeon in South Africa in the operations against the Galekas in 1878 and in the Zulu War of 1879. For these services he received the Medal and Clasp. He entered the Indian Medical Service as Surgeon on October 2nd, 1880, became Surgeon Major on October 2nd, 1892, and Lieutenant-Colonel on October 2nd, 1900, retiring on January 5th, 1901. During this period he made important contributions to animal and human parasitology in the tropics. He spent some years as Surgeon Naturalist in the Indian survey ship, the Royal Indian Marine steamer *Investigator*, and in 1886-1887 accompanied the late General Sir William Lockhart on an exploring expedition in the Pamirs. Later he was employed in a civil capacity in the Central Provinces, and was then transferred to the Sanitary Department in the North-West (afterwards the United) Provinces. He lived after his retirement at 3 Elliot Terrace, The Hoe, Plymouth, and at Crown Hill, South Devon. In 1912 he emigrated to Portsmouth, County Frontenac, Ontario, Canada, whence he returned to England, having joined the Canadian Army Medical Service, shortly after the outbreak of the Great War (1914-1918). He was for some time in charge of Burcote House Hospital, Abingdon, but was compelled to resign his post owing to ill health in March, 1916. He died at Plymouth on August 24th, 1916. Publications: "Micro-photography." - *Month Micros Jour*, 1876, xv, 26. *A Report of an Investigation into the Causes of the Diseases known in Assam as Ka'la-Az'ar and Beri-Beri*, 8vo, 4 plates, Shillong, 1890. *Tea-garden Sanitation, being a Few Remarks on the Construction of Coolie-lines and the Sanitary Management of Coolies, with Special Reference to the Prevention of the Disease known as Anaemia of Coolies, Beriberi, and Anchylostotniasis*, 8vo, Shillong, 1891. "Some Observations on the Life-history of Scierostomum Tetracanthum, Diesing, and on Sclerostomiasis in Equine Animals; in Connection with a so-called Outbreak of Surra at Shillong," 4to, 3 plates, Calcutta, 1892; reprinted from *Sci Mem Off Army of India*, 1892, vii, 1. "On a New Sclerostome from the Large Intestine of Mules," 4to, plates, Calcutta, 1892; reprinted from *Ibid*, 25. "On Nodular Disease of the Intestine in Sheep," 4to, plate, Calcutta, 1892; reprinted from *Ibid*, 31. "A Description of the New Nematode Parasites found in Sheep," 4to, plate, Calcutta, 1892; reprinted from *Ibid* 45. *A Handbook of the Gnats or Mosquitoes, giving the Anatomy and Life History of the Culicidae*, 8vo, plates, London, 1900. This is his best-known work and is a classic. "Notes on Indian Mosquitoes," 8vo, London, 1901; reprinted from *Jour Trop Med*, 1901, iv, 159. "Captain Rogers' Recent Investigations in Malaria," 8vo, Calcutta, 1901; reprinted from *Ind Med Gaz*, 1901, xxxvi, 51. "On Pre-pupal Changes in the Larvae of the Culicidae," 8vo, 2 plates, London,1903; reprinted from *Jour Trop Med*, 1903, vi, 1S5. *A Revision of the Anophelinae, being a First Supplement to the 2nd ed of a Handbook of the Gnats*, etc., 8vo, London, 1904. "The Anatomy of the Biting Flies of the Genus *Stomoxys* and *Glossina*," 4to, illustrated, London, 1906; reprinted from *Jour Trop Med*, 1906, ix, 99, etc. *Supplementary Reports* (with R FIELDING-OULD) to Ross, Annett, and Austen's *Report of the Malaria Expedition of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine and Medical Parasitology*, 4to, Liverpool, 1900.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001981
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Clarke, Eric Price (1913 - 1969)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2014-10-30
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E006000-E006999/E006200-E006299
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/378405378405
Occupation General surgeon
Details Eric Price Clarke was born on 14 October 1913 at Blackburn, Lancs, the only child of Lancashire-born parents; his father, a graduate of Manchester University, was a schoolmaster, later joining the Home Office as an Inspector of Factories. Eric was educated at Queen Elizabeth Grammar School, Blackburn. He obtained a scholarship to Plymouth College, Plymouth and from there he went up to St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical College at the early age of 16 and a half. He qualified MB, BS with honours in surgery in 1936 and stayed on at Bart's as house surgeon and casualty house surgeon to the Professorial Unit under Sir James Paterson Ross. He worked at the Wellhouse Hospital (now Barnet General Hospital) under H R Seager, and the Lord Mayor Treloar Hospital, Alton, under Sir Henry Gauvain. He was appointed to St Richard's Hospital, Chichester in February 1940, under Douglas Martin, as surgeon and deputy surgeon superintendent. In 1941 he joined the RAMC and in the rank of Major served as surgical specialist with the First Army in North Africa and Italy. He was seconded for work in Greece during the Civil War doing major traumatic surgery under the most primitive, unconventional and exciting conditions. He returned to Chichester in 1947 and obtained the FRCS in 1948. At the initiation of the National Health Service in 1948 he was graded senior hospital medical officer, being upgraded to consultant surgeon to the Chichester Group Hospitals in 1951 and serving them until his death. He was an excellent and versatile general surgeon. He had a sound clinical judgement and his opinion was much sought after by his medical colleagues. He was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine. He was a member of the Chichester Group Medical Advisory Committee and of the Bognor War Memorial Hospital Medical Staff Committee; in September 1967 he became Chairman of the latter. He had a great affection for Bognor Hospital which was reciprocated by all members of the staff which he served so well. He had a quiet, gentle character and a deep sense of humour which served him well through his last illness. Everybody knew him as "Nobby" Clarke and called him affectionately by his nickname. He was the most gentle, stable, indeed lovable personality and the tribute paid to him by all grades of hospital staff from porters, secretaries, nurses and doctors bear eloquent testimony to this. His humour and his kindly touch endeared him to his patients. His hobbies were few. He has always read extensively, preferring biography and detective novels. He was fond of music, surprisingly preferring traditional jazz and brass bands. As a student he played rugby at Bart's and sailed in ocean yachts as a member of the Royal Corinthian Yacht Club, Burnham-on-Crouch, visiting Heligoland, the Baltic and Finland. In Chichester he played tennis and squash and was a member of the hospital mixed hockey team. On 6 October 1939 he married Helen B M Hatt, SRN, a parson's daughter who trained with him at Bart's. She survived him with a daughter and two sons, the elder son Peter trained at Bart's and went into general practice. In September 1968 he developed Hodgkin's disease which he bore with fortitude and cheerfulness. Between spells of treatment he heroically came back to work. He died in King Edward VII Hospital, Midhurst on 18 October 1969 aged 56.
Resource Identifier RCS: E006222
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Kohn, Frederick (1892 - 1984)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2015-06-05
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/379581379581
Occupation General practitioner General surgeon
Details Frederick (Fritz) Kohn was born of Jewish parents on 22 May 1892 in Komotau in North West Bohemia, the son of a horse dealer and his early education was at the local gymnasium (grammar school), where he was taught by Cistercian monks. In 1910 he went to Prague for medical studies at the German Karl Ferdinand University and qualified in 1915. After six months postgraduate work in Prague he was commissioned into the Austro-Hungarian Army as a Lieutenant, serving on the Eastern Front. At the end of the war he returned to civilian life, initially as a general practitioner but in 1920 he moved to work in Karlsbad, a spa town with a population of about 20,000. He was appointed surgeon to a private hospital and in addition to treating the local population also looked after many patients from other parts who required surgical attention while visiting the spa. He remained in practice at Karlsbad until 1938 when he was called upon to serve in the Czechoslovakian Army for a short while until the Sudetenland was taken over by German troops. He was then arrested and imprisoned by the Germans and spent some time in Dachau before being released as a result of intervention by the Quakers. He and his wife arrived in England shortly before the war and after the outbreak of hostilities the Medical Officer of Health of the City of London, Dr C F White, appointed him a stretcher-bearer in the service of the ARP. At first the duties were light but when the air-raids on London started in October 1940 his work was arduous and dangerous. Many of his victims were taken to St Bartholomew's Hospital and his work and surgical knowledge came to the attention of Professor Sir James Paterson Ross. In 1941 he was given permission to work as a doctor and was successful in his application for the post of house surgeon at St Martin's Hospital, Bath. Within a few weeks the resident surgical officer had been called up and as Fritz's ability had by then been recognised he was appointed medical superintendent and in addition to his administrative duties continued to work as a surgeon throughout the war years; this included treating most of the victims of the air raids on Bath on two consecutive nights in May 1942, when over two hundred casualties were brought to the hospital. Wounded soldiers from North Africa came to the hospital after arrival at Avonmouth by convoy and later in the war some of the wounded from Normandy came to St Martin's after being flown home only a few hours after sustaining their injuries on the battlefield. St Martin's Hospital was a local poor law hospital, enlarged by Emergency Medical Service huts and at its maximum capacity during the war years accommodated nine hundred patients. After the introduction of the National Health Service his administrative duties as medical superintendent ceased but he remained on the hospital staff as consultant surgeon until 1957. His cheerful manner made him popular with patients and professional colleagues, but he could be abrasive in the operating theatre when difficulties arose. The high esteem in which he was held is testified by the building of the Kohn Hall and Library at St Martin's Hospital with money raised by public subscription and his services to the nation and the Royal College of Surgeons were recognised by the award of the King's Medal and his election to the Fellowship in 1975. He died on 18 December 1984, aged 92 and was survived by his wife and son, Ernst.
Resource Identifier RCS: E007398
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Tuckwell, Sir Edward George (1910 - 1988)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2015-08-12
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E007000-E007999/E007700-E007799
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/379916379916
Occupation General surgeon
Details Edward George Tuckwell, the third of eight children and the eldest son of Edward Henry Tuckwell, a stockbroker, and of Annie Clarice (née Sansom), was born on May 12, 1910, at Godalming, Surrey. He was educated at Hillside School, Godalming; Charterhouse School, and Magdalen College, Oxford. He then went to St Bartholomew's Hospital and, unusually for those days, married Phyllis Corthorpe Regester in 1934. On qualifying in 1936 he was house surgeon to the Surgical Professorial Unit before becoming demonstrator in pathology. He passed the final FRCS in May 1939 and shortly after the outbreak of war, when most of Bart's had been evacuated to sector hospitals, he became chief assistant to Harold Wilson in the rather attenuated hospital at West Smithfield. He joined the RAMC in 1941 as a surgical specialist with the rank of Major, serving for some time in the UK before commanding a field surgical unit in the Normandy landings shortly after D-Day. After the defeat of Germany he joined the 14th Army in Burma and Sumatra as officer in charge of a hospital surgical division, with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. On demobilisation he returned to Bart's as a chief assistant, and then as first assistant, to the Surgical Professorial Unit. He recorded his indebtedness then to Sir James Paterson Ross and to Michael Boyd though the latter shortly moved to Manchester as Professor of Surgery, in succession to Robert Morley. Tuckwell's original intention was to seek a regional hospital appointment; but the departure of Boyd, and two other members of the Bart's surgical staff in rapid succession, led to unexpected staff vacancies, one of which he secured. He was later appointed consultant surgeon to the Royal Masonic Hospital, as well as to King Edward VII Hospital for Officers and the King Edward VII Convalescent Home at Osborne, Isle of Wight. An essentially practical general surgeon he had an early interest in surgery of the sympathetic nervous system, and especially in splanchnic neurectomy for hypertension until the availability of effective drugs rendered that operation redundant. He published little but was Dean of St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical College from 1952 to 1957 and a governor of the hospital from 1952. He also examined in pathology for the primary FRCS and for the Conjoint. He was always extremely punctual and was a rapid operator. In 1954 he achieved considerable fame when he emerged unscathed from a high court case Hatcher v Black and Others. Together with one of his physician colleagues, he was sued for alleged negligence in connection with a partial thyroidectomy operation at Bart's in 1952. Although one recurrent laryngeal nerve had been damaged, and the patient had not been specifically warned of this possibility, after a sympathetic summing up by Lord Justice Denning the jury found in favour of all the defendants (*The Times, Law reports* 28 June to 1 July 1954). In 1964 he became Surgeon to the Royal Household; Surgeon to HM the. Queen in 1969, and Serjeant-Surgeon from 1973 to 1975, when he was appointed KCVO. His first wife Phyllis, by whom he had two sons, Chris and Gareth (MB BS London 1971), and a daughter, Anne, died in May 1970. After her death he founded the Phyllis Tuckwell Memorial Hospice in Farnham and served as its President until his death. In the following year he married Mrs Barbara Gordon (née Jameson), the widow of Major A J Gordon. Outside his professional work he was especially interested in travel, shooting and gardening. When he died at his home on 27 December 1988 he was survived by his second wife and the children of his first marriage.
Resource Identifier RCS: E007733
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Williams, Peter Llewellyn (1926 - 1994)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2015-10-09
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E008000-E008999/E008400-E008499
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/380597380597
Occupation Anatomist
Details Professor Peter Williams was an outstanding anatomist who was known and respected world-wide for the editing and revision of *Gray's Anatomy*. He was born on 11 November 1926 at Caerleon in Gwent, the elder son of Jack Williams, a Welsh education and child-welfare officer. His father, who held strong left-wing political views, was a renowned orator and contested the North Devon seat for Labour (subsequently won by Jeremy Thorpe). His mother, who strongly supported him in his chosen career, was a district nurse and midwife. Peter Williams was educated at the Jones West Monmouth School in Pontypool, and subsequently won a state scholarship to St Catherine's College, Cambridge, in 1944, where he was awarded first-class honours in both parts of the natural science tripos. He also won the St Catherine's scholarship in anatomy and the Marmaduke Shield university scholarship in anatomy. His tutor was Dr D V Davies, a formidable figure well-known to that generation, who described him as the best student he had ever had, and Davies and Peter Williams were known by their contemporaries as 'the only persons to know every word in Gray'. In 1947 he went to Guy's Hospital Medical School as a clinical student, where he won the Treasurer's gold medal in 1950. After junior appointments at Guy's, he did his National Service in the RAMC at BMH Wuppertal in Germany, and then returned to Guy's, where he became successively research fellow, lecturer, senior lecturer and reader in anatomy. In 1970 he was appointed Professor of Anatomy at London University, a position he held for the next ten years. He was a distinguished teacher and researcher in anatomy, and besides numerous papers on neuroscience he wrote *Basic human embryology* (which ran to three editions) in 1966 and *Functional neuroanatomy of man* in 1975. His research into the functions of the neuron and its myelin sheath gained him a DSc from London University in 1970. It is, however, with the modernisation of *Gray's Anatomy* that his name is inseparably linked, and he 'retired' in 1980 in order to devote himself to this task. In 1954 he had been appointed indexer for the centenary edition (32nd) of Gray's by Professor T B Johnson, and he became expert adviser to Professor D V Davies for the 34th edition. Davies, who resisted change in the book, died prematurely in 1968, after which Williams became joint editor with Roger Warwick for the 35th edition. This was an opportunity to introduce radical changes in format with an altered text and bibliography, and over 600 new diagrams, many drawn by Williams himself. He became senior editor for the next two editions, and in 1989 chairman of the editorial board for the 38th edition, in which some 150 specialist contributors participated. His life's endeavour, as he himself said, was to transform the study of anatomy from a static, descriptive exercise into a vibrant, dynamic and experimental natural science, interlocked with other disciplines, and in this he certainly succeeded. He had a fiery personality, and would never admit to retirement in the usual sense of the word. His outside interests included gardening, astronomy and cricket, which he followed enthusiastically. He married Irene Holland in 1954 and they had one son, Ross, and a daughter, Lyn. His younger brother, Michael, is emeritus professor of anatomy at Sheffield University. He died aged 67 on 5 October 1994 following a heart attack, some six years after a successful coronary bypass operation for angina.
Resource Identifier RCS: E008414
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Rodgers, Harold William (1907 - 2001)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2015-12-04
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E008000-E008999/E008800-E008899
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/381065381065
Occupation General surgeon
Details Harold Rodgers was Professor of Surgery at Queen's University, Belfast. He was born in Buldana, near Bombay, India, the third child and second son of Thomas Rivers Rodgers, a medical officer and prison governor, and Elizabeth Idee née Brinkworth, whose father was a civil servant. As a boy he became an excellent marksman, shooting game in the jungle. He obtained his early education at King's College School, Wimbledon, before entering St Bartholomew's Medical College. Throughout these years he excelled in athletics, also playing rugby, cricket and tennis. His academic abilities led to the Harvey prize at Bart's. Most of his early medical career was spent at his alma mater, where he demonstrated anatomy, before becoming casualty surgeon. Later, as chief assistant, he was influenced by Sir Charles Gordon Watson, Reginald Vick, Sir Clifford Naunton Morgan, John Hosford and Sir James Paterson Ross. Sir Thomas Dunhill and William J Mayo were also involved in these formative years. His early use of the gastroscope followed a pre-war visit to Germany, and his main interests developed in gastro-intestinal surgery. He served in the RAMC for six years. He was awarded the OBE in 1943 for his care of an isolated guards regiment, which held a important crossroads outside Tunis under heavy bombardment for four months. He was demobilised as a Lieutenant Colonel. In 1947 he was appointed to the post of Professor of Surgery at Queen's University, Belfast, and continued in the role until 1973, developing a first-class service in the new NHS, and becoming well known for his clear and didactic teaching in a modern department. His military experience was invaluable in shaping the efficient system which evolved for the rapid evacuation and treatment of casualties, and he took pride in the neutrality of the hospital environment. He examined for the College from 1961 to 1967, ultimately becoming Chairman of the Court of Examiners. As founder member, he became President of both the Surgical Research Society and the British Society of Gastro-enterology. Many of his publications were in the latter field, and he contributed to early editions of Bailey and Love, Rob and Smith, and also wrote articles on peritoneoscopy and gastroscopy. He was an early protagonist of sclerotherapy for bleeding oesophageal varices, and some of his earlier operative work in portacaval surgery was performed in collaboration with Alan Hunt in the management of portal hypertension. As an active Christian, he served as president of the Christian Medical Fellowship, president of the YMCA in Belfast and of the Hibernian Christian Medical Society and was a church warden in a thriving London church. In retirement, he enjoyed travel, painting and poetry. His interest in developing countries led him to tour Africa, India and Nepal as a World Health Organisation visiting professor. In the 1990's he was active with his son in trying to promote a peaceful solution to the problems in the Sudan, in the late 1990's lobbying the Foreign Office and the Sudanese Embassy in the process. He married Margaret, the daughter of a doctor from St Thomas's Hospital, in 1938. He had one son, who followed his father into the medical profession, and three daughters. After caring for his ailing wife when in his 90's, he moved to Birmingham and lived near his son in his own home until 10 days before his death in a hospice on 24 June 2001.
Resource Identifier RCS: E008882
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

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 Yates, Alan Kenneth (1932 - 1990)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2015-08-14
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E007000-E007999/E007700-E007799
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/379931379931
Occupation Cardiac surgeon
Details Alan Kenneth Yates was born on 9 December 1932 and after early education entered the University of Sheffield Medical School. During his student years he represented Essex and Yorkshire at swimming, often training at night. He was awarded the University medal for both the second MB and the final MB and collected numerous prizes and gold medals in a variety of clinical subjects. The day after he graduated he married Enid. His house appointments were to the University departments of medicine and surgery at Sheffield and following these he joined the Royal Army Medical Corps for his National Service, initially serving as senior casualty officer at the Cambridge Military Hospital, Aldershot, and later as junior surgical specialist at Gibraltar Military Hospital. During this time, in addition to his professional commitments he captained the British Army swimming team. On returning to civilian life he was demonstrator of anatomy at Bristol before returning to Sheffield as registrar to the cardiothoracic unit working under Desmond Taylor. This fired his enthusiasm for cardiac surgery and after a further appointment as rotating surgical registrar in Sheffield he was appointed senior registrar at Guy's Hospital, working under Lord Brock and Donald Ross from 1964 to 1968. He impressed his surgical colleagues with his energy, enthusiasm and the high standard of personal care he gave to his patients, but in 1968 he left Guy's in order to take up a vacant appointment at the Northern General Hospital, Sheffield. Sadly this appointment was not up to his expectations owing to a shortage of facilities and restricted financial provision for his department. After about a year he returned to Guy's Hospital as successor to Lord Brock. He tackled his new appointment with his characteristic enthusiasm and vigour and additionally undertook directorship of the intensive care unit. Although critical and outspoken about the failings of any junior, he was always supportive in times of difficulty and he earned great respect from junior medical and nursing staff at Guy's. His morning rounds on Cornelius and Brock wards were always well attended and he demanded optimal standards for every patient under his care. He made valuable contributions to surgical literature on aortic valve disease, supportive perfusion and intensive care and undertook management tasks with the same enthusiasm he gave his clinical work. Indeed, it is said of him that, when a registrar, he had been so involved with his work that he only learnt of the birth of his son, Neil, several days after it had occurred. In the mid-1970's he went to the Middle East to help in establishing cardiac services. On one particularly hot day he plunged into the Mediterranean and swam across the harbour at a speed never seen before by his surgical colleagues. On his return they closely questioned him. He admitted that he had done some swimming in his youth but until hard pressed he concealed the fact that he had swum in the 1954 Olympics. He was a sociable man who loved parties where his expansive personality and sense of humour would burgeon. He was a keen sailor and it was well known that he intended to take early retirement at 60 and sail round the world with his wife. Sadly he developed carcinoma of the caecum and despite operative excision he developed bony and hepatic metastases. He died on 20 November 1990 aged 57 survived by his wife, and four sons. His twenty years' service to intensive care at Guy's is commemorated by naming part of this ward as the Alan Yates ward.
Resource Identifier RCS: E007748
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Profitt, William Robert (1936 - 2018)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Chris Stephens
Publication Date 2024-03-26
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E010000-E010999/E010400-E010499
Occupation Orthodontist
Details William Robert Profitt, known as ‘Bill’, was head of the department of orthodontics at the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill, USA, and probably the most influential orthodontist of his generation. He grew up in Buies Creek, North Carolina, the son of teachers. His remarkable thirst for learning was evidenced by the fact that he taught himself to read at the age of three and subsequently skipped first grade. His mother, Edna, chair of the chemistry department at Campbell College, encouraged him to study science. He studied dentistry at UNC, gained a PhD in physiology at the Medical College of Virginia and completed his orthodontic residency program at the University of Washington. In 1965, he joined the faculty of the University of Kentucky and served as the first chairman of the orthodontic department. He then taught at the University of Florida for two years. In 1975 he joined the orthodontic faculty at UNC. He served as professor and later became chair of the department of orthodontics, a post he held for 26 years. He was still actively involved in teaching and lecturing at UNC and worldwide up until his death. In 1992, the UNC board of trustees appointed him a W R Kenan Distinguished Professor, considered to be one of the university’s most prestigious honours. An active researcher, Bill’s main interests were the aetiology of malocclusion and the effectiveness of combined orthodontic and orthognathic treatment. During his career, he published more than 200 scientific papers. He was one of the first orthodontists to adopt clinical trial methodology when his department carried out landmark studies into the early treatment of class II malocclusion. These provided models for the adoption of randomised controlled trial methodology in orthodontics throughout the world. Bill was also an approachable and effective educator. His textbook *Contemporary orthodontics* (Elsevier, Philadelphia, 2018), the sixth edition of which was published just before his death, was probably the most widely used book on orthodontic specialty programmes and is now available in 12 languages. Known simply as ‘Proffit’, nearly all orthodontists now own a copy. He also contributed chapters to 20 other books. Bill was a gifted and witty speaker whose lectures, delivered in his slow, southern drawl, were much in demand throughout the world for he had the ability of making the most complex subjects appear simple. Always keen to explore new teaching methods, in his later life he quickly adopted and pioneered online distance learning. A great anglophile, he was a frequent and welcome visitor to Britain and received an honorary FDS of the Royal College of Surgeons of England in 1990. His other many accolades included the American Dental Association Norton M Ross Award (1994), the American Board of Orthodontics Albert H Ketcham Award (2005) and the inaugural Lifetime Achievement Award in Orthodontic Research made by American Association of Orthodontics in 2017. Bill in his earlier days was a fit and fearsome tennis player. He was proud of his ability to grow disease-free English roses in the unfavourable North Carolina climate. The worldwide travel, which he greatly enjoyed with Sara, his wife of 65 years, was linked to his ambition of riding on all the world’s major railways. This he largely accomplished. Bill died on 30 September 2018. He was 81. He was survived by Sara and their three children, Lola, Ed and Glenn, eight grandchildren, and nine great-grandchildren. His influence on orthodontics has been immeasurable and all orthodontists throughout the world sadly miss him, many of whom contributed to the endowed chair created in his honour at UNC.
Resource Identifier RCS: E010605
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Smith, Patrick Joseph Bradshaw (1939 - 2022)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Paul Smith
Publication Date 2022-06-07 2022-08-01
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/385801385801
Occupation Urologist
Details Patrick Joseph Bradshaw Smith, or Paddy as he was known, was a consultant urologist at Bristol Royal Infirmary. He was born in Exeter on 22 January 1939, the son of Richard Smith and Bridget Smith née Kelly, successful art and antique dealers. As a child he was lucky to escape death when a German bomb hit his parent’s house in Exeter but failed to detonate. Shortly afterwards, he was evacuated to Ireland, where he spent a good part of his early youth on the family farm in New Ross, County Wexford. In 1946 he joined his two older brothers at Saint Boniface’s Catholic Boarding School in Plymouth. He was sporty and successful at school, enjoying both cricket and rugby. He was a handy opening batsman but lost his two front teeth on a lively school wicket! Always an adventurer, in 1956 he rode a moped from Exeter to Barcelona and back with a Spanish schoolfriend using an old map. His National Service in the late 1950s was spent in the Royal Navy, where he was promoted to lieutenant commander but never progressed any further because, by his own admission, he was ‘a bit too rebellious’. This set the tone for his later career: he would often challenge the status quo and ‘established dogma’. In 1960 he began his studies at Bristol Medical School and became captain of the rugby team. He continued to have adventures, including having his trousers removed and thrown into the fountains outside the Victoria Rooms at the University during a black-tie rugby club dinner. He qualified in 1966 and, after house posts, was appointed as a registrar at Bristol Royal Infirmary in 1968. He then moved to a senior registrar post at Leeds in 1970. His first consultant appointment was in 1974 at St Martin’s Hospital, Bath, where he remained until 1984. He then moved to Bristol Royal Infirmary, where he was a consultant until 2005. He spent time at the Mayo Clinic in the USA under the wing of Tom Stamey, which is where he learned ‘modern techniques’ of urology including optical urethrotomy. He enjoyed extensive travel during his career, practising in Dubai, Athens and Rome. After retiring from surgery he continued a successful medico-legal practice, where he enjoyed locking horns with talented QCs! He was a gifted, talented and eclectic individual with many interests. Outside medicine, he was a patron of the Royal Shakespeare Company and would spend many weekends listening to Shakespeare’s works. He collected Irish art, Staffordshire porcelain and rare books. He enjoyed fine wine, notably Pichon Longueville, and would drink Winston Churchill Pol Roger champagne every Christmas and birthday! After working in Italy, he treated himself to a Maserati luxury car, which he found to be a bit too fast but very enjoyable. Later in life he settled down with a more discreet Mercedes for his trips to London and Stratford-upon-Avon. Paddy died at his beloved home on the Royal Crescent, Bath, on 28 April 2022 at the age of 83. He was survived by his wife Frances (née Murphy), whom he married in Cork in 1967, and his two sons, Michael and Paul. He also leaves behind many, many grateful trainees for whom his loyal support, guidance and encouragement was invaluable in spawning many fruitful careers. In addition, many former patients are profoundly grateful for his care and for prolonging their lives.
Resource Identifier RCS: E010138
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Gunning, Alfred James (1918 - 2011)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Raymond Hurt
Publication Date 2011-12-20 2012-10-31
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001700-E001799
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373966373966
Occupation Cardiothoracic surgeon
Details Alfred Gunning was a cardiothoracic surgeon in Oxford, perhaps best known for his work on replacement heart valves. He was born on 21 November 1918 in Dullstroom, South Africa, the son of George Ronald Gunning, a police sergeant, and Kathleen Gunning née Dunne, a housewife. He attended the Christian Brothers' College, Kimberly, and then the University of Cape Town Medical School, where he was a contemporary of Christiaan Barnard and came under the influence of Charles Saint at Groote Schuur Hospital. He went to England, attended the primary and final fellowship courses, and also the ear, nose and throat course at the Royal College of Surgeons in 1949. Following junior surgical posts he was appointed as a first assistant to Philip Allison in Leeds, an acknowledged expert on oesophageal surgery. In 1964 Allison was appointed Nuffield Professor of Surgery at the Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford, and Alfred moved with him. He was soon granted consultant status and began to develop the new specialty of open-heart surgery. Alfred spent six months with Kirklin at the Mayo Clinic, and brought back an early type of heart-lung machine to replace the earlier technique of profound hypothermia for the treatment of congenital heart disease in children. In association with a Spanish surgeon, Carlos Duran, he developed a reliable method to preserve human heart valves by a freeze-drying technique. He subsequently introduced the technique to a fellow South African surgeon, Donald Ross, at the National Heart Hospital in London, where the first homograft valve replacement operation was performed in 1962. Because of the difficulty in obtaining human valves, Alfred researched the use of pig valves (identical in size to those of humans) and performed the first aortic valve replacement with a pig valve on a 56-year-old man in 1964. Alfred was later appointed to the Churchill Hospital in Oxford and developed a simple portable heart-lung machine to perform emergency pulmonary embolectomy in peripheral hospitals, an innovation subsequently adopted by Matthias Paneth at the Brompton Hospital, London. In association with Macfarlane and Biggs at the haemophilia unit, Alfred also undertook hazardous open-heart and thoracic surgery on haemophiliac patients. He was a remarkable all-round surgeon, whose operating lists often included abdominal and gynaecological surgery. Problems with funding, and therefore a failure to develop cardiac surgery in Oxford, were a major disappointment to him in the later stages of his career. He was a remarkably unassuming surgeon who nevertheless inspired dedication in those who worked with him. On one occasion he entered the ward late at night and was mistaken by the nurse for the plumber, and was asked to repair a leaking tap. He fixed the tap and then asked the nurse if he could now do his ward round! He was a member of Pete's Club, a travelling surgical club where the only rule was that 'no case that is presented shall throw credit on the presenter'. Only errors of judgement were discussed, and members consequently learnt a tremendous amount, much more than at other national surgical meetings. In 1987, on retirement from the NHS, Alfred returned to Groote Schuur Hospital, Cape Town, where he spent five years as a senior lecturer, doing thoracic surgery. He later became acting head of the department until a full-time professor could be appointed. During his retirement he enjoyed squash and parachuting, and in South Africa bunjee jumping and white water rafting, as well as developing an interest in medical history. He was a remarkable and innovative surgeon who had an international reputation as a lecturer. Sadly, he did not receive in England the acknowledgement and recognition that was due to him, perhaps because of his somewhat unconventional attitude. He married Mary Janet ('Mollie') in 1949. She predeceased him. They had two sons, Kevin, who became director of the John Farman intensive care unit at Addenbrooke's Hospital, and Andrew, and a daughter, Peta. Alfred died on 10 August 2011.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001783
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Roddick, Sir Thomas George (1846 - 1923)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2012-11-14
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E003000-E003999/E003100-E003199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/375313375313
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born at Harbour Grace, Newfoundland, on July 31st, 1846, the son of the Principal of the Government Grammar School; he entered McGill University in 1864, and was the first student of his year and Holmes Gold Medallist. For six years he acted as Resident Surgeon at the Montreal General Hospital. In 1874 he was appointed Attending Surgeon and Demonstrator of Anatomy, and in 1875 he was elected to the Chair of Clinical Surgery. In 1877 he went to Edinburgh to study under Lister, and at the end of some months returned with a full knowledge of the methods and all the apparatus to carry out the technique - spray, prepared gauzes, green protective and rubber sheeting. He was the first to introduce the antiseptic method into Montreal and Canada, which revolutionized surgical practice, banished erysipelas and hospital gangrene, and reduced the mortality of surgical cases to a minimum. In 1885, at the outbreak of Riel's rebellion in the North-West, Roddick went to the front as Deputy Surgeon General of the Canadian Militia, and organized the medical and hospital services. In 1890 he succeeded Fenwick in the Chair of Surgery at McGill University, and when the two Montreal citizens, Lord Mount Stephen and Sir Donald Smith - (later Lord Strathcona), founded the Royal Victoria Hospital, Roddick was entrusted with the organization of the surgical side and visited the chief European centres. He was actively connected with the General Hospital for twenty-five years, during which time he gained a wide reputation as teacher and surgeon. His love for his work, genial manner, and innate kindness of heart endeared him to all. He suffered, indeed, at times from the very defect of his virtue in that he was apt too easily to promise to do those things which he could not perform, but those whom he thus disappointed could not but yield conviction to his inherent kindness. He retired from the active staff, becoming Consulting Surgeon, upon his election to the Canadian Parliament as Conservative Member for Montreal West. He continued Chairman of the Medical Board for many years, and from 1901-1908 was Dean of the Medical Faculty of McGill University, subsequently becoming a Governor of the University. In Parliament as a medical politician he made propagandist tours throughout the Dominion in favour of the so-called 'Roddick Bill', by which, when it became an Act, the Government were enabled to appoint a Medical Council of Canada whose Diploma gave the right to practise throughout the Dominion, to admit to the British Register, and render the holder eligible for the medical services of the Army and Navy. He was elected first President of the Medical Council established under the Canadian Medical Act, 1912, of which a detailed account appeared in the *British Medical Journal* obituary notice on March 17th, 1923. The first occasion on which the British Medical Association paid a visit abroad was the Montreal Meeting in 1897. Roddick was President, and to him was largely due the acceptance of the invitation. His address was published in the *Journal*, 1897, ii, 569. Owing to failing health he had, for several years before his death, wintered in Florida, but at the last he did not make the journey and died at his house in Montreal on Feb 20th, 1923. He was twice married: (1) in 1880 to Miss M McKinnon, who died in 1890; and (2) in 1896 to Miss Redpath, who as Lady Roddick survived him without issue. His portrait is in the Honorary Fellows' Album. Shepherd's *Sir Thomas George Roddick* includes other portraits, also interesting reminiscences of the early work of Roddick, and of George Ross, at the Montreal General Hospital. Roddick contributed largely to the *Montreal Medical Journal* and to the *Montreal General Hospital Reports*.
Resource Identifier RCS: E003130
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Hackett, Michael Edward John (1931 - 1991)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2015-09-09
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/380158380158
Occupation General surgeon Plastic surgeon Plastic and reconstructive surgeon
Details Michael Hackett, or Mike, as he was always known, was born on 6 August 1931 in Morecambe, Lancashire. He was the son of Jack Hackett, editor of *The Morecombe Visitor* and the nephew of Desmond Hackett, the well-known *Daily Express* sports writer. He was educated at Preston Catholic College and proceeded to National Service as a 'proper soldier' with the King's Own Royal Regiment from 1950 to 1952, playing representative rugger for his regiment and Western Command. He then entered St Bartholomew's Medical School, where his ability to combine hard work with play made him an outstanding student. He continued his rugger career to captain the Bart's 1st XV for two sessions, until a head injury forced him to retire. He was forthwith elected captain of the 1st XI soccer team. The need to have him at Chislehurst Club House on a Saturday afternoon was greater than the requirement for him to have any talent for soccer! Mike Hackett always wanted to be a surgeon, and following house posts under Professor Sir Edwin Scowen and Sir James Paterson Ross he became SHO to Pennybacker at the Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford. He returned to Bart's as junior registrar on the 'Yellow Firm', drawing inspiration from his chiefs Alan Hunt and James Robinson, and it was at this time that he gained his Fellowship. Not for him the slow ascent to a consultant post, and it is hard to appreciate today the extent of the British colonies at that time, all offering experience to adventurous doctors. Despite the risks of re-entry into the NHS, he successfully applied for the post of surgical specialist to Fiji and lecturer to the Fiji School of Medicine. He met the huge demands of general surgery there by application and skill, and revelled in life on a Pacific island. On return home in 1968 he decided to take up plastic surgery, and became registrar to John Watson at the London Hospital and later senior registrar to Percy Jayes and Robin Beare at East Grinstead, home of plastic surgery. In 1973 he was appointed consultant plastic surgeon to the North East Thames Regional Unit at Billericay and also to the London Hospital. His early research was on thermography and later on skin homografts and xenografts. His main interest was the treatment of burns and he strove to provide the optimum treatment for patients, despite the long journeys to and from the burns unit which therapy occasionally involved. To Hackett, however, the length of the journey was never a deterrent to seeing a patient - indeed it might be said that the M25 motorway was made-to-measure for him, driving his open-top Mercedes to connect the east and west ends of his practice. Never a man to waste time on committees, he was a strident advocate for improved surgical training and gave example by the way he taught his juniors and his enthusiastic involvement in postgraduate meetings, both in College and his region. By drive and nagging of wealthy patients and companies he established a research unit from which future plastic surgeons will reap the benefit. He maintained contact with a wide circle of surgeons both from home and abroad, enabling him to found the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons and the European Association of Plastic Surgeons. Death deprived him and the surgical world of Presidencies of both, and also that of the RSM's Section of Plastic Surgery. Mike was an impressive man in any gathering, extrovert, bursting with energy and ideas and always finding time for a few witty words. Coronary artery disease developed early, held at bay for a few years by a bypass operation at Barts, to return bringing sudden death after seeing his last patient in Harley Street on the 18 January 1991. He was survived by his wife Gillian Heather, consultant anaesthetist to St Bartholomew's Hospital.
Resource Identifier RCS: E007975
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Friend, William Douglas (1924 - 1998)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2015-10-29
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E008000-E008999/E008600-E008699
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/380791380791
Occupation General surgeon
Details William Douglas Friend was visiting surgeon at the Royal Brisbane Hospital. He was born on 22 September 1924, in Brisbane, where his father Percy Alfred Friend was a sheep-farmer. His mother, Dorothy Frances, née Webb, had served as a staff nurse with the 2nd Australian General Hospital in Egypt and France during the First World War, and was awarded the Royal Red Cross medal in 1918. His grandfather, Dr William Simpson Webb, had qualified in London. Bill was educated at the Slade School in Warwick, and the Church of England Grammar School in Brisbane, before going to the University of Queensland. His studies were interrupted when he joined the Royal Australian Air Force in 1944, as an aircrew trainee. After demobilisation, he returned to university with a Freemasons' scholarship and qualified in 1949 with the William Nathaniel Robertson medal. After two years as resident medical officer at the Brisbane General Hospital, he and his wife, Creina, sailed steerage on the *Orontes*, arriving in London on a freezing February morning. He joined the primary course at the College under Slome, Last, Stansfield and Hadfield. His wife went into labour on the morning of the anatomy paper, but he managed to get to Queen Square just in time. This was followed by the St Thomas's course for the final FRCS, which sent him to various outpatient clinics in London, and to watch the masters of the time in their clinics and operating theatres. To make ends meet he took a locum orthopaedic registrar job in Guildford, just in time for a major railway accident, when the driver died at the controls. Bill had to cope with eight compound fractures among many other injuries. Having passed the FRCS, he sought advice from Sir Gordon Gordon-Taylor who arranged for him to start as resident surgical officer at the Royal Portsmouth Hospital in 1953. There he worked under Bernard Williams, John Younghusband, Tom Fenwick and Robert Campbell - a very happy year in which he received what he always regarded as wonderful training. Vascular surgery was then in its infancy, and his chiefs sent him up to St Mary's to watch Charles Rob and Felix Eastcott. He repaid them by providing them with freeze-dried arteries, thanks to the help of the local coroner in Portsmouth. At Portsmouth he also worked with Darmady, who was developing a prototype dialysis machine. Bill looked back on this experience with affection and would tell the tale of a memorable emergency admission of several elderly admirals in acute retention of urine following the Coronation Naval Review at Spithead in 1953. John Kinmonth was then director of the surgical professorial unit at St Bartholomew's, and on the recommendation of Felix Eastcott, Bill was appointed to the unit, though it meant a daily commute from Portsmouth to London. The professor, Sir James Paterson Ross, told him "You won't do as much of anything as you did in Portsmouth, but at least you will see how everything should be done". During these six months at Bart's he met celebrities such as Frank Gerbode and Michael de Bakey. When Sir James retired, Gerry Taylor offered Bill a permanent post on the unit, but he decided it was time to go home. He obtained a post as ship's surgeon on the *Tasmania Star* and became visiting surgeon at the Royal Brisbane Hospital in 1956, remaining there until he retired in 1984. This stint was interrupted by a four-month spell as leader of a civilian surgical team in Bien Hoa, Vietnam. He continued his interest in flying with the Royal Flying Doctor Service, being President of its Council from 1974 to 1977. He married in 1950 Creina Ernestine Chenoweth, a physiotherapist. Of their five daughters, Jennifer became a doctor, Annabel is a physiotherapist and Philippa is a nurse. Their son, William, became a Qantas pilot. A keen sailor, Bill's *Sea Prince* won the first Brisbane to Gladstone yacht race in 1949. He died on 3 May 1998.
Resource Identifier RCS: E008608
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Connolly, John Earle (1923 - 2016)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Sir Barry Jackson
Publication Date 2016-02-19 2016-05-27
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/381245381245
Occupation General surgeon
Details John Connolly, always known as 'Jack', was the founding chair of the department of surgery at the University of California, Irvine (UCI), an internationally admired academic surgeon and a noted anglophile. He was born on 21 May 1923 in Nebraska to Earle and Gertrude Connolly, and was inspired by his father, a surgeon, to pursue a career in medicine. An able student at school, after military service in the US Army Corps he attended both university and medical school at Harvard, qualifying in 1948. There followed a glittering career. His early training was at Stanford University Hospitals, California, where he was greatly influenced by Emile Holman, the chief of surgery. Having himself spent time in the UK, it was Holman who, in 1952, recommended that Connolly spend a year on the professorial unit at St Bartholomew's Hospital with Sir James Paterson Ross. This was the beginning of a love affair with Great Britain. Another surgeon in training at Barts in the early fifties was John Kinmonth, subsequently professor at St Thomas', and he and Jack remained lifelong friends, each in due course becoming visiting professors in the other's academic department. Jack then returned to Stanford for a year as chief resident in 1953, followed by a spell as a fellow in pathology, before moving to the east coast and becoming a resident in thoracic surgery at Bellevue Hospital, New York in 1955. The next year saw Jack as a chief resident in thoracic and cardiovascular surgery at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center, New York. In 1957, he returned to Stanford as an associate professor for eight years, where he was both a Bank of America-Giannini Foundation fellow and a distinguished Markle scholar in academic medicine. In 1965 he was appointed as the founding professor and chief of surgery at University of California, Irvine. During his 50 years at UCI he pioneered numerous techniques in the fields of cardiovascular surgery and peripheral vascular surgery, including the development of a mechanical pump for heart bypass surgery. He also performed the first combined kidney-pancreas transplant on the west coast of America. He published 35 chapters in textbooks and more than 500 papers in peer reviewed journals, was visiting professor in more than 30 universities worldwide, from Japan to Sweden, China to Australia, and gave numerous named lectures, including a Hunterian (1985) and a Kinmonth (1987) at the Royal College of Surgeons. He was president of the International Cardiovascular Society in 1977 and was made an honorary fellow of the Vascular Society of Great Britain and Ireland in 2003. The John E Connolly Surgical Society was formed in 1975 to foster mentorship and camaraderie among his former residents, and continues to meet annually at the American College of Surgeons' annual congress. Throughout his career he was closely involved with the American College, becoming a governor in 1964, a regent in 1973 and vice-president in 1983. After he retired from clinical work, he continued attending his department (now named after him) to teach young surgeons until his late eighties. In 1967, he married Virginia May (née Hartman) and they had three children - Peter, John and Sarah. His main interests outside of surgery and his family were golf and opera. He was also a great clubman, belonging to at least six clubs in different cities in the USA. Jack Connolly loved visiting Great Britain and became well known to many UK surgeons and to the College, often staying in the Nuffield. He prided himself that he knew personally every English College president over some 50 years, from James Paterson Ross onwards; as a consequence, he was frequently entertained in the president's lodge. He was always keen to learn the latest surgical gossip from the UK, even when he became increasingly frail as he entered his nineties. He died peacefully of natural causes on 20 January 2016, aged 92.
Resource Identifier RCS: E009062
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Henderson, John Keith (1923 - 2017)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Michael A Henderson
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/381568381568
Occupation Neurosurgeon
Details John Keith Henderson, universally known as Keith was born and raised in Perth WA. In 1940 he came east to study medicine at the University of Melbourne. He graduated the end of 1945 and started as a resident medical officer at St Vincent's Hospital Melbourne, spending two years as Frank Morgan's registrar in the neurosurgical unit before travelling to the UK in November 1950 with his newly acquired wife Pixie Doyle. They remained devoted to each other for the next 65 years. It was during his time at St Vincent's he came under the influence of Arthur Schuller, the Austrian Jewish refugee radiologist who arrived in Melbourne in 1940. Schuller did much of the early work in neuroradiology and was an urbane, witty and brilliant clinician. The next four years were spent in Oxford as a neurosurgical trainee in the professorial department, initially under the direction of the Adelaide neurosurgeon, Sir Hugh Cairns who was succeeded by Joe Pennybacker after Cairn's untimely death. The intellectual and cultural life of Oxford were a revelation and remained an abiding memory for the rest of his life. In 1955 he returned from the UK to a position as neurosurgeon at St Vincent's Hospital where he remained for the rest of his career. Slowly the intellectual rigour of Oxford was introduced to the hospital albeit in fits and starts. He gradually instituted ward rounds which included nursing and allied health staff followed by coffee and St Vincent's scones with cream in the clinic room of St Francis Ward, becoming a hospital institution. Keith knew exactly what he was doing, this was teambuilding and patient centred care long before these terms became abused. He loved teaching and found an open market to sell his wares. He was head of the unit from 1966 until his retirement at the age of 65 in 1988. During that time he was instrumental in creating an extraordinary teaching environment which is remembered with fondness by students, residents and of course neurosurgical trainees. His enquiring mind drove him to be at the forefront of the dramatic changes that occurred in neurosurgery postwar. He championed aneurysm and pituitary surgery in particular and was among the first to introduce microsurgical techniques to neurosurgery in Australia. He acknowledged the essential multidisciplinary nature of neurosurgery and the importance of good relations across the disciplines. Keith had a great appreciation of pathology which he shared with his long-term neuropathology colleague Dr Ross Anderson. He thrilled at the nuances of neuroradiology from his earliest days with Arthur Schuller, through the era of neurosurgeons carrying out their own invasive investigations and then working with Eric Gilford ensuring St Vincent's was at the vanguard of the CT era by becoming one of the first hospitals in Australia to take up the technology. St Vincent's was truly his home away from home and with the passage of time he became more deeply involved in its affairs. He served on multiple hospital committees and eventually became chairman of the Senior Medical Staff and close contact with Sister Maureen Walters, the Sister Administrator with whom he developed a close personal and working relationship. In 1987 he was awarded the Order of Australia for services to medicine. He retired from active neurosurgery on his 65th birthday in January 1988 when he retired from St Vincent's because he did "not want to be the last person to know he was no good", the prospect of hurting someone was an absolute anathema. He took on the position of Chairman, committee for medical graduate education at St Vincent's from 1989 to 1991. He had time to indulge his love of reading, predominantly non-fiction and especially poetry, the library was his favourite place in the house. This was the time when he started his biography of Schuller, which was all but complete at the time of his death. He is remembered by his friends and family as a shy man but a person of great personal warmth and care for his fellow human particularly those whose welfare had been entrusted to him.
Resource Identifier RCS: E009385
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching McGuire, Neil Gilbert (1919 - 2009)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Neil Weir
Publication Date 2010-11-11
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001000-E001099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373240373240
Occupation ENT surgeon
Details Neil McGuire had a varied surgical career, ranging from active service in the RAMC during the Second World War, followed by general surgical training, 11 years in the Colonial Medical Service, further senior registrar posts (initially in cardiothoracic surgery, before changing to ENT surgery) and finally as a consultant ENT surgeon at the Royal Berkshire Hospital, Reading. He was born in Simla, India, on 30 August 1919. His father, Gilbert William McGuire, of Irish parentage, had served as a medical officer in France and Mesopotamia during the First World War, and later became a civil surgeon and assistant inspector general of civil hospitals in the Indian Medical Service. His mother, Dorothy Marguerite (née De Rhé Philipe) was a nurse in the Red Cross. Her father, of French-Huguenot parentage, was assistant judge advocate-general in the Indian Civil Service. McGuire was educated by Belgian nuns at the Sacred Heart Convent, Dalhousie, in the Himalayas and by the Irish Christian Brothers at St Joseph's College, Naini Tal, Himalayas. In 1937, he entered St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical College, which was in 1939 evacuated to Cambridge. He particularly valued the tuition of Hamilton, Hartridge and Paterson-Ross. After qualifying in 1943, he became a house surgeon at the Royal Victoria and West Hants Hospital, Boscombe, before being called up in December 1943. He served as a captain in the RAMC and was regimental medical officer with forward units in the Normandy landings and throughout the European campaign. At the end of the war, McGuire was posted with the British Army of the Rhone (BAOR) and was involved in repatriation of Polish citizens. He was demobilised in February 1947 and passed the primary FRCS in April 1947. He had an excellent general surgical training with Arthur Hill in Ipswich, passed the FRCS in 1949, and was well equipped to join the Colonial Medical Service in 1951. He initially served four years in Tanganyika, East Africa, where in Dar-es-Salaam he helped to establish a three-year training scheme for 'medical assistants' who were employed to staff small dispensaries in remote areas. Using some home leave in 1954, Neil McGuire chose to spend six months studying at the Royal National Throat, Nose and Ear Hospital for the DLO examination, which he gained in January 1955, before returning this time to Nigeria, West Africa. Further study leave in 1958 at Southampton Chest Hospital enhanced his experience of cardiothoracic surgery. Nigeria gained its independence in 1961, and in 1962 McGuire returned to the United Kingdom to seek a new surgical life. He could have chosen any surgical specialty, but clearly was torn between cardiothoracic and ENT surgery, as he next became a senior registrar to the cardiothoracic unit at the London Hospital (from 1962 to 1963). Perhaps he foresaw that the prospects in cardiothoracic surgery were limited at that time, as later in 1963 he became ENT registrar to Esmé Hadfield at High Wycombe Hospital for six months, followed by an appointment as an ENT senior registrar to Hector Thomas at the Cardiff Royal Infirmary (from 1963 to 1966). He was appointedconsultant ENT surgeon at the Royal Berkshire Hospital, Reading in 1966, where he specialised in hypophysectomy and pharyngo-oesophageal resections with colon replacement and researched into the possible prosthetic replacement of the oesophagus in pigs (*Research in Veterinary Science*, Vol.14, No.3, May 1973, p.358). He retired in 1984. He was instrumental in arranging senior registrar rotations with first the Royal National Throat, Nose and Ear Hospital, London, and, secondly, with the Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford. Using his surgical experience with the micro-drill, McGuire developed the hobby of glass engraving and became a craft member of the Guild of Glass Engravers. On 18 December 1943, McGuire married Alison Erna (née Liddell), who was a nurse at St Bartholomew's Hospital. She died in 1999 and on 4 April 2001 he married Elizabeth Isla Hayward, a retired consultant anaesthetist. Neil McGuire died at Russell's Hall Hospital, Dudley, on 5 November 2009 at the age of 90. He was survived by his second wife and by two sons (Michael Alexander and Timothy John) and a daughter (Shelagh Alison) from his first marriage.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001057
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Hill, Ian Macdonald (1919 - 2007)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2008-09-11 2008-10-24
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/372741372741
Occupation Cardiothoracic surgeon
Details Ian Hill was a consultant cardiothoracic surgeon at St Bartholomew’s Hospital, London. He was born on 8 June 1919. When he was only five he developed diphtheria and was admitted to an isolation hospital for many weeks. There he was allowed no visits from his family and witnessed at close quarters the frequently unsuccessful attempts of surgeons to save the lives of other children with that terrible disease. This dreadful experience gave him the emotional drive to overcome disease and save lives, although later he maintained that he went into medicine because it was his father Tom’s own unfulfilled wish: indeed their house in Palmers Green was chosen to be near the railway that would eventually take him to Bart’s. His mother Annie was a gifted teacher and helped him with his homework, passing on to him the skills of patient and supportive clarity he used in his own teaching. He was educated at the Stationers’ Company School and St Bartholomew’s Hospital, where he had a brilliant career as a student, qualifying with honours in 1942. He was house surgeon to (later Sir) James Paterson Ross, whose testimonial stated “his academic record has been one of rapid and uninterrupted success, winning most for the prizes for which he was eligible. He is honourable, forthright, diligent and utterly trustworthy. He absorbs knowledge readily and applies theory to practice with good judgement and effect. He is a skilful, safe, and resourceful operator who can win the confidence of his patients, his colleagues and his students”. After serving as a demonstrator of anatomy he married Agnes Paice in 1944, having met her when both their hospitals had been evacuated. He joined the RAF medical branch in 1945 and was wing commander in command of the surgical division of No 1 RAF Hospital. He then specialized in cardiothoracic surgery, becoming senior registrar to Russell Brock at Guy’s Hospital in 1947, where he carried out experimental work on cardiopulmonary bypass and became surgical chief assistant at the Brompton Hospital. He returned to St Bartholomew’s as consultant surgeon in 1950 at the early age of 31, as second in command to Oswald Tubbs, where he continued to build up its cardiothoracic unit. He was a skilled operator who had ‘green fingers’. He was often described by his junior staff as a one-man band, for, apart from his operative ability he typed his own operation notes and wrote summaries of the patient after each operation. Surprisingly these records were never analysed and sadly they were destroyed after his death: they would have made a fascinating contribution to cardiothoracic archive material. He cared deeply about the training of his young doctors and for eight years served as sub-dean of the medical college (from 1964 to 1972). He was prodigiously well organised, kept meticulous records and was obsessed by time. He was both scrupulously logical and persistent in trying to solve problems. For several years he owned a vintage Rolls Royce car, which he maintained himself, having taken a course on its maintenance. When his junior staff telephoned his home for advice they were frequently told by his wife “I’ll get him from under his car!” Ian’s 40 years as a consultant surgeon were a period of explosive development in cardiothoracic surgery, but despite his brilliant mind and ability he wrote very little, and he made no definitive contribution to his specialty. He had a poor relationship with Oswald Tubbs, his senior consultant, who was disappointed in his subsequent career and thought that he had not fulfilled the potential implied in Ross’s glowing testimonial. He was a cutting surgeon rather than a writing surgeon and was, as many have said, an enigma. After he retired he continued to serve on the board of governors of St Bartholomew’s. Ian retired with Agnes to Fernham in 1984, where he lived the life he had always dreamed of in the countryside, creating his garden, running a prodigiously productive allotment, and indulging his fascination for fine engineering, old clocks, the fine arts, good food and wine. He upset his allotment neighbours by giving away much of his produce in competition to the many who sold for profit. Despite being an agnostic, he served as clerk to the parish council. Predeceased by his wife, he died on 22 September 2007 leaving three sons and a daughter, Alison, who is a general practitioner in London.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000558
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Partridge, Richard (1805 - 1873)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-01-25 2012-03-13
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/372379372379
Occupation General surgeon
Details The tenth child and seventh son of Samuel Partridge, of Ross-on-Wye, Herefordshire. He was born on January 19th, 1805, and was apprenticed in 1821 to his uncle, W. H. Partridge, who practised in Birmingham. During his apprenticeship he acted as dresser to Joseph Hodgson (q.v.) at the Birmingham General Hospital. He entered St. Bartholomew's Hospital, London, in 1827 and attended the lectures of John Abernethy, acting afterwards as Demonstrator of Anatomy at the Windmill Street School of Medicine. He was appointed the first Demonstrator of Anatomy at King's College, London, when the medical faculty was instituted in 1831, and held the post until 1836, when he was promoted Professor of Descriptive and Surgical Anatomy in succession to Herbert Mayo (q.v.). John Simon (q.v.) became Demonstrator in his place two years later, in 1838. On November 5th, 1831, occurred the 'resurrectionist' case in London which was instrumental in causing the passing of the Anatomy Act in 1832. Bishop, Williams, and May brought the body of Carlo Ferrari, an Italian boy, to King's College asking nine guineas for it. Partridge, being on the alert owing to the Burke and Hare case in Edinburgh in 1830, suspected foul play and delayed payment until the police were informed, saying that he only had a £50 note for which he must get change. Bishop and Williams were hanged, May was respited and sentenced to transportation for life. On Dec. 23rd, 1836, Partridge was elected Visiting or Assistant Surgeon at Charing Cross Hospital; he was promoted to full Surgeon on January 8th, 1838, and resigned the office on April 13th, 1840, when he was appointed Surgeon to the newly established King's College Hospital in Clare Market. He remained Surgeon to King's College Hospital until 1870. In 1837 he was elected F.R.S. He held all the chief positions at the Royal College of Surgeons, serving as a Member of Council from 1852-1868; he was a Member of the Court of Examiners from 1864-1873; Chairman of the Midwifery Board in 1865; Hunterian Orator and Vice-President in the same year; and President in 1866. He filled many offices at the Royal Medico-Chirurgical Society, where he was elected a Fellow in 1828; he was Secretary from 1832-1836; a Member of Council 1837-1838, and again in 1861-1862; Vice-President, 1847-1848, President, 1863-1864. Partridge succeeded Joseph Henry Green (q.v.) as Professor of Anatomy at the Royal Academy in 1853. He had himself some skill in drawing, having taken lessons from his brother John, the portrait painter. In the autumn of 1862 he went to Spezzia, at the request of Garibaldi's English friends, in order to attend the general, who had been severely wounded in the right ankle-joint at the Battle of Aspromonte. Having no previous experience of gunshot wounds, he unfortunately "overlooked the presence of the bullet", which Nélaton afterwards localized by his porcelain-tipped probe, and it was subsequently extracted by Professor Zanetti. This failure did him much harm professionally, though Garibaldi himself always wrote to him in the kindest terms, and he died a poor man on March 25th, 1873. Partridge has been described as a fluent lecturer, an admirable blackboard draughtsman, an excellent clinical teacher, and one who, though he operated nervously, paid close attention to the after-treatment of his patients. He was a painstaking but not a brilliant surgeon; minute in detail and hesitating in execution - a striking contrast to the brilliant performances of his colleague, Sir William Fergusson. He was somewhat of a wit, and it is recorded of him that, being asked the names of his very sorry-looking carriage-horses, he replied that the name of one was 'Longissimus Dorsi', but that the other was the 'Os Innominatum'. This was to a student. He wrote very little, and his copiously illustrated work on descriptive anatomy was never printed. There is a portrait of him by George Richmond, R.A., which was engraved by Francis Holl. There are in addition a lithograph by Maguire, dated 1845, and a photograph of a picture by an unknown artist representing Partridge attending the wounded Garibaldi; it is reproduced in the centenary number of the Lancet (1923, ii, 700, fig. 10).
Resource Identifier RCS: E000192
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Jones, Peter Ferry (1920 - 2009)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Sir Barry Jackson
Publication Date 2010-10-13
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/373217373217
Occupation General surgeon
Details Peter Ferry Jones, clinical professor of surgery at the University of Aberdeen, was an outstanding surgical craftsman, a major academic contributor to coloproctology and paediatric surgery, as well as a renowned teacher of operative surgery. He was born on 29 February 1920 in London, the son of Ernest Jones, a bank official, and Winifred Ferry, a nursing sister and matron in the British Red Cross. Peter Jones was schooled at Mill Hill, winning the Old Millhillians’ Literary prize in his final year. In 1937, he proceeded to Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where he was a major exhibitioner, and thence to St Bartholomew’s Hospital Medical School. Here he won the Bentley prize in 1941 and the Matthews Duncan gold medal in midwifery, before qualifying in 1943 and being appointed as a house surgeon. He then joined the Royal Army Medical Corps, serving in the Middle East between 1944 and 1946 with the rank of captain. On demobilisation, he decided to pursue a career in surgery and undertook various training posts, principally at Bart’s and the North Middlesex hospitals, passing the FRCS in 1948. From 1951 to 1953, he was a surgical tutor at Bart’s, coming under the influence of Sir James Patterson Ross. In 1953 he was appointed as a senior registrar to the Middlesex Hospital surgical rotation, where he was greatly influenced by Peter Gummer at the Central Middlesex and Oswald Lloyd-Davies at the Middlesex, the latter teaching him the meticulous surgical technique which was to become his trademark. In 1957, he was appointed as a consultant surgeon to the Aberdeen General and Special hospitals with a mixed practice of adult and paediatric surgery. He continued to practice both adult and paediatric surgery throughout his career. In both spheres he made major academic contributions, publishing numerous papers as well as textbooks. He had a special interest in the acute abdomen and his textbook *Emergency abdominal surgery in infancy, childhood and adult life* (Oxford, Blackwell Scientific, 1974, 1987; London, Chapman & Hall, 1998) went through three editions. His published work covered such diverse subjects as recurrent small bowel obstruction, inflammatory bowel disease, gastrointestinal haemorrhage, colorectal cancer, maldescent of the testis and vesico-ureteric reflux. In 1966, he was appointed as a clinical reader in surgical paediatrics in the University of Aberdeen in recognition of his contributions to paediatric surgery. In 1983 was appointed to a personal chair in clinical surgery. His surgical distinction was recognised more widely by his appointment as surgeon to the Queen in Scotland between the years 1977 to 1985. Throughout his consultant career he was especially noted for teaching his trainees both the art and the craft of surgery, always instilling in them the same attention to operative detail that he himself had acquired in his early training. He also played a full part in the wider world of surgery, being a keen member of the British Association of Paediatric Surgeons and the Mason Brown lecturer for 1986. At various times he was an examiner for the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, a member of the Specialist Advisory Committee in General Surgery and a member of the executive of the education sub-committee of the Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland. In 1990 he was appointed by the latter organisation as the *British Journal of Surgery* travelling fellow and lecturer. He had previously been a visiting lecturer to the University of Natal, South Africa, and the Monash University Medical School in Melbourne. Peter Jones was a quietly spoken man, modest in manner, a good listener and a man who seemingly had infinite time for others. He was committed to the NHS and wrote that he was sad to retire on reaching the age of 65, but perhaps not so sorry to know the telephone would not ring in the middle of the night. His interests outside of surgery were dinghy sailing, boat building and surgical history. In retirement he wrote a monograph on the history Scottish surgery from 1837 to 1901, helped to establish a hospice in Aberdeen, and created a wonderful garden in collaboration with his wife Margaret, née Thomson, whom he had married in 1950. They had four children, Katharine (a teacher), Timothy (a general practitioner), Janet (a horticulturist) and Andrew (a consultant in accident and emergency medicine). He died of a stroke on 17 October 2009.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001034
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Rowntree, Thomas Whitworth (1916 - 2006)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2007-05-10
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000300-E000399
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372536372536
Occupation General surgeon
Details Tom Rowntree was a consultant surgeon in Southampton. He was born at 9, Upper Brook Street, London, W1 on 10 July 1916. His father, Cecil Rowntree, was a consultant surgeon at the Cancer (now Royal Marsden) Hospital, London, and held several other honorary posts in and around the city. His mother was Katherine Aylmer Whitworth Jones, the daughter of an opera singer. After his preparatory education, Tom went to Radley, where he passed the Higher School Certificate and matriculated for St John’s College, Cambridge, in 1933. He went up in the autumn of 1934 after an agreeable intervening six months in Rome – where he became fluent in Italian and attended anatomy classes at the university. He graduated from Cambridge in 1937 with a 2:1 degree in the natural sciences tripos (gaining a first in anatomy). He then went to St Bartholomew’s Hospital for his clinical training, where he also joined the Territorial Army (as a second lieutenant). At Bart’s he won the Matthews Duncan prize and qualified in 1941. At the outbreak of the Second World War Bart’s was moved to Hill End Hospital and there Tom was appointed house surgeon to James (later Professor Sir James) Paterson Ross, and then to John O’Connell, neurosurgeon. He then got a job demonstrating anatomy at Cambridge and passed the final FRCS in 1942. He returned to Hill End as chief assistant and was commissioned as a full lieutenant in the Royal Army Medical Corps. 1942 was a landmark year for Tom for another very particular reason; it was while back at Cambridge that he met his future wife, Barbara – Dr Barbara Sibbald as she then was. They became engaged that year and married the next. They had four children, a boy and three girls. Their son became an orthopaedic surgeon and one of their daughters qualified at Bart’s, like her father, and became a general practitioner. In 1944 Tom was posted to India as a captain in the RAMC. He was released from the Army with the rank of major in 1947. After various jobs, including accident room surgeon at Reading, a registrarship at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital and an honorary post at the Italian Hospital in London, he successfully applied for a consultant general surgical job in Southampton and started there in 1951. Tom was the quintessential general surgeon, the very embodiment of the best. He emphasised the importance of a detailed history, taken patiently, claiming it made up some 80 per cent of a diagnosis. He advocated, for instance, that the clinician sit at the bed/couch-side when examining the abdomen, the better to ensure, through the examiner’s bodily ease, that the examination is both gentle and unhurried; just one valuable lesson amongst many others. He independently discovered the curious phenomenon of abdominal wall tenderness in patients with non-specific abdominal pain, an immensely valuable physical sign. Tom’s clinical honesty demanded a searching but always kind and constructive analysis of any complication. His surgical technique was superb, always anatomical and scrupulously protective of vital structures. This manual felicity transferred readily to a long-time recreational interest, cabinet making, at which he excelled. He worked extraordinarily long hours at the hospital. His, too, was a most intelligent and enquiring mind. Its rigour – a notable characteristic – found expression in his concern that words, the vehicles of thought, be appropriate and joined in clear, simple, sentences. His intelligence, too, dominated the newly formed Southampton medical executive committee, of which he was the first Chairman, and through it deftly managed the birth of the Southampton Medical School. Tom’s surgical standing was recognised in his presidency of the surgical section of the Royal Society of Medicine. His presidential address was constructed from his large personal series of parathyroidectomies. He retired in 1981 to fish, make beautiful desks for each of his grandchildren and to interest himself in almost anything; it seemed, as with Dr Samuel Johnson, that there was no fact so trivial that he would rather not be in possession of it. Two weeks before he died he won the *Times Literary Supplement* crossword puzzle. On top of all this it should be added that Tom was a fair man, a good companion and had a lovely sense of humour. In short, he was quite a chap. He died on 26 February 2006.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000350
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Elliott-Blake, Henry (1902 - 1983)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2015-05-13
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/379440379440
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born on Christmas Day 1902, the son of Henry Thomas Blake and Maud MacIntyre, Henry Elliot Blake was educated at Dean Close, Cheltenham, Queen's College, Cambridge, and St Thomas's Hospital, London. His father was a member of the Institute of Water Engineers and a County Councillor and Justice of the Peace in Herefordshire. His mother was a Scot, "half Elliott and half Maclntyre" and Henry was delivered by Doctor Elliott Price in the Cottage Hospital at Ross-on-Wye. He qualified with the Conjoint Diploma in 1929 and held resident posts in Reading, before becoming clinical assistant to the ear nose and throat and pathology departments at St Thomas's. He was appointed one of the two resident medical officers at the London Clinic in 1932 and there he developed an interest in plastic surgery, influenced by Sir Harold Gillies, Archibald McIndoe, Rainsford Mowlem and T P Kilner. He left the London Clinic in 1935 to become chief assistant to the department of plastic surgery at St Thomas's under T P Kilner, and he took a consulting room in Devonshire Place. He joined the RAMC soon after the outbreak of war in 1939 and was one of those evacuated from Dunkirk, returning to military duties in England and passing the Edinburgh and English Fellowship examinations in 1941. Soon afterwards, he embarked in a troopship for Singapore and was wounded in both feet when the convoy was under fire. After serving in India, he came back to England in 1944 and was posted to Stoke Mandeville where he worked again with Sir Harold Gillies until his release from the Army. He was appointed the first honorary plastic surgeon in St George's Hospital in 1948 and was later consultant plastic surgeon to the Victoria Hospital for Children, Tite Street, the Royal Alexandra Hospital for Sick Children, Brighton, and Queen Mary's Hospital, Roehampton. He was senior surgeon to the Ministry of Pensions, a founder member of the British Association of Plastic Surgeons and President of the Section of Plastic Surgery at the Royal Society of Medicine. He was a skilled and careful surgeon and he devised an operation for the reconstruction of the penile urethra in hypospadias, contributing four chapters, including one on that problem, to Rob and Smith's *Operative surgery*. A founder member of the Medical Art Society, his paintings were exhibited by the Royal Society of Portrait Painters and the Royal Academy of Arts, and some still adorn the corridors of the London Clinic. He was noted for his kindness, generosity, and wit as an after dinner speaker, many of his best stories being told against himself, and he was a keen member of the Royal Ashdown Forest and the Berkshire Golf Clubs. In 1980, he wrote to the Secretary of the College asking that his name be recorded as Elliott-Blake: "After I had resigned from being the first RMO of the London Clinic, I set up as a plastic and reconstructive surgeon in rooms in Devonshire Place. Unfortunately, another Dr H E Blake carried on his practice in Gloucester Place at the same number as my rooms in Devonshire Place. I had a telephone call from a young lady wanting an urgent appointment and operation and when I asked her what was her trouble she said 'the same as before', I said I think you are speaking to the wrong doctor H E Blake and I called his number. His secretary answered and I hear him shout 'hold it, I want to speak to that fellow!'. He then said he thought I was giving his address to various tradesmen to whom I owed money, tailors, shoemakers, etc, as he had several importuning letters asking for payment, and he intended to write to the Royal Society of Medicine reporting my misbehaviour. I said I thought in the circumstances we should both write to the RSM! Doctor H E Blake of Gloucester place left London within a fortnight and has never been hear of since, at any rate by me." Elliott-Blake was an excellent host, whether at a quick luncheon of smoked salmon and sherry in his consulting rooms or at an elegant dinner at home. In 1945, he married Mary Violet, former wife of the 3rd Baron Swaythling, and daughter of Major Levy, DSO, and the Hon Mrs Ionides. He died on 7 October 1983, in his 81st year, survived by his wife.
Resource Identifier RCS: E007257
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Longland, Cedric James (1914 - 1991)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2015-09-17
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/380333380333
Occupation General surgeon
Details Cedric Longland was born at Bolobo in the Belgian Congo on 30 September 1914. His father, Frank Longland, was a civil engineer in East Africa and later Provincial Commissioner for Tanganyika Territory. Daisy Longland, Cedric's mother, was one of the earliest women to qualify in medicine at Edinburgh in 1910, and under the auspices of the Baptist Missionary Society she ran a mission hospital in Kinshasa, Belgian Congo, while her husband Frank ran the mission steamer *The Endeavour* 500 miles up the Congo river. At that time, as a civil engineer, he also built bridges, roads and churches and it was later that he moved eastwards to Tanganyika (now Tanzania), where he became Provincial Commissioner. Cedric spent his early years in Africa and received all his education from his mother until the age of twelve. He was then sent home as a boarder in 1926 to Monkton Combe School, where he played cricket and rugby football and rowed for his school at Henley Regatta. In 1932 he went to St Bartholomew's Medical School, where he won the Walsham prize for pathology and graduated in 1937 with honours in medicine. Influential teachers at that time included Sir Girling Ball and Professor Paterson Ross. After qualifying, he was appointed house surgeon to Sir Girling Ball, followed by an appointment as house surgeon to the ear, nose and throat department and a demonstratorship of pathology, all at St Bartholomew's Hospital, between 1937 and 1940. In 1940 he became resident surgical officer at Stoke Mandeville Hospital, a post he held for two years, before joining the First Airborne Division, with which he served in North Africa, Sicily and Italy, before being dropped at Arnhem in 1944. There, he treated casualties at St Elizabeth Hospital until it was overrun and he was captured, subsequently escaping from a prisoner of war camp at Appeldoorn, following which he linked up with the Dutch underground, but was later recaptured. He was awarded the Bronze Cross of Holland. Following his release he served as SMO to the military hospital in Bermuda until 1946. He then returned to St Bartholomew's Hospital and was first assistant in the surgical professorial unit between 1947 and 1950, and in 1949 was a member of the surgical team that carried out a lumbar sympathectomy on King George VI, for which he was awarded the MVO in May 1949 (later the LVO). Between 1951 and 1954 he was assistant on the surgical professorial unit at University College Hospital with Professor Pilcher, being appointed to the staff of the Glasgow Royal Infirmary as consultant surgeon in 1954, a post he held until retirement in 1977. He was an examiner in surgery for the University of Glasgow in 1960, and in 1966 he spent a year in Nairobi, Kenya, as part of a team from Glasgow helping to set up a medical school there. His appointment to Glasgow Royal Infirmary as surgeon in charge of wards initially caused consternation because he was unknown, but he identified himself totally with the Infirmary and was appointed first Chairman of the Surgical Division and Chairman of the West of Scotland Surgical Association. His interests were surgery of the biliary tract and pancreas and the prevention of wound infection. He also pioneered mechanical suture methods in gastrointestinal anastomoses and the use of the choledochoscope. Cedric enjoyed rowing and sailing, the latter on Loch Lomond and as a crew member in the Bermuda to New York yacht race. He skied in Austria and Scotland, where he also fished, and in retirement studied music at Glasgow University as an extra-mural student, bought a clavichord and composed 'Elizabethan' music. In 1982 he moved to Grittleton in the Cotswolds, where he was church warden and secretary of the parish council, and where he redesigned his garden, which included work in stone walling. His publications reflected his interest in general and vascular surgery, his war experience and a variety of wider and historical subjects. He married Helen Cripps, an artist and teacher, in 1965 and they had three daughters, Rosemary, Susan and Annette. He died on 14 January 1991, survived by his wife, daughters and nine grandchildren.
Resource Identifier RCS: E008150
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Nanson, Eric Musard (1915 - 1988)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2015-06-25
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/379724379724
Occupation General surgeon
Details Eric Musard Nanson was born in Geraldine, South Canterbury, New Zealand, on 4 January 1915, the youngest of five children of Gerald Bouchier Nanson, an Anglican vicar and Gertrude Florence (née Bell). His early education was at the Cathedral Grammar School, Christchurch and at Christ's College, Christchurch. He was awarded the University National Scholarship of New Zealand in 1934 and in that year went to Canterbury University College before proceeding to Otago University in the following year for medical studies. In 1937 he was awarded the senior university scholarship of New Zealand and he qualified in 1939. His early appointment was as house surgeon at Christchurch Hospital from 1939 to 1941 but during part of this time he also served as demonstrator in anatomy in the University of Otago. He then joined the New Zealand Medical Corps as a Captain from 1941 until 1945, serving with the second New Zealand Expeditionary Force in the Middle East, North Africa and Italy as Officer Commanding an ambulance train and medical officer in both a field ambulance and a base hospital. In 1945 he married Vera Anne Morrow, a nurse in the Army whom he met in Egypt. After demobilisation in 1945 he was initially surgical registrar at Waikato Hospital, Hamilton, and later surgeon superintendant at Buller Hospital, Westport before deciding to come to England. Within a few months of arriving he had passed the FRCS and was surgical registrar to Norman Tanner at St James' Hospital, Balham, and later assistant in the surgical professorial unit at St Bartholomew's Hospital under Sir James Paterson Ross. He spent a year as senior surgical registrar at St Peter's Hospital, Henrietta Street, before going to work as Rockefeller Foundation Fellow in the department of surgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, for nine months. He returned to England in 1951 and worked in Bristol as lecturer in surgery at the University under Professor Milnes Walker for just over a year before being invited to return to Johns Hopkins as Associate Professor of Surgery under Alfred Blalock. He was elected Hunterian Professor on two occasions. In 1950 he lectured on respiratory responses to operative trauma and in 1959 spoke on tumours of the salivary glands. He carried out a prodigious amount of research work throughout his life which was published in over 100 papers in Canadian, British, American and New Zealand journals. These covered a wide range of subjects and reflected his extensive knowledge and experience in surgery. In 1954 he was appointed as the Foundation Professor of Surgery at the University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, and consultant surgeon to the City Hospital, St Paul's Hospital and the Saskatoon Sanatorium. He remained in this post for fifteen years and played an important role in the development of the undergraduate medical curriculum which is regarded as one of the most outstanding in the western world. He also pursued a policy of continuing medical education and postgraduate education which enabled Saskatchewan to rely on its own graduates rather than immigrant doctors from other provinces and countries. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Canada in 1954 and of the American College of Surgeons in 1956. In 1970 he was appointed Foundation Professor of Surgery in the School of Medicine at the University of Auckland and held this post for ten years. His enthusiasm persisted and in addition to introducing the concept of a trainee internship to the department of surgery, he was co-author of the *Handbook for clinical students* which is a constant companion to undergraduate medical students. He continued to perform administrative duties in addition to his clinical and teaching commitments. After retiring from the Chair of Surgery at Auckland, he was awarded the OBE. His interest in academic work was such that after retiring from clinical work he taught anatomy at the Auckland Medical School. His enthusiasm for clinical work persisted and he continued to attend surgical meetings until shortly before his death. Apart from his professorial commitment, he was a devoted churchman and the centre of a closeknit family. His hobbies were golf and fishing. He had a son, John, and two daughters, Jennifer and Judith and the younger daughter took up nursing. He died at his home in Auckland on 27 September 1988 aged 73, survived by his wife and family.
Resource Identifier RCS: E007541
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Braithwaite, Fenton (1908 - 1985)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2015-04-23
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E007000-E007999/E007100-E007199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/379304379304
Occupation Plastic surgeon Plastic and reconstructive surgeon
Details Fenton Braithwaite was born on July 28 1908, the third of four sons of Abraham Braithwaite, farmer, of Marton in the Fylde, Lancashire, and of his wife Ann. He attended Baines Grammar School before entering Manchester University to read for an honours degree in mathematics. He then proceeded to research, and was awarded the MSc before he was 21. He entered Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, with a scholarship to read biochemistry with subsidiary anatomy and physiology, in which he obtained a first. The obituaries in *The Times* and *British medical journal* both say that he got a "double first". He did not. He got a first in both of his Tripos, nowadays often erroneously called a double first. A true double first is rarer still: a first in each of two entirely different disciplines, taken simultaneously e.g. history and mathematics. Realising that a career in biochemistry would not be complete without a medical qualification, he entered St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical College. He took the MRCS, LRCP in 1935 and the Cambridge MB BChir in 1936 and 1937. He held house physician and house surgeon appointments before gaining further experience in neurosurgery, ENT and thoracic surgery. By this time he had become fascinated by surgery and gave up the idea of a career in biochemistry. He became first assistant to Harold Wilson and was influenced by Sir Geoffrey Keynes, Sir James Paterson Ross and Sir Harold Gillies. The last particularly aroused his interest in plastic and reconstructive surgery. He took his FRCS in 1939 and then joined the RAF for the duration of the war. He rose to Officer in Charge of the Surgical Division at the RAF Hospital, Ranceby, Lincolnshire with the rank of Wing Commander. He was awarded the OBE (Military Division) for his work. After the war A H Mclndoe, later Sir Archibald, who had been adviser in plastic surgery to the RAF, invited him to join the East Grinstead unit. As a result of his experience there and at Ranceby he produced a classic paper demonstrating for the first time the importance of blood transfusion in the management of severely burned patients. In 1949 he was appointed plastic surgeon to the Royal Victoria Hospital, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and adviser in his speciality to the Newcastle Regional Hospital Board, with a brief to organise a hand service in the teaching hospital and a plastic surgery service in the region. This he did with great enthusiasm and industry: within a few years he had established centres in Shotley Bridge, Middlesbrough, Hartlepool and Carlisle, and also one at the Fleming Memorial Hospital for Sick Children to deal with one of his main interests, the treatment of hare-lip and cleft palate. He also collaborated in developing a combined radiotherapy and plastic surgery clinic for patients with neoplasia of the head and neck, and of the skin. In spite of his numerous practical commitments he found time to continue with research and publications, notably on the anatomical changes in the blood supply of the skin in tube pedicles. It was his intention to produce clinical and academic papers alternately, but the project was stopped when he was reminded that his brief was to develop a regional plastic surgery service. His laboratory investigations, for which his biochemical training so eminently fitted him, had to cease. He continued to write on clinical subjects, and was the President of the British Association of Plastic Surgeons in 1968. Fenton Braithwaite was a man of wide reading, with a prodigious memory, as well as a kindly and skilful surgeon, devoted especially to his child patients. He was a witty and popular lecturer. His interests outside surgery were in antique furniture, about which he was most knowledgeable, and association football, at which he had been proficient as a young man. He related with enthusiasm that he might have become a professional footballer if his father had not burned his boots. He was director of Newcastle United AFC for over twenty years, and was made life president, to his greatest pleasure, in 1983. In 1944 he married Nan Hunter, his theatre sister at Ranceby, who survived him when he died on 25 August 1985, aged 77.
Resource Identifier RCS: E007121
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Porter, Nigel Harry (1925 - 2017)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by B M Hogbin
Publication Date 2019-12-18 2020-07-15
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E009000-E009999/E009600-E009699
Occupation General surgeon
Details Nigel Porter was a much-admired consultant general surgeon with wide surgical interests, working first in London, where he trained, and then in Sussex. He was born on 19 February 1925 in Ross-on-Wye, the son of George Harry Porter and Elma Blackhurst. He attended school in Ross-on-Wye, and then studied medicine at Guy’s Hospital Medical School, qualifying in 1946. From 1948 to 1950 he carried out his National Service as a medical officer with the 16th Independent Parachute Brigade with the rank of major. On his last jump before demobilisation he landed awkwardly, breaking his lower leg. Treatment at that time was early mobilisation: this resulted in poor alignment, with a lifelong problem and eventually an ankle fusion. From 1952, he trained in surgery at Guy’s Hospital and at St Mark’s Hospital, London, and in 1963, he was appointed to his consultant post in Brighton. He was also a visiting fellow in the school of applied sciences at Sussex University from 1970 to 1975. He was well-known for his work at the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton and at Lewes Victoria Hospital. He retired from hospital work in 1985. In the same year, he was president of the Brighton and Sussex Medico-Chirurgical Society. In his work as a consultant surgeon he was always keeping up with new developments. One example of this was his introduction and early use of staple guns in gut operations and endoscopy. He helped many younger surgeons to progress. He facilitated the appointment of a Macmillan nurse specialist for stoma and breast care. This extra post led to advanced nurse practitioners in breast care who were integral to the development of the breast unit in Brighton. This was one of the first such units in the country and, as he had been such an inspiration to raising the standards of surgery and specialisation in Brighton, it was called the ‘Nigel Porter unit’. As this unit grew, it was the springboard for a much larger and fully integrated department, which needed larger premises, so became the Park Centre for Breast Care. The breast care nurse of the time has said that Nigel was a true gentleman, who was never ruffled. He was good with patients at any level, with particular sensitivity towards women. His breast work included augmentation. Another area with which he was involved at an early stage was sex change surgery. Over many years much of his work was with large bowel surgery. His anal sphincter physiology service was open to any patient who was referred. Retirement from the NHS was a gradual process, initially dropping to three sessions, thus allowing the appointment of a new colleague, and later volunteering to drop out to create another new post. In addition to being committed to his NHS work, he also had private consulting rooms and ran an efficient private hospital, the Avenue Clinic in Hove, which was used by many colleagues. One colleague commented that Nigel was very hard working and was noted for doing very late ward rounds, so he was given the nickname ‘The night Porter’, which he certainly liked. Nigel had a long interest in opera that started when, as a surgeon at Lewes Hospital, he treated members of the Glyndebourne opera company. This kindled a long interest and he was a supporter and regular visitor to the Glyndebourne Festival Opera. Sailing was a big part of his life, but mainly after he retired. Once he was unable to manage his 12m yacht, he took up watercolour painting. It came as a great surprise to the family that he had such a talent; his handwriting was (in common with others in the medical profession) awful, but his landscapes of local views in West Sussex were very good and are a treasured reminder of his varied skills. In retirement, he lived on at his farm, Mannings, with his family and enjoyed painting and cooking (another late blossoming talent). He grew vegetables (with varied success – but he did have his own shed). He had an interest in fine wines and kept an excellent cellar. He enjoyed walking, interested in butterflies and locating scenes to paint. He loved his garden at Mannings, where he lived for over 50 years, but rarely had time to enjoy given his significant work ethic. Nigel Porter died on 11 June 2017. He was 92. He was survived by his wife Leone (née Olliff-Lee), their three children – Melanie, Hilary and Guy – and five grandchildren, Polly, Craig, Imogen, Leo and Lucy.
Resource Identifier RCS: E009697
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Potter, John McEwen (1920 - 2002)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

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/381035381035
Occupation Neurosurgeon
Details John Potter was a consultant neurosurgeon and director of postgraduate education at Oxford. He was born in London on 28 February 1920. His father, Alistair Richardson Potter, was a brewer. His mother was Mairi Chalmers née Dick, a housewife whose father had edited the songs of Robert Burns. He was educated at Clifton and Emmanuel College, Cambridge. He did his clinical training at St Bartholomew's, where he was house surgeon and junior chief assistant to Sir James Paterson Ross, who had an interest in neurosurgery, and he was later house surgeon to John O'Connell, consultant neurosurgeon. He served in the RAMC from 1944 to 1947 with the rank of Captain, as a graded neurosurgeon, and saw service in Europe, India and Burma, where he commanded a neurosurgical team. After the war, he returned to Bart's as a lecturer in physiology. With D A MacDonald he worked on the cerebral circulation, using rabbits to examine flow in the cerebral arteries. A number of papers were published in the Journal of Physiology and in Nature, detailing the technique which involved exposing the base of the brain and the cerebral cortex and recording events microscopically and by high speed cinematography. They demonstrated that flow in the basilar artery was laminar, and that there was a dead point between the anterior and posterior circulations, probably in the posterior communicating artery, which could be shifted backwards or forwards by occluding major vessels, thus confirming the circle of Willis as a compensatory anastomotic system. In 1951 he moved to Oxford, as graduate assistant to Sir Hugh Cairns in neurosurgery. In 1954 he was awarded the E G Fearnsides scholarship from Cambridge University and in 1955 was Hunterian Professor of the College, his address being on cerebral angiomas. He was appointed consultant neurosurgeon at Manchester Royal Infirmary in 1956, where he remained until he was invited back to an appointment in Oxford in 1961. His earlier papers demonstrated a continued occupation with cerebral vascular pathology and the problems of aneurysm surgery, but he maintained an interest in head injuries, with which he had been involved during the war, and in 1961 wrote an important manual *The Practical management of head injuries* (London, Lloyd-Luke [Medical Books]) which was influential in educating junior staff in the handling of these cases. At Oxford he was actively concerned with the care of patients with head injuries and trained a succession of accident service registrars. He was a member of a number of foreign academic neurosurgical societies and was a visiting professor at the University of California. Potter was always interested in teaching and was appointed director of postgraduate medical education in Oxford in 1972, a position he occupied for 15 years, during which time he revitalised postgraduate medical education, although the post naturally led to a relinquishment of clinical work. New teaching centres were established throughout the region. He was especially interested in the welfare and education of junior doctors. In the latter part of his career he was much involved in committee work, serving on the General Medical Council for 16 years, and as chairman of its registration committee for 10. He also served as a governor of the United Oxford Hospitals and on the University Hebdomadal Council. He was a knowledgeable, well-informed and iconoclastic contributor to these bodies. In 1967 he was elected a fellow of Linacre College and transferred to a professorial fellowship in Wadham two years later. Potter was a man of literary interests and his study of the celebrated warden of New College, Dr Spooner, involved considerable documentary work, searching for written equivalents of Spooner's famous - sometimes perhaps apocryphal - verbal eccentricities. He also wrote on Robert Bridges, the poet who had qualified in medicine at Bart's, and on Percivall Pott. Potter had a great interest in natural history and horticulture, and was for some years a curator of the University Parks. He was also an accomplished fly-fisherman. In 1943 he married Kathleen Gerrard, a Bart's nurse. There were three sons, Jim, Andrew and Simon, none of whom took up medicine. He also had eight granddaughters and two great granddaughters. He died on 6 February 2002 of carcinoma of the prostate.
Resource Identifier RCS: E008852
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Neely, Julian Alexander Cavendish (1934 - 2016)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Sally Neely
Publication Date 2016-07-29 2017-03-23
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/381410381410
Occupation General surgeon
Details Julian Neely was a consultant surgeon in north Sussex, working at Crawley Hospital, Horsham Hospital and the Queen Victoria Hospital in East Grinstead. His father, Geoffrey Cavendish Neely, was of Irish descent. He was a saxophonist who ran a dance band in London. His mother, Dorothy Isobel Bruce née Alexander, was Scottish. She appeared in several West End musicals, counting the acclaimed actress Dame Cicely Courtneidge among her friends. She was an accomplished seamstress, and subsequently became a fashion buyer for Harrods. For most of the war Julian was an evacuee and moved with his prep school to Herefordshire. He later went to Fettes College in Edinburgh, where he enjoyed outdoor pursuits as well as academic life, and spent his last school summer holiday in Iceland on a surveying expedition with the British Schools Exploring Society. He gained a place at St Bartholomew's Medical School and had to find work in order to support himself. On falling asleep during a tutorial, he admitted he was currently employed as a night watchman. Barts came up with a bursary to help him through, and he was forever grateful. As a student, he played rugby for Barts Hospital and went on several tours with the team. He was determined to be a surgeon and duly gained the FRCS. He completed much of his training at St Bartholomew's, working for Sir James Paterson Ross, Eddie Tuckwell, Martin Birnstingl and Percy Jayes, also spending a year each in the burns and trauma units at Birmingham Accident Hospital, and acquired the full range of skills necessary to be a good all round general surgeon. He was a research fellow on the surgical professorial unit at Barts, where he studied aspects of gastrointestinal motility, and was awarded his MS. Whilst a senior registrar, he spent a year abroad, and took a job as a senior surgical specialist to the Libyan government in Tripoli, where the surgical services needed some modernisation. He was faced with conversing in Italian with the resident head surgeon, who had been with Rommel's army during the war, and in Arabic with the patients. Undaunted, he enjoyed the challenge until he was forced to leave when a military coup deposed King Idris. The remainder of his time was spent as a medical officer at an oil field in Iraq. In 1971 he became a consultant to Crawley and Horsham hospitals, and additionally in 1977 to the Queen Victoria Hospital. He was an RCS surgical tutor and was very keen on this aspect of his work. Crawley was a new hospital and junior surgical posts were much sought after by students from Barts, who enjoyed being taught by young, cheerful surgeons. He had written several papers on gastrointestinal motility and one on the management of gangrenous sigmoid volvulus and then turned his attention to peritoneal granulomas, which he believed were caused by the starch on surgical gloves. He wrote two papers detailing his findings, which sparked some debate. He was also carrying out research into various markers of breast cancer, in association with the Royal Marsden and the Marie Curie Foundation, with the help of a research registrar. He set himself high standards and expected the same in others, but always worked with courtesy and understanding, and cared for all his patients. He had a ready wit and sense of humour, and got on well with his colleagues. He was always ready to help, remaining calm in a crisis. His first marriage to Sarah Howard-Jones ended in divorce, and in 1974 he married Sally Arnold, a doctor. He had four children, Kevin, Sean, Stephanie and Catriona, none of whom took up medicine, however he retained the hope that in the future one of his grandchildren might. Away from work, he spent most holidays afloat; on his own boat in France and sometimes as a doctor on a small cruise ship. After retirement, he and Sally took on the family farm and he enthusiastically enrolled in several courses at the local agricultural college. He maintained a strong interest in medicine and was involved in efforts to secure government funding for a new local district general hospital, but sadly this was not successful. Latterly he immersed himself in philosophy. He died on 9 June 2016, aged 82.
Resource Identifier RCS: E009227
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Paterson, Duncan McColl (1938 - 2014)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by James Paterson
Publication Date 2014-10-17 2016-03-09
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/378328378328
Occupation General surgeon
Details Duncan McColl Paterson was a consultant surgeon at the Royal Victoria Hospital, Barrie, Ontario, Canada, from 1970 to 2006. He was born in Glasgow on 11 March 1938, the second son of Joseph Craig Paterson, an engineer, and Flora Paterson née Forbes. He was educated at Bellahouston Academy in Glasgow for his primary and early secondary schooling, and then went on to Chislehurst and Sidcup County Grammar School for Boys in Sidcup, Kent. He was an outstanding athlete and became the school *victor ludorum* in his final year and represented his school at rugby, gymnastics and athletics. He gained an open scholarship to read medicine at Westminster Medical School. His preclinical studies were carried out at King's College, before clinical training at the Westminster. Among his clinical tutors were Sir Stanford Cade and Harold Ellis, both very distinguished surgeons and teachers. He qualified in 1961 and then completed a number of general training posts before deciding to seek specialist training in surgery. While working for Donald McGavin at Leicester Royal Infirmary he obtained his FRCS in 1968 at his first attempt. Throughout this period, he was an active member of the Reserve Army Medical Services. In addition to regular courses in the management of trauma with the Reserve, he also completed parachute and small arms training. He maintained this interest in Canada, where he held the rank of ensign forester in the Gray and Simcoe Foresters, an infantry regiment of the Canadian Forces Reserve. In 1969 he moved to Canada. He completed the surgical training programme at the department of surgery at McMaster University and was the chief resident there from 1969 to 1970. He obtained his FRCS (Canada) in 1972. After completing his training at McMaster, he joined a specialist practice in the rapidly developing town of Barrie, Ontario. At the same time, he joined the consulting staff at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Barrie, where he worked for over 25 years. When he arrived all major trauma cases were transferred to Toronto. His extensive experience allowed him to manage most cases of general, orthopaedic, thoracic and head trauma locally. As Barrie expanded, more specialists joined the staff of the Royal Victoria Hospital and Duncan focused on the management of colorectal malignancy. For many years he was the only specialist in the area performing colonoscopy essential in the early diagnosis of colorectal cancer. He was a co-investigator for the National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project trials cooperative group, which was supported by the National Cancer Institute. He played a very full part in the management of the Royal Victoria Hospital, serving terms as chief of surgery, chair of the intensive care unit, chair of the ambulatory care committee and chair of the endoscopic services committee. He was a member of the ethics committee. He also served a term as president of the medical staff. As the Royal Victoria Hospital facilities were expanded to meet increased demand, he served as chair of the acute care planning committee for the new hospital. He served as a member of the complaints committee of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario. After his retirement in 2006 from full surgical practice, he became the regional co-ordinator for surgical oncology for the area of North Simcoe Muskoka. He was also invited by the department of oncology at the Royal Victoria Hospital to give further surgical opinions. He also served as an active board member of Gilda's Club, which provides supportive care for patients and their families. His qualities as a caring a practitioner are reflected by the many tributes from patients added to his online obituary. Among his colleagues Duncan will be remembered for his enthusiasm, his sense of fairness and his capacity for hard work. His main extramural interests were sailing and cars. He was a founder member of the Barrie Yacht Club and regularly chartered yachts in the Caribbean for his winter breaks. He was a keen driver and became the Ontario champion at Mini racing on ice. In his later years he was working on the restoration of a very early Jaguar E Type. He married twice. He died on 27 June 2014, aged 76, and was survived by his wife Marjorie, his two sons and daughter from his first marriage to Briar (née Hepworth), Ian, Ross and Bryher, and his step-daughters, Jennifer and Lana.
Resource Identifier RCS: E006145
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching McVey, Ian Lumsden (1927 - 2008)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Cass McInnes
Publication Date 2011-11-03 2015-03-27
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/373681373681
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born in Brisbane, Ian Lumsden McVey's early schooling days were spent in Queensland. The family subsequently moved to Melbourne and he finished his schooling at Wesley College. He began medicine at Melbourne University, being a student at the Alfred Hospital and graduated MB BS in 1949 was subsequently Resident and Registrar at the Alfred in 1950 and 1951 and Associate Surgeon in 1952-1954. At the same time he was demonstrator of anatomy at the University, and won the Sir Gordon Taylor Prize for Excellence in The Primary Fellowship Examination in 1953. He travelled to England to further his studies, he worked at St Bartholomew's Hospital in London (with Sir James Patterson Ross who was then President of the Royal College of Surgeons of London), obtained FRCS in 1955 and finished his United Kingdom training as Registrar at the West Middlesex Hospital. He returned to Melbourne and was appointed Honorary Surgeon to Outpatients at the Alfred Hospital in 1957 obtaining FRACS in 1958. He was subsequently appointed Honorary Surgeon to Inpatients and Head of the Unit at the Alfred in 1965, a position he held until 1983. During this period he proved himself a skilful, often conservative and thoughtful surgeon. His main area of clinical interest was in diseases of the breast and to whom credit must go for the initiation of a multidisciplinary breast clinic. The profession however, was not yet ready for that, so it struggled for a few years and never obtained the status that he had envisaged. His lectures to his students and nurses, were always clear, and given his command of the language and caring approach were always popular - particular his lectures to the nursing staff. He was Examiner in Surgery at Melbourne University and latterly at Monash University. In 1983 the Motor Accident Board (now the TAC) and the Staff nominated Ian to be Director of the Road Trauma Service - a position he held until 1996. His ability to organise and obtain the desired result was apparent. With the assistance of initially Bill Dott and later Alex Rollo and support of his life long secretary Pauline Smith, the revolutionary Helipad structure of the Trauma Centre and its organisation and reception of casualties became a reality and the Alfred Hospital became the prime centre for management of road trauma in Victoria. Appointed to the Consultative Council on emergency and critical care, he was pivotal in the development of trauma services in Victoria and the Road Trauma Centre at the Alfred Hospital remains a monument to him. During this time he was appointed Associate Professor to the Department of Forensic Medicine at Melbourne University and co-ordinator of the Professional Practice Program. During a career studded with Committee work, he was a member of the Alfred Board of Management and Vice President from 1987 to 1994. He was a member of the Council of AMA (Victorian Branch) from 1963 to 1978 and President in 1973. He was a member of the Medical Practitioners Board, member of the Council of the Medical Defence Association of Victoria and its President in 1973-1990. A member of the Medical Benefits Schedule Advisory Committee meant that he was involved with the development of the Medicare Schedule and in addition he was a member of the Anti-Cancer Council of Victoria. He was Chairman of Victoria Medical Insurance Agency and Director of Professional Indemnity Insurance Company of Australia and subsequently was instrumental in establishing the Medical Indemnity Protection Society when the United Kingdom based Medical Protection Society withdrew from Australia. He was appointed Senior Consultant Surgeon to the Royal Australian Navy in 1962. He was a master of organisation and committees. He had the ability to think on his feet, and could influence a meeting. He had a strong and clear vision for the profession - a facility which on occasions upset his colleagues. He married Norma Hayden a Senior Staff Sister at the Alfred, and together they developed a property on the Mornington Peninsula raising Murray Grey cattle - he became president of the Murray Grey Society and was influential in consolidating its position and development. He was a man of great vision with strong beliefs in the rights and also the responsibilities of the profession ¬ particularly the surgical profession. A was a most generous host and strong believer in the beauty and benefits of rural Australia. He and Norma sold the farm at the turn of the century and built a residence in Mornington where Norma resides. He is survived by Norma, his brother Dan, daughter Ann and two grandchildren.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001498
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Willan, Robert Joseph (1878 - 1955)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2014-06-23
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E005000-E005999/E005400-E005499
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/377678377678
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born on 10 January 1878 second son of John Willan JP of Durham, he was educated at Durham School and Durham University where he qualified with honours in 1906, having as an undergraduate gained the Gibb scholarship in pathology in 1904 and the Charlton scholarship in the principles and practice of medicine in 1905. In 1908 he was awarded the Stephen Scott scholarship of Durham University and, much later, in 1920 the Heath Scholarship of Durham University for an essay based on personal investigations. After qualification he was house surgeon and surgical registrar at the Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle and senior house surgeon at St Peter's Hospital for Stone, London. In 1914 he was elected to the honorary staff of the Royal Victoria Infirmary as assistant surgeon. As a young man he joined the Volunteers being attached to the Durham Light Infantry, but later joined the medical branch of the RNVR attached to the Tyne Division and in the war of 1914-18 he was mobilised in 1914 in the rank of Staff Surgeon, serving in the hospital ship Plassey attached to the Grand Fleet in Scapa Flow. During this period he operated on the then Duke of York, later King George VI, for which service he was awarded the MVO in 1915. It was in this year that he also wrote a minor classic entitled *Clinical notes for Surgeon Probationers* aimed at senior medical students who were commissioned in that rank serving in destroyers and minesweepers. In the later stages of the war he was appointed to the Royal Naval Hospital, Haslar. After the war he remained in the Tyne Division, retiring in 1933 with the rank of Surgeon-Captain, the highest attainable rank in the Reserve, carrying with it the position of King's Honorary Surgeon. In 1922 he became full surgeon at the Royal Victoria Infirmary. He was also honorary surgeon to Ingham Infirmary, South Shields, to Newcastle-on-Tyne Dental Hospital, and the Whickham and District Hospital. In 1935 he succeeded to the chair of surgery, when Professor Grey Turner decided to go south to the Post-Graduate Medical School, Hammersmith, a post Willan occupied until his retirement in 1942, when he became emeritus professor and a life governor of the Infirmary. During the war of 1939-45 he was re-employed first in the rank of Surgeon-Captain RNVR and later as Surgeon Rear-Admiral, Royal Navy and consultant in surgery for Scotland and adviser to No 1 region of the Ministry of Health. At the College he was elected a member of Council in 1939, serving until 1947. He was a past President of the Durham University Medical Society and of the Newcastle-on-Tyne and Northern Counties Medical Society. He had always been a keen member of the BMA and in 1912 he was honorary secretary of the Newcastle-on-Tyne Division, from 1915 to 1922 scientific secretary of the North of England Branch, in 1924-25 Chairman of the Division and in 1929-30 Chairman of the Branch. At the Association's Annual General Meeting in 1921 he was honorary local secretary and at the Glasgow meeting in 1922 he was vice-president of the Section of Surgery; he was a representative to the centenary meeting in 1932 and member of the Council; a member of the Science Committee for thirty years, he was chairman of the library sub-committee from 1946 until his death. He wrote a number of articles, chiefly concerned with affections of the genito-urinary tract, as this particular branch of surgery was his major interest. After his retirement he moved to London, living in Harley House W1 and interesting himself in medical charities, becoming a member of the council of Epsom College and chairman of its Special Committee. He was also chairman of the committee of management of the Medical Insurance Agency for many years. Sturdy and of medium height, he was good-natured and quiet in demeanour. He regularly attended the Chapel of the Savoy, being connected with it by virtue of being a member of the Victorian Order. In later years his health began to fail and he had for some time been embarrassed by the accidental loss of an eye caused while casting for salmon. He was also a keen golf player. He married in 1910 Dorothy Eleanor Shawyer who died on 8 September 1949 and by whom he had a son and two daughters. His only son who died at the age of 20 had been an invalid for many years. Willan died on 12 January 1955. A memorial service was held in the Queen's Chapel of the Savoy on 27 January 1955 at which the lesson was read by Sir James Paterson Ross and an address was given by Sir Zachary Cope.
Resource Identifier RCS: E005495
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Barratt-Boyes, Sir Brian Gerald (1924 - 2006)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2015-09-15 2018-03-21
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/380271380271
Occupation Cardiac surgeon Cardiothoracic surgeon
Details Sir Brian Barratt-Boyes was one of New Zealand's foremost cardiac surgeons. He was born on 13 January 1924, the son of Gerald Cave Boyes and Edna Myrtle, née Barratt. After qualifying, he was a lecturer in anatomy at Otago, and then house surgeon and registrar at Wellington Hospital. He was subsequently surgical registrar and pathology registrar at Palmerston North Hospital, before going to the Mayo Clinic as a fellow in cardio-thoracic surgery for two years. He was then awarded a Nuffield fellowship at Bristol in 1956. He returned to New Zealand as senior cardio-thoracic surgeon at Green Lane Hospital. In 1982 he was awarded the Sims Commonwealth travelling fellowship and many honours came to him in the succeeding years: the RT Hall prize for distinguished cardiac surgery in 1966, the René Leriche prize of the Société Internationale de Chirurgie in 1987, and the award for excellence from the Australasian College in 1994, and he was depicted on a postage stamp of the famous New Zealanders series. He published *Heart disease in infancy: diagnosis and surgical treatment* in 1973 and the standard text *Cardiac Surgery* in 1986, which ran into several editions. His recreations included trout fishing and tennis. He was married twice: first to Norma Margaret Thompson, by whom he had five sons. This marriage was dissolved and he married Sara Rose Monester in 1986. See below for an additional extended obituary: Brian Barratt-Boyes was one of the most outstanding cardiac surgeons among the pioneers of open-heart surgery, gaining an international reputation from a relatively remote hospital location. He was born on 13 January 1924 in Wellington, New Zealand, the son of Gerald Cave Boyes and Edna Myrtle née Barratt. He was educated at Wellington College and Victoria University, before going on to study at Otago University's Medical School. After serving as a lecturer in anatomy he became a house surgeon and then a registrar at the Wellington Hospital, from 1948 to 1950. He was then a registrar at Palmerston North Hospital, before becoming a fellow in cardiothoracic surgery at the Mayo Clinic under John Kirklin, who became a close friend. He then went to Bristol on a Nuffield travelling scholarship. In 1957 Sir Douglas Robb recruited him to return to New Zealand to set up open-heart surgery, and he became senior cardiothoracic surgeon at the Green Lane Hospital, Auckland. His first open heart operation was performed in 1958. He introduced a number of new methods, including the use of pacemakers, constructed on the spot by Sid Yarrow, an engineer on the team, at first used externally and implanted for the first time in 1961. Simultaneously, with Donald Ross in London, he introduced the use of aortic valve homografts in 1962, greatly simplifying and improving the surgical technique. In 1969 he brought into the limelight the technique of profound hypothermia with cardiac arrest for paediatric cardiac surgery, so making Green Lane Hospital an international centre for neonates with congenital heart disease. Young cardiac surgeons from all over the world came to work with him, taking back with them his system and techniques, which soon became recognised as the gold standard in this field. His *Heart disease in infancy: diagnosis and surgical treatment* (1973) became the standard text, as did the monumental *Cardiac surgery* (1985), which he wrote in collaboration with John Kirklin. He was the recipient of innumerable honours. In 1971 he was made the first honorary professor in the University of Auckland, and his work was recognised by a knighthood. In 1983 he won a Sims Commonwealth travelling fellowship and gained the René Leriche prize of the Société Internationale de Chirurghie in 1987. He turned down many lucrative offers to work overseas, pointing out that to work in a small, distant hospital (as with the Mayo Clinic) protected one from outside distractions. In all his work, Barratt-Boyes demonstrated what his admirer Christiaan Barnard called, writing in the introduction of Donna Chisholm's biography, 'single-mindedness - a clear sighted striving towards a goal and a vision'. It was ironic that he should himself suffer from serious heart disease, and underwent four operations before finally going to the Cleveland Clinic to have two valves replaced, an operation which was followed by complications from which he died on 8 March 2006. He married twice. In 1949 he married Norma Margaret Thompson, by whom he had five sons. This marriage was dissolved in 1986, and he married secondly Sara Rose Monester.
Resource Identifier RCS: E008088
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Taylor, Selwyn Francis (1913 - 2000)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2015-12-07
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/381149381149
Occupation Endocrine surgeon General surgeon Paediatric surgeon
Details Selwyn Francis Taylor, an internationally known surgeon and postgraduate teacher, was born in Sale, Cheshire, on 6 September 1913. His mother, Emily Edwards, was a teacher and his father, Alfred Petre Taylor, a headmaster. He was educated at Peter Symond's School, Winchester, before proceeding to Keble College, Oxford, with a Gibb's grant. He graduated BA in 1936, and then went to King's College Hospital, London, on a Burney Yeo scholarship. This was a foretaste of things to come. Shortly after qualifying, he enlisted in the RNVR, serving from 1940 to 1945 as Surgeon Lieutenant Commander in the Atlantic on destroyers as a surgical specialist, and in East Africa, Malaya and Australia. Perhaps this whetted his appetite for the sea, and, as the orator for his honorary Fellowship of the Edinburgh College, James A Ross, said, gave him, "his deep bronzed complexion in the summer months as yachtsman of renown with his sailor wife. The salt water also gave him the thirst of a connoisseur of fine wines!" He later became chairman of the International Wine Society. After the war, he returned to King's College Hospital, and gained a George Herbert Hunt scholarship from Oxford University to study at the Sabbatsberg Hospital in Stockholm, his mentor being Clarence Crafoord. From 1948 to 1949, he was a Rockefeller travelling fellow in the USA at the Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston. Although a general surgeon initially, he inclined towards endocrine and paediatric surgery on his appointments as honorary surgeon to Belgrave Hospital for Children (1964 to 1965) and as consultant surgeon to King's College Hospital from 1951 to 1965. As surgeon to the Hammersmith Hospital and senior lecturer to the Royal Postgraduate Medical School from 1947 to 1978, he practised thyroid and parathyroid surgery exclusively, becoming Dean from 1965 to 1978. A prolific writer, he was involved in over 300 publications, not only on his specialist subjects of thyroid and parathyroid diseases, but as editor of *Recent advances in surgery* (London, J & A Churchill, 5th to 8th editions), also Rose and Carless' *Manual of surgery* (19th edition) and, with Leonard Cotton, *A short textbook of surgery* (London, English Universities Press, 1967). It was said that, "he had a gift for tearing the heart out of a book and publishing the essential facts from a mass of irrelevancies." All this led to his becoming chairman of Heinemann Medical Books. Of importance to the College, he served on the Council from 1966 to 1978, being senior Vice-President from 1976 to 1978. Apparently he did not speak volubly, but when he did people listened because he had something important to say! He was Cecil Joll prizeman (1976) and Bradshaw lecturer (1977). Furthermore, he made major contributions to postgraduate training at home and overseas, travelling extensively and being an excellent ambassador for British surgery, known for his wide interests and great talents. He was a member of numerous societies. Many honours came his way, including being President of the Harveian Society (1969), President of the London Thyroid Club, Keat's lecturer to the Society of Apothecaries and President of the International Association of Endocrine Surgeons, indeed it was his vision that led to the foundation of this vibrant society. Albeit in poor health, he attended a meeting in Portugal in 1999, a year before his death. Selwyn was external examiner to eight medical schools at home and abroad, consultant to the Royal Navy, member of the Armed Forces Board, and honorary Fellow of the College's sister organisations in Edinburgh and South Africa. He and his wife Ruth regularly attended home and overseas meetings of the Travelling Surgical Society of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Made a member in 1955, he was given honorary membership for his major support and contributions. On one visit to Bordeaux, the lack of scientific input was offset by his arrangements for wine tastings and an excellent meal with wines to complement each course at Chateau Leonville Barton! One of his last publications appeared in the BMJ in 1992 entitled 'Confessions of a Benedictine drinker'. In this he traced his first sip as a boy of nine to ward off the rigours of learning to swim in the Atlantic, to its use after dining unwisely! He had played tennis for his teaching hospital as a student, and continued this form of exercise with his long-time friend, Bernard Williams of Portsmouth (with whom he also sailed), until their combined ages were over 160 years. He married Ruth Margaret Howitt, also a doctor, in 1939. They had a son, Simon, a management consultant, and a daughter, Jane, a psychoanalyst. Selwyn died on 11 January 2000. Sadly, his last few years were troubled with cardiac problems and an unhealed fracture.
Resource Identifier RCS: E008966
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Lawson, Robert Alexander Murdoch (1938 - 2017)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by A K Deiraniya
Publication Date 2017-02-17 2017-08-24
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/381494381494
Occupation Cardiothoracic surgeon
Details Robert Alexander Murdoch Lawson (known as 'Bob') was a cardiothoracic surgeon at Wythenshawe Hospital, Manchester. He was born on 11 February 1938, in a farmhouse in Ardross, a tiny village in Ross-shire in the Highlands of Scotland. His parents, Margaret Perrins Lawson née Murdoch and Robert MacKenzie Lawson, had settled in Ceylon after their marriage, but returned home to Scotland for the birth of their first child. After eight weeks, they returned to subcontinent, and the family continued with their happy life in Colombo until the imminent threat of a Japanese invasion forced the evacuation of British women and children to South Africa for a couple of years. On their return to Colombo, Bob's father became ill with lung cancer and died on New Year's Day, 1945. With no financial support abroad, Bob's mother wisely decided to return to the safety and comfort of the family farm in Ardross. There Bob went to the local primary school, where he excelled, mainly, he would say, because there were only three in his class. From there he went to George Watson's College in Edinburgh, where he boarded for six years. Bob was forever indebted to the Scottish educational system for this and for the following six years at the Edinburgh University Medical School. After three house jobs in Scotland, Bob went to Sarawak for six months, where he had 'wonderful experience in surgery, medicine, obstetrics and gynaecology too, and life itself'. On his return to Scotland, he held senior house officer posts in the accident and emergency department at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary and in anaesthesia at the Western General Hospital. This was followed by four years in general surgery at Bangour General Hospital, at the end of which a career move to cardiothoracic surgery saw him move south of the border to Shotley Bridge Hospital in County Durham. He spent 1972 and 1973 as a registrar at the Brompton Hospital. This was followed by a two-year fellowship with Albert Starr in Portland, Oregon, after which he returned to the UK to complete the last two years of his senior registrar training on the London Chest/ Brompton/National Heart circuit. He was appointed as a consultant at Wythenshawe Hospital in south Manchester and at Pendlebury Children's Hospital, Manchester in 1977. Bob was a caring, compassionate, committed and conscientious clinician; he saw his patients twice a day and at weekends throughout the year without fail. In addition to his work at Wynthenshawe Hospital, he shouldered a significant paediatric surgical workload at Pendlebury. This was an onerous undertaking considering the emergency component of that type of surgery and the travel involved. Bob was available 24/7 for his patients. He was an excellent clinician, a skillful operator and a gifted teacher, who contributed a great deal to developing cardiac surgical services. He was highly regarded and universally respected by his fellow consultants, nursing colleagues, trainees and patients alike. Many of his patients became lifelong friends. He retired from Wythenshawe in 1998, but continued at Pendlebury for three more years. He met and married Liz (Elizabeth Ettie Clark) in 1965 when she was a staff nurse on the paediatric ward of the Western General Hospital, where they both worked at the time. They went on to have five children and nine grandchildren. On retirement, the Lawsons moved to Blackburn, where Bob was able to indulge his passion of walking in the hills of Pendle. His enjoyment of hill walking was severely curtailed in recent years with the onset of a spinal disorder. He loved reading poetry and watching Scotland play rugby. For a number of years, he had a love affair with low slung sports cars. Despite bilateral hip replacements at the tender age of 45 or thereabouts, he could get in and out of his TVR and Lotus Elan cars with amazing agility and grace. When he could no longer manage the graceful entry and exit, he settled for a Skoda Superb. He travelled a great deal over the years with Liz and sometimes with his large family. Europe-wise, he loved Greece the best. Bob was a true Scot, proud to be so and loved everything Scottish, particularly the Highlands and the north west. His death came unexpectedly two weeks after admission to Blackburn Royal Infirmary on Christmas Day with an acute pneumonia. Bob was a loyal friend and an exemplary colleague of unimpeachable integrity; throughout the 40 years I knew him he displayed malice towards none and charity to all. He died on 10 January 2017, aged 78. He will be greatly missed and lovingly remembered by all those whose lives he touched, none more so than his wife Liz, children (Becky, Kate, Libby, Tom and Hannah) and his nine grandchildren.
Resource Identifier RCS: E009311
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching de Fonseka, Chandra Pal (1919 - 2008)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by John Blandy
Publication Date 2008-10-17 2015-09-11
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000500-E000599
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372748372748
Occupation Accident and emergency surgeon
Details Chandra Pal de Fonseka was an accident and emergency surgeon in Bristol. He was born in Panadura, Ceylon, on 22 December 1919 into a family with many medical connections. His grandfather and two uncles were medical practitioners. His father, Hector Clarence de Fonseka, was a landowner who managed his own rubber and coconut estates. His mother was Inez Johanna née Gunewardene, whose three brothers studied medicine in London. Three of his cousins were also in medicine. Chandra qualified in medicine from the University of Ceylon with the Sir Andrew Caldecott and Dadabhoy gold medals in his final examination. He then held house appointments in his own teaching hospital. At the end of the war it was difficult to get a passage to England, so he signed on as ship's doctor to the Blue Funnel liner SS Demodocus, which was a naval auxiliary that had been held up in Colombo because her doctor had fallen ill and had been sent back to England. After a seven-month voyage, he arrived in Liverpool in November 1946. He attended the primary course at the Middlesex Hospital, passed the examination, and returned to Ceylon, where he underwent an arranged marriage to his first wife Rukmani Dias. He returned to London to specialise in surgery, doing registrar jobs at Hammersmith, the North Middlesex and St Mark's hospitals, enriching his experience by attending rounds and courses in a number of hospitals, among which he particularly valued his experience at St James's, Balham. Having passed the FRCS in 1949, he became a resident surgical officer at St Bartholomew's Hospital, Rochester, for two years and was then a registrar in Bath under Sholem Glaser who, with the other five general surgeons, gave him a glowing testimonial. There he met Peter London, then the senior registrar in orthopaedics. From Bath he went to Bristol to widen his experience in cardiothoracic surgery under Ronald Belsey in the Frenchay Hospital thoracic unit for another two years. Belsey was unstinting in praising his clinical and operative skills. Whilst there he did his best to learn neurosurgery and plastic surgery, experience which he found particularly valuable on his return to Ceylon in 1956 as senior lecturer in the university department of surgery in Colombo. Celyon had won its independence from Britain in 1948 without a drop of blood being shed. In 1958 communal riots broke out between the Tamil and Sinhalese populations. Chandra was in the theatre round the clock, dealing with gun-shot and knife wounds under the most difficult circumstances. His Tamil anaesthetist was beaten up by a Sinhalese mob. Buddhist priests complained to the administrator (a Tamil) that another doctor was treating Tamils rather than Sinhalese and the doctor was duly dismissed. The Prime Minister was assassinated in September. Laws were passed to outlaw the Tamil language and make Sinhalese the only official language. Chandra was appointed professor of surgery in July 1960. The workload increased, especially in cancer. In 1962 his marriage was dissolved and he married his second wife, Maria Thérése Bertus in Colombo. In 1963 he was asked to set up a new department of surgery in Kandy. By now Chandra was one of the senior figures on the medical scene, having become president of the medical section of the Ceylon Association for the Advancement of Science. He had been granted a sabbatical year to study in the UK and had planned visits to the foremost centres in Britain and Germany, with introductions from Ronald Raven and Sir James Patterson Ross among others. But permission was repeatedly refused for his wife to accompany him until eventually she was allowed to go as a pilgrim to Rome with their new baby daughter. They eventually made their way to the UK in 1964. There Chandra was appointed senior research fellow to set up the road accident research unit in Birmingham, the report of which was published in five volumes in 1969. During this period he was a clinical assistant to the accident department of Dudley Road Hospital. In 1969 the Medical Research Council invited him to set up a similar study into accidents in the home and he was appointed honorary lecturer in accident epidemiology in the department of public health in the University of Bristol. This project developed into the National Home Accident Monitoring Scheme of the Home Office. From then on he continued to work in the accident and emergency department until he retired in 1985. He was a man of great integrity, charm and courtesy, who was widely admired for his qualities not only as a technical surgeon but as a teacher. He published extensively on road and domestic accidents, and was in demand as a lecturer in Europe and America. His many outside interests included geology, cosmology and astronomy, and with Thérése he was a keen traveller and photographer. He was for many years treasurer of the Society of St Vincent de Paul, a charity for the disabled that was affiliated to the Catholic Church. He died on 5 April 2008, leaving his widow and the youngest of their two daughters.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000565
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Hadfield, Geoffrey John (1923 - 2006)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2007-08-29
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000300-E000399
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372570372570
Occupation General surgeon
Details John Hadfield was an outstanding teacher and ambassador for British surgery. He was born in Long Ashton near Bristol on 19 April 1923. His family hailed from Plymouth. His father, Geoffrey Hadfield, was professor of pathology at St Bartholomew’s Hospital and later became the Sir William Collins professor of pathology and dean of the Institute of Basic Science in our College, for which he became FRCS ad eundem, after his three children had already passed the FRCS in the usual way. John’s mother was Sarah Victoria Eileen D’Arcy Irvine of Irvinstown, Northern Ireland. His elder sister Esmé was an ENT surgeon and his younger brother, James Irvine Havelock Hadfield, a general surgeon. He was educated at the Merchant Taylors’ School, where he won a prize for recitation of the 19th psalm, was coached in rugby football by K R J Saxton, the All Black, and developed the habit of wearing a bowler hat, which provided an effective means of identification when travelling abroad. He completed his preclinical studies at Queen’s College, Cambridge, and went to London, to Bart’s, for his clinical work, where he was a dresser to Sir James Paterson Ross and Sir Geoffrey Keynes. After qualifying he became house surgeon to J B Hume, Harold Rogers and Alec Badenoch, was RMO at St Andrew’s Hospital, Dollis Hill, and demonstrator of anatomy at Bart’s. He passed the primary with ease in 1948 and the final a few weeks later, a feat which is said to have left Cave bereft of speech - a notable achievement. He did his National Service in the RAMC in Malaya, ending up commanding the 21 Field Surgical Unit in North Malaya. He returned to Bart’s as research assistant on the surgical unit under John Kinmonth and then did a registrar post in Colchester under Ronald Reid, before going to Bristol Royal Infirmary as senior registrar to Milnes Walker, from which he gained the British Empire Cancer Campaign travelling fellowship to the New York Memorial Hospital. He returned to Bart’s as a senior lecturer in surgery under Paterson Ross, taking time to be a clinical assistant to Naunton Morgan and Henry Thompson at St Marks, until he was appointed consultant in general surgery at Stoke Mandeville. From 1960 to 1988 he was honorary surgical tutor at University College, London, where he built up an international reputation as a teacher of generations of house staff, registrars, and men and women attending the Penrose May course at our College. He published extensively on a wide range of surgical topics, ranging from endocrinology through to urology, to cancer of the breast. In collaboration with Michael Hobsley he edited five volumes of *Current surgical practice* (London, Arnold), the royalties from which were used to set up a scholarship awarded on the basis of an MD or MS thesis. Together with Hobsley and Basil Morson, he wrote *Pathology in surgical practice* (London, Edward Arnold, 1985). He was on the editorial board of the *British Journal of Surgery*, and a member of many surgical associations both in England and Pakistan, which he visited regularly, and was honoured with the Sitara award. When Rodney Smith became the first Penrose May tutor at the College, John Hadfield, Alan Parks and Felix Eastcott were course tutors, teaching in the College and arranging for young surgeons to visit their hospitals. John continued with this work long after the others had moved on, and in this way came to know a large number of surgeons, many of whom became distinguished in their own countries. Among these, Adibul Rizvi went on to become a world-famous urologist and transplant surgeon in Karachi. As a result of this John was invited to teach and examine all over the world and became the recipient of numerous honorary degrees and awards. In the College he was Arris and Gale Lecturer in 1954, Hunterian Professor in 1959, Erasmus Wilson Demonstrator in 1969, a member of Council from 1971 to 1983, Arnott Demonstrator in 1972, Stanford Cade Memorial Lecturer in 1978 and vice president from 1982 to 1983. He served on the Court of Examiners from 1972 to 1978 and was its chairman from 1977 to 1978. He was a keen Territorial, serving with the 17 London General Hospital then based on the Duke of York’s HQ, Chelsea, and later 219 Wessex City of Bath General Hospital as officer in charge of the surgical division and later as their honorary colonel. A keen sailor until arthritis prevented him from climbing the mast, he taught his daughters to sail. After retirement he served as a sidesman in Exeter Cathedral for 17 years. In 1960 he married Beryl Sleigh, a Bart’s physiotherapist, by whom he had three daughters (Catherine Marian Elizabeth, Frances Margaret Rosemary and Patricia Mary). Frances is a staff nurse at St George’s. When he retired he moved to Devon, where he continued to sail and walk, and it was when he and Beryl were in the process of returning to London to live near one of their three daughters that he unexpectedly died on 26 December 2006.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000386
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Wormald, Thomas (1802 - 1873)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-01-25 2012-03-08
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/372378372378
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born at Pentonville in January, 1802, the son of John Wormald, who came of a Yorkshire family, a partner in Child's Bank, and Fanny, his wife. He was educated at the Grammar School of Batley in Yorkshire, and afterwards by the Rev. W. Heald, Vicar of Bristol in the came county. He was apprenticed to John Abernethy in 1818, lived in his house and became a friend. Abernethy used him as a prosector, caused him to teach the junior students, and made him assist Edward Stanley (q.v.) in his duties as Curator of the Hospital Museum. During his apprenticeship he visited the schools in Paris and saw something of the surgical practice of Dupuytren, Roux, Larrey, Cloquet, Cruveilhier, and Velpeau. When Abernethy resigned his lectureship Edward Stanley was appointed in his place, and it was arranged that Wormald should become a Demonstrator. But when the time arrived Frederic Carpenter Skey (q.v.), an earlier apprentice of Abernethy, was chosen, and 'Tommy', as he was known to everyone, was disappointed. He therefore became House Surgeon to William Lawrence, who was of the opposite faction, in October, 1824. It was not until 1826 that Wormald became Demonstrator of Anatomy conjointly with Skey, and when Skey seceded from the medical school to join the Aldersgate School of Medicine, Wormald remained as sole Demonstrator, and held the post for fifteen years. He was elected Assistant Surgeon to St. Bartholomew's Hospital on Feb. 13th, 1838, on the death of Henry Earle, and spent the next twenty-three years teaching in the out-patient department without charge of beds. He became full Surgeon on April 3rd, 1861, on the resignation of Eusebius Arthur Lloyd (q.v.), and was obliged to resign under the age rule on April 9th, 1867, when he was elected Consulting Surgeon. He was Consulting Surgeon to the Foundling Hospital from 1843-1864, where his kindness to the children was so highly appreciated that he received the special thanks of the Court of Management and was complimented by being elected a Governor. At the Royal College of Surgeons he was a Member of Council from 1840-1867, Hunterian Orator in 1857, a Member of the Court of Examiners from 1858-1868, and Chairman of the Midwifery Board in 1864. He served as Vice-President in 1863 and 1864, and was elected President in 1865. He married Frances Meacock in September, 1828, and by her had eight children. He died of cerebral haemorrhage after a few hours' illness whilst on a visit to the sick-bed of his brother at Gomersal, in Yorkshire, on Dec. 28th, 1873, and was buried in Highgate Cemetery. A pencil sketch by Sir William Ross (1846) is in the Conservators' Room at the Royal College of Surgeons, and a photograph taken later in life hangs by its side. Wormald was the last pupil of John Abernethy, and his death snapped the link connecting St. Bartholomew's Hospital with Hunterian surgery; but it is as a teacher of clinical surgery and not as a surgeon that Wormald is remembered. The long years first as a Demonstrator of Anatomy and afterwards in the out-patient room made him a teacher of the highest class. He was so perfect an assistant that it was said in jest he ought never to have been promoted. He is reported to have been cool, cautious, and safe as an operator, and in diagnosis remarkably correct, particularly in diseases and injuries of joints. He had some mechanical skill, for he invented a soft metal ring which was passed over the scrotum for the relief of varicocele, known as 'Wormald's ring', and would forge his own instruments. He read but little and trusted almost entirely to observation and experience. He exercised a great influence over students and put a permanent and effective stop to smoking and drinking in the dissecting-room. His manner was brusque but not offensive, and was modelled upon that of his master, John Abernethy, whose gestures and eccentricities he often mimicked. He drew well, and illustrated his demonstrations and lectures with freehand sketches on the blackboard. His style of speaking was easy, clear, and forcible. There was no hurry or waste of words, and he had the art of arresting and keeping the attention of his class, partly by his quaintness and originality, partly by his frequent reference to surgical points in the anatomy he was discussing, and partly by his inexhaustible fund of humour and of anecdotes, many of which were not quite proper. In person he was of a ruddy countenance, with light-brown hair lying thin and lank over his broad forehead, his eyes twinkling and roguish; his coat and waistcoat were 'farmer-like', his trousers tight-fitting, with pockets in which he usually kept his hands deeply plunged; his boots were thick and laced. He looked, indeed, more a farmer than a surgeon. PUBLICATIONS:- *A Series of Anatomical Sketches and Diagrams with Descriptions and References *(with A. M. MCWHINNIE, q.v.), 4to, London, 1838; re-issued in 1843. These sketches from one of the best series of anatomical plates made for the use of students. They are true to nature and not overloaded with detail.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000191
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Venn, Graham Erskine (1954 - 2013)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Christopher Young
Publication Date 2013-11-08 2017-03-30
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/376810376810
Occupation Cardiac surgeon Cardiothoracic surgeon
Details Graham Venn was a consultant cardiac surgeon at Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust and, for the last decade of his life, at the centre of British cardiac surgery. He was part of all aspects of the discipline, from being passionate about training junior surgeons, to overseeing cardiac surgical research at St Thomas' Hospital, to being influential in the running and governance of the Society for Cardiothoracic Surgery (SCTS), to his work linked with the Royal College of Surgeons and, finally, to his ensuring fair pay and contractual obligations for newly-appointed young consultants. Graham touched the lives of the cardiac surgical world in a way that few have. His wisdom, foresight and passion were remarkable from a young age. Graham Erskine Venn was born in Kent on 22 March 1954. He was educated at Dulwich College, London and went on to study medicine at the Middlesex Hospital Medical School from 1972 to 1977. Graham knew he wanted to be a heart surgeon as a student and one of his first posts after qualification was as houseman to the illustrious surgeons Jack Belcher, Marvin Sturridge and Donald Ross (the surgeon who performed the first UK heart transplant). Graham then went on to train under some of the greatest names in British cardiac surgery - Matt Paneth, Chris Lincoln, Stewart Lennox and Magdi Yacoub. The final part of his training was at the Hôpital Broussais in Paris, working with the father of heart valve repair, Alain Carpentier. During this period, Graham accumulated numerous prizes and distinctions, became a fellow of both the Royal Colleges of Surgeons of England and of Edinburgh, and went on to become a Hunterian professor of surgery at the RCS in 1989. Graham was appointed to the staff at St Thomas' Hospital in July 1989, where he quickly adopted a senior management as well as a clinical role, overseeing the difficult mergers of the Brook cardiac unit and later the unification of Guy's and St Thomas' cardiac services to form part of the largest UK trust hospital. He later became a member of the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries of London and was made a freeman of the City of London in 2003. Within the Society for Cardiothoracic Surgery, Graham was influential for 20 years, from being an almost permanent member of the executive committee to chairing various society committees, such as the professional standards committee and the blood-borne infections panel. Latterly, Graham was a trustee and director of SCTS. In addition, Graham worked tirelessly through both the Society and the RCS to raise the standards of the profession, including leading on job planning (to ensure a fair deal for newly-appointed consultants) and acting as specialty adviser. Graham was also central to the development of the 'early response' initiative, a mechanism whereby the Society and RCS could rapidly respond to adverse surgical outcomes/performance by parachuting in a team. Graham himself formed part of the rapid response team, undertaking several exhausting reviews. Graham was appointed surgeon to the British Army in 1990, an honorary appointment whereby he initially looked after cardiac surgical issues for the entire Army and latterly provided advice on the management of chest trauma in overseas battle zones. Graham was a passionate trainer of young surgeons and his unassuming Facebook page was full of praise from his trainees. His final legacy was that the last three cardiac surgeons appointed to St Thomas' had been inspired by training under Graham. Two of them went on to train internationally, but all three wanted to come back to St Thomas' because of Graham's influence. Finally, Graham was an outstanding surgeon who pushed for increasing specialisation in cardiac surgery. His cardiac surgical results in general were outstanding, but particularly on mitral valve reconstructive surgery - a complex branch of cardiac surgery at which Graham excelled. He was very passionate about surgery and his patients. On one occasion Graham could not operate until another patient had left the ITU to move to another hospital, thereby vacating a post-operative bed. Such was the slowness of the pace, it appeared that Graham's patient would be cancelled that day. Graham was having none of it, and he went and found himself an old ambulance used for 'iron-lung' patients. He commandeered it and drove it to the main ITU himself. He was about to escort and drive the discharge patient himself, when the medical hierarchy gained control of the situation and suggested that an uninsured doctor driving a massive ambulance unescorted through the streets of London might not be in the patient's or Graham's best interests. Sadly, as Graham's health failed he had to give up surgery, but he was not one to sit at home! He soon became medical director of the UK for HCA International, a private healthcare company, a post he relished as he sought constantly to raise medical standards. Graham died of cancer on 29 September 2013. He was 59. He was survived by his widow Liz and her son Joe, his sons James and Jonathan, and his grandson Ryan.
Resource Identifier RCS: E004627
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Wood Jones, Frederic (1879 - 1954)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2014-06-23
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E005000-E005999/E005500-E005599
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/377690377690
Occupation Anatomist Anthropologist Medical Officer
Details Born on 23 January 1879 at Hackney, where his father was a builder and slate merchant, the family prospered and moved to Enfield, but his father died young and "Freddy" was brought up by his mother, whom he resembled in vivid good looks and alert mentality. He was educated at the London Hospital, qualifying in 1904. Having come under the influence of Arthur Keith, with whom he formed a lifelong friendship, he devoted himself to anatomy. As house physician to Sir Henry Head he became interested in neurology, and twenty years later during the first world war did good work in the treatment of nerve injuries and in the elucidation of trick movements. This interest was further displayed in his book *The Matrix of the Mind*, written with S D Porteous (1928). From June 1905 to September 1906 he served as medical officer at the cable station on the Cocos Keeling Islands in the Indian Ocean, a post he took from his love of the sea and desire to study sea-birds and the natural history of an unspoiled island. In fact he produced a masterly study of the formation of coral reefs (*Coral and Atolls*, London 1910) which replaced Darwin's theory and led to his questioning much of Darwin's teaching. He also met his future wife, Gertrude daughter of George Clunies-Ross the Governor of the Islands. After a brief period in England, when he assisted Keith at the London Hospital Medical College and was married, he went to Egypt to assist Grafton Elliot Smith and G A Reisner in exploring ancient Nubian cemeteries; their report made great additions to knowledge in palaeopathology and physical anthropology. During 1908-12 he worked in England, as assistant to F G Parsons in the Anatomy department at St Thomas's Hospital and to Elliot Smith at Manchester University. He took the DSc in 1910 and was appointed the first Professor of Anatomy at the School of Medicine for Women (Royal Free Hospital) London in 1912. He held this post till 1919, but for much of 1914-18 was working in the RAMC at the Special Military Surgical Hospital at Shepherd's Bush. He was Arris and Gale Lecturer at the College in 1915, 1916, and 1919, enlarging the earlier lectures to form his book *Arboreal Man* (1916), which sought to change ideas on man's primitive origins; his clinical work led to his stimulating and successful book *Principles of Anatomy as seen in the Hand* (1920), followed much later by his similar *Structure and Function as seen in the Foot* (1944). He was elected in 1919, through the help of Sir Henry Newland FRCS, to the Elder chair of Anatomy at Adelaide University, in succession to Archibald Watson FRCS, and spent eighteen years in Australia, where he became very much at home. He was elected FRS in 1925. He resigned his post at Adelaide in 1926 on appointment as Professor of Physical Anthropology at the Rockefeller University in Hawaii, but after three years there he became (1930) Professor of Anatomy at Melbourne University, in succession to R J A Berry. During 1932-33 he went on leave from Melbourne to be Director of the American sponsored Peiping University Medical College in China. It was at this time that he applied unsuccessfully to succeed Keith as Conservator of the Hunterian Museum. During his years in Melbourne Wood Jones explored most of the islands off the coast of Victoria, often taking parties of his students to survey the fauna and flora for the McCoy Society. A film which he made at this time is deposited at the Department of History of Medicine at Melbourne University (1968). He came back to England in 1938 to succeed J S B Stopford as Professor of Anatomy at Manchester. When he retired in 1945, he was invited to fill the newly endowed Sir William Collins chair of Comparative and Human Anatomy at the College, with the Conservatorship of the Hunterian Museum, the intention being that he should restore the war-damaged Museum, which he successfully achieved. He retired from the Professorship in 1951 but continued as Honorary Conservator. He died after some months of failing health from cancer of the lung on 29 September 1954 aged 75, survived by his wife, who died on 12 October 1957, fifty years after their marriage. Wood Jones was elected a Hunterian Trustee in 1944, was Arris and Gale Lecturer in 1947, and was awarded the Honorary Medal of the College in 1949. He served for many years on the Council of the Zoological Society. Freddy Wood Jones was a ready writer and a skilful artist, who illustrated his own papers. Though he qualified as a surgeon, he might have achieved more as a research zoologist. His best work was done in comparative anatomy and zoology, and his happiest years were probably those spent at Cocos Keeling or in vacation cruises from Melbourne exploring the Australian islands. His views were always original and stimulating and usually expressed without reserve or regard for persons, since he enjoyed controversy without animosity. He was essentially a humble, friendly person interested in the pursuit of truth in natural history.
Resource Identifier RCS: E005507
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Wright, James Lawrence (1915 - 2011)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2014-10-17 2016-09-01
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/378334378334
Occupation Obstetrician and gynaecologist
Details Professor James Lawrence (Laurie) Wright passed away in Dunedin on 8 September 2011 at the age of 96. Whether delivering babies, guiding nervous rural GPs, or serving as an army doctor in World War 2, Prof Laurie Wright was guided by a sense of duty. Professor of obstetrics and gynaecology at Otago Medical School from 1951 until he retired in 1980, Prof Wright died in Dunedin in September, aged 96. James Lawrence Wright was born in May 1915, the eldest of William and Helen Wright's five children, whom they raised in Forbury, Dunedin. After attending Forbury School and Otago Boys' High School, he attended Otago Medical School, enlisting with the Otago University Medical Company in 1932. After leaving medical school he worked at Dunedin Hospital for two years, and then as a locum GP in Westport, before being awarded an obstetrics and gynaecology scholarship in Melbourne. The war prompted his early return to New Zealand, to join the air force, but he was seconded to the army because of its need for medics. Dunedin lawyer Bill Wright said his father was not entirely happy about the secondment, having gained his wings. However, he distinguished himself as an army doctor in the North African campaign, and later in Italy. He attained the rank of lieutenant-colonel, and was mentioned in dispatches. In Italy, he married Belle Henderson, a New Zealand war nurse, near Naples in April 1945. Mr Wright said his mother, who was from Central Otago, had followed Prof Wright, determined not to be parted from him. "When he was posted overseas, she determined to follow him and enlisted with the army...she followed him through Africa and Italy and ultimately got her man at the end of the war." Unusually, the two were allowed to serve together for several months, before they were discharged and travelled to London by ship in December, 1945. After several years at St George's Hospital in London, life back in Dunedin was characterised by hard work, and long night's away delivering babies. His father never glorified his war years, seeing it as a duty, Mr Wright said. He had an excellent recall of detail, and had hoped to write of his war experience, which did not come about. His stories of well-known campaigns instilled in his son a life-long interest in history. He was strong on ethics, and was not moralistic or judgemental. "He once told me, you should not have to ask what is the correct thing to do, you should instinctively know." He related well to people from all walks of life. He made time to speak to people, regardless of their place in the hospital hierarchy, Mr Wright said. Former patients had contacted him since his father's death - more than a dozen - to thank him for his father's care. On professional visits to Wellington, he stayed in a state house with his World War 2 driver, with whom he had a firm bond, rather than at a hotel. Fly fishing was Prof Wright's main passion, although he was also a rugby man, a supporter of Otago rugby, both the university, and the province. Emeritus Prof Richard Seddon, of Queenstown, said Prof Wright largely dedicated himself to clinical practice, rather than research. However, he was a leader in promoting maternal and perinatal mortality documentation and review to improve clinical safety. Establishing a clinical and academic unit of excellence in Dunedin was his focus, Prof Seddon said. "He was a stickler for form." He was very interested in supporting the role of GPs in obstetric practice, Prof Seddon said. Dr Brian McMahon, a student of Prof Wright's in the 1950s, who worked as a GP in the 1960s in Cromwell and was superintendent of Cromwell Hospital, said his old teacher helped him with difficult and stressful births. Transport was an issue in those days, and GPs had to cope with a greater number of difficult cases. Dr McMahon served in the Vietnam conflict, leading to a close bond with his old teacher. University students of the 1950s lacked awareness of the older generation's war service. "If only we had known that as students, I think our attitudes would have been different. We would have had a rapport." In retirement, Prof Wright did not give up medicine, becoming a surgical assistant at Mercy Hospital for a decade, his friend, former student, and colleague, Dr Alan Donoghue, recalled. Prof Wright did not work in the private sector pre-retirement, and thus had no "cushion of continuing practice to soften the abrupt transition". The other doctors at Mercy, nearly all former students, greatly enjoyed his wisdom, humility, and good humour. "He was a marvellous raconteur, and enlivened many hours with fascinating historical anecdotes." Mrs Wright died in 2008, shortly after the couple moved to Ross Home in late 2007. Prof Wright is survived by two children, Bill and Catharine, six grandchildren, and one great grandchild. This was written by Eileen Goodwinand appeared in the *Otago Daily Times* on 10 December 2011 and is reproduced here with their kind permission.
Resource Identifier RCS: E006151
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Loewenthal, Sir John (1914 - 1979)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

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/378876378876
Occupation General surgeon
Details John Loewenthal was born on 22 December 1914, at Bondi, New South Wales, the son of Abraham Marcus Loewenthal, who worked with the Australian Mutual Providence Society, and of Carlotta Minnie. He was educated at Sydney Grammar School from 1925 to 1931 and was school captain in his last year. He then studied medicine at the University of Sydney, graduating in 1937, and was a prize winner in medicine and psychiatry. After early resident appointments in Sydney he was in the Royal Australian Army Medical Corps from 1939 to 1946, serving in Australia, the Middle East and the South West Pacific. In New Guinea he was in charge of a mobile surgical unit which had to work in primitive conditions. Whilst serving with the 113th Australian General Hospital he met and married June, daughter of Dr James Stewart of Maitland, New South Wales, in 1944. Before his demobilization, he passed the MS, Melbourne, and received the Efficiency Decoration at the end of his military service. Shortly after returning home he was awarded a Nuffield Travelling Fellowship which brought him to England. After passing the Primary FRCS at St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical College he completed the Final Fellowship six months later whilst serving in a registrar and research post on the surgical unit of James Paterson Ross. He spent a further year with Michael Boyd at Manchester and gave a Hunterian Lecture on venous ulceration of the leg in 1948. On returning to Sydney in 1949 he was appointed assistant surgeon to the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and became consultant surgeon to the Australian Army HQ in the following year. After seven years in private practice the Bosch Chair of Surgery fell vacant at Sydney University and after much thought and hesitation, he applied for and succeeded Harold Dew in this post. Loewenthal was a most capable technical surgeon, but his administrative ability resulted in his rapid academic advancement and then in office at the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons. He was Dean of the University Faculty of Medicine, 1966-71, and a Fellow of the Senate of Sydney University. He served on the Council of the RACS 1960-74 and was President 1971-74. John Loewenthal admired his professional predecessor, Harold Dew, who had struggled with a near impossible wartime task when the number of medical undergraduates had enormously increased and staff were in short supply. Loewenthal succeeded to these overwhelming teaching commitments at St Vincent's and the Royal North Shore Hospitals as well as at the Royal Prince Alfred. In due course, whilst serving as Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, he saw some of his own young men succeed to surgical chairs at St Vincent's and Royal North Shore, and then at the Veteran's Hospital. Having set his university fiefdom in better order he directed his energies to the work of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons where he played a major part in reorganising the examination system. At the same time he made a considerable contribution to the development of the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, successfully collecting funds for building and research and for the improvement of postgraduate training. A man of great energy and determination, whilst indefatigably pursuing his objectives, he always maintained his sense of humour and sound judgement. He was a loyal supporter of his juniors and a generous excuser of the foibles of his seniors. Outside his university and college activities he was a most industrious supporter of the Heart Foundation of which he was President at the time of his death. He was also a member of the National Health and Medical Research Council and of the Life Insurance Medical Research Fund. During 1971 he served as a highly successful Sir Arthur Sims Travelling Professor, visiting Hong Kong, Canada and the United Kingdom. He was awarded the honorary fellowships of a number of overseas surgical colleges and one honour which gave him especial pleasure was the award of honorary perpetual studentship at St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical College, a distinction which he shared with the late Duke of Windsor. Apart from a Hunterian Professorship, he was also a Moynihan Lecturer and gave many other eponymous lectures. He was made CMG in 1976 and Knight Bachelor in 1978, coming to England for his investiture. Shortly before his retirement his surgical colleagues decided to show their appreciation at a farewell dinner in the Great Hall of the University of Sydney. The dinner was held on 17 August, 1979 but, just after his own health had been proposed, he was struck down with symptoms of massive cardiac infarction. Emergency aid was prompt and he was admitted to the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital where, having improved for a few days, he developed signs of perforation of the interventricular septum. Despite the skilled attention of his colleagues he died on 25 August, 1979 just eight days after his farewell dinner. He was survived by his wife, two sons and two daughters.
Resource Identifier RCS: E006693
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Payne, Reginald Theobald (1896 - 1967)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2014-09-24
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E006000-E006999/E006000-E006099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/378197378197
Occupation General surgeon Physician
Details Reginald Theobald Payne was born at Northampton on 15 March 1896. When he was aged 65 he published a remarkable book *The watershed* in which he gave a vivid picture of his childhood and schooldays. He was the eldest of four brothers, and as his father, who had a furniture business in the town, brought up his family as Unitarians, teetotallers and vegetarians, strongly opposed to the teachings of orthodox medicine and favouring instead a strange form of hydrotherapy, the wonder is that Reginald, after serving as a non-combatant in the first world war, ultimately became a medical student. He did well at St Bartholomew's where in 1924 he was appointed house surgeon to Sir Holburt Waring. After other house posts in the throat and the skin departments, he became a demonstrator of anatomy at Bart's, and later registrar at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital, and clinical assistant at St Peter's Hospital. These appointments are significant as indicating that he was training himself to be a teacher of general surgery, the next steps being a chief assistantship on a surgical unit at St Bartholomew's, and experience in pathology as curator of the museum, a post he held in 1932 and 1933, by which time he was aged 37. In the course of this training he took the degrees of MS in 1932, and MD in 1934. Further indications of his academic ability are afforded by his election as Erasmus Wilson Demonstrator at the Royal College of Surgeons in 1931, when he took as his subject sialography, and on four occasions as Hunterian Professor, first in 1929 when he lectured on varicose veins and ulcers, in 1932 on excretion urography, in 1936 on pyogenic infections of the parotid, and in 1938 on cancer of the stomach. All these lectures were carefully thought out, clearly expressed, and well documented from his own material, they were indeed models of scientific exposition. He won the Buckston Browne Prize and medal of the Harveian Society in 1937. In addition to his continuing interest in the salivary glands and in venous disorders, he later devoted special attention to certain aspects of preventive medicine, in particular the menace of asbestosis, the relationship between oral contraceptives and thromboembolism, and the evils of ill-designed and poorly manufactured footwear. In 1936 he was made casualty surgeon at St Bartholomew's, a post which in those days was regarded as preliminary to a staff appointment; and by virtue of the amount and variety of his clinical experience, together with the high quality of his scientific publications, he must have been a strong candidate for the next consultant vacancy. However, in 1938 he became assistant surgeon at the British Postgraduate Medical School at Hammersmith Hospital, and remained there, except for a few months in the Emergency Medical Service early in the second world war, until he resigned in 1945. He was then 49, and for the remaining 22 years of his life he did not have any hospital attachment, yet, remarkably enough, he carried on a busy and successful consulting practice, at No 49 and later at No 95 Harley Street, until the day before he died. Though not opposed to the ideal of a health service, he was a vigorous critic of the political and, in his opinion, illiberal character of the service as established in 1948, and this must explain why he never sought a consultant appointment. His early upbringing made it hard for him to conform to majority opinion; it also made him rather a solitary, introverted person to whom intimate friendship did not come easily, and so much of an individualist that he did not take kindly to collaboration in a group. This was a serious defect which not only deprived some hospital of a valuable consultant, but also robbed a general of medical students of a first-rate teacher. However, it must be emphasized that to his patients he was the ideal medical man, physician as well as surgeon, who took infinite pains to attend to every detail of their personal affairs as well as their disease, and always seemed to have time to discuss their every question. They appreciated his conscientiousness, his richly-stored mind, his love of books and of painting, in which he became expert both in oils and watercolours. He was also an enthusiast for the open-air, and particularly fond of walking and swimming. He had a happy home life with his devoted wife Isabella Margaret, herself a trained nurse, and his two sons, one of whom became a pathologist (Richard Wyman Payne, MD Cambridge), and the other an Anglican clergyman. Payne died at his home 21 Norfolk Road, London NW8, on 20 October 1967, aged 71. Publications: Parotid gland diseases. *British encyclopaedic of medical practice*, edited by Sir Humphry Rolleston, 1938, 9, 449-462. Salivary glands. *British surgical practice*, edited by Sir E. Rock Carling and Sir J. Paterson Ross, 1950, 7, 430-453. *The watershed* [autobiography to the end of the first world war] 1961.
Resource Identifier RCS: E006014
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Connolly, Rainer Campbell (1919 - 2009)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by T T King
Publication Date 2009-10-21
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000700-E000799
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372898372898
Occupation Neurosurgeon
Details Campbell Connolly was a consultant neurosurgeon at St Bartholomew’s Hospital, London. He was born on 15 July 1919, the elder son of George Connolly, a solicitor who had served in the First World War, and his wife, Margaret, née Edgell, of Brighton. His grandfather, Colonel Benjamin Bloomfield Connolly was a distinguished military surgeon who had been principal medical officer of the Cavalry Brigade at El Teb (Sudan) and was commander of the Camel Bearer Company on the expedition to relieve General Gordon. Connolly’s education was at Lancing College, Bedford School and St Bartholomew’s Hospital, from which he graduated in 1941. Owing to the shortage of junior medical staff, he was immediately employed as a locum anaesthetic houseman and gave a number of anaesthetics for Sir James Paterson Ross who had, at the start of his career, an interest in neurosurgery. This position led to Connolly’s appointment as a house officer at the wartime hospital, Hill End, St Alban’s, to which the professorial surgical department of St Bartholomew’s had been evacuated. Though Paterson Ross was nominally in charge of neurosurgery, J E A O’Connell was the neurosurgeon within the professorial unit. While working at Hill End, Connolly was seconded to Sir Hugh Cairn’s head injury hospital at St Hugh’s, Oxford, to learn about electroencephalography, which it was thought might be useful in neurosurgical diagnosis. Oxford was one of the few places in the country where this new technique was being explored. This experience put him in contact with Cairns, who was responsible for the organisation of neurosurgery in the Army. Connolly eventually spent almost a year at St Hugh’s. Early in 1943 he found himself posted to an anti-aircraft battery in south London, where he had little to do until his commanding officer told him that he was to accompany the battery to a destination in West Africa. Alarmed, he wrote to Cairns and was almost immediately removed and placed in a holding post at Lancing. Connolly was one of the last survivors of the young neurosurgeons who staffed the mobile neurosurgical units that had been established by Hugh Cairns at the beginning of the Second World War. These saw action in France and Belgium in 1940, and the first one was captured at Dunkirk. Subsequently another six were formed and deployed in the Western Desert, Italy, Northern Europe and Burma. Through the influence of Cairns, Connolly was posted to mobile neurosurgical unit No 4 in Bari, Italy, when the senior neurosurgeon of the unit, Kenneth Eden died suddenly of poliomyelitis in October 1943. With its head, John Gilllingham, and John Potter, he accompanied the unit in the campaign up the east coast of Italy, ending at Ancona with the rank of major and with a mention in despatches. This unit treated over 900 head injuries from the battles at the Gothic Line and the Po Valley, as well as those from partisan activities in Yugoslavia. Many of the Yugoslavian patients had open head wounds for which treatment had been delayed by difficulties in transport, a subject on which Connolly contributed a paper to *War supplement No.1 on wounds of the head* published by the *British Journal of Surgery* in 1947 (*Br J Surg* 1947;55(suppl1):168-172). The results were surprisingly good, the mortality being 20 per cent. The use of penicillin, first clinically tested by Florey and Cairns, and then by Cairns in mobile neurosurgical unit No 4 in North Africa, was considered to be an important factor in these results. After VE day, Connolly returned to England in July. He was posted to the Far East, spending six unproductive months in India following the ending of the war in August. After demobilisation, he returned to Bart’s to a post created to accommodate ex-servicemen such as himself whose training and careers had been affected by war service. He obtained the FRCS in 1947. Cairns had plans for an organised training scheme for neurosurgeons, something not achieved until many years later, and he offered Connolly an appointment at Oxford to a training programme of some years’ duration, beginning as a house surgeon. At the same time Cecil Calvert, in Belfast, who had done much of the surgery at St Hugh’s during the war, invited him to the Royal Victoria Hospital as a consultant. The rigours of being a houseman at Oxford under Cairns were known to Connolly: he took the offer in Belfast and stayed there for four years. In 1952 he moved to the Midland Centre for Neurosurgery in Birmingham. In 1958 he was appointed as the second neurosurgeon to O’Connell at St Bartholomew’s Hospital and remained there until his retirement as senior neurosurgeon in 1984. He was also in private practice and established a reputation especially for judgement and skill in intervertebral disc surgery. He was on the staff of the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital and the King Edward VII Hospital for Officers and was a civilian consultant to the Royal Navy from 1971 to 1984. In the College he was Hunterian Professor in 1961, speaking on cerebral ischaemia in subarachnoid haemorrhage. He was president of the section of neurology of the Royal Society of Medicine from 1980 to 1981, a Freeman of the City of London and a liveryman of the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries. He married Elisabeth Fowler née Cullis, who was an anaesthetist at St Hugh’s. He died of cancer of the prostate on 14 August 2009, survived by his wife, two daughters and a son.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000715
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Nunn, Thomas William (1825 - 1909)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2012-09-05
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E002000-E002999/E002800-E002899
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/375013375013
Occupation Anatomist General surgeon
Details Born at Royston, Herts, in 1825, the eldest son of William Nunn, MRCS, who practised in Royston for many years. William Nunn's father, Thomas Nunn, was a surgeon in the Navy, and the wife of this Naval surgeon was a descendant of Sir Edmond Butts, Physician to Henry VIII. Both the father and mother of T W Nunn were members of the Society of Friends. Nunn was educated at a private school in the country, and at the age of 17 entered as a medical student at King's College, London, finding himself among distinguished contemporaries, Fergusson being then one of the prominent teachers in the Medical Department. He was much befriended by R Partridge, then Professor of Anatomy, who appointed him one of his Student Demonstrators, and by John Simon. Qualifying at the age of 21, he obtained the post of Demonstrator of Anatomy in the Middlesex Hospital Medical School, which had then been established about eleven years in succession to the famous Hunterian School, and proved very popular, his demonstrations being largely attended. At about this time he was appointed Surgeon to the Westminster Western Dispensary, and here in 1849 he succeeded in ligaturing the external iliac artery, which made no little stir in London surgery at the time. He now began to publish his works on varicose veins and on anatomical subjects, and in 1858 was elected Assistant Surgeon to Middlesex Hospital, becoming full Surgeon in 1863, and Consulting Surgeon in 1879. His wards included those set apart for the treatment of cancer as well as the general wards, and his publications bear witness to his interest in and knowledge of malignant disease. Nunn was devoted to the welfare of the student, and was Secretary of the flourishing Middlesex Hospital Club from 1869-1883, being the last of the original members at the time of his death. He taught anatomy for sixteen years and then practical and operative surgery till 1873. As a teacher he was deservedly popular, and his old pupils referred affectionately to 'Tommy Nunn', who lightened their labours with his good humour and facilitated their comprehension of difficult matters by his skill as a draughtsman and frequent colloquial expressions. Eminently practical and always kind, Nunn set a fine example in dealing with patients, who were likewise his friends, in the days when medical teaching was perhaps less academic than it is to-day. Greatly interested in military matters, Nunn served in his early days as a combatant officer in the 3rd Middlesex Militia, and in a few years took a medical commission in the West Middlesex Rifle Volunteers, from which he retired as Hon Surgeon Major, receiving the Volunteer Decoration for his more than twenty years' service. Of this honour he was very proud. At the time of the Crimean War he had offered to form and join a medical company. Nunn for many years after 1879 kept up his connection with the Middlesex as a member of committees or as chairman at convivial meetings. At the time of his death he was Consulting Surgeon, not only to his own hospital, but also to the Central London Throat Hospital, and to the London Hospital for Skin Diseases, Fitzroy Square. At one time he had seen a good deal of practice in Paris, where he was during the commune of 1871. Throughout the whole of his active professional life he lived in Stratford Place, but a few years before his death moved to 27 York Terrace, York Gate, NW, where he still saw some of his old patients. Latterly he spent part of his time at his country seat at Kneesworth, Royston; here he died on April 13th, 1909, and was buried in Royston Cemetery. Nunn married: (1) Isabella, daughter of Kenneth Maclay, of Nevermore, Ross-shire, and (2) Rosalie, daughter of George White, of Kensington, who survived him. A good portrait of him accompanies his biography in the *Middlesex Hospital Journal*, 1909, xiii, 79. There is also a portrait of him in the College Collection and a photograph in the Fellows' Album. Publications:- *Observations on Varicose Veins and Varicose Ulcers*, 16mo, London, 1850. *Inflammation of the Breast and Milk Abscess*, 12mo, London, 1853. *Observations and Notes on the Arteries of the Limbs*, illustrating the natural division of main arteries into what he termed segmental and trans-segmental branches for the supply of the proximal and distal segments of the limbs respectively, 8vo, London, 1858; 2nd ed, 1864; French translation in *Jour de l'Anat et Physiol*, 1874, x, 7. *Ward Manual: or Index of Surgical Diseases and Injuries*, 8vo, London, 1865. *On Cancer of the Breast*, 4to, 21 coloured plates, London, 1882. *A Page in the History of Ovariotomy in London*, 8vo, London, 1886. *On Certain Disregarded Defects of Development chiefly in Relation to the Curves of the Spine*, 8vo, 2 plates, London, 1888. *Growing Children and Awkward Walking*, 12mo, London, 1894. *Cancer Illustrated by One Thousand Cases from the Registers of the Middlesex Hospital and by Fifty Selected Cases of Cancer of the Breast*, etc, 12mo, 11 plates, London, 1899. *The Inaugural Lecture, Session* 1863-4, *delivered at the Middlesex Hospital Medical College*, 8vo, London, 1863. *Notes on Personal Hygiene*, No. 1, 8vo, London, 1865. "Maternal Conditions in Congenital Syphilis." - *Brit Gynaecol Jour*, 1891-2, vii, 435.
Resource Identifier RCS: E002830
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Durham, Herbert Edward (1866 - 1945)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2013-05-21
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E004000-E004999/E004000-E004099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/376185376185
Occupation Medical Researcher
Details Born 25 March 1866, third child and second son of Arthur Edward Durham, consulting surgeon to Guy's Hospital, and his wife Mary, daughter of William Ellis (see *DNB*), economist and founder of the Birkbeck secondary technical schools. He was thus born into a remarkable family. The only brother who, with him, survived their father, Colonel Frank Rogers Durham, after a distinguished career as a civil and military engineer, became (1926) secretary of the Royal Horticultural Society. Of his sisters, Mary Edith Durham, FRAI (1863-1944), made her name first as an artist, and later as Balkan traveller and anthropologist, and champion of Albania; another sister became Mrs Hickson and her daughter Joan Durham Hickson was the wife of W H Trethowan, FRCS; the third sister, Caroline Beatrice (who died 13 April 1941), married William Bateson, FRS, the famous geneticist, and wrote the classic life of her husband. H E Durham was educated at University College School, London, and King's College, Cambridge, of which he was Vintner exhibitioner 1885; he took first-class honours in part 1 of the Natural Sciences Tripos 1886 and a second-class in part 2, 1887. He then worked for two years as John Lucas Walker student in the University laboratories of zoology and physiology. His medical training was at Guy's, where his father was the leading surgeon, and he qualified from Cambridge in 1887. He took the Fellowship, though not previously a Member, in 1894, but did not practise surgery. He served as resident obstetric officer and assistant in the throat department at Guy's, and was Gull research student there 1894. He was also medical officer to the North Eastern Fever Hospital at Tottenham. In 1894 he went to work under Max Gruber (1853-1927) in the Hygienisches Institut at Vienna. With his master he recognized the practical potentialities for diagnosing infectious diseases available from the effect, already observed by others, of agglutination of pathogenic organisms by the serum of animals immunized against those particular organisms. Durham reported this suggestion to the Royal Society of London on 3 January 1896. But it was first applied clinically in enteric fever by Fernand Widal (1862-1929), of Paris, in June and July of the same year (*Bulletin, Société médicale des Hôpitaux de Paris*, 1896, 13, 561) and by A S F Grünbaum (afterwards Leyton) (1869-1921), of Liverpool, during September-December (*Lancet*, 1896, 2, 806 and 1747). Gruber's communication is in *Münchener medizinische Wochenschrift*, 1896, 43, 285. The reaction is variously known by the names Widal, Gruber, and Durham. In 1896 Durham served on the Royal Society's tsetse-fly commission in Africa, and the following year was appointed Grocer's Company Research Fellow at Cambridge. He reported his observation of a common group agglutinating reaction between closely allied bacteria, and also introduced the "Durham tube", the small inverted test-tube placed in bacterial media to collect gas produced by fermentative organisms (*Brit med J*. 1898, 1, 1387), which was very generally adopted. In 1900 he took to Brazil the yellow-fever expedition, sponsored by the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine. He and his colleague, Walter Myers (1872-20 January 1901), both contracted yellow-fever, and Myers died of it at Para. The expedition's results were published as the School's *Memoir* No 7, 1902. From 1901 to 1903 Durham headed the London School of Tropical Medicine's beriberi expedition in Malaya and Christmas Island, where he lost the sight of one eye. Durham was the first to bring back to England from Malay the poisonous plant *Derris elliptica*, which came into wide use as a horticultural insecticide. He described it in J D Gimlette's *Malay poisons*, 3rd edition, 1939. He was also associated with Sir Ronald Ross in his researches on malaria. Durham was hindered by his partial loss of sight from returning to bacteriological research, and therefore readily accepted the invitation of a friend, Fred Bulmer, director of H P Bulmer and Co, cider manufacturers, at Hereford, to superintend their chemical department. The Bulmer family had long been connected with Durham's old college, King's. Durham spent thirty useful years, 1905-35, at Hereford, working on fermentation, and also did much for the improvement of fruit trees and was active in the acclimitization of new plants. He served as president of the Herefordshire Association of Fruitgrowers and Horticulturists, and was also president of the Woolhope Naturalists Club. He lived at Dunelm, Hampton Park, Hereford. In 1935 he retired to Cambridge, where he continued his active horticultural work particularly in raising rare culinary plants, of which he contributed accounts to the *Dictionary of Gastronomy*. He was, too, a draughtsman of talent and a skilled woodworker, who designed ingenious modifications of his lathe. He was a medallist of the Royal Photographic Society in 1927. He was a retiring, modest man, though of adventurous originality and much charm. Durham married on 25 September 1907 Maud Lowry, daughter of Captain Harmer, 81st Regiment. Mrs Durham survived him, but without children. He died at 14 Sedley Taylor Road, Cambridge, on 25 October 1945, aged 79, having been well and happy the previous day. He left, subject to his widow's life-interest, bequests to the Royal Medical Benevolent Fund, King's College, Cambridge, and the Schools of Tropical Medicine in London and Liverpool. His outstanding publications are mentioned above.
Resource Identifier RCS: E004002
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching McIndoe, Sir Archibald Hector (1900 - 1960)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2014-03-19
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E005000-E005999/E005100-E005199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/377308377308
Occupation Plastic surgeon Plastic and reconstructive surgeon
Details Born on 4 May 1900, son of John Mclndoe and Mabel Hill of Dunedin NZ, he was educated at Otago High School and the medical school of Otago University, where he was a medallist in medicine and surgery. After qualifying he was appointed house surgeon at Waikato Hospital, and in 1924 was awarded a Foundation Fellowship at the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, where he commenced working on 1 January 1925 as a First Assistant in Pathological Anatomy until 1927. During this period he published several papers on hepatic disease in conjunction with V S Councillor, and two individual papers of importance on portal cirrhosis and on the structure of the bile canaliculi. Subsequently he was awarded a John William White scholarship for foreign study and in 1929 was appointed first assistant in surgery. In 1931 he proceeded to England, on the suggestion of his cousin Sir Harold Gillies, to take up an appointment as clinical assistant in the department of plastic surgery at St Bartholomew's Hospital, and in 1932 received his first permanent appointment as surgeon and lecturer in tropical surgery at the Hospital for Tropical Diseases, then situated in Endsleigh Gardens, and at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, which appointment he held until 1939 when he became consulting surgeon. By this time his appointments included those of plastic surgeon to St Bartholomew's Hospital, the Chelsea Hospital for Women, St Andrew's Hospital and the Hampstead Children's Hospital. In addition he was consulting plastic surgeon to the Royal North Stafford Infirmary and to Croydon General Hospital. In 1938 he was appointed consultant in plastic surgery to the Royal Air Force and, on the outbreak of the war in 1939, he selected the Queen Victoria Hospital at East Grinstead, which had been rebuilt shortly before the war and which possessed ample land for expansion, as a suitable site for the establishment of a centre for plastic and jaw surgery, and as a result the hospital has become world famous. He strengthened his own position immensely by always resolutely refusing to be put into uniform and thereby become subject to military discipline. The work done by him in rehabilitating badly burned aircrew was quite outstanding, not only in the physical plane but in the sphere of morale. Richard Hillary, a terribly burned fighter pilot and later killed in action, gives a graphic account in *The Last Enemy* of what he and others like him owed to the skill and inspiration of Mclndoe. The Guinea Pig Club founded by him with 600 original members, of whom Hillary was appropriately the first, having been operated upon personally by him, perpetuates his memory by the annual meeting at East Grinstead to which members come from all over the world. After the war many honours were bestowed upon him. At the College he became a member of Council in 1946 and Vice-President in 1958. He had been Hunterian Professor in 1939 and in 1958 was Bradshaw Lecturer, his subject being facial burns. His most outstanding service to the College, however, was his initiative in obtaining magnificent donations to its funds in his capacity as a member of the finance and the appeal committees. After his death an appeal was launched in his memory to raise funds for the completion of the last phase of the rebuilding, in particular the Hunterian Museum. A past President of the Association of Plastic Surgeons, he was President of the Section of Plastic Surgery at the BMA annual meeting in 1956. McIndoe's brilliant career was no accident but due to a combination of factors. He was a natural artist with facile hands and a pleasing personality. Forthright in expression, he was quick in making a decision. Fortunate in being a cousin of Gillies, the doyen of plastic surgery, who persuaded him to forsake general for plastic surgery, he had the great gift of an iron constitution coupled with an infinite capacity for hard work. An inspiring teacher and a born leader he had a wonderful warmth of personality and always remained approachable and friendly, hating pomposity and insincerity. His contributions to plastic surgery are too numerous to be detailed here, suffice it to say that he published numerous articles on his subject, invented special instruments and placed plastic surgery on a solid and permanent foundation as an important branch of surgery requiring brains as well as technical skill, but he will be remembered best by the many to whom he gave new life and the courage to face it. After his death a memorial research unit was opened by the Minister of Health at the Queen Victoria Hospital on 22 March 1961. He married first on 31 July 1924 Adonia Aitken of Dunedin, by whom he had two daughters and whose marriage was dissolved in 1953, and secondly on 31 July 1954 Mrs Constance Belcham, previously the wife of Major-General R F K Belcham. He died in his sleep on the night of 11-12 April 1960. A memorial service was held on 12 May 1960 in St Clement Danes, Strand, the RAF church, and an address was delivered by the President of the College, Sir James Paterson Ross.
Resource Identifier RCS: E005125
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Kinmonth, John Bernard (1916 - 1982)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

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
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Lishman, Ian Valentine (1930 - 2018)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Patrick Cornish
Publication Date 2019-02-05
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E009000-E009999/E009500-E009599
Occupation General surgeon
Details Driving through an English snowstorm, on the way to board a ship and emigrate, Val Lishman’s mind was on fresh horizons. An Australian summer beckoned for him, wife Jean and three children. Six weeks later glaring reality hit. “We had read all about the beautiful Wildflower State but …everything seemed dried up and withered,” he would recall of that “blistering: day in February 1965, in a memoir written long after they had all adjusted perfectly to life Down Under. The Lishman's soon learnt to enjoy the sunshine. Bunbury liked them too. This was the town’s first resident surgeon. Local surf lifesavers were delighted when Val became the club’s honorary medical officer. And when new Oxy-Viva resuscitation equipment arrived, he was able to give an expert demonstration. Memories of warm sand and balmy evenings by the Indian Ocean were particularly attractive during Val’s later ventures into the cold and snow. In the Himalayas in 1980 he spent four months as expedition doctor for 10 members of the Australian Army Alpine Association tackling a peak on the Nepal-Tibet border. Six years later he spent a year in Antarctica as medical officer at Mawson Station. As for lifesaving, he had fond memories of his debut in Blackpool, which he described in an interview for A Watch on the Waves, the 2015 centenary history of the Bunbury club. The weather in this Lancashire resort is famously changeable, requiring fortitude on days when winds from the Irish Sea can test the hardiest holidaymaker. Val, then a newly graduated doctor, had become a strong swimmer through water polo while a student at the University of Liverpool. His parents, both doctors, would surely have smiled to hear he earned more by patrolling between the piers than he did walking the wards as a junior National Health Service employee. Ian Valentine Lishman was born in Plymouth, Devon, on February 14, 1930, the second child of Eric and Dorothy Lishman, who already had a daughter, Beryl. Val was educated at Rydal, Colwyn Bay, in North Wales, and enrolled in medicine at Liverpool. He was always one to try his luck. Between one medical post and two years’ national service he had five months to fill in. Walking past a shipping office he called in on impulse to see if there was a temporary job. A ship’s doctor had fallen sick so, three days later, it was Val who sailed with the *Pyrrhus*. In an era when international travel was usually a challenge, he saw four ports in Japan as well as half a dozen exotic locations on the way. After obtaining a post in Jamaica, he proposed to his girlfriend, Jean Pennington, a nurse. She accepted and in 1956 they were married on the Caribbean island on April 25, a date they would later learn was Anzac Day. Canada became an option but Australia got the nod because it was warmer. On arrival at Fremantle on the Northern Star the family were free to start their new life – after assuring customs officers they had brought no banned literature such as D H Lawrence’s novel of adultery across class lines, *Lady Chatterley’s Lover*. A comfortable embrace of life in the South West was next. Every evening Jean could see the hospital’s operating theatre lights go off so knew to put dinner on the table. Val soon learnt to bodysurf. The surf club was a wonderful entrée to social life with a serious purpose. His organizational and entrepreneurial skills were valuable in setting up Bunbury’s first fun run. Family Christmas gatherings grew with the birth of another son and daughter and the arrival from England of Val’s parents, after retiring, to settle in Bunbury. Party politics was not a prime interest for Val but in 1969, having spoken out against sending recruits drawn by lottery to Vietnam, he volunteered to join a Royal Perth Hospital team there. “I could hardly refuse an opportunity to learn first-hand about the war,” he wrote. His friend Rod Mason, a retired Bunbury doctor, recalls his colleague cultivated contacts with people of all parties and persuasions. A eulogy by another retired doctor, Jim Leavesley, mentioned meeting Val at the University of Liverpool 68 years ago. “Throughout a rich life Val combined surgical dexterity with a caring nature,” he said. On retiring in 1997 he helped found the Val Lishman Health Research Foundation, based in Bunbury. Kindness and humility, as much as his expertise, impressed Jackie Ross, the foundation's chief executive. “He once has to tell a Bunbury man he couldn't fit him on to his local list, for a foot operation, but could do it during his duty visit to Manjimup,” she recalls. “The patient said he couldn’t get there, so Val gave him a lift and did the operation there,” The foundation's projects have included suicide prevention and inherited cholesterol; two current investigations are on autism and diabetes. Val was made a Member of the Order of Australia for services to medicine, and was a stalwart of the Bunbury Rotary Club. Val Lishman died on April 21. He is survived by Jean, daughters Jane, Jacky and Sarah, sons Micheal and John, 10 grandchildren and one great-grandchild. His legacy includes Bunbury Cathedral Grammar School, which he and Jean helped found and 1972. It was a fitting location for the launch in 2013 of a book about this life, *The Man in the Surgical Mask.*
Resource Identifier RCS: E009572
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Hamilton, David Ian (1931 - 2017)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by James Wilkinson
Publication Date 2017-12-13 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/381580381580
Occupation Cardiac surgeon Paediatric cardiac surgeon
Details David Hamilton was a surgeon whose major interest became surgery for congenital heart defects. He built up an outstanding department at the Royal Liverpool Children's Hospital and was the foundation professor of cardiac surgery at Edinburgh. He was born on 22 June 1931 to John Alexander King Hamilton (known as Jack) and Helen Eliza Bruce Hamilton née Kirk, and spent his early years in Middlesbrough. His father, a Quaker, had served as a noncombatant ambulance driver for the French Red Cross during the First World War and was awarded a George medal for defusing an unexploded bomb. He later worked as a civil engineer specialising in bridge building. David's mother, the daughter of a Presbyterian minister, was a 'child of the manse' who trained as a nurse in Edinburgh. During the construction of Wandsworth bridge, the family moved to London, where they lived in Wimbledon. David went to King's College Junior School and then Leighton Park School (a Quaker school) in Reading. He developed a major interest in sport and became an enthusiastic rugby player, also playing cricket and tennis - and later golf. He was a member of the first XI cricket team at Leighton Park for four years, being a fine batsman and an excellent slip fielder. He played in an English schools rugby XV against a French schools' team in 1949. During National Service, he played rugby for the Royal Corps of Signals. While still at school he befriended Myra McAra, the daughter of the minister of the Presbyterian church in Wimbledon (also a 'child of the manse'). Their first date was for a game of golf. They married after he completed his studies at the Middlesex Hospital in 1957 and both died, in the same nursing home, in 2017 after almost 60 years of marriage. After National Service, he went to the Middlesex Hospital Medical School. In this pre-ultrasound and sophisticated imaging era, he acquired a sound basis of clinical skills. He had decided on a career in surgery as it would allow him to use the manual skills that he had learned during childhood from his father, an expert handyman. He therefore became an anatomy demonstrator and took his primary FRCS, passing at the first attempt, and went on to pass the final FRCS (again at the first attempt) in 1961. His early surgical experience included a rotation with Sir Thomas Holmes Sellors, which aroused his interest in cardiothoracic surgery. Sir Thomas tempted him to continue in that area of surgery and he went on to a term at Harefield Hospital, before applying for a senior registrar position in Liverpool, which started in 1965. Overseas training from 1966 to 1967 took him to California, to the Presbyterian Medical Center, San Francisco, with Frank Gerbode. Soon after returning to Liverpool in 1968, he was appointed to a newly-created full-time consultant post at Broadgreen Hospital. This appointment gave him the opportunity to expand his work into surgery for congenital heart disease at the Royal Liverpool Children's Hospital, Myrtle Street. This work was greatly aided by Gordon Jackson (Jack) Rees and the anaesthetic team, and achieved a national and international reputation, supported further by anatomical studies of congenitally malformed hearts by Bob Anderson, Jim Wilkinson and others in the Institute of Child Health at Alder Hey Hospital. David had been the inspiration for these now famous anatomical studies, having encouraged Bob Anderson to examine the conducting tissue in the heart of a child who had died after developing heart block, following surgery for an atrioventricular septal defect. His research activities, while in San Francisco, had involved tissue valves, and he developed a major interest in the use of homograft and heterograft valves. He visited Green Lane Hospital in Auckland in 1969 and was impressed by the work that was being performed by the team under Brian (later Sir Brian) Barratt-Boyes with deep hypothermic circulatory arrest. With Jackson Rees, he developed a technique of core cooling, which became the standard practice for deep hypothermia in Liverpool and in many other centres, rather than the surface cooling, which had been developed in Auckland in the 1960's. His time in Liverpool saw the arrival of prostaglandin as a means of palliation for sick infants with critical coronary heart disease and the introduction of two-dimensional echocardiography. Both of these changes brought a huge change to the management and outcomes for affected infants. The introduction of prostaglandin E to initial treatment was, he said, the basis of a substantial reduction in his golf handicap, as the need for emergency surgical intervention was greatly reduced! David inspired and guided many trainees from home and abroad, especially from Poland, where he developed a strong link, travelling thither on many occasions over about 15 years from the late 70's and throughout the 1980's. In 1986, David was appointed to the foundation chair of cardiac surgery in Edinburgh. He continued in that position until his retirement in 1993. He was president of the Society of Cardiothoracic Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland in 1993. David was a skillful surgeon and an excellent teacher. He was gentle, unassuming, modest, self-disciplined and inspired by the Quaker values of strength without aggression and gentleness without weakness. His main leisure activities during retirement involved music (always a passion) and golf, which he continued to play until nearly 80. In his later years he became increasingly incapacitated by Parkinson's disease. David died on 6 October 2017 at the age of 86. He and Myra were survived by their sons James, Alastair and Ross. Their first son, Ian, predeceased them in 2016.
Resource Identifier RCS: E009397
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Coull, John Taylor (1934 - 2023)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Sarah Gillam
Publication Date 2023-03-06
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E010000-E010999/E010500-E010599
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/387889387889
Occupation Military surgeon Trauma and orthopaedic surgeon
Details Major General John ‘Jack’ Taylor Coull was a director of Army surgery. He was born in Aberdeen on 4 March 1934, the only son of fish merchant John Sandeman Coull and Ethel Marjory Coull née Taylor and attended Robert Gordon’s College in Aberdeen. After considering becoming an engineer, he decided on a medical career and studied medicine at Aberdeen University, the first in his family to go to university. While a medical student he was employed in a Kodak photographic factory during the vacations, eventually becoming an assistant manager. In 1958 he married Mildred Macfarlane: they had met through attending Holburn West Church in Aberdeen, where Mildred was in the choir and they both volunteered in the Sunday school. After qualifying in 1958, he had expected to carry out his National Service, which had been deferred while he was at university, but was told he was not required. He held house appointments in Aberdeen in surgery, medicine and in the accident and emergency department and had just started a senior house officer post in orthopaedics, when he was told that the Army was short of medical staff and, even though the National Service call-up had officially ended, a number of doctors were to be conscripted. Jack Coull joined the Royal Army Medical Corps in April 1960 as a sublieutenant, two weeks before the birth of his first son. After basic training, he was posted to Colchester as a general surgical trainee with the rank of lieutenant. He was later accepted for a regular commission. In 1963 he was posted to the Queen Alexandra Military Hospital, Millbank, London and then seconded to the Eastern General Hospital in Edinburgh as a senior registrar to James Ross and Thomas McNair. He gained his fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh in 1965 and in the same year was posted back to London, to the Royal Herbert Hospital in Woolwich. In 1967 he was seconded to the Birmingham Accident Hospital, where he worked for Peter London. He was then posted to Singapore for three years as a surgical specialist. From 1970 to 1971 he was a lecturer in the department of orthopaedics at the University of Edinburgh and a resident surgical officer to J I P James at the Princess Margaret Rose Hospital. For six years from 1971 he was a consultant orthopaedic surgeon to the British Army of the Rhine, with a six-month period in 1974 spent at Musgrave Park Hospital in Belfast during the height of the Troubles. From 1978 to 1986 he was posted to the Queen Elizabeth Military Hospital in Woolwich as an adviser in orthopaedic surgery to the director general of Army medical services. In 1986 he returned to West Germany, to the headquarters of the British Army of the Rhine, as deputy commander of medical surgery and a senior surgeon. His main task involved the rewriting of the British Army’s medical strategic operational plan. In 1987 he was appointed as an honorary surgeon to the Queen. In 1988 he was posted to the Ministry of Defence as director of Army surgery with the rank of major general. He was directly involved in the preparations for the Gulf War, including the establishment of hospitals in Saudi Arabia and the deployment of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary ship *Argus* and field ambulances and preparing equipment for these units including nuclear, biological and chemical protection. In 1990 he inspected all deployed units in the Gulf reporting directly to the British commander Lieutenant General Sir Peter de la Billière, liaised with the American forces and was appointed tri-service surgical adviser to the Surgeon General of the United States for the duration of the Gulf War. Having previously been awarded the Mitchiner medal of the Royal College of Surgeons of England in 1980, he became a fellow in 1990 (ad eundem). He retired from the Army in 1992 and was made a Companion of the Order of the Bath. From 1992 to 1997 he was director of the Army medico-legal department at the Ministry of Defence, and from 2000 he was in private practice as a medico-legal expert with consulting rooms in Harley Street. He and Mildred finally retired ‘home’ to the village of Ballater in Aberdeenshire in 2006. He was chairman of Ballater Royal Deeside, a local charity, and chairman of Ballater Probus, and loved being part of their church community. In 2022 both Jack and his wife became ill with cancer. He nursed Mildred until her death on 4 June 2023; Jack passing just a few months later, on 27 September in Aboyne Hospital. He was 89. They were survived by their three sons, Stephen, Gordon and Andrew, 10 grandchildren and one great grandchild. He is remembered as being a humble and selfless man, devoted to his family and his country. His professional success and impact is perhaps best summed up by John Blair in his book *In arduis fidelis: centenary history of the Royal Army Medical Corps* (Edinburgh, Scottish Academic Press, 1998): ‘He (Jack) ranks as the greatest full career Army surgeon and Director of Army surgery of the second half of the twentieth century…as a visionary, he was able to re-think and revise treatment plans that enabled lifesaving surgery and outcomes for patients.’ Jack and Mildred were buried together at Tullich cemetery in Ballater, Aberdeenshire.
Resource Identifier RCS: E010594
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Cantlie, Sir James (1851 - 1926)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2010-02-11
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000800-E000899
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373028373028
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born on January 17th, 1851, at Dufftown, Banffshire, the son of a banker interested in farming, who handed on to his son a love of outdoor life. He was educated at the Milne Institution, Fochhaber, then at the University of Aberdeen, being the only student in attendance wearing the kilt. After graduating in Natural Science with Honours in 1871, he proceeded to Charing Cross Hospital for his clinical studies under the influence of Dr Mitchell Bruce, who knew him from boyhood and was then teaching anatomy. Cantlie became House Surgeon and then Demonstrator and Lecturer on Anatomy (1872-1887), and in 1877, having become FRCS he was appointed Assistant Surgeon to Charing Cross Hospital, becoming Surgeon in 1886 and resigning his office in 1888. Cantlie first became interested in the work of the St John Ambulance Association and later in that of the Red Cross when in 1878 Surgeon Major Peter Shepherd, AMS, left with Mitchell Bruce and Cantlie the proofs of his *First Aid to the Wounded*. Shepherd had been ordered to the war in Zululand, where he fell at Isandlwana. It was in 1883 that Cantlie commenced the classes at Charing Cross Hospital which developed into the systematic framing of the RAMC Territorial Force. In 1883 he was one of twelve young medical men who were sent to Egypt to assist in dealing with the epidemic of cholera introduced by pilgrims from Mecca. In a lecture he delivered at the Parkes Museum of Hygiene on Jan 27th, 1887, entitled “Degeneration amongst Londoners”, his mildly extravagant statements directed to the encouragement of exercise in fresh air met with a good deal of cheap ridicule in the public Press, generally epitomized in the statement that Londoners die out in the third generation. He had just become full Surgeon to the hospital when he accepted Patrick Manson’s invitation to join him at Hong Kong and become Dean of the Chinese School of Medicine. At the same time he engaged in a large surgical practice. Among the students at the College of Medicine was Sun Yat Sen, who subsequently was concerned in converting the Empire into a Republic. And when Sen in October, 1896, was held captive in the London Chinese Legation, Cantlie was instrumental in getting him released. He also inquired into the distribution of leprosy in China and adjacent parts of the East Indies, and in 1894 encountered an outbreak of plague. He returned to London in 1897 and set to work to advocate a Tropical Medical School in London, a Tropical Section at the Annual Meeting of the British Medical Association, and a Tropical Medical Journal published in London. Backed up by Sir Patrick Manson, then Medical Adviser to the Colonial Office, he read a paper at the Imperial Institute urging a School of Tropical Medicine for medical officers going to the Tropics. A Committee was formed at Manson’s house, Mr Joseph Chamberlain’s interest was secured, and he presided at a dinner with the result that £16,000 was collected and the London School of Tropical Medicine was opened in 1899. The British Medical Association Section of Tropical Medicine was inaugurated at the Edinburgh Meeting in 1898; and Manson, the President, read out the telegram from Sir Ronald Ross announcing the discovery of the malaria parasite in the mosquito. Cantlie was Secretary of the section, and at subsequent meetings Vice-President and President. The first number of the *Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene*, with Cantlie and Professor Sir William Simpson as editors, appeared in 1898; Manson and later Cantlie were Presidents of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine, and Cantlie presented the gold chain and insignia for the President. He contributed many articles on tropical surgical affections, but gradually his attention concentrated itself upon ambulance work. On the formation of the Territorial Armies he became Hon Colonel RAMC (TF), 1st London Division. He held classes and lectured at the Polytechnic on first aid to the wounded. From that he passed on to found the College of Ambulance for the training of both men and women. The training of VADs started in 1908, but with the outbreak of war in 1914 it was greatly developed under Lady Cantlie. Among numerous inventions which are owing to his genius and untiring exertion are a portable X-ray apparatus, and exercises graduated for people of mature age; he attacked the Eton jacket for exposing the loins, also the ‘baby’s comforter’ as the transmitter of infection. At the Newcastle Meeting of the British Medical Association in 1921 Cantlie was President of a special section of Ambulance. The same year, 1921, marked the decline of his active career owing to the death of Lady Cantlie. In private life Cantlie was a delightful and entertaining companion and host, abounding in Scotch humour, whilst the faculty of imitation and the instincts of a born actor made him an admirable after-dinner speaker and singer. He started a Students’ Dinner, and presided over the dinner of the Caledonian Society. He preached at St Martin’s Church on Hospital Sunday, and addressed a Jewish audience on the hygiene of Moses. After prolonged retirement and ill health, latterly accompanied by mental disturbance, he died in London on March 25th, 1926. Cantlie married in 1884 Mabel Brown, daughter of Robert Barclay Brown, and there were four sons. His wife was his great helper in all private and public work. To her he was entirely indebted for the management of his finances. Upon her too fell the severe work of conducting the training of the VADs in ambulance work, and her death in 1921 was an irreparable loss. Publications:– *Degeneration amongst Londoners*, London, 1885. *Leprosy in Hong Kong*, Hong Kong, 1890. *Report on the Conditions under which Leprosy occurs in China*, etc., London, 1897. *Plague and how to Recognize and Treat Plague*, London, 1901. *Physical Efficiency: A Review of the Deleterious Effects of Town Life upon the Population of Britain*. Preface by Sir Lauder Brunton; Foreword by Sir James Crichton Browne, London, 1906. *First Aid Manuals*, revised 1915, 1926, etc. A great number of other publications.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000845
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Latto, Conrad (1915 - 2008)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Marshall Barr
Publication Date 2008-11-14
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000500-E000599
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372753372753
Occupation General surgeon
Details Conrad Latto was a consultant surgeon at the Royal Berkshire Hospital, Reading. He was born on 3 March 1915, the son of David and Christina Latto. His father was the town clerk of Dundee, his mother a frugal Scot who scrupulously saved towards the education of their three sons. Conrad, Gordon and Douglas all went from Dundee High School to study medicine at St Andrews. A younger brother, Kenneth, died in childhood of a Wilms’ tumour, which may have influenced Conrad’s future career. In 1937 he qualified with first class honours and a gold medal from St Andrews University. He held junior hospital appointments at Cornelia & East Dorset Hospital, Poole, the Prince of Wales Hospital, Plymouth, and Rochdale Infirmary. He became a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh in 1940. For 18 months, from 1940 to 1942, he was a resident surgical officer at the Prince of Wales Hospital, Plymouth. It was during the Blitz on Plymouth in 1941 that his surgical reputation was established. Ironically, Latto was a conscientious objector on religious grounds. Eric Holburn, assistant superintendent at the Prince of Wales Hospital, sent this testimonial to his tribunal: “Soon after the devastation of Plymouth by enemy savagery in the early part of 1941, Mr Latto informed me that his views concerning the destruction of life had become so strongly crystallized that he could not honestly serve, even in a medical capacity, with the Armed Forces…This objection is the outcome of his earnest and overruling desire to put into practice his conception of a Christ-like life…I know of no individual who has served his country so magnificently and in such a quietly heroic and unassuming way as Mr Latto…The direction of the hospital emergency service was left entirely in his hands …With bombs falling all round and the hospital services being disrupted he carried on with imperturbable fortitude…” H F Vellacott, honorary surgeon wrote: “During the Plymouth blitzes…It was he who arranged which cases should go to theatre, which cases should have blood transfusions…Throughout these trying times he proved invaluable, and I cannot speak too highly of his conduct and of his administrative qualities. When each actual blitz was on his example of courage and calmness helped to hold the whole hospital organization together. He was outstanding in this respect and a special note of thanks was sent him by the Honorary Staff before he left.” The tribunal excused him from military service, with the condition that he continued to serve as a doctor. In 1943 he went to the Liverpool Royal Infirmary as surgical registrar for 12 months, followed by a year as an accident service officer at King Edward VII Hospital, Windsor. Now in Berkshire, and in his words “liking the look of the Royal Berks”, he became resident surgical officer in 1945. He was to remain closely attached to the Royal Berkshire Hospital for the rest of his life. With glowing testimonials from honorary surgeons Aitken Walker and Gordon Bohn, he became honorary assistant surgeon in December 1947, one of the last appointments to the voluntary hospital staff before the arrival of the NHS. Aitken Walker, the senior surgeon, suggested they all have a specialty. Walker chose thyroid and sympathectomy for himself, Bohn was given gall bladder and stomach, Robert Reid the colon and rectum. Latto had done some urology at Liverpool and therefore got urology. He took up the challenge with characteristic enthusiasm. Now a consultant in the NHS, he visited Terrence Millin and Alec Badenoch at St Bartholomew’s and St Peter’s hospitals to bring Reading up to date with the latest in the specialty. In 1961, sponsored by Badenoch and Sir James Paterson Ross (Sir James’s son Harvey was at that time Latto’s surgical registrar), he undertook a two-month study tour in the USA of the major centres for urology and general surgery. Latto was an excellent general surgeon who became a skilled urologist. He served on the council of the urology section of the Royal Society of Medicine and was an important influence in establishing the specialty in the Oxford region. In 1961 he jointly founded, with Joe Smith, the Oxford Regional Urology Club. His endoscopic and surgical skills, together with the length of his operating lists, were legendary. In the 1970s he assisted the GU Manufacturing Company in testing their prototype rod lens urology instruments. Harold Hopkins of the University of Reading, who had developed the rod lens and fibre-optic systems used in endoscopy, became both a patient and a very good friend. Another close friend was Denis Burkitt, whom he met when they were together at Poole. They were both Christian vegetarians: Latto became a member of the Order of the Cross and was president of VEGA (Vegetarian Economy and Green Agriculture). The two friends’ common interest in the effects of dietary fibre led to combined study and lecture tours in Africa, India, the Persian Gulf and behind the Iron Curtain. In 1971 Latto crusaded successfully for the introduction of dietary bran in Reading hospitals. He was a leading figure in British Association of Urological Surgeons (BAUS), at whose urging the College offered him the FRCS *ad eundem* in 1977. A tall, imposing figure with a shock of silver-grey hair, Conrad Latto had an enormous influence on the Royal Berks and on the medical and nursing staff in training. Although teetotal as well as vegetarian, he was the very opposite of the dour Scot. He never preached his beliefs (other than the importance of fibre). He published few papers, but was a passionate teacher, speaking eloquently and amusingly in a delightful soft Scottish accent. When in 1980 he had to retire from his beloved hospital, he took over the general practice in Caversham of his sister-in-law Monica Latto. He attended refresher courses and out-patient teaching sessions to update his knowledge and for seven years was a highly respected and much loved GP. In final retirement, he remained an active member of the local medical society, the Reading Pathological Society, of which he had been arguably its most effective post-war president. He died at his Caversham home on 6 July 2008, leaving a wife Anne, daughters Rosalind and Sharon, and five grandchildren.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000570
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Dyde, John Anthony (1935 - 2010)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2010-09-30
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001000-E001099
Occupation Cardiothoracic surgeon
Details Tony Dyde was a cardiothoracic surgeon at Walsgrave Hospital, Coventry. He was born in Plymouth on 30 May 1935, the son of John Horsfall Dyde, chairman of the Eastern Gas Board, and Ethel May Hewitt, and was educated at Rugby, where he excelled at cricket, hockey and rugby football. He then went up to Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, where he gained a blue for hockey and had an England trial. During a long vacation he worked in the dining room of the Devon Coast Country Club. His duties included the entertainment of guests, mainly London Hospital nurses, in the evening. From Cambridge, he went on Guy’s Hospital for his clinical studies. He was an outstanding student both academically as well as on the sports field, and on qualification he became a house physician to the dean, E R Boland, a rather daunting physician who wore a black monocle. After a spell in the accident department, he was a house surgeon to Sam Wass, the most sought-after post in the surgical department. While doing this job he fell ill with a stomach bug during an epidemic that had swept the hospital, perhaps the ‘winter vomiting virus’. The epidemic was so big that medical wards had to be used to cater for the volume of sick staff, mostly nurses. The resident medical officer of the day Maurice Lessof (later professor of medicine at Guy’s) was not happy with Tony’s condition and obtained a second opinion from the senior physician – Arthur Douthwaite. After his usual brusque assessment of the case, acute appendicitis was diagnosed and an acutely inflamed appendix was duly removed. The next week, when the great man arrived in his Rolls Royce at the front entrance of Guy’s, he was met as usual by Lessof, the senior registrar, junior registrar, two or three house men and a ward sister or two. As the cavalcade passed into the hospital Douthwaite asked “…by the way Lessof, how is that house surgeon I saw last week with appendicitis?” “Dyde, Sir?” replied Lessof. “Oh, I am so sorry” said the great man. Tony recovered and continued his job with Sam Wass. During the summer of that year Dyde married Shirley Priestley, who had been inspected by Sam Wass as a suitable girl to marry his house surgeon. The stag party was memorable: the best man took a dislike to the coloured lights that summoned junior doctors and beat the set on the wall in the residents’ common room to a pulp, fusing the system. The hospital was without a call system until the electricians replaced the mangled piece of steel and wires. A furious superintendent John Blaikley sent for Tony the next morning. Tony could not remember the incident: the superintendent asked in a concerned way “I believe Dyde that they put something in your beer.” Nothing more was said. Tony and Shirley then went to Bristol, where he worked with such surgical giants as Bob Horton, Bill Capper, Milnes Walker and Ronald Belsey, who may have kindled his interest in cardiothoracic surgery. He then went to Sheffield as a registrar, passed the final FRCS in 1963 and went back to Guy’s as a registrar to the thoracic unit, headed by Russell Brock and Donald Ross. It was a very stressful time at Guy’s when the third heart transplant in England was performed and Tony took the brunt of the postoperative care. During this period he went to work for Phil Ashmore in Vancouver. They remained firm friends for many years to come. As a senior registrar to Lord Brock and Donald Ross, Tony was a rapid and competent cardiac surgeon. On one occasion Brock was late. Tony, working with a very slick anaesthetist, had opened the chest and placed the patient on by pass – but still there was no Brock. Tony did what was necessary, replacing a valve or two and was just sewing up when the great man appeared in the theatre. “How are you getting on, Dyde?” “Just closing up, sir” said Tony. At which Brock turned on his heel and left the theatre. When Brock retired, Alan Yates took his place and he and Tony made a great team. By this time Robert Brain, a thoracic surgeon, joined the unit, which now provided a complete training programme in all aspects of the specialty, including a formal rotation with St Thomas’ and the Brook Hospital. In 1972, Tony was appointed to Walsgrave Hospital, Coventry, joining Roger Abbey Smith and Bill Williams, where he spent the rest of his surgical career and together they made Walsgrave one of most productive and efficient training programmes in cardiothoracic surgery in the UK. They started the biennial Coventry conference, which became one of the best postgraduate discussion groups in the specialty to which world experts were invited. They would introduce the subject under discussion in presentations of about 30 minutes, which were followed by 90 minutes of free ranging discussion with all attendees contributing to the arguments. A tremendous amount of ground was covered and a lot was learned by all attending. Tony took over the last couple of these conferences on his own until he realised that some degree of repetition was occurring, and decided to call it a day. In addition to being an extremely busy cardiac surgeon, Tony found time to travel to Lahore and helped to establish their cardiac unit, which entailed patience and tolerance of a medical culture very different from his own. The unit he set up is named after him and continues to save lives in Pakistan. In the latter years at Walsgrave, Tony became the clinical director of cardiothoracic surgery and medical director of the hospital and played a part in devising a magnificent new Walsgrave Hospital. He retired in 1997 to continue his love of fishing and golf, becoming captain of his local golf club, which gave him great pride and pleasure until ill health put this to an end.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001024
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Hartley, Charles Edwin (1922 - 2009)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by N Alan Green
Publication Date 2010-09-30
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/373212373212
Occupation General surgeon missionary
Details Charles Hartley served much of his professional life as a missionary and surgeon at Vom Christian Hospital, Nigeria. He later entered general practice in Falmouth. He was born in Newcastle, Staffordshire, on 22 January 1922. His father was Harold Hartley, a senior consulting surgeon at North Staffordshire Hospital, who had won a gold medal for his London MD in 1902. His mother was Janet Stuart née Laird, the second woman to gain the FRCS Edinburgh with the gold medal. Together with Elsie Inglis of the Scottish Women’s Hospital, she went to Serbia, to provide medical services for the White Russians. His mother died when Charles was 13, and he recalled being told by his housemaster “not to cry, as it was selfish”. His two older brothers went to Eton, but when it was time for young Charles to be educated, his father’s finances were somewhat constrained. He was educated first at Summer Field School, Oxford, and then went to Epsom College (from 1934 to 1939), where he was encouraged to enter medicine. As a rather shy bespectacled schoolboy, he had a good academic record before going to Peterhouse College, Cambridge, to study natural sciences in a foreshortened two year course. From 1939 to 1941, he captained the Peterhouse tennis team and was the only medical student in his year. In his first few days as an undergraduate he received an invitation to attend a ‘fresher’s squash’, a meeting for newcomers aimed at giving a Christian message. The speaker was ‘Jim’ (Charles Gordon) Scorer, a Cambridge graduate from Emmanuel College, who gave an evangelical talk that impressed at least one young undergraduate. Charles was also influenced in his early spiritual journey by a contemporary at Peterhouse, John Swinbank, later chaplain to Bradfield College. Charles went to St Bartholomew’s Hospital for his clinical training, but, because of the war, spent only three months in Smithfield, with much of his clinical training taking place at Hill End Hospital, St Albans and later at Friern Hospital. In his first year Charles Hartley lodged in St Albans and was provided with full board and lodging for performing regular Air Raid Precaution (ARP) duties. In the second year, he was billeted in Hill End Hospital, much liked by students, nurses and resident doctors because of the friendly and informal atmosphere, not apparent in Smithfield. The rather gloomy atmosphere at Friern Barnet in his final year was offset by excellent ‘digs’, run by a Miss Pepper, a staunch Congregationalist. She encouraged the students to attend the local church, run by one of the first female ministers in the UK, the Reverend Elsie Chamberlain, who was married to the local Anglican priest. Charles won the Brackenbury prize in surgery, the Matthews Duncan prize and gold medal in midwifery and gynaecology and the Walsham prize in surgical pathology. He was house surgeon to (Sir) James Paterson Ross and John Hosford at a time when Reggie Murley became chief assistant. He then became chief assistant in neurosurgery to John O’Connell and passed the primary FRCS. In 1947 Charles Hartley entered the RAMC as a surgical specialist in Graz and on trains from Trieste to the Hook of Holland. Towards the end of his National Service, he developed jaundice and was admitted to hospital for several weeks. Once he was demobilised, Charles felt he should go abroad as a missionary. As part of his training, he took a crash correspondence course with the London Bible College, did surgical locums and ironed out gaps in his knowledge, passed the final FRCS at the third attempt and the DTM&H after a course in tropical medicine. The Sudan United Missionary Society desperately needed a surgeon in northern Nigeria, and Charles set sail for Lagos in 1953. The Vom Hospital stood on a 4,000 foot high plateau. The work at this newly built hospital was demanding. On operating days he worked from dawn to dusk: caesarean sections were common emergencies, and he became adept at treating patients with vesicovaginal fistula. In quieter moments he explored the countryside, indulged in bird watching and added to his carefully annotated researches on the history of art. Despite poor health, he was determined to explore Africa and made the long journey to Lake Chad and then back along the river Benue. He left the mission field in 1966, after some 15 years of service. After extensive investigations at Bart’s, he was found to have contracted a rare form of leprosy. After treatment, he was left with a weak leg and decided to give up surgery. He became a GP in Falmouth. Charles loved the work as it brought new challenges. He retired from general practice reluctantly at the age of 60, but continued to work for the National Blood Transfusion Service across Cornwall until 1992, when he reached 70. He enjoyed golf and was an active member of the Falmouth Baptist church. He first met Ruth E A Doble, a nurse at Bart’s, in the sluice room of the operating theatre at Hill End Hospital. They married in February 1947, and had two daughters, Jane Deborah, born in 1948, who became a teacher, and Philippa Ruth, born in 1950, who became a solicitor. One of Charles’ hobbies during his time as a GP was collecting old Bibles. His was the second largest private collection and included first edition authorised versions and a psalter that had belonged to Mary, Queen of Scots. When his daughter Philippa sadly died of breast cancer in 2004, he lost heart for collecting and sold his collection at Sotherby’s for £250,000, with which he established the Bible Heritage Trust, a charity supporting Christian missions at home and abroad. Charles Hartley died on 6 October 2009, after four weeks of increasing weakness, but remained mentally alert to the last. He was survived by his daughter Jane, her husband, their three surviving children (Anna Grace, John Melville and Esther Ivy) and Philippa’s two children, Jonathan Hugh and Naomi Ruth.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001029
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Dalliwall, Kenneth Hayat Singh (1913 - 2010)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by N Alan Green
Publication Date 2011-07-07
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001200-E001299
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373438373438
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon
Details Kenneth Dalliwall was a much respected consultant orthopaedic surgeon who served many hospitals in the north east London area over the years. He worked at the Whipps Cross, Connaught and Wanstead hospitals, and at the Walthamstow and Loughton Children's hospitals. He was also an assistant surgeon at the Middlesex Hospital and practised privately in Harley Street. Retiring at the age of 65 in 1978, he continued in medico-legal practice for five years. He was born in Mussoorie, India, on 25 March 1913, the elder of two sons of Har (Harry) Bhajan Singh Dalliwall, a barrister, and his wife, Emma Elizabeth née Colville. The family went to England in 1915, but sadly the father died when Kenneth was a young boy. From Forest School, Snaresbrook, Kenneth went to Selwyn College, Cambridge, where he studied natural science. He proceeded to St Bartholomew's Hospital for his clinical years. His brother also entered medicine and became a general practitioner in Southport. Kenneth's years as a student saw many structural changes at Bart's in West Smithfield. The surgical block with five operating theatres, one on each floor, had already been completed in 1930 with a complement of 250 beds. So dressers were allocated to clerk and look after patients allocated to them. A year before he qualified an equivalent medical block was built to the south of the square - the so-called 'King George V block' - that was opened by Queen Mary. Students had excellent tuition in surgery from George Gask and Sir James Paterson Ross, and one of the chief assistants, John P Hosford, a general surgeon, who at that time had an interest in orthopaedics. Respite from Ken's studies came by sailing with United Hospitals, at Burnham-on-Crouch, a form of exercise and relaxation that never deserted him throughout his years as a consultant and into retirement. After qualifying, he held house appointments at the Kent and Sussex hospitals. He volunteered to serve in the Royal Army Medical Corps after a further post at the Seaman's Hospital, Greenwich. As a surgical specialist with the rank of major, he went to France shortly after D-Day and served in field hospitals during the Allies' advance in Normandy. An interest in trauma was ignited during these years and prepared him for his future specialist career in orthopaedics. Towards the end of the war he was sent to the Far East. Japan surrendered when he was on board a ship off Singapore. He went into prisoner of war camps to help poorly nourished Australian soldiers, and for the next few months accompanied many of them back to Australia. He remained with the troops in hospitals in Sydney until he returned to England. He was demobilised in 1947, but continued a strong connection with the Territorial Army as a colonel commanding the 57 Middlesex General Hospital at Harrow. For these services he was decorated with a TD and bar. Having gained the FRCS in 1943 during the war years, he continued registrar training in general surgery at the Dreadnought Hospital before specialising in orthopaedics at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital and the Hospital for Sick Children at Great Ormond Street. Here he worked for, and was influenced by, H Jackson Burrows and Sidney Higgs. Burrows later became dean of the Institute of Orthopaedics, Postgraduate Medical Federation, University of London and Higgs was a great organiser, but very demanding of his trainees in his meticulous attention to detail. In 1953, and at the age of 40, he was enjoying a successful medical career and a thriving social life. Through an interest in drama he met Margaret Faulds, a personnel officer who worked in the City of London. At the New Lindsay Theatre Club in London's Notting Hill, they discovered a mutual interest in drama, a love of wining and dining and in conversation. In the early years of their friendship, Margaret needed a crash course in the art of sailing. On one of these occasions, after Margaret had cooked a superb meal in the tiny galley of a small sailing boat, Ken proposed. They married in Lancashire on 25 November 1957. Margaret retired from her City job in 1961 in order to support Ken and worked as an administrator and secretary in his private practice. After working all week, they dashed up to Norfolk for a period of rest and relaxation. Much of this time was spent sailing and with friends in the East Anglian Cruising Club. In 1962 they bought *Betty*, a 21 foot twin-berthed, wooden sailing cruiser. Before he retired he was a member of many yacht clubs: the Royal Burnham and Royal Corinthian at Burnham-on-Crouch, the Littleship Club, London, and the Cambridge Cruising Club. He was a life member of the Naval and Military Club. In 1984, when Hawthorn Cottage, Thurn, Norfolk, came on the market, they moved from Essex to enjoy Norfolk all year round. They moved Betty to a mooring at Boundary Farm, Oby, and became popular members of the local community: their zest for life contributed greatly to the village's social calendar. Kenneth Dalliwall remained a true gentleman, a wonderful husband, a man who enjoyed the company of friends. As a man of faith he believed that death was not the end of his existence. He died on 28 June 2010, and was survived by his wife of 53 years, Margaret. One Norfolk friend in a tribute at his funeral held at St Edmund's Church, Thurne, Norfolk described his long years of work as 'a long dedication to his practice and patients that is another testimony to one of Ken's greatest qualities - his sense of duty and loyalty'.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001255
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Roualle, Henri Louis Marcel (1915 - 2007)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by N Alan Green
Publication Date 2011-07-07
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001200-E001299
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373442373442
Occupation General surgeon
Details Henri Roualle was a consultant general surgeon in London serving at many hospitals at various stages of his career, including Connaught, Wanstead, Finchley Memorial, the National Temperance and Whipps Cross hospitals. He was also visiting surgeon to HM prison, Wormwood Scrubs. He was born on 19 May 1915 in Epsom, Surrey. His parents, Louis Francois Auguste Roualle and Marie Marguerite Caroline née Rolo, came from Normandy and settled in England, taking British nationality. Henri and his brother Jean were both educated at Epsom College, where their father was a language teacher in French and German. The Roualle brothers were brought up as bilingual speakers and enjoyed the privileged ambience of the school grounds, playing with the children of other masters. Henri entered the lower school in 1923 and moved into the main school, where he became a school prefect and head of Roseberry house. He switched from the classical side to science subjects in the sixth form. After a distinguished academic career in school, he gained a scholarship to study medicine at St Bartholomew's. During these years he developed acute appendicitis with peritonitis and poliomyelitis, the latter leaving him with a permanent limp. For his preclinical years he went to the medical college in Charterhouse Square and spent his clinical years at St Bartholomew's Hospital, West Smithfield. He contributed papers as a student to the *St Bartholomew's Hospital Journal* on a wide range of topics from 'Moliere and medicine' to 'carbuncle of the kidney'. On qualification he became a casualty house surgeon and then was attached to the obstetric and gynaecology unit. His unpublished memoirs describe his recollections of these years. He then took a job as a ship's doctor on a Blue Funnel steamer, the *Myrmidon*, sailing from Plymouth to Australia and back via Malaysia and Saudi Arabia. On the return journey, the Second World War broke out and Henri Roualle found himself in a convoy returning home via South Africa. In October 1939 he returned to Bart's as an anatomy demonstrator working with W J Hamilton, and ended this time in Cambridge with the evacuation of the preclinical school. The students were housed in Queen's College, Cambridge, and enjoyed the facilities of the university, including the lecture theatres and the anatomy dissecting room. Bart's students were segregated in a 'roped-off' area about one quarter the size of the larger portion used by the Cambridge undergraduates, who were to be seen there occasionally. Bart's students under the Hamilton were taught a lot of anatomy, almost to the exclusion of physiology and biochemistry. This state of affairs existed until Easter 1946, when the preclinical school returned to war-damaged Charterhouse Square in London. Henri Roualle then went to Queen Alexandra's Hospital, an EMS hospital at Cobham, as a 'junior' surgeon for a year and a half. Although he had a limp following poliomyelitis, he was accepted for military service as a medical officer in the RAF with the rank of flight lieutenant. He served in West Africa until 1942, then in France and was in Brussels on VE day. As part of the army of occupation he saw the horrors of Belsen, and describes these very vividly in his typewritten private memoirs. Brought up in the Roman Catholic faith, his wartime experiences turned him to agnosticism. He was, however, always committed to Christian moral principles. He returned to Bart's in 1946. During his postgraduate years he worked as a chief assistant to Sir James Paterson Ross on the surgical unit. Later his teaching skills were utilised as a surgical tutor, a post used to help students consolidate their knowledge and, in particular, to help those struggling with examinations. His further training took him to Barnet General Hospital. At the RCS he won the Jacksonian prize in 1948 and followed this as Hunterian Professor in 1950, when he delivered a lecture on 'malignant disease of the thyroid gland'. This was a survey of 100 cases and was published in the *Annals* of the Royal College of Surgeons (1950:7:67-86). In 1952 he was appointed as a consultant general surgeon to Barnet Hospital, also working at the National Temperance and Finchley Memorial hospitals. Many Greek Cypriot patients attended the National Temperance Hospital, and Henri taught himself modern Greek in order to communicate with them. In the 1960s he contracted pulmonary tuberculosis, almost certainly from a patient. This necessitated treatment in a sanatorium in Norfolk. Henri's final posts were at Whipps Cross and Connaught hospitals. He also served as surgeon at Wormwood Scrubs prison, where he had dealings with John Stonehouse MP and other notable figures. In 1946 he married Molly Walden, a nurse whom he had met at RAF Hospital, Ely. They were together for just over 60 years and had three children, Anne-Marie, Yvonne and Michael. Henri Roualle was a very hard working and conscientious surgeon who was perceived as such by his children. None of the children entered medicine, and perhaps got to know their father better in his retirement. The family recall their father as a proficient linguist who encouraged them, when holidaying abroad in their teens, to speak the native language. Linguaphone records were studied by the whole family, particularly in Spanish and Italian. The interest in languages rubbed off on the children. Anne-Marie taught Spanish and French at several schools, including Haberdashers' Aske's School for Girls; her sister Yvonne teaches Italian at Sherborne Girls' School. Their brother, Michael, went to Epsom College and entered farming and then banking. Henri Roualle's last few years were dogged by indifferent health. In addition to cardiac problems, he developed circulatory problems in his 'polio' leg. This was amputated below the knee in his 85th year, and he was in hospital for several months due to MRSA infection. An attack of shingles compromised the sight in one eye to which he adapted well, but he did not venture out of doors thereafter. His intellect remained strong: he read daily newspapers and was always keen to discuss articles he had read and found interesting. Henri Roualle died after another short illness on 28 March 2007 and was survived by his wife Molly, by their children and four grandchildren, Simon, David, Helen and Samuel.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001259
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Adami, John George (1862 - 1926)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2009-07-31 2016-01-15
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000600-E000699
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372822372822
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born at Manchester, the fifth son of John George Adami by his wife Sarah Ann Ellis, daughter of Thomas Leech, of Urmston, Lancashire. His uncle, David John Leech (1840-1900), was Professor of Materia Medica and Therapeutics in the Victoria University, and Physician to the Manchester Royal Infirmary. The family of Adami was of Italian origin, and many members of it had followed the profession of medicine. They had settled latterly in Manchester and Ashton-upon-Mersey. George Adami was educated at the Manchester Grammar School and Owens College, whence he went to Cambridge in 1880, matriculating from Christ's College at the same time as his life-long friend Arthur Everett Shipley. He obtained a scholarship at the College, was Darwinian Prizeman in 1885, and was elected an honorary fellow in 1920. He was an active member of the Cambridge University Natural Science Club, where he read papers on "Rudiments in Man", "The Thymus", and "Medical Degrees" before he graduated. He obtained a first class in Parts I and II of the Natural Science Tripos (1882 and 1884) in a list which included A E Shipley and Henry Head. He then went to Breslau, and in Heidenhain's Laboratory worked at the blood-supply in the frog's kidney. Returning to Manchester, he followed the ordinary course of medical training, was admitted MRCS, and served as house physician for six months at the Royal Infirmary under Drs Morgan, Dreschfeld, and Ross. By this time he had made his reputation as a physiologist, and was elected a member of the Physiological Society on Nov 12th, 1887. He returned to Cambridge in April, 1888, as Demonstrator of Pathology to Professor Charles Smart Roy in succession to (Sir) Almroth Wright. In this position he carried out an extensive research on the cardiovascular system, and continued his work on the glomeruli of the kidney and on albuminuria. In 1889, when investigating rabies among the deer in Tekworth Pak, he was wounded whilst making a post-mortem examination of one of them. He underwent the Pasteur treatment in Paris, after which he suffered from symptoms of abortive hydrophobia, which he himself said were due to auto-suggestion. In 1889 he proceeded MB in the University of Cambridge, having taken his MA degree in the previous year, and in 1892 graduated MD. He was appointed John Lucas Walker Student in Pathology in 1890, continuing his experimental work, and illustrating it in a number of papers which appeared in the *Medical Chronicle*. He returned to Paris for a short time to work at the Pasteur Institute, and in 1891 was elected Fellow of Jesus College and again resided in the University. In the autumn of 1892 he went to Montreal as the first Strathcona Professor of Pathology in McGill University, and there carried on the work which Sir William Osler had "begun by holding morbid anatomy classes in a cloakroom". As Professor of Pathology he was very successful in training his pupils and in encouraging such people as Professor O Klotz, C W Duval, W W Ford, G A Charleton and Maude E Wood to undertake original research. This work in Canada was appreciated by his colleagues, and he acted as President of the Association for the Prevention of Tuberculosis from 1909-1912, President of the Royal Society of Canada in 1912, and President of the American Association of Physicians in the same year. He was elected MA, MD (ad eundem) McGill, in 1899 and LLD Toronto in 1912. In the meantime he was not forgotten at home, for he was made FRS in 1905, FRCP London in 1913, and was awarded the Fothergillian Gold Medal by the Medical Society of London in 1914. In 1917 he delivered the Croonian Lecture at the Royal College of Physicians, taking as his subject "Adaptation and Disease". On the outbreak of war (1914-1918) Adami at once volunteered for service overseas, and received a temporary commission as colonel in the Canadian Army Medical Corps, acting as Assistant Director of Medical Services in charge of Records with headquarters in London. In 1917 he was Chairman of a Special Committee to report on the standardization of routine pathological methods, and for those services he was decorated CBE in 1919. His report to the University of London on medical education was highly controversial. On April 10th, 1919, he was elected FRCS as a member of twenty years' standing. In June, 1919, he was chosen unanimously Vice-Chancellor of the University of Liverpool, and the rest of his life was spent in administrative work and in the collection of funds for the maintenance and endowment of the University. In 1920 he was elected an Honorary Fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge. He died on Aug 29th, 1926, and is buried in Allerton Cemetery, Liverpool. He married: (1) Mary, daughter of J A Cantlie of Montreal, and (2) Marie, daughter of the Rev Thomas Wilkinson, Vicar of Litherland. He left two children by his first wife. [1] Adami was a leading pathologist, a genial companion, a man of great culture outside his profession, and of tireless energy. *The Principles of Pathology*, the first volume of which was published in 1909, shows him to have been a master of his subject, and its appearance marked an epoch in the science. Four years later he wrote with his friend Dr John McCrae, of McGill University, a successful text-book on pathology. [Amendment from the annotated edition of * Plarr's Lives* at the Royal College of Surgeons: [1] *The Times* 23 Oct 1945 "BAIN - On Oct 18, 1945, in London, Isabel, wife of SIR FREDERICK BAIN, of 29, Palace Court, W.2., and the daughter of the late Dr J. G Adami, FRS, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Liverpool, and of the late Mrs. Adami, of Montreal. Funeral private. Memorial service at St. Matthew's Church, St. Petersburgh Place, Bayswater, to-day (Tuesday), at 2.30 p.m. No letters, please."]
Resource Identifier RCS: E000639
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Gillingham, Francis John (1916 - 2010)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Angus E Stuart
Publication Date 2011-12-20 2013-11-15
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001700-E001799
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373969373969
Occupation Neurosurgeon
Details John Gillingham was professor of neurosurgery at the University of Edinburgh. He was born in Dorchester, Dorset, on 15 March 1916, the son of John Herbert Gillingham, a businessman, and Lily Gillingham née Eavis. He was educated at the Thomas Hardye School in Dorchester, and then studied medicine at St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical School, where he won prizes in surgery and obstetrics. After graduation and house posts with Sir James Patterson Ross and Ronald Christie, he joined the Royal Army Medical Corps. He was deployed for 18 months in Sir Hugh Cairns' 'crash course' at Oxford on all aspects of neurological trauma. Gillingham later became commanding officer of the number 4 neurological surgical unit in the Middle East and Italy - the 'nomadic surgeons'. His unit chased after the 8th Army in the desert for some two months during the huge battle of El Alamein and then to Sicily. During this time Gillingham contracted poliomyelitis, which left him with a paralysed jaw. He ate slops for three months, but, in his own words, he eventually 'cheeked' his way back to command the unit. After the war he became a senior registrar in general surgery and then in neurosurgery at Bart's, and in 1950 he was appointed as a consultant neurosurgeon and a senior lecturer in surgical neurology at the University of Edinburgh. Gillingham spent 12 years working alongside Norman McOmish Dott, one of the great triumvirate of neurosurgeons that also included Cairns in Oxford and Sir Geoffrey Jefferson in Manchester. In 1962 Gillingham became a reader and, in 1963, professor of surgical neurology at Edinburgh. Gillingham's experiences during the Second World War gave him an understanding of, and a lasting interest in, head injuries. He kept meticulous notes on how bullets entered, traversed and often exited soldiers' brains, and correlated these injuries with any abnormal central nervous system signs or behavioural and emotional aberrations. He later described an area now known as the reticular activating system, noticing that injuries to this part of the brain always resulted in total loss or serious loss of consciousness. Gillingham regarded this area as the seat of the conscious mind, an analogy being the central processing unit of the computer. In recognition of this work he was awarded the medal of the Society of British Neurological Surgeons (in May 2009). When his colleague in Edinburgh, David Whitteridge, described the use of microelectrodes in distinguishing between grey and white matter, Gillingham immediately saw their usefulness in distinguishing deep brain structures. From these first microelectrode recording studies, fundamental insights were gained which improved the accuracy of locating lesions within the brain, including the observation that spontaneous rhythmical discharge from the thalamus was synchronous with tremor. However, the main emphasis of his work in Edinburgh was on stereotaxis (or the use of three-dimensional coordinate systems to locate and operate on targets in the body), which he used as an aid to localising brain lesions. He was introduced to stereotactic surgery by Gérard Guiot, who had visited Edinburgh to learn aneurysmal surgery from Dott and Gillingham. Gillingham's wealth of experience in aneurysmal surgery led him to adapt Guiot's stereotactic method. Over the years he refined his procedures, targeting the cerebellum, brain stem and cervical spine to help patients with chronic pain and dystonias. Results from 60 patients with Parkinson's symptoms showed that electrocoagulation of lesions in the globus pallidus, internal capsule and thalamus, either separately or in combination, reduced tremor and rigidity in 88% of cases. In this era predating MRI scans, stereotactic neurosurgery proved to be one of the most important developments in 20th century brain surgery. Gillingham's interest in the nature of memory and evolution never diminished. One day, discussing Marcel Proust's *In remembrance of times past*, he remarked that Proust may have had temporal lobe epilepsy. Gillingham pointed out that temporal lobectomy on the left side had to carefully done, lest damage to the superior temporal gyrus caused loss of cognitive memory. He added that the hippocampus, amygdala and the wider functions of the temporal lobe are concerned with memory, both long- and short-term. Gillingham was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1970. In 1980 he became president of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, where he vigorously pursued and established fellowships in surgical sub-specialties. Education was a primary interest, and he supported the use of television and other visual aids. After he retired from Edinburgh, Gillingham was professor of neurosurgery at the King Khalid University Hospital in Riyadh - at that time a veritable nest of distinguished medicos. Gillingham's services were in demand during the planning of a new medical school and I remember him insisting on a helicopter pad being built. With great gusto, he improved training and skills in the neurosurgery section, which soon began to flourish. In 1945 Gillingham married Judy (Irene Jude), who was a constant support. Cairns, a brilliant administrator, arranged their wedding locally in Oxford, followed by a reception in his house. After the war they settled in a splendid house overlooking the Forth, where Judy was a sparkling hostess, entertaining guests with tales of their many tours abroad. They had four sons (Jeremy, who predeceased him following a skiing accident, Timothy, Simon and Adam) and many grandchildren. John Gillingham died on 3 January 2010, at the age of 93. His modesty and kindliness were apparent throughout his life; all who met him admired him. Once, walking through the main corridor of the King Khalid Hospital in the company of a Syrian surgeon, we encountered John, advancing towards us with his entourage. As they passed by, the Syrian doctor lent over and whispered in my ear: 'Do you see that man? I would never tell him so, but I would do anything for him!'
Resource Identifier RCS: E001786
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Willway, Francis Wilfred (1907 - 1944)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2013-12-18
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E004000-E004999/E004700-E004799
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/376982376982
Occupation General surgeon Neurosurgeon
Details Born 28 August 1907 at Gorleston, near Great Yarmouth, the third child and second son of Frederick William Willway, MRCS 1894, superintendent of the National Mission to Deep Sea Fishermen, who afterwards lived at Streatham, and of Margaret, his wife, daughter of William Allison, MD Edinburgh 1865, who practised at Killaloo, Co Derry, Ireland. He was educated at Trent College and University College School, London, and at King's College, Strand, where he graduated in science in 1928 and was later elected an Associate, and at King's College Hospital, where he won the Jelf medal in 1930. After serving as house surgeon at the Ross Institute for Tropical Diseases and senior house surgeon at the Royal East Sussex Hospital, Hastings, he was resident surgical officer at the Royal Manchester Children's Hospital, and then came back to King's College Hospital, where he served as casualty officer and as surgical registrar. He took the Conjoint qualification, the London Bachelorships, the Fellowship, the Mastership, and the Doctorate in successive years, 1930-34. Willway was at first interested chiefly in the surgery of fractures, but after his appointment in 1936 as surgical registrar at the Royal Infirmary, Bristol, he turned to neurosurgery and was a pioneer of this specialty in the west country. He was subsequently (1942) elected assistant surgeon on the staff of the Bristol Royal Hospital, of which the Royal Infirmary is a constituent, and was also assistant surgeon at the West End Hospital for Nervous Diseases, Welbeck Street, W, and had consulting rooms both at 62 Queen Anne Street, London, and in Bristol, where he lived at 2 Clifton Park, and later at 31 Queen's Court, Clifton. During the war he was appointed surgeon to the Neurosurgical Centre at the Burden Neurological Institute, Bristol, under the Ministry of Health's emergency medical service, and deputy regional adviser on head injuries. At the time of the severe air-raids on Bristol in 1940-41 he organized a mobile surgical unit, and devised a working scheme for the rapid reception of casualties. He also took charge of the emergency arrangements at the Royal Infirmary, and proved himself as brilliant an organizer as he was intellectually. Willway was one of the first in England to perform W Freeman's modification of Egas Moniz's operation of prefrontal leucotomy for mental illness, and based his Hunterian lecture of 1942, "The role of surgery in mental disease", on his results. He professed to have no special knowledge of psychology, but showed great interest in the mental progress of these patients. The treatment consists essentially in passage of a hollow needle with a stiletto into the white matter of the frontal lobes on either side the mid-line, and in section of the white matter so as to interfere extensively with the frontal-thalamic connexions. Invented by Egas Moniz of Lisbon, following his observation that euphoria follows injury to the frontal lobes (*Amer J Psych* 1936-37, 93, 1379), the operation was adapted by W Freeman of Washington (*Med Ann District of Columbia*, 1939, 8, 345), who obtained some successes in chronic depressed obsessional states. It was developed in England by Willway and others for chronic depression, involutional melancholia, and schizophrenia. Willway was sceptical of its scientific basis. (See papers by G W T H Fleming, F E Fox, E L Hutton, J S McGregor, and J R Crumbie in *Lancet*, 1941, 2, 3 and 7; 1943, 1, 361; *J merit Sci* 1942, 88, 275 and 282; also R D Gillespie in *Brit Encyc of med Pract, Med Progress*, 1944, page 72, "Mental diseases".) In the later years of his short life Willway carried on a very active professional career with great gallantry, while suffering from Hodgkin's disease, of which he died at Bristol on 6 January 1944, aged 36. He was buried at Arnos Vale, after a funeral service in the chapel of the Royal Infirmary. He was unmarried. Wilfred Willway was a man of courage and initiative, with great intellectual activity, and a good talker on the many subjects which interested him. He could play four games of chess and converse at the same time. Publications: Detection of lactosuria by Castellani-Taylor mycological methods. *J trop Med* 1931, 34, 133. Follow-up of a series of cases of obscure chronic malaria treated at the Ross Institute for Tropical Diseases. *J trop Med* 1933, 36, 42. Treatment of dislocations from the point of view of the general practitioner. *Med Press*, 1933, 187, 566. Treatment of fractures of the neck of the femur. *Med Press*, 1934, 188, 312. Plaster of Paris in treatment of Colles's fracture, simple technique used in 50 consecutive cases, with H Blauvelt. *Lancet*, 1935, 1, 609. Ether convulsions with normal behaviour during subsequent ether anaesthesia. *Brit med J* 1935, 1, 764. Intestinal obstruction by gallstones, with C P G Wakeley. *Brit J Surg* 1935-36, 23, 377-394. *Neurosurgery, in Rose and Carless Manual of surgery*, 15th edition by Wakeley, 1937. Modern views on head injuries. *Malayan med J* 1937, 12, 88. Clinical features and treatment of injuries to brain. *Malayan med J* 1937, 12, 119. Progressive post-operative gangrene of skin; recovery without operation, with C P G Wakeley. *Brit J Surg* 1937-38, 25, 451. The modern treatment of spina bifida. *Med Press*, 1938, 197, 210. Some problems in the diagnosis and treatment of intracranial tumours. *Bristol med-chir J* 1938, 55, 151. A guide-dog for the blind. *Bristol med-chir J* 1938, 55, 235. Head injuries in war-time. *Bristol med-chir J* 1940, 57, 91. Some observations on sending assistance to bombed towns. *Brit med J* 1942, 2, 552. The role of surgery in mental disease, Hunterian lecture RCS 1942. Technique of prefrontal leucotomy. *J ment Sci* 1943, 89, 192.
Resource Identifier RCS: E004799
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Burrows, Harold Jackson (1902 - 1981)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

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/378568378568
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon
Details Harold Jackson Burrows was born at Harrow, Middlesex, on 9 May 1902. His father was Harold Burrows FRCS and his grandfather was a graduate of St Bartholomew's Hospital, who became a Surgeon-Major in the Bombay Army. He was educated at Edinburgh House, Lee-on-Solent and Cheltenham College, where he was a scholar. He then went to King's College, Cambridge, where he was a half-blue for rifle shooting, captained the shooting eight and regularly shot at Bisley. He went to St Bartholomew's Hospital for his clinical training, won the Bentley Prize and qualified in 1927. He was house surgeon to the surgical professorial unit (1927-28) followed by his appointment as third assistant on this unit, working with Professor George Gask, Sir Thomas Dunhill, Mr (later Sir) James Paterson Ross, Mr (later Sir) Geoffrey Keynes. He was awarded a Beaverbrook Research Scholarship by the Royal College of Surgeons (1930-31) and he returned to Cambridge to work on tissue culture, thus increasing his knowledge of pathology as a basis of clinical work. He also spent six months at the Rockefeller Institute, New York, working under Alexis Carrel. Later he continued his research in the physiology department at the Royal College of Surgeons. Jackson Burrows was appointed surgical registrar at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital in 1931 and decided to devote his professional life to orthopaedic surgery. He was inspired by R C Elmslie, the first specialist orthopaedic surgeon at Bart's and one of the great pioneers in this speciality. They had much in common and Jackson Burrows remained a devoted disciple. He was also encouraged and helped by S L Higgs. He was appointed chief assistant in the orthopaedic department at St Bartholomew's Hospital (1931-36) and assistant orthopaedic surgeon (1937-48). When the second world war broke out he moved to Friern Barnet Hospital under the wartime arrangements of the Emergency Medical Service. As a Surgeon-Commander in the RNVR Jackson Burrows spent about two years of his service in Australia, renewing and forming many lasting friendships with antipodean surgeons who held him in high esteem. In 1949 he was greatly pleased to become an active civilian consultant surgeon to the Royal Navy and continued until 1977 in an honorary capacity. After the war he was appointed orthopaedic surgeon to St Bartholomew's Hospital (1948-67) and lecturer in orthopaedics at St Bartholomew's Medical College. He had a long association with the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital as assistant surgeon (1946-48); orthopaedic surgeon (1948-67) and he was Dean, Institute of Orthopaedics, British Postgraduate Medical Federation, University of London, 1946-64 and 1967-70. The latter appointment was a tremendous task which he took up with his usual enthusiasm, creating a department of pathology, a library which he largely furnished as well as providing the nucleus of books of historical orthopaedic interest, and a department of medical photography. In addition to all these responsible posts, he was honorary orthopaedic surgeon to the National Hospital for Diseases of the Nervous System and to Chailey Heritage Craft School and Hospital which was near to his heart. He was consultant advisor in orthopaedics to the Ministry of Health and Chairman, Standing Advisory Committee on Artificial Limbs. He was awarded the Robert Jones Gold Medal in 1937 and he was elected to the executive committee of the British Orthopaedic Association, holding important posts culminating in his election as President in 1966-67. He was President of the Section of Orthopaedics, Royal Society of Medicine and served on the Council from 1964 to 1972. He was Nuffield Visiting Professor at the University of California, San Francisco, in 1963 and in 1964 he was visiting Professor at Los Angeles. In 1964 he was elected a member of the Council of the Royal College of Surgeons and served until 1972. He was a Hunterian Professor in 1932 and received honourable mention for the Jacksonian Prize in 1933. He made a great contribution to the *Journal of bone and joint surgery* as assistant editor, then deputy editor and he was an active chairman of the editorial board from 1961 until 1973. During the whole of this period he was tireless in editing or rewriting other contributors' articles and he made a most valuable contribution to the style in which these articles were written. His own writings were admirable contributions to the literature and his clarity of thought and economy of expression were a constant challenge to contributors, for he had a great concern for the use of English. He became a Fellow of the Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland; the Société Internationale de Chirurgie Orthopèdique; a member of the International Skeletal Society; a corresponding member of the Australian and American Orthopaedic Association and a member of the New Zealand Association. The Institute of Orthopaedics was a major concern of his and he was largely responsible for the funding of the only Chair in Orthopaedics in the University by the then National Fund for Research in Crippling Diseases, first held by his respected colleague, Sir Herbert Seddon, and the rich collection of historical books in orthopaedics. He was a first-rate orthopaedic clinician and surgeon and his patients looked upon him as a comforter and friend as well as a surgeon. There can be few famous surgeons who were so selfless and retiring and he was a gentleman whose kindness, courtesy, humour and work for others is long remembered. He was known as Jack to his family, Jacko or JB to his many friends and colleagues. He never married but was survived by his brother Kenneth and many adoring nieces and nephews when he died on 5 February 1981 aged 78 years.
Resource Identifier RCS: E006385
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Thompson, Henry Reynolds (1908 - 1985)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2015-08-07
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E007000-E007999/E007700-E007799
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/379889379889
Occupation General surgeon
Details Henry Reynolds Thompson was born in Hampstead, London, on 14 February 1908 the son of Harold Theodore Thompson (1878-1935) MD, FRCP, FRCS, physician to the London Hospital (*Lives of the Fellows*, 1930-1951, p.764) and Elinor, née Waller (whose father was a dental surgeon in Alexandria). He was educated at Arnold House Preparatory School in St John's Wood and at Rugby School before entering Christ's College, Cambridge, for pre-clinical studies. After receiving his BA degree in 1929 he undertook his clinical training at the London Hospital, winning the T A M Ross Prize in pathology and clinical medicine and qualifying in 1932. His early appointments were as house surgeon, house physician and resident accoucheur at the London Hospital and he passed the FRCS in 1934. He was then appointed surgical registrar to the London Hospital, working under Sir Henry Souttar, Alan Perry and Russell Howard. In 1939 he was the sole resident surgical officer at St Mark's Hospital where he was influenced especially by the meticulous technique of W B Gabriel and the treatment of fistulas by E T C Milligan. Shortly after the outbreak of war he established a surgical unit under the Emergency Medical Services at Aldersbrook Childrens' Home, Essex, where he undertook much general surgery treating the victims of air raids on London. Later he served with the Royal Army Medical Corps as a surgical specialist with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel initially in North-West Europe with 53rd Field Surgical Unit for which he was mentioned in despatches and later as commanding officer of the surgical division of Indian General Hospitals in Ceylon and Burma. After the war he was made consultant to the Army and in 1947 was appointed surgeon to St Mark's Hospital, London, to the Woodford Jubilee Hospital and the Forest Hospital, Buckhurst Hill. Although he performed major surgery at the last two hospitals, there was no junior staff to support him and he relied on the loyal cooperation of general practitioners and nurses. At St Mark's Hospital he soon acquired a high reputation as a skilled operator with an ability to unravel the most difficult surgical problems. In conjunction with Lloyd-Davies, Naunton Morgan and John Goligher he began to experiment with restorative operations for tumours of the upper rectum and he introduced the technique of applying split skin grafts to hasten the healing of large cavities left after excision of extensive fistulae in ano. Above all he will be remembered by many resident surgical officers for his patience in teaching them the meticulous surgical techniques which he had developed over many years and for the encouragement he gave them to conduct clinical research and to publish papers. He supervised the medical records at St Mark's devoting an entire afternoon each week to ensuring that operation notes were fully recorded and that an accurate follow-up record was maintained. He participated fully in the activities of medical societies in London and internationally. He served twice as President of the Section of Proctology of the Royal Society of Medicine; he was President of the Hunterian Society in 1977 and 1978 and also of the Medical Society of London in 1966. In addition he served as President of Hedrologicum Conlegium, an international society for the study of diseases of the colon and rectum, for 10 years after its foundation in 1963. It always gave him great pleasure to be able to arrange for a banquet at the end of a professional conference to be held in a livery hall or even in Guildhall. His services to international coloproctology were recognised by the award of the Gimbernat Prize and honorary membership of the Catalan Surgical Society in Barcelona in 1974. He joined the livery of both the Barbers' Company and the Society of Apothecarics and had an abiding interest in the traditions of the City of London. He served as Master of the Barbers in 1959 to 1960 and played an important role in rebuilding Barber Surgeons' Hall after its destruction in the war. He gave the Sir Lionel Denny lecture to the Worshipful Company of Barbers on The contribution of the City to medicine and altogether served on the court of the company for 35 years. This long service was recognised by the rare honour of being elected Barber Emeritus and by his wife Doreen being made an honorary freewoman of the company. His interest in medical history is reflected in his memorable Thomas Vicary Lecture delivered at the Royal College of Surgeons on 29 October 1959 during his year as Master of the Barbers entitled Serjeant surgeons to their Majesties. He served as Master of the Society of Apothecaries in 1968 to 1969 when once again his witty after-dinner speeches delivered in a clear resonant voice were greatly enjoyed. He continued to serve on the court until the time of his death and played an important role in the redevelopment of the Society's property adjacent to the Hall. He retired from hospital practice in 1974 but continued with his extensive private practice for a further 10 years. In 1977 while on the premises of the College's Examination Hall in Queen Square he developed sudden severe abdominal and back pain, caused by a ruptured aortic aneurysm which was successfully treated by an emergency operation at the London Hospital later that evening. After retiring he went to live at Southwold, Suffolk, where he was able to enjoy his hobby of golf. He married Doreen Holdstock, a nurse from University College Hospital, on 28 June 1940 and there were three sons of the marriage, David, Rodney, and Andrew. The eldest, David Theodore, is a Fellow of the College and in practice as a consultant radiologist. He died suddenly on 9 December 1985 and the high esteem in which he was held throughout his life is reflected by the large number of professional colleagues, liverymen, nurses, patients, and friends who attended the memorial service held in his honour at St Giles' Church, Cripplegate, on 18 January 1986.
Resource Identifier RCS: E007706
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Lichter, Ivan (1918- 2009)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Richard Bunton
Publication Date 2015-06-12 2018-01-24
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/379647379647
Occupation Thoracic surgeon Specialist in the care of the terminally ill
Details The recent death of Ivan Lichter ONZ has deprived New Zealand medicine of an extraordinary talent. Not only did Ivan have a very successful career as a thoracic surgeon but he went on to become a leading authority and visionary in the care of the terminally ill patient. Ivan was born in South Africa and graduated from the University of Witwatersrand (Johannesburg) in 1940. After spending some time in the South African armed forces, he specialised in thoracic surgery and built up a successful practice. He married Heather Lloyd in 1951 and they had four children: twins David and Jonathan who both practise medicine, Barry a journalist and Shelley who is also practising medicine. South African politics and a strong anti-semitic movement saw Ivan move his family to New Zealand in 1961. He told me that his choice was either to go to some place in Texas or to a place called Dune Din (!) in New Zealand. Thankfully he chose the latter, where he joined John Borrie. Between them they provided the thoracic surgical care for the lower half of the South Island. It was my pleasure to be Ivan’s registrar in the 1970’s as I was starting out in my training. Ivan was a meticulous surgeon. He bought a systematic and very disciplined approach to surgical issues. His pre-operative assessment always started with a thorough history and examination and then a careful review, in strict chronological order, of the radiology and other investigations. A complete picture was established which allowed the optimal planning for treatment. He also had a strong interest in research. He was the first in the world to use oesophageal motility studies in clinical medicine. He had modified a standard nasogastric tube to allow the recording of oesophageal pressures at three levels – five centimetres apart. It was not the most refined of devices and the motility studies became known as the ‘chunder studies’ – I suspect Ivan was unaware of this. His initial papers were not accepted for publication due to the reviewer's lack of understanding of oesophageal physiology. However, he was recognised by those that were to become world leaders in this field and they corresponded with Ivan on a regular basis. Ivan was a pioneer of overnight pH studies – this being done with a rather industrial pH probe which had to remain in the oesophagus overnight. However, the information gathered allowed him to take a rather more scientific approach to hiatus hernia surgery than was possibly the ‘norm’ in the 1970’s. He also took a keen interest in undergraduate education. He was an advocate of clear concise record keeping and he championed the same discipline that he bought to the operating room to this aspect of clinical medicine. The principle of SOAP – S(subjective), O(Objective), A(Assessment) and P (Plan) – was promoted by Ivan and the patients’ notes had pre-printed forms with these headings. He felt that this lead to a logical and more accurate approach to patient care. He participated in College activities and was, for a period of time, an examiner in cardiothoracic surgery. Ivan was fundamentally a shy person. It is also fair to reflect that he did not suffer fools lightly. Outwardly he did not display a great deal of emotion and for this reason Ivan was considered by some to be somewhat ‘cold’ and distant. Although those of us who worked closely with him knew differently, it came as a surprise to his colleagues when Ivan moved into the emotionally demanding field of caring for the terminally ill. He is considered by many to be the founding father of the modern hospice movement in New Zealand. This new direction for Ivan was really an extension of his philosophy that the needs of the patient were a clinician's prime concern. In the 1970’s he was holding multidisciplinary meetings regarding his patients which included all medical and allied health personnel involved in their care. They were held in the Chapel of Wakari Hospital and became known as the ‘prayer’ meetings, but they left a lasting impression on a surgical Trainee – probably more interested in cutting than cuddling at that stage – that what we do as surgeons in the operating room is only a small part of overall patient care, and that the non physical needs of the patient are as important as the physical needs, if not more so. Ivan retired from thoracic surgical practice in 1982. By this time his interest in palliative care was a passion. He had been influenced by Kubler-Ross’s work – particularly by her book “On Death and Dying”. He left Dunedin in 1986 and moved to Wellington to become director of Te Omanga Hospice where he remained until 1993. Ivan was awarded New Zealand’s highest honour, the Order of New Zealand (ONZ), in 1997 in recognition of his contribution to medicine and in particular for his promotion of the principle of holistic patient care. He also published widely in this field. The exodus of talented medical practitioners from South Africa has been of benefit to New Zealand for a number of years, and no more so than when Ivan Lichter decided to make his home here. Ivan’s contribution to New Zealand medicine has been immense. As a skilled thoracic surgeon he helped many patients and as a mentor he instilled sound surgical principles into his trainees. However, I suspect his greatest contribution came at a time when most surgeons would have chosen retirement. Ivan developed an interest that turned into a passion that saw him at the cutting edge of caring for the terminally ill patient. The benefits that have accrued as a result of this are immeasurable.
Resource Identifier RCS: E007464
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Ellis, Brian William (1947 - 2018)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Simon Paterson-Brown
Publication Date 2019-04-03
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E009000-E009999/E009500-E009599
Occupation Urological surgeon
Details Brian Ellis was a consultant surgeon at Ashford Hospital, Middlesex. He was of the old school, where general and urological surgery could still be practised as a consultant, although with the separation of urology from general surgery he subsequently became a urologist. Brian was always ahead of his time, both in his clinical behaviour and academic ideas. He was not only an excellent general and urological surgeon, as could be attested by his patients and colleagues, but also an outstanding teacher of all his many surgical trainees now working around the UK and overseas. Furthermore, he was uniformly kind and fair to everyone in the workplace: supportive, encouraging and thoughtful. As a result, Brian was the kind of surgeon everyone wanted to model themselves on. In the academic arena, Brian cut his teeth in the challenging environment of the academic surgical unit at St Mary’s Hospital, London under the eagle eye of Hugh Dudley. His academic pursuits continued throughout his surgical career, in many cases a decade or more ahead of the current surgical practice. Among these were early computer programming, with the development of a computerised audit programme, which provided coded operation details and discharge summaries; and an understanding of the importance of human factors in surgical performance and personality assessment in surgical training and assessment. Perhaps Brian’s decision to study medicine and his long-term success in medical publishing came from his parents; his father, Frank Albert Ernest Ellis, was a newspaper executive and his mother, Beryl Christine Ellis née Holdsworth, a nurse. His early education was at St Bede’s Preparatory School in Eastbourne and then Harrow. Brian went to St Mary’s Hospital Medical School in Paddington, London in 1965, qualifying in 1970. He did his surgical house jobs with the famous orthopaedic team of John Crawford Adams and George Bonney at St Mary’s, before going to Salisbury for his medical post. After returning to St Mary’s, Harrow Road for a senior house officer post in the accident and emergency department, he started his long and fruitful relationship with Hugh Dudley, initially as a senior house officer in 1974 and then as a research fellow from 1975 to 1976, when he looked into the physiology of sleep and its effect on performance, and the detection of central line sepsis in patients receiving total parenteral nutrition. After completing his research, Brian moved to Ashford Hospital in Middlesex in 1976, then back to St Mary’s in 1977 to work for Geoffrey Glazer and Harold Nixon (at Paddington Green Children’s Hospital), before going to the Queen Elizabeth II Hospital in Welwyn Garden City in 1978 to work for Gordon Cassie. He finally returned to St Mary’s as a senior registrar from 1979 to 1982, working again for Geoffrey Glazer, and on this occasion the two urologists, Michael Snell and Ross Witherow. He finished his senior registrar training on the vascular unit working for Averil Mansfield and John Wolfe. In 1983 Brian returned to Ashford Hospital in Middlesex as a consultant general and urological surgeon. Brian continued his long and fruitful relationship with Hugh Dudley throughout this time and thereafter, continuing the development of his computerised surgical audit system, subsequently developed commercially as ‘Micromed’ and used widely in surgical units throughout the UK. As his surgical registrar in Ashford in 1988, I remember visiting Biggin Hill with Brian to see how the RAF selected and assessed their pilots and discussing with him how some of the principles around human factors and non-technical skills used in aviation might be used in surgery to improve team performance and surgical outcomes – another example of how far ahead Brian’s thinking was in relation to standard surgical processes at the time. It took another 20 years before the importance of non-technical skills in surgical performance were recognised by the surgical community at large. Brian continued his other academic interests in Ashford, developing a diagnostic urological ultrasound training programme for urologists, resulting in him being appointed as a visiting professor at Middlesex University. His long list of publications attested to his lifelong academic interests, and his long-term relationship with Hugh Dudley culminated in him taking over the editorship of *Hamilton Bailey’s emergency surgery* (Oxford, Butterworth-Heinemann) for the 12th edition in 1995 and then co-editing the 13th edition (London, Arnold) in 2000 with myself. In Ashford and St Peter’s Chertsey (they joined in 1999) Brian undertook a large number of clinical and management positions and was their clinical lead in human factors training, organising the winning of the *Hospital Doctor* team of the year award in 1998. Brian was an active member of the British Association of Urological Surgeons, sitting on the council and several of their sub-committees. He was co-editor of the *Journal of Integrated Care* and in 2009 became clinical adviser to the Swinfen Trust – a medical charity which provides email help and support to doctors in developing countries. He became a member of the Travelling Surgical Society of Great Britain and Ireland in 2006. Brian retired from clinical practice in 2012, when he put much time and energy into designing and building, with his wife Loveday, their beautiful house and garden in Tangley, Andover. Brian first met Loveday Pusey when she was the night sister on the professorial surgical wards at St Mary’s Hospital and they married in 1976. They had two children, Rebecca and David, and two grandchildren. Brian undoubtedly enjoyed the good things in life – especially good wine and malt whisky. He was also a very keen and accomplished photographer, even buying a drone to improve his aerial photography of his own and neighbours’ houses! Brian died on 23 December 2018 at the age of 71. All who knew him, either socially or at work, were greatly saddened to hear of his death and will miss his huge capacity for enjoying all the good things in life, his big heart and his overwhelming desire to support, encourage and improve the lives of everyone with whom he came into contact. He was a giant of a man in every way, and as a surgeon and surgical trainer will always be remembered as a true leader, a great clinician and teacher, and a wonderful friend.
Resource Identifier RCS: E009589
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Hooker, Colin Holloway (1930 - 2017)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Jane Burton
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/381569381569
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon
Details Colin Hooker's two passions in life were his profession and his family. With his motto for the way he lived, a quotation from Thomas Huxley, "Try to learn something about everything and everything about something", he participated fully in all life offered. Colin Hooker was born in Pukeroro just outside Cambridge (New Zealand) the son of James Stanley Hooker, a dairy farmer, and Betty Cohen. He was the second youngest of five children - Aubrey, Desmond, Brian, Colin and Yvonne. Commencing at Cambridge Primary School he next attended Cambridge High school where he excelled, topping New Zealand in School Certificate Latin (helped by learning Latin verbs while milking, these having been carefully written out on paper and pasted on the cow bails). In 1945, at the age of 15, he had to leave school to work on the farm, because his oldest brother had been called up for service in the Pacific. When war ended, and with his mother's encouragement, Colin decided that he wanted to attend university, something no other member of the family had achieved. However, having left school early required 18 months study at home by correspondence in English, Latin, maths, chemistry and geography to meet the entry qualification. He commenced medical intermediate at Auckland University in 1948 but, although obtaining high marks, he failed to gain entry to Medical School. However, following a second year he won a place and commenced at Otago Medical School in Dunedin in 1950 completing his MB ChB in 1954. Whilst a house surgeon in Hamilton, Colin met a pretty nurse from Taihape, Valerie Cunningham, and in 1956 they married. Deciding to become an orthopaedic surgeon he and Val sailed for England in 1957, Colin employed as the ship's doctor on the freighter, *Port Phillip*, a voyage marred by a crew member jumping overboard despite Colin's best efforts. Surgical training was obtained at Oswestry, Winchester and the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital in London. In 1959 he was awarded his FRCS. Colin and Val were delighted to be able to adopt their first child, Jane, in 1960. Specific orthopaedic training was obtained during the next three years at the Manchester Royal Infirmary and subsequently Oswestry Hospital. In 1962 Colin was appointed as consultant orthopaedic surgeon at the Waikato Hospital, Hamilton, and the family returned to New Zealand by sea on the maiden voyage of the *Canberra*. With the arrival of Simon that year and Andrew in 1963, the family was completed. Five years following their return to Hamilton Colin and Val purchased an amazing house set in an acre of land on the bank of the Waikato River. With large oak trees, an orchard and a steep bank to the river this was a haven for a growing family. There was also a swimming pool which Colin - "damned if I will pay for water!" - filled each year courtesy of the neighbours and close friends to avoid any such payment. Colin worked at Waikato Hospital for thirty years, retiring in 1992 to continue in medicolegal work, before ceasing all practice in 2009. He had a love for teaching and a particular interest in paediatric orthopaedic surgery. Beneath a sometimes crusty exterior, Colin had a big heart and was very committed to his patients, showing genuine concern for them. During his time at Waikato Hospital the orthopaedic service increased greatly in size and Colin served as Head of Department for ten years from 1978. He was a very capable and conscientious administrator and put a lot of effort into this and the work of the New Zealand Orthopaedic Association. With Ross Nicholson and Alan Alldred he was instrumental in setting up the New Zealand orthopaedic training program. Colin obtained his FRACS in 1969 and subsequently served as a member of the Court of Examiners. He served a term as Chair of the Waikato Hospital Senior Medical Staff. Colin was President of the New Zealand Orthopaedic Association 1984-1985. Colin published a number of widely recognised articles on club foot and received the New Zealand Orthopaedic Association Sir Alexander Gillies Medal in 1978 for his paper on radical soft tissue surgery in club feet. In the mid-1970's, concerned by the prevalence of catastrophic spinal injuries in schoolboy rugby as a consequence of scrum collapses, and with the help of the media, he challenged the New Zealand Rugby Union resulting in rule changes to largely eliminate this source of injury. He enjoyed travel, and with Valerie travelled widely to attend orthopaedic meetings in South America, the Soviet Union, Scandinavia, Australia, UK, South Africa, Canada, and the USA. In 1996, he published a book "The History of Orthopaedics in New Zealand - The First 90 Years". For his services to orthopaedics, Colin was invested as an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2007. Living on a substantial block of land, Colin became an avid vegetable gardener, providing tomatoes to the whole neighbourhood and keeping Val in the kitchen for countless hours bottling, preserving and freezing. Although a keen "boatie", Colin was not so good with the necessary maintenance and this resulted in some family "adventures". A non-swimmer, he usually sat at the helm wearing wide rimmed glasses, orange toweling hat on his head, his bright yellow life jacket, and often clenching a large cigar, Churchill-like, in his mouth. Colin had a love of literature and reading, particularly biographies of eccentric scientists or politicians, and kept a handwritten summary of every book he read. Churchill was a hero - he could recite his speeches with perfect accent and a large portrait adorned the office (and later bedroom) wall. He maintained a keen interest in politics throughout his life. With his friend Dick Clark, an anaesthetist, he owned and developed a plantation forest at Waitomo. Colin was predeceased by Val, who died almost six years ago. He was the loved and respected father of Jane (Office Management), Simon (Marine Biologist) and Andrew (Lawyer), grandad of seven children and great grandfather of five.
Resource Identifier RCS: E009386
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Earlam, Richard John (1934 - 2016)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Tina Craig
Publication Date 2016-08-25 2019-10-28
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/381422381422
Occupation General surgeon
Details Richard John Earlam, who was a consultant general surgeon at the Royal London Hospital, played a crucial role in the introduction of the air ambulance service to London thus contributing to a huge drop in deaths from trauma in the capitol. Born in Liverpool on 26 March 1934 he was the son of Francis Earlam, a general practitioner, and his wife Elsie Noeline née Skippers who was a science teacher. His uncle Laurence was also a GP. Educated at Liverpool College and Uppingham School he went up to Trinity Hall, Cambridge at the age of 18 to study medicine. His tutors at Cambridge, he acknowledged, inspired his enthusiasm for research and he estimated that the 300 hours that he spent there studying embryology were the *basis of future thoughts on an intrauterine volvulus causing aganglionic bowel*. After graduating in 1955 he returned to Liverpool where he was a house surgeon at the Royal Infirmary working with Charles Wells and then spent a year as house physician at the Royal Southern Hospital in 1959. The following year he began his national service in the RAMC doing three months general duty with the Royal Warwickshire Regiment. He was then posted to Hong Kong with the British Military Hospital where he served for 21 months as a junior surgeon. From there he moved to Australia taking a post as a GP in New South Wales in 1962. On his return to the UK in 1963 he worked as an anatomy prosector at the Royal College of Surgeons of England before returning to Liverpool as surgical registrar to the Royal Liverpool Hospitals. While there he was, at various times, influenced by Philip Hawe, James Cosbie Ross, Norman Gibbon and Charles Terence Burgess. His mentors were quick to perceive his enthusiasm for research and it may have been a remark of Hawe’s *Now there is a problem for you to solve, Earlam* that set him off on his studies of disorders of the oesophagus. He moved to the USA in 1966 and became a research assistant at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester working with Charles Code, F Henry Ellis and George Hallenbeck. All three were distinguished figures in the field of gastrointestinal physiology and it was from this experience that Earlam gained his lifelong interest in the subject. While in America he wrote his thesis on the repair of hiatus hernia in dogs and began to study the use of oesophageal manometry. It was this process, used to measure the performance of a valve at the end of the oesophagus, that he was later to introduce at the London Hospital, setting up an oesophageal manometry laboratory and carrying out more than 1000 of such procedures which formed the basis of his work *Clinical tests of oesophageal function* (London, Crosby Lockard Staples, 1976). Before returning to the UK he spent a year researching cardiac surgery in Munich in 1967 at the Universitats Klinik with Rudolf Zenker and Hans Borst on an Alexander von Humboldt scholarship. In 1968 he joined the staff of the London Hospital as a lecturer in surgery and was appointed consultant in 1970. During the 28 years he was to spend at the London he was immensely prolific, writing or co-authoring over 150 papers and several books notably *Trauma care* (Saldatore, 1997) and *ABC of major trauma* (London, BMJ Books, 1991). He also served on many important committees at the hospital and others such as the European Oesophageal Group and the International Society for Digestive Surgery. Undoubtedly his outstanding contribution was the introduction of the London Air Ambulance Service (LAA). During the 1980’s he had been aware of reports issued by the Royal College of Surgeons of England in which it was pointed out that a vast improvement in the treatment of major trauma patients could be achieved if they could access specialist hospital services more speedily. On congested city streets this was often impossible. Aware that the Germans already ran a helicopter emergency medical service and that Cornwall had recently introduced one, Earlam and a colleague, Alastair Wilson lobbied the various bodies involved. Frustratingly they met with opposition on almost every front, from the ambulance service, the coroners, the hospitals and the Department of Health. It was not until 1988 that he managed to persuade Baron Stevens of Ludgate, chairman of Express newspapers, a family friend, to provide funding from the group for an air ambulance and crew for six years. Kenneth Clarke, then minister for health, refused to fund the helipad but Earlam went straight to the Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher and she backed the scheme. Fortunately the London Hospital was both a multidisciplinary centre and had the facility to build a rooftop helipad. From the time that the service started in 1989 there was a marked improvement in mortality and Alastair Wilson noted that whereas in 1989/99 there were 340 deaths from serious injuries in London there had been 1300 ten years earlier. Today the service covers the whole of the area enclosed by the M25 with a population of eleven million and has played a vital role in many recent incidents such as serious train crashes and terrorist attacks. During the bombings in 2005, for example, the LAA carried out 25 missions and 208 people were treated at the Royal London. In 1998 he retired and was able to enjoy his various enthusiasms which ranged from carpentry, beekeeping, stamp collecting and tennis to walking in the mountains of Bavaria and Switzerland with his family and sailing his beloved Dragon boat. He married Roswitha Teuber in 1969, having met her at a cocktail party when he was working in Munich. When he died on 23 July 2016, aged 82, she survived him along with their two daughters and four grandchildren.
Resource Identifier RCS: E009239
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Jansz, Aubrey William (1926 - 2011)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Ken Brearley
Publication Date 2012-03-29 2016-11-17
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E002000-E002999/E002100-E002199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/374288374288
Occupation General practitioner General surgeon
Details Aubrey Jansz, the youngest of three children, was born in Sri Lanka; his father was a bookstore manager and his mother a nurse. He initially attended Royal College, completing his secondary schooling at Alexandra College from where he won the prestigious Rustomjee Jamshediji Jeejeeboy Scholarship to study Medicine at Colombo University, graduating in 1948. Having completed Internship in Sri Lanka, Aubrey was then appointed Lecturer in Physiology at the University of Colombo and it was here that he was stimulated and encouraged to pursue surgery. Having obtained his First Part FRCS, he then travelled to UK to study and sit the Second Part FRCS, working at The Seaman's Hospital, Croydon General and Great Ormond Street Hospitals. His son, Martin, took Aubrey to visit The Seaman's Hospital in Greenwich some years ago, as he had a great fondness for it. Evidently he had been able to see the 'Cutty Sark' from his window and, more importantly, it was here that he learned so much from surgical mentors of many nationalities that he was able to be a 'good surgeon'. From earliest childhood, Aubrey had indicated that he wanted to help people and be challenged; hence his becoming a doctor and subsequently a surgeon was no surprise. In 1962, Aubrey, his wife Patricia and daughter Andrea migrated to Melbourne. Aubrey's first position in Melbourne was at the Prince Henry's Hospital where he took up a post as an Honorary Clinical Assistant Surgeon to the Outpatient's Department. This position kept him in touch with clinical surgery, but there were no operating rights as was the practice of that era. It was here that he met Ken Brearley (FRACS), the Acting Honorary Surgeon to Outpatients. At about the same time in 1963, Aubrey joined three other doctors in a practice in Melville Road, Pascoe Vale South; it was fairly common then for surgeons to work as 'GP-surgeons' in a general practice. In 1964 Aubrey was lured 'across the Yarra' by Ken, to take up a position at Preston and Northcote Community Hospital (PANCH) where the outpatient numbers there were building rapidly and Aubrey was appointed as a Clinical Assistant Surgeon to Ken's Unit. In those days the work was honorary, but after some years payment was introduced, courtesy of the Whitlam Government. And so it was that Aubrey commenced his long and rewarding career in the northern suburbs of Melbourne. Initially, whilst still at the Melville Road GP practice, Aubrey was operating at Sacred Heart, Vaucluse and PANCH hospitals, but soon after commencing at PANCH, he was appointed as an Assistant Surgeon in Ken's Unit which gave him operating rights and responsibilities. By 1975, his surgical practice was secure and he ceased GP work, however the legacy of his time in general practice lived on. In 1986, following the untimely passing of John Fethers, Aubrey was appointed Head of the Surgical 3 Unit where he became interested in Upper GI endoscopy and evidently introduced the first gastroscope to PANCH. His surgery was of a high standard and the care of his patients was exemplary. Aubrey possessed a quiet, pleasant and respectful personality which rendered him most popular with staff, colleagues and patients, added to which he also had a well-developed sense of humour. Ken remembers being told by Aubrey that he had once operated on a patient, a young girl with peritonitis from a ruptured appendix. On receiving the account, probably in the order of $200 in those days, the girl's father told him the fee was too high and refused to pay. Aubrey then suggested he should pay whatever he felt his daughter's life was worth; he duly received a cheque for $50! Inquisitiveness was perhaps something Aubrey inherited from his bookstore manager father. He delighted in books and found nothing more pleasant than spending half a day browsing around small bookshops in and around Melbourne, from where he would emerge with one or two extraordinary volumes. He later became PANCH Medical Librarian, a position he greatly enjoyed. Palliative Care and philosophical matters of life and death were things that had always interested Aubrey, and he was greatly impressed and influenced by the inspirational Helen Kübler-Ross who had given a number of lectures in Melbourne. His inquiring mind and reading on a broad range of subjects resulted in Aubrey challenging, in all manner of ways, colleagues, students and family alike, urging them to solve puzzles and to question statements made by others. This made him a great teacher for most of his life, combining common sense, humility and whimsy. In a way, the lessons were more about life and surgical attitudes than strict clinical material. Not surprisingly, Aubrey was held in high regard by all students attached to his Unit, as well as at St Vincent's Hospital Clinical School where he continued to take 'Lumps and Bumps' sessions for a good many years after he retired from PANCH and active surgery in 1992. One of the important hints he passed on was that: 'It is important to buy two copies of any special book, so that when a volume is lent to a colleague, you are thus assured of retaining a copy when this 'lent' book inevitably fails to return!' Another special attribute was the care and attention, surgical and emotional, that he gave to his patients at all times, both in the Public and Private sectors. Years after retiring, Aubrey's patients continue to ask after his health and comment on his interest in them as people, rather than them being 'just another case.' What greater legacy could one have? On one occasion Aubrey challenged his colleagues by enquiring: 'How many of you have had occasion to visit your patient in their home?' - his reason being - that to visit someone in their home really grounds the relationship and gives all kinds of insight into their lives. Aubrey Jansz made a wonderful contribution to the surgical care of the northern suburbs of Melbourne and to the much broader education of his colleagues and medical students at PANCH. He was much loved, respected and is fondly remembered by all as a gentle, compassionate and giving man. Moreover, he was a devoted family man who would frequently tell us of the progress of his children, Andrea and Martin, who certainly lived up to all the expectations held by Aubrey and his loving wife of 56 years - Patricia.
Resource Identifier RCS: E002105
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Thorburn, Sir William (1861 - 1923)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2012-12-20 2017-05-22
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E003000-E003999/E003200-E003299
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/375450375450
Occupation General surgeon Neurosurgeon
Details Born in Manchester on April 7th, 1861, the son of John Thorburn, Professor of Obstetric Medicine at Owens College, Manchester, and Physician to the Manchester Royal Infirmary. He was educated at Owens College, and received his professional training at the Infirmary and in London, where his passage through the examinations of London University was brilliant. In 1884, on passing the BS, he obtained the gold medal in surgery, and on passing the MB he obtained the scholarship and gold medal for medicine and obstetric medicine. After admission as FRCS in 1886, he brought out the posthumous *Treatise on the Diseases of Women*, which his father, then recently dead, had already begun to pass through the press. In 1883 he became House Surgeon to James Hardie (qv) at the Manchester Royal Infirmary, and so stimulated that rather retiring surgeon that his classes at once became famous. On obtaining the Surgical Registrarship at the Infirmary he came under the influence of Dr James Ross, who inspired him to investigate the distribution of the spinal sensory roots. His first articles, dealing with the cervical roots, were published in *Brain* in January, 1887, and October, 1888. Subsequently, in the *Medical Chronicle* of April, 1889, he dealt with the lumbosacral roots and first described the anaesthetic 'saddle-shaped' area on the buttocks and thighs caused by lesions of the lowest part of the spinal cord and its roots. In June, 1889, a tumour of the cauda equina was investigated by him, confirming his previous views. Subsequently, as years went by and clinical opportunities arose (for he never did animal experiments), he was able to map out the whole body in the sensory areas proper to each sensory root. Although slight correcting modifications in these areas have been made by others, yet Thorburn's work on this all-important part of neurology was not only pioneer work, but was a complete work. Thorburn had already ventured a prediction which his own investigations and successful operations did much to verify - namely that, acting under strict antiseptic precautions and aided by modern knowledge, surgeons would probably, in the near future, open the spinal cord with as little danger and as little hesitation as they operated upon the cavity of the cranium. All of which has come to pass, but under the proviso laid down by Thorburn that the accuracy of diagnostic methods must be increased. Thorburn also early investigated the nervous symptoms following accidents of various kinds - what was called 'traumatic hysteria', especially in relation to railway accidents, and in which no organic changes had been produced or were observable. The terms 'railway spine' and 'concussed spine' were then common, but are now assessed at their true clinical value (*see* PAGE, HERBERT WILLIAM). These early observations led directly to his great life work, and resulted in his reaching one of the highest positions as a sagacious, reliable, and successful surgeon, and he became well known as an authoritative referee in railway cases. He won the Jacksonian Prize in 1890 with his essay on "The Nature and Treatment of Injuries of the Spinal Column and the Consequences arising there from". In 1894, as Hunterian Professor of Surgery and Pathology, he delivered a masterly course of lectures at the College entitled, "The Surgery of the Spinal Cord and its Appendages". In December, 1922, as Bradshaw Lecturer, he summed up his operative experience during thirty years and the modifications in his views thereby entailed. After serving as House Surgeon in the Manchester Royal Infirmary, Thorburn filled various offices, and in 1889 was elected Assistant Surgeon, and succeeded Walter Whitehead (qv) as Surgeon in 1900. He retired in 1921 and became Consulting Surgeon. In the University of Manchester he was Professor of Clinical Surgery (Emeritus at the time of his death), and in the Council and Senate a trusted adviser. At the Royal College of Surgeons his career was distinguished. He was a Member of Council from 1914-1923, and a Member of the Court of Examiners from 1913-1923. He was at one time Examiner in Surgery at the University of London. As President of the Manchester Medical Society he brought the Library of that body and the Medical Library of the Manchester University into closer touch. As a Member of the British Medical Association he was Vice-President of the Section of Surgery at the Manchester Meeting of 1902, and at the Cambridge Meeting of 1920 he opened the discussion on the end-results of injuries to the peripheral nerves treated by operation. On the outbreak of the Great War he was placed in charge of the Surgical Division at the 2nd Western General Hospital. In 1915 he went out as Consulting Surgeon to the Expeditionary Force in the Mediterranean, and saw service in Malta, Gallipoli, and Salonika. At a later date he was Consulting Surgeon to the Forces at Le Treport, in the Rouen area, and proved a source of strength to the officers about him. For these services he was decorated in 1919 a Knight Commander of the Military Division of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire. In 1890 he married Miss Augusta Melland of Manchester (d1922), by whom he had three sons and three daughters. All his sons were killed in the Great War, the last in Gallipoli in 1915. Thorburn died at his London address, York Gate, Regent's Park, on March 18th, 1923, and was survived by three daughters. He was a precise thinker and speaker who would probably have done equally well had he chosen the Bar as his profession. He possessed the faculty of summing up the points of a difficult subject and could crystallize the ideas expressed in a debate in a few well-chosen and clear words. Publications: *A Contribution to the Surgery of the Spinal Cord*, 8vo, illustrated, and a bibliography, London, 1889; American edition, 1889. "The Nature and Treatment of Injuries to the Spinal Column, and the Consequences arising therefrom" (Jacksonian Prize Essay, 1890), MS, 4to, plates, 1890. *Course of Instruction in Operative Surgery in the University of Manchester*, 12mo, Manchester, 1906. *The Evolution of Surgery*, 8vo, Manchester, 1910. "Operations upon the Spinal Cord" in Burghard's *System of Operative Surgery*, iii. "On Injuries of the Cauda Equina." - *Brain*, 1887-8, x, 381. "Spinal Localizations as illustrated by Spinal Injuries." - *Ibid*, 1888-9, xi, 289. "Hypertrophic Pulmonary Osteo-arthropathy." - *Brit Med Jour*, 1893, i, 1155. "Symptoms due to Cervical Ribs." - *Med Chronicle*, 1907-8, xiv, 165. "The Sensory Distribution of Spinal Nerves." - *Brain*, 1893, xvi, 355. "Cases of Injury to the Cervical Region of the Spinal Cord." - *Ibid*, 1886-7, ix, 510.
Resource Identifier RCS: E003267
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Molloy, Patrick John (1928 - 2020)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Allan Panting
Publication Date 2021-05-05 2021-12-09
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/384578384578
Occupation Cardiothoracic surgeon
Details Having obtained cardiothoracic training in London, and considerable experience working amid the Northern Ireland Conflict, Patrick Molloy returned to New Zealand in 1973 to develop and lead the South Island’s first cardiac surgery unit in Dunedin. With the appointment by the University of Otago to a chair of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Prof Molloy was an early provider of paediatric cardiac surgery in New Zealand. He is fondly remembered for his empathy and gentlemanly demeanor towards staff and patients. Patrick (widely known as Pat) Molloy was born in Auckland to James Reuben Molloy, solicitor, and Kathleen Frances (nee Worthington), a nurse. Pat and his only sibling, Joe were identical twins. Growing up in Ellerslie in Auckland they were among the first students at St Peter’s College where Pat was a good rugby player. He completed a BSc at Auckland University and then gained entry to Otago Medical School in 1948. In Dunedin he became a keen and proficient rower representing Otago University. He completed his MB ChB in 1953. Pat spent his house surgeon years in Auckland hospitals including Green Lane Hospital where he worked with Douglas Robb and this proved to be a significant influence on his subsequent career. During this time, he met Julia Waldron, a nurse from St Bathans in Central Otago, and they married in 1954. He worked as a GP in Hamilton for two years to fund his family’s travel to the United Kingdom. In 1958, with Julia and their four children, Prudence, Brigid, Adrienne and Katherine-Mary, he set off for London to pursue a career in cardiac surgery, becoming FRCSEng in 1960. At Guy’s Hospital in London in 1960-1964 he worked alongside ground-breaking surgeons Sir Russell Brock and Donald Ross, the latter completing the UK’s first heart transplant in 1968. In 1964 Patrick was appointed to a cardiothoracic surgery consultancy at Broadgreen Hospital in Liverpool. In 1968, Pat and Julia, now with a family of nine children, with the addition of Alison, Felicity, Ruth, Veronica and Charlotte, moved to Belfast, Northern Ireland, when Pat was appointed to lead the formation of a new cardiothoracic surgical unit at the Royal Victoria Hospital. This was during the period of conflict known as “the Troubles” and the older children recall numerous occasions when their father was called out in the middle of the night to help a victim of a shooting. In this emergency work he developed a technique, which is still widely used in conflict zones, for treating chest wounds resulting from the large rubber bullets used by the army. In 1970 Prof Molloy was invited to assess the needs for cardiac surgery in New Zealand. His report predicted growth in this rapidly developing field and recommended a surgical unit be set up in Dunedin. The Dunedin unit, with close connections to the University of Otago Medical School, was established in 1973, and Pat and his family, with the addition of James, Hannah being born three years later, returned from Northern Ireland so he could take up the lead role. Becoming FRACS in 1975, he devoted his skill and energy to the establishment and direction of the cardiac unit in Dunedin. He was, however, worried, about the subsequent implications of a proposal for a further cardiac surgery unit in Christchurch and told a 1977 national review that slashing Dunedin’s workload would be “disastrous”. A significant reduction in cases risked turning the Dunedin unit into a “completely inefficient nonentity”. The second cardiothoracic surgery unit in the South Island was opened in Christchurch in 1997. Pat Molloy was a man of great intelligence with an extensive knowledge of anatomy and physiology. He developed a very loyal and effective team and was held in high regard by those who worked closely with him. He had excellent relationships with his cardiology colleagues and an easy relaxed manner with his patients with whom he exchanged information in words they readily understood. He was held in very high regard by those who came under his care. Dependable in times of difficulty with a dry wit, he was a careful, skilled and compassionate surgeon, who showed empathy to all. He was a committed and engaging teacher, not only to attached surgical registrars, but also to cardiac and medical registrars he came into contact with during consultations. Pat was a member of the British Cardiac Society and the British Thoracic Society serving on its Executive Committee 1969-73. He was a regular participant in Cardiac Society of Australia and New Zealand activities and served on the Executive 1979-86. He was a member of the RACS Cardiothoracic Surgery Board and served as an examiner in Cardiothoracic Surgery. With the aid of a generous benefactor, Pat was instrumental in setting up and subsequently chairing the Dunedin Heart Unit Trust, assisting with local research, and educational grants. He was also a trustee of the Drug and Rehabilitation Trust. Pat retired from surgery in 1993 and became an emeritus professor the next year. His last role at the Otago Medical School was curator of the surgical museum. A skier, tennis player and rower in his early years he was keen golfer for much of his life, playing at least weekly at the Balmacewen course throughout his professional career. Golfing friends later became bridge buddies, although Pat was not renowned for his skill in this pursuit! He had an interest in geology and his children recall happy holidays scrambling over rocks to find fish fossils high in the Welsh mountains and pieces of quartz in the coldest of Central Otago rivers. For many years he was involved in the resettlement in New Zealand of Cambodian and Vietnamese refugees. The Molloys were married for 63 years, Julia Molloy dying in 2017. As well as caring for their 11 children, in the late 1970s they absorbed into their family a young woman, Kirsty McMillan, who lived next door, and in the early 80s a Cambodian refugee, Phirum Keo, who would later become deputy leader of the Opposition in Cambodia. Aged 91 years and requiring increased daily support, Patrick moved into care at the Little Sisters of the Poor in Brockville, where he was well cared for. The family remember him as an ever-present dad and granddad who listened with an open mind and was available in his quiet way through difficult and good times. Patrick Molloy is survived by his children, Prudence, Brigid, Adrienne, Katherine-Mary, Alison, Felicity, Ruth; Veronica, Charlotte, James, and Hannah, Phirum Keo and Kirsty MacMillan, 37 grandchildren and 36 great-grandchildren.
Resource Identifier RCS: E009965
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Yacoub, Ahmed Abdel Aziz (1931 - 2013)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by T A Elhadd
Publication Date 2013-07-24 2013-11-06
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/376464376464
Occupation Cardiothoracic surgeon
Details Ahmed Abdel Aziz Yacoub, widely known as Ahmed Abdel Aziz, was a pioneering Sudanese cardiothoracic surgeon. A charismatic leader and gifted teacher, he was a staunch advocate of training in surgery in the Sudan. He was born in Gubbat Salim, Abri, in northern Sudan on 12 January 1931. His father was a civil servant who was employed in the customs department. Ahmed was the second eldest son from a family of three brothers and one sister. He received his primary education at Port Sudan, Sudan's second city, and in 1946 he was part of the first cohort of pupils to be enrolled at Wadi Saynda Secondary School, one of the first schools established by the British in the 1940s based on the Eton and Harrow model. In 1950, Ahmed was accepted into the Kitchener School of Medicine (it became the University College Khartoum in December 1953), obtaining the college prize in his first year. He had a very distinguished undergraduate career, obtaining several prizes, including Jackson's prize in pathology, the Waterfield prize in public health, and the Archibald prize in community medicine. He graduated with a distinction and a prize in surgery in April 1956 (by then the University College Khartoum was renamed the faculty of medicine, Khartoum University). As a student and surgical trainee, Ahmed Abdel Aziz was mentored by B Hickey, the first professor of surgery at Khartoum and, following his graduation, he was trained at Khartoum by William MacGowan, senior lecturer to the faculty of medicine and senior surgeon to the health services. Later on, the two became close friends. William MacGowan was the first to perform a cardiac catheterisation at Khartoum Hospital in 1957, and the first to have performed cardiothoracic surgery there. It was probably MacGowan who encouraged Ahmed's love of cardiothoracic surgery, which was by then an evolving specialty. Julian Taylor, who succeeded Hickey at Khartoum, was very passionate about the training of young Sudanese surgeons, an enterprise Ahmed would eventually successfully take on. Through the guidance and encouragement of his mentor Julian Taylor, Ahmed was posted to the UK, where his surgical career blossomed. In January 1960 he was appointed as a surgical registrar and lecturer in the department of surgery at University College Hospital, London. He obtained his FRCS from the Edinburgh College in January 1961, and from the English College in May of the same year. His early success in obtaining these fellowships paved the way for many other young Sudanese doctors to follow suit. Ahmed returned to Khartoum in January 1962 and spent one year at Khartoum Hospital. He then returned to the UK, where he trained in cardiothoracic surgery in Birmingham with the most distinguished professor of cardiothoracic surgery of that era, Alphonso Liguori d'Abreu. Ahmed then spent the following year with Andrew Logan at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh. During this later spell he decided to sit the membership examination (cardiology) of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, the first Sudanese doctor to combine surgical and medical postgraduate qualifications in this way. On returning to Khartoum in 1965, Ahmed was appointed chief surgeon at the cardiothoracic section at Khartoum, and he retained this post until 1983. Ahmed's quest for excellence in cardiothoracic surgery took him to yet another guru: in 1965 he crossed the Atlantic to visit Michael DeBakey (and also Denton Cooley) at Houston, Texas. In 1974 Ahmed obtained an MSc in surgery from his old university at Khartoum, and in 1972 he was elected a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. In 1976 he was awarded the fellowship of the American College of Surgeons. In that same year, Ahmed Abdel Aziz began to set the platform for open heart surgery in Khartoum. He first performed around 40 operations on animals jointly with Christopher Lincoln (of the Royal Brompton Hospital) and Salal Umbabi (of the faculty of veterinary medicine at Khartoum University). From 1979 through to 1981, open heart surgery operations were carried out on human patients with input from Sir Magdi Yacoub and Donald Ross. Over 20 operations were performed without a single mortality. From the 1970s, Ahmed Abdel Aziz encouraged and supported the training of scores of young Sudanese surgeons in Europe and beyond, an enterprise he executed with zeal and perfection. He used his extensive network of previous colleagues, mentors and friends to obtain paid training posts, in UK and Ireland in particular. His earlier links with Bill MacGowan proved to be the backbone of this enterprise. And it was not just doctors who were trained: nurses and technicians were also needed in various surgical subspecialties. Many of these doctors and other medical staff are now scattered in every area of Sudan, and also in the Middle East region and beyond. Ahmed's indefatigable energy and passion was not confined to medicine. He was an excellent administrator. He took responsibility for running the hospital where he trained and he excelled. Khartoum Teaching Hospital in the 1970s became an expanding empire, with almost every specialty represented and, from 1976 to 1983, he was its director. His tenure witnessed one of the best periods for service and education in the country. From 1989 to 1995 he was president of the Sudan Medical Council. He also served his country as minister of sport and, in 1984, he was summoned by Colonel Numeri to help rejuvenate the Army medical corps. Ahmed took up the challenge and his efforts transformed the service. He was also interested in the law. At the peak of his surgical career he joined the two faculties of law in Khartoum. First, he enrolled at the University of Cairo, Khartoum campus, where he obtained a licentiate in law in 1986. In 1995 he went on to enrol at the faculty of law, Khartoum University, and obtain a diploma in Sharia law. In the following year he gained an MSc in law from the same faculty. He then registered at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, where he was awarded a doctorate in July 2000 for a thesis on 'Responses in Islamic jurisprudence to developments in medical sciences'. The thesis was soon published as a book, *The fiqh of medicine* (London, Ta-Ha, 2001), and was later translated into Arabic. Ahmed kept up his work in education and training past retirement age. He joined the newly established faculty of medicine at the Islamic University, Omdurman, where he founded the academic department of surgery. He was awarded a personal chair there. He maintained this post until shortly before his death. Ahmed Abdel Aziz' last years were hampered by the frustrations of Parkinson's disease. Despite the progressive nature of this terrible and disabling condition, he retained his spirit and his mental strength. He died on 26 April 2013 during a visit to London, following a short illness with many complications. He was 82. He was survived by his wife Sayida Al-Dardiry Mohamed Ahmed Nugud, an eminent obstetrician, whom he married in 1960, two daughters and a son. His eldest daughter, Sarah, trained as an ophthalmologist. His son, Khalid, is a surgeon and is on the staff of the faculty of medicine at Khartoum University. His youngest daughter, Azza, has a PhD in socio-medical anthropology at London University. Ahmed Abdel Aziz will leave a long-lasting legacy.
Resource Identifier RCS: E004281
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Green, Joseph Henry (1791 - 1863)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-08-10 2012-07-19
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000000-E000099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372205372205
Occupation Anatomist General surgeon
Details Born at 11 London Wall on Nov. 1st, 1791, the only child of Joseph Green, a wealthy London merchant, head of the firm of Green & Ross, of Martin Lane, Cannon Street, E.C., and afterwards of London Wall, his mother being Frances, sister to Henry Cline, Surgeon to St. Thomas's Hospital. A delicate boy, he was educated at Ramsgate and at Hammersmith until, at the age of 15, he accompanied his mother to Germany, where he spent three years, partly in Berlin and partly in Hanover. He was apprenticed to his uncle, Henry Cline, in 1809; and on May 25th, 1813 - the rule against the marriage of apprentices having just been rescinded - he married Anne Elizabeth Hammond, daughter of a surgeon at Southgate and the sister of one of Cline's dressers. Mrs. Green outlived her husband, but there were no children. For the next two years he lived at 6 Martin Lane, E.C., where his father was in business, and during this time he acted as Cline's anatomical prosector and gave a regular course of demonstrations on practical anatomy. He began to practise in 1816, first at 22 and afterwards at 46 Lincoln's Inn Fields, then the fashionable neighbourhood for surgeons. In the same year he was formally appointed Demonstrator of Anatomy at St. Thomas's Hospital, and in this position was called upon to perform many of the duties which now devolve upon a Resident Medical Officer. The summer of 1817 was spent with his wife in Germany reading philosophy with Professor Solger at Berlin. He was elected Lecturer on Anatomy and Physiology jointly with Astley Cooper in 1818, and on June 14th, 1820, he was chosen Surgeon to St. Thomas's Hospital in the place of his cousin, Henry Cline the younger, who had died of phthisis at the age of 39. Shortly after his appointment as Surgeon he undertook the Lectureship on Surgery and Pathology in the United Schools of St. Thomas's and Guy's Hospitals, again conjointly with Astley Cooper. From 1824-1828 Green gave a series of lectures on comparative anatomy as Hunterian Professor at the College of Surgeons, in which he dealt for the first time in England with the whole of the animal sub-kingdoms. Richard Owen wrote of these lectures that they "combined the totality with the unity of the higher philosophy of the science illustrated by such a series of enlarged and coloured diagrams as had never before been seen. The vast array of facts was linked by references to the underlying unity, as it had been advocated by Oken and Carus." In 1825 he was elected F.R.S., and in the same year he was appointed Professor of Anatomy at the Royal Academy, a position he held until 1852. In the same year, too, came the unfortunate episode which led to the separation of the United Borough Hospitals. Sir Astley Cooper on his retirement wished to assign his share of the lectureship he then held to his nephews, Aston C. Key (q.v.) and Bransby Cooper (q.v.). Green, who had paid £1000 for his own half-share, agreed, but the hospital authorities declined to sanction the arrangement. Sir Astley Cooper thereupon began to lecture at Guy's on his own account, and a quarrel ensued. Green, true to his principles, behaved as a gentleman, protested, left the way open for reconciliation, and finally accepted an apology from Cooper. When King's College was founded in 1830 Green was nominated Professor of Surgery and held the post until 1836. He continued in office as Surgeon to St. Thomas's Hospital, resigning in 1853. He was co-opted to the Council of the College of Surgeons in 1835 to fill the place of William Lynn, Surgeon to the Westminster Hospital, and became a Member of the Court of Examiners in 1840 in the place of Sir Benjamin Brodie - both appointments being made for life. He was elected President in 1849 and again in 1858, having given the Hunterian Oration in 1840 and 1847. He succeeded Sir Benjamin Brodie as President of the General Medical Council in 1860. There is no means of knowing when or how Green became acquainted with S. T. Coleridge, the poet metaphysician, but they were on terms of intimacy as early as 1817, and from 1824 Green contrived to spend many hours every week with him at the Gillmans' house. Coleridge died in 1834, and Green made the post-mortem examination. He was left literary executor and trustee for the children, and spent the rest of his life in carrying out the duties thus imposed upon him. Green's father died in 1834, and left him so considerable a fortune that he retired to Hadley, near Barnet, keeping only a consulting-room in London. At Hadley he wrestled for thirty years with Coleridge's philosophy, teaching himself Greek, Hebrew, and Sanscrit in the process. He published as a result of his labours *The Literary Remains, The Confessions of an Inquiring Spirit* (1849), *Religio Laici*, and prepared two volumes of *Spiritual Philosophy*, an endeavour to systematize the teaching of Coleridge. They appeared posthumously in 1865 under the editorship of Sir John Simon (q.v.), his apprentice and friend. Coleridge's influence appears markedly in Green's two Hunterian Orations. The first deals with "Vital Dynamics", the second with "Mental Dynamics or Groundwork of a Professional Education". In "Vital Dynamics" Green discusses the mental faculties and processes concerned in scientific discovery, and especially insists upon the importance of pure reason as the light by which nature is to be understood. He continues the same line of argument in "Mental Dynamics", and in both eulogizes John Hunter. Green died at The Mount, Hadley, on Dec. 13th, 1863, and was buried at Highgate. Sir John Simon gives a wonderful account of his death in the following words: - "I would show that not even the last sudden agony of death ruffled his serenity of mind, or rendered him unthoughtful of others. No terrors, no selfish regrets, no reproachful memories, were there. The few tender parting words which he had yet to speak, he spoke. And to the servants who had gathered grieving round him, he said, 'While I have breath, let me thank you all for your kindness and attention to me'. Next, to his doctor, who quickly entered - his neighbour and old pupil, Mr. Carter - he significantly, and pointing to the region of his heart, said - 'congestion'. After which, he in silence set his finger to his wrist, and visibly noted to himself the successive feeble pulses which were but just between him and death. Presently he said - 'stopped'. And this was the very end. It was as if even to die were an act of his own grand self-government. For at once, with the warning word still scarce beyond his lips, suddenly the stately head drooped aside, passive and defunct for ever. And then, to the loving eyes that watched him, 'his face was again all young and beautiful'. The bodily heart, it is true, had become more pulseless clay; broken was the pitcher at the fountain, broken at the cistern the wheel; but, for yet a moment amid the nightfall, the pure spiritual life could be discerned, moulding for the last time into conformity with itself the features which thenceforth were for the tomb." Green's reputation as a surgeon stood very high, especially in lithotomy, in which he always used the gorget of his uncle, Henry Cline. In appearance he was tall with a languid air, but he impressed his patients by his polished and benignant manners. There is a bust by H. Weekes, R.A., in the College, and an oil-painting hangs in the Grand Committee Room at St. Thomas's Hospital. Of this portrait it was said by a critic when it was exhibited at the Royal Academy: "There is no face in the whole collection, whether in manly beauty or in its expression of intellectual superiority, to be compared with the portrait of Joseph Henry Green, although there be statesmen, great soldiers, and philosophers around." Emerson was introduced to Green by the late Dr. Garth Wilkinson, and remarked on his typical 'surgeon's mouth', with its close-shut lips and air of restraint and firmness. The bust illustrates both these observations.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000018
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Taylor, Julian (1889 - 1961)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2014-06-09
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E005000-E005999/E005400-E005499
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/377595377595
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born on 26 January 1889 son of Edward Ingram Taylor and Margaret Boole, he was educated at University College School, University College and University College Hospital, where he qualified in November 1911 with the Conjoint Diploma, following this up with the qualifying degrees of London University in which he obtained honours in medicine in 1912. He served in a succession of resident appointments at University College Hospital, becoming a true disciple of Wilfred Trotter. At the outbreak of war in 1914 Lance-Corporal Taylor of the Medical contingent University of London Officers Training Corps was commissioned as Lieutenant RAMC serving initially with 85th Field Ambulance in France and later in Salonika as officer in charge of the surgical division of the 52nd and 43rd General Hospitals, for which service he was awarded the OBE in 1919. After the war, returning to University College Hospital, he worked for a time in the newly created surgical unit but was soon appointed to the consultant staff and, in addition, joined the staff of the National Hospital, Queen Square. He was also attached to Harrow Hospital, to King Edward VII Hospital for Officers and to the Florence Nightingale Hospital. For a short period he was surgeon to the Queen's Hospital for Children. He quickly became recognised as a superb teacher of surgery as well as a highly competent surgeon, prepared in the Trotter tradition to cover a wide field of surgery. When war again broke out in 1939 he volunteered to return to the RAMC although over the age of 50, and in 1941 was posted as surgical consultant to the Malaya command with the rank of Colonel. Shortly after his arrival Malaya and Singapore were overwhelmed by the Japanese and he was taken prisoner. After an interval an order was issued that all senior officers were to be transferred to camps in Formosa but, following universal request and pressure, Julian Taylor was permitted to remain in Changi Prison with the others, where for the next three and a half years he carried out remarkable work, not only in the field of surgery working with negligible facilities but, even more, in the field of morale by his inspiration to men much younger than himself. With his wide range of knowledge and experience he could lecture on English history, French history, the City of London, the tides round the English Coasts and the sailing of small boats, thus relieving the tedium and hopelessness of the situation. In the field of surgery he approached all problems from simple first truths and was perfectly capable of tackling anything from the top of the head to the soles of the feet. One great problem was the rehabilitation of those who had lost a lower limb and needed an adequate prosthesis. With the help of a sapper officer, Captain Bradley, he designed and constructed artificial limbs which, although heavy being made of local wood, served their wearers well and which incorporated efficient artificial knee joints. Another surgical triumph was the successful operative treatment of chronic peptic ulcer under appalling conditions - an emaciated patient, no X-rays, chloroform anaesthesia, thread the only suture material and little milk for the postoperative period. The finest testimony to his work is the chapter on surgery in Changi prison camp which he contributed to the official history of surgery in the second world war. For his work he was awarded the CBE. Returning to London he appeared uninterested in once more building up a larger consulting practice, partly because he returned to find his wife stricken with a mortal and lingering illness during which he did much to nurse her himself. He threw himself into his work at University College and at the College, where he was elected a member of Council in 1946 and a member of the Court of Examiners in 1952. As a member of the committee of management of the Conjoint Board of the two Royal Colleges, he acted as their visitor to the Faculty of Medicine of University College Khartoum in December 1953. In 1954 at the age of 65 he retired from his hospital, but in October 1955, while Vice-President of the College, he acted for the President, Sir Harry Platt, during the latter's visit to North America. Later in the same year he was appointed Bradshaw Lecturer, and he made a detailed catalogue of the College silver in his capacity as Custodian. He was President of the Association of Surgeons in 1953 and of the Surgical and Neurological Sections of the Royal Society of Medicine. In the autumn of 1956 he was asked to accept the chair of surgery in the University of Khartoum, vacant and occupied temporarily by John Morley. Thereafter the third phase of his career commenced. His decision was of incalculable benefit to the Sudan and enabled him to encourage and instruct the young surgical students in a developing country, in which there was a grave risk that the high standard set up by the Sudan Medical Service prior to Independence would be difficult to maintain in the transition period. By his personal influence and enthusiasm, he persuaded the College to initiate the practice of conducting examinations for the Primary FRCS in Khartoum. When he first arrived he had to overcome considerable inertia in the department of pathology, partly attributable to the fact that, in a country where post mortem examinations are unacceptable, the teaching of and research into morbid histology are, to say the least, difficult. He inspired the assistance of the newly appointed Professor, J B Lynch FRCS, in together overcoming these difficulties and conducting research into the causes and treatment of madura foot, black and yellow, a scourge in the Sudan. At this time he was on sabbatical leave from the Council of the College, from which he was due to retire in 1962. As a member of the Khartoum Yacht Club he was able to keep a boat on the Nile and continue his lifelong hobby of sailing. A man who hated humbug and pomposity and quickly detected the insincere and superficial, he would go out of his way to help and encourage those whom he considered worthy, however much they appeared to be rebels against orthodoxy. He possessed a personal reserve of manner which some found a barrier, but this concealed a fundamental gentleness combined with immense force of purpose and self-discipline. Possessed of a ready wit, some idiocy on the part of a self-styled authority on any problem would bring a twinkle to his eye and a dry comment very much to the point. As an examiner of experience he held strong views that any examination should be educative as well as a test of knowledge and that it was morally wrong to allow a candidate who had been guilty of an inaccuracy to depart under the impression that his answer had been correct. For the last two years of his life, despite a serious failure in health, he carried on steadfastly, and when in August 1961 he returned to England on leave he died soon after arrival, while actually discussing further measures for the development of Sudanese surgery. To the end he preserved his youthful appearance and approach to life. If ever a man proved in his life the truth of Napoleon's dictum that the moral is to the material as ten to one, that man was Julian Taylor. He married in 1926 Edith Margaret (MB London, MRCS, FFARCS) daughter of Dennis Ross-Johnson, who died in University College Hospital on 2 November 1955 and by whom he had two sons. He died suddenly on 15 April 1961 at the age of 72 while on leave from the Sudan at his home at Bepton near Midhurst. A memorial service was held in St Pancras Church on Wednesday 10 May 1961 at which the lesson was read by the President, Sir Arthur Porritt, and an address was given by A J Gardham MS, FRCS, Senior Surgeon to University College Hospital.
Resource Identifier RCS: E005412
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Harris, John William Simmons (1926 - 2013)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by N Alan Green
Publication Date 2014-06-06 2014-07-04
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E005000-E005999/E005400-E005499
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/377590377590
Occupation Anatomist
Details John Harris was a well-known anatomist who became professor at the Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine: he was appointed to the chair on the retirement of Ruth Bowden. It is possible that he had contemplated a career in obstetrics and gynaecology in his early years and was very much a clinical anatomist. As such, he was one of the dwindling number of medically-qualified doctors who choose a career in basic sciences, much to the benefit of undergraduates and postgraduates whom they teach. He was a very worthy recipient of an honorary fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1985, having already gained the fellowship of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. He was born in Hythe, Kent, on 6 June 1926, the son of William Harris, an antiques dealer, and his wife May née Littlewood. His only sister, Penny, was a teacher who emigrated to Toronto, Canada. He went to Maidstone Grammar School for his secondary education, where he was not particularly athletic, but excelled in science subjects. John won a scholarship to train at St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical College, and undertook his preclinical studies in Cambridge, whence the preclinical school had been evacuated during the Second World War. Luftwaffe bombing had damaged or destroyed some of the buildings at Charterhouse Square, and the preclinical school was evacuated to Cambridge, where Bart's students were resident in Queens' College. Students and teaching staff shared the excellent facilities of the University of Cambridge, including lecture theatres and the anatomy dissecting room. Their teachers were all appointed to serve Bart's Medical College and supervise their preclinical studies. W J Hamilton, initially a rather intimidating figure, with a Northern Irish accent, was well-known for teaching clinically relevant anatomy. He stressed the importance of structure as it related to function, and introduced students early to surface and radiological anatomy. Hamilton Hartridge taught the students physiology, mainly following his own textbook, and Arthur Wormall, with Harry Gordon Reeves, taught biochemistry. Returning to St Bartholomew's Hospital for his clinical studies, most of his tuition was in West Smithfield, although the more specialised units, such as orthopaedic and chest surgery, still remained at Hill End Hospital, St Albans, the evacuated site. Qualifying in 1949, John was appointed as a house surgeon to the surgical professorial unit from July 1949 for six months, working with Sir James Paterson Ross. Having also developed an interest in obstetrics and gynaecology, he served as an 'intern and extern' midwifery assistant until June 1950. He developed a further interest in this field as a house surgeon in obstetrics and gynaecology at Farnborough Hospital, Kent, during which time he passed the diploma of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, often regarded as a passport to a career in general practice. Finally, as part of the General Medical Council requirements, he undertook a house physician post at Farnborough hospital. It was during his time as a house surgeon at St Bartholomew's Hospital that he met his future wife, Sonia Naish, a Bart's nurse and later a theatre sister. They married in 1951 when he was working Farnborough Hospital, Kent. Her parents were shop retailers. His commitment to obstetrics and gynaecology continued when he obtained a registrar post at the Luton and Dunstable hospital for two years from June 1952, a hospital that had strong links with St Bartholomew's Hospital. Having passed the membership examination of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (MRCOG) in 1953, he undertook six months as a casualty officer at the Luton and Dunstable Hospital, and must surely have been the only casualty officer in the UK with the MRCOG at the time. It is not known whether he did intend to pursue a career in anatomy at this time, as many budding surgeons worked as demonstrators in anatomy, physiology or pathology for a year or more whilst studying for the FRCS. Having obtained a position as demonstrator in the London Hospital Medical College anatomy department in March 1955, he held the post for seven years. So by now his future career had been decided, and in 1961 he went for a year to the USA as a Rockefeller Foundation fellow to the department of embryology, Carnegie Institution for Science, Washington. Starting at the London Hospital Medical College, he enjoyed teaching topographical and neurological anatomy and embryology to medical and dental students. Teaching applied anatomy to student nurses, physiotherapists, student and postgraduate radiographers and laboratory technicians was part of an increasingly busy schedule. He enjoyed teaching embryology to BSc students. Many of his research interests were in the field of embryology. The development of the mammalian secondary palate and the production of cleft palate by experimental techniques was one, but his early training in obstetrics and gynaecology dictated other interests. These were 'The morphology of human uretero-placental blood vessels throughout the course of pregnancy', 'Intravascular trophoblast in monkey, baboon and human uteri with the placenta in situ' and 'The effect of thalidomide on rabbit, rat, mouse and chick embryos'. Presumably this was connected with the ghastly malformations seen in children born to mothers taking the drug thalidomide during pregnancy. In 1962, having returned from Washington DC, John was appointed as a senior lecturer in anatomy at the London Hospital Medical College, a position he held until September 1967, when he moved as reader in anatomy to the Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine. In April 1973 he had the title of professor of anatomy conferred on him. His great interest in clinical anatomy was apparent as he organised courses on surgical anatomy for postgraduate students taking the primary FRCS and those sitting part one of the MRCOG. John was well known as very fair examiner in the primary FRCS examinations, always correcting mistakes and testing knowledge very broadly. From 1972 to 1981 he examined for the Royal Colleges of Surgeons of England. From 1978 to 1992 he examined for the Edinburgh College, and from 1980 to 1992 for the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow. At national level he was visiting examiner in anatomy to six London-based medical schools and the University of Liverpool. Abroad his skills were obvious as an external examiner for the universities of Ghana and Singapore, and the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Active in the affairs of London University, he became honorary secretary and later chairman of the board of studies in human anatomy, but kept in touch with clinical matters as a university member of Hampstead Health Authority and as vice dean of the Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine. Prominent in his support of the Anatomical Society of Great Britain and Ireland, he was a council member for some 20 years, programme secretary from 1975 to 1977, treasurer for 10 years and was honoured by his colleagues when elected president for two years from 1990. During this last post he and his wife represented the Anatomical Society at the first joint meeting of the British and American Associations of Clinical Anatomists held in Norwich. He was also a member of the Zoological Society of London, the International Society of Developmental Biologists and of the British Society for Developmental Biology. Shortly after retirement John suffered a spinal thrombosis, from which his mobility deteriorated, eventually robbing him of his passion for gardening and his main source of consistent exercise. Sonia's health, though poor, was optimally managed by many consultants, aided and abetted by John's meticulous medical record keeping of her conditions and test results, which enabled her to remain ambulant and to be the designated driver until the last three years of her life. John's health suddenly deteriorated in May 2010 with acute renal failure secondary to a lymphoma. For this he was investigated and treated at King's College Hospital by one of his old students. His great faith defeated the enormous odds against his ever returning to his house at Sevenoaks and to his beloved Sonia. Though bedbound, during his last years he was able to nursed at home, awakening every morning to the sight of his beloved garden, which he had designed himself, with its changing pattern of colours. Predeceased by Sonia, John Harris died on 21 June 2013, aged 87. He was survived by his two sons, Richard, a chartered surveyor, and David, a dermatologist, their wives and two grandchildren, James and Jennie.
Resource Identifier RCS: E005407
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Goode, Anthony William (1944 - 2023)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by P Flynn
Publication Date 2023-04-20
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E010000-E010999/E010200-E010299
Occupation General surgeon Endocrine surgeon
Details Tony Goode was a professor of endocrine and metabolic surgery at the Royal London and St Bartholomew’s Hospital Medical Schools with Queen Mary College. He was also an honorary professor at the centre for biological and medical systems, Imperial College. He was born on 3 August 1944 in Newcastle upon Tyne, the eldest of four children of William Henry Goode, a sales manager, and Eileen Veronica Goode née Brannan. His early years were spent in the Walker and Kenton areas of Newcastle, before the family moved to Tynemouth in 1958, a place that was to be a constant in his life for the next 65 years. He attended St Aidan’s Grammar School in Sunderland, where he was educated by the Christian Brothers. Tony had fond memories of his school days, where he was academically bright, excelling in science subjects. He was head boy in his final year and, away from the classroom, he enjoyed playing rugby in the winter and, most of all, cricket in the summer; this became a lifelong passion. In 1963 Tony was the first member of the family to go to university when he enrolled to study medicine at Newcastle University. He graduated MB BS in 1968 and, after house jobs in the city, he spent a year as a demonstrator in the anatomy department of Newcastle Medical School whilst studying for his primary fellowship. In 1970, he joined the Newcastle upon Tyne surgical training scheme, working in the surgical units at Newcastle General Hospital, the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle and the regional cardiothoracic surgery unit, which at that time was at Seaham Hall in County Durham. He had happy memories of working with the likes of Alf Petty, Selwyn Griffin, Ross Taylor and Ivan D A Johnston. Tony obtained his fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons of England in 1974 and was appointed as a senior research associate and honorary senior registrar in Newcastle University’s department of surgery. He undertook research into muscle metabolism and nutrition in surgical patients. In 1976 he moved to London, initially as a lecturer in surgery and as a surgical tutor at the Royal Postgraduate and St Mary’s medical schools. He continued his research, culminating in the award of his MD in 1978 for his thesis ‘Measurements of body cell mass and its clinical applications’. Between 1980 and 1983 he was a senior lecturer in surgery at Charing Cross Hospital, then he moved to the London Hospital Medical College initially as a reader in surgery in 1983 and in 1994 was appointed professor of endocrine and metabolic surgery at the merged Royal London and St Bartholomew’s Hospital Medical Schools with Queen Mary College. He was also an honorary professor at the centre for biological and medical systems in Imperial College from 1996. This led him to several roles in these institutions combining clinical, research and educational aspects of his work, including supervisor for a number of research projects, chair of examination committees and clinical director for the London Helicopter Emergency Medical Service (from 1996 to 2002). He was an external examiner for the final MB BS at three UK medical schools and was actively involved in the undergraduate curriculum development for medicine and dentistry at Queen Mary College, University of London. His clinical work involved the management of emergency and elective general surgical patients with a special interest in the hormone aspects of breast disease and all aspects of endocrine surgery except pituitary disease. His practice became heavily weighted towards tertiary referral of complex or recurrent endocrine problems when surgery was a consideration. In line with this clinical interest, he was actively involved in bringing together several individual groups into the British Endocrine Societies and the establishment of the British Association of Endocrine Surgeons, acting as honorary secretary and treasurer from 1983 to 1985. His research into metabolic surgery, particularly into bone and muscle metabolism, opened new vistas for him. He worked during the early 1970s with the Royal Navy, looking into the metabolic effects of prolonged tours of duty in submariners. There then came an opportunity to work with physicians and scientists in the life sciences division of NASA, the space medicine program in the USA. This was an association that was to continue for over three decades. One of his colleagues from that time, Paul Rambaut, former head of the biomedical research program, writes: ‘In February 1974, the last of the three Skylab flights returned to Earth. At that time we began to analyze the data that had been obtained from these flights which were the first to feature medical science as a primary objective. We had seen hints of bone loss in preceding US and Soviet missions and had planned the Skylab experiments to follow up on these observations. Tony’s expertise in the bone area fitted well with this work and was very timely.’ In 1980 he published a paper ‘Man in space’ in *Nature* (283 525-6 1980) and in 1981 a paper in *The Lancet* on ‘Microgravity research: a new dimension in medical science’ (317 [8223] 767-9 1981). He was an early advocate of this important field, gave evidence to the House of Lords’ select committee on science and technology on medical research in microgravity in 1987 and over 25 years gave nearly 60 presentations on the subject to medical meetings and symposia in the UK and internationally. He was a Hunterian Orator in 1997 with a lecture entitled ‘A matter of gravity’. As an active academic and researcher, Tony strove to produce good quality research in a busy academic unit. This was often multidisciplinary, working with medical physics, biochemistry, bioengineering, physiology and pathology. He supervised a number of research fellows from the UK, China, Colombia, the USA, Greece, Russia, Singapore and India, resulting in 35 higher degrees (MS, MD or PhD) supported by grants of over £2.1 million; at several Higher Education Funding Council research assessment exercises the work was graded 5*. During his career Tony authored or co-authored 188 refereed publications, 241 abstracts, 48 book chapters, three books and monographs, 71 book reviews and 277 lectures or abstract presentations. In 1982, Tony joined the British Academy of Forensic Sciences, acting as assistant secretary general for five years. He was appointed as medical editor and editor-in-chief of their journal *Medicine, Science and the Law* in 1995 and was president of the Academy from 1999 to 2001. In 2000 he was made a fellow of the American College of Surgeons (ad eundem). Following his retirement from clinical practice, he spent the next 10 years as a medical member of the Appeals Tribunal Service. Tony married Patricia Flynn (a former assistant director of the anaesthetics unit at the London Hospital Medical College) in 1987. There’s was a long and happy marriage of shared interests, travel and constant companionship. After his retirement, he divided his time between London and Tynemouth, catching up with family and his friends that he had known from his childhood, school, university and work and continuing his travels with Patricia. He was always keen to follow the latest news about his nephew and seven nieces, supporting them in their careers, and hearing about the next generation of great nephews and nieces. Away from his main work, Tony was an enthusiastic follower of cricket and a longstanding member of the MCC and Durham County Cricket Club. He was a member of the Royal Society of Medicine and the Athenaeum, where he and Patricia regularly took visitors to London for dinner. He was also a member of the Scribes Club (where he was scribe to the Scribes from 1995 to 2013). In 1992 he was made a freeman of the City of London and a liveryman of the Society of Apothecaries in 1994. He was a lover of music and opera and would attend performances whenever the opportunity arose. He also delighted in comedy, particularly radio comedy of his youth in the 1950s. Patricia’s devotion to Tony during his final illness (supported by her sister Rosie and the fantastic staff of the NHS, an organisation he worked so tirelessly for) was a shining example of true love and she was by his side at the time of his passing on 25 February 2023 at the age of 78.
Resource Identifier RCS: E010225
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Heslop, John Herbert (1925 - 2014)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2015-09-14 2015-09-16
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E008000-E008999/E008000-E008099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/380225380225
Occupation General surgeon
Details John Heslop was born in Dunedin on March 21, 1925, the only child of James, an Irish immigrant, and Muriel. James died in his 50s and Muriel lived with John's family and played an important role in caring for her two grand-daughters as their parents developed increasingly busy professional careers. She also cultivated John's love for food and an affection for Ireland. John attended St Clair Primary School and subsequently Kings High School, where he was senior athletics champion in 1942. He was a keen and capable cricketer, being twice selected in 1942-43 for the Otago Brabin Shield team as a seam bowler and useful lower order batsman. John gained entry into the Otago Medical School in 1944, completing his MB ChB in 1949. While at medical school he met his future wife, Aucklander Barbara Cubit, who was a year ahead of him. They completed their house surgeon years in Dunedin and in 1952 John embarked on his surgical career when he became a resident surgical officer. In 1953, following their marriage, John and Barbara moved to England where John commenced at the King Edward Memorial Hospital in Ealing, London as a resident surgical officer, while Barbara followed a career in pathology. The following year John successfully completed the FRCS (England) examination and then shifted to the Middlesex Hospital, London where during 1956 he was the Leverhulme Research Fellow. In 1957 John and Barbara, with baby daughter Helen, returned to Dunedin where John took up the position of senior registrar and surgical tutor. John's career developed quickly as he completed a Master of Surgery and became a fellow of the RACS in 1958. In 1959 John made headlines when he was awarded the coveted Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland Moynihan prize for surgical research on skin tumours. John returned to London to receive the award (seldom awarded to those outside the United Kingdom) and remained there for three months continuing his research. John took charge of the burns unit at Wakari Hospital in 1960 and was appointed senior lecturer in surgery at Otago University in1962. In 1978 John became Associate Professor in the Department of Surgery and also, the same year, was appointed Associate Dean of postgraduate studies at the Medical School. John developed a specific interest in the care of burns patients and surgery for obesity and had an active private practice in Dunedin. He was a College Councillor from 1975-1987 and was also a long term member of the Part One Board and an examiner in general surgery. In February 1994 John ceased surgical practice, ending 36 years as a public hospital surgeon at Dunedin Hospital and 35 years as a private surgeon at Mercy Hospital. Soon after their return to Dunedin John and Barbara, together with Associate Professor John Borrie, developed an intensive six week pre-exam course covering the essentials of anatomy, physiology and pathology in a well-structured programme of tutorials for the Part 1 Examination. The Dunedin Basic Medical Sciences Course became highly regarded as a pre-requisite for surgical trainees throughout New Zealand and Australia. In recognition of this very significant contribution to surgical education over approximately 25 years, John and Barbara were named joint recipients of the Sir Louis Barnett Medal in 1990. Their contribution to surgical training was further recognised in 2004 through the establishment of the Heslop Medal which is awarded to recognise and reward outstanding contributions to Basic Surgical Training. John played a prominent role in the Cancer Society of New Zealand at both divisional and national level including terms as Divisional Chairman and National President. His considerable insight and drive was instrumental in the Society becoming the leading provider of cancer services outside the District Health Boards and also the creation of the Cancer Society of New Zealand Research Foundation, a significant funder of medical research in New Zealand. Given his sporting prowess, and in particular his love of cricket, it was not surprising John would take a keen interest in the treatment of sports injuries. This led him in 1963, along with Dr Norrie Jefferson (the first President), Dr Ted Nye, and Dr John Kilpatrick, all of Dunedin, to found Sports Medicine New Zealand, as a means of improving the management of sports injuries throughout New Zealand. His long-term contribution was recognised in 1996 when he was made a life member. Cricket was John's first and greatest sporting love and he contributed greatly to this game. He was a better than average player being an Otago Brabin Shield representative in 1942-43 and playing senior cricket with the Carisbrook and University Clubs when only a teenager. Returning from England in 1957, he continued to play senior cricket until 1960, being an in-swing bowler and a useful lower order batsmen, and reaching Otago B honours. One of his favourite stories was bowling to New Zealand's famous batsmen Bert Sutcliffe in a senior match in Dunedin. "It took me 10 years to get Bert out, but I got him in the end, LBW. He was plumb," he recounted with a chuckle. However, John's greatest impact on cricket came not as a player but as administrator, starting with his appointment as the convener of selectors for the Otago Plunket Shield team in 1960, where perhaps his greatest claim to fame was in selecting future batting great Glen Turner, while he was still at school, for his first class cricket debut. He served the Otago Cricket Association as a selector 1960-66, as president 1966-68 and was made a life member in 1986. In the late 1960s John was appointed to the New Zealand Cricket Board of Control, where he was a member of the disciplinary and umpires appointments committees and convener of the pitches subcommittee. In 1975 he was given his first prime administrative role as manager of the New Zealand team to contest the first one-day World Cup, held in England. The team, captained by Turner, reached the semi-finals, only to be knocked out by the West Indies, which went on to win the final. He served as New Zealand team manager 10 years later, this time for a four test tour of the West Indies. John was a member of the New Zealand Cricket Council for 12 years, being president 1987-89 and he was subsequently made a life member. Otago Cricket Chief Executive, Ross Dykes, said Mr Heslop's service to cricket was indefatigable and described him as an imposing character in all ways and a great friend of cricket. Arguably John's most significant honour was received in December 1996 when he has awarded the CBE in the New Year's Honours for services to medicine, sport and community. This completed a "rare double", because his wife Barbara had also been made a CBE five years earlier. The couple had also shared similar recognition in (at different times) being made life members of the Cancer Society. Despite their individually brilliant careers, it was hard not to regard the Heslop's as anything other than a "team". John Heslop will be remembered as an amiable sports loving general surgeon who made a significant contribution to surgery in New Zealand and Australia. John's life-long love of good food, coupled with his sense of humour, and an ability to relate to people of all walks of life was reflected in his membership of the Dunedin Tripe and Onions club. So, it was fitting a celebration of his life in the "Long Room" at Logan Park, home of cricket in Dunedin, should be attended by an eclectic selection of surgeons, cricketers, including Glen Turner and Billy Ibadulla, and friends from many other walks of life, to enjoy a carefully chosen menu reflecting John's favourite food. The Irish connection was represented by his cousin Richard Fegan, while his many Irish relatives had a simultaneous "John Heslop" breakfast of porridge with whiskey, cream and brown sugar in Rathfriland, Northern Ireland. John is survived by his daughters Helen (Dan L Duncan Chair, Professor Paediatrics and Medicine and Director Center for Cell and Gene Therapy, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston Texas) and Hilary (Food product developer, Melbourne), Barbara having predeceased him in 2013. Following their deaths The Barbara and John Heslop Memorial Fund has been established with initial contributions from Helen and Hilary Heslop and the Dunedin Basic Science Course to support an endowment of $300,000 to fund research in the disciplines of pathology or immunology within the Otago Medical School (http://alumni.otago.ac.nz/barbara-heslop-memorial-award). This obituary is based upon that by Dave Cannan prepared for *The Otago Daily Times* with the additional assistance of Helen and Hilary Heslop
Resource Identifier RCS: E008042
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Kyle, James (1925 - 2023)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Maureen Johnston
Publication Date 2023-11-28
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E010000-E010999/E010500-E010599
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/387571387571
Occupation General surgeon
Details James Kyle was a consultant general surgeon at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary and a senior lecturer at Aberdeen University and later chairman of Raigmore Hospital NHS Trust in Inverness. He was born in Ballymena, County Antrim on 26 March 1925 to John Kyle and Dorothy Frances Kyle née Skillen. His father owned a large insurance brokers business and was very involved in the running of the Antrim Agricultural Show. His mother enthused James with her knowledge of literature and the arts; his maternal grandfather inspired a love of history, and two uncles inspired his lifelong passion for philately. James attended Ballymena Academy. During the Second World War, in his late teens, he was an air raid warden in Belfast, which was heavily bombed due to the presence of the Harland and Wolff shipbuilders. James studied medicine at Queen’s University, Belfast, graduating in 1947 with a gold medal. He did his elective in 1946 in northern Sweden and could still speak Swedish into his nineties. After qualifying, he worked with Harold Rogers at the Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast; Rogers guided him into the world of research and was a significant influence on his career. In 1950, following his marriage to Dorothy Galbraith, a teacher, he took a clinical research post at the Mayo Clinic, Minnesota. Although asked to stay on, he chose to return to the UK, disliking the materialistic attitude to medicine in the USA. In 1952 James returned to work at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast as a tutor in surgery and gained his fellowships of the Royal Colleges of Surgeons in Ireland and of England in 1954. He received his MCh with a gold medal in 1956. He then left Northern Ireland but kept his love of Ulster and retained his memory of an idyllic childhood spent in the Glens of Antrim and its coast. County Antrim was the place where his heart belonged. In 1957 he became a lecturer in surgery in Liverpool, under Charles Wells. He then took up a senior lecturer in surgery and a consultant post at Aberdeen University and Aberdeen Royal Infirmary. James became interested in Crohn’s disease as a student. He realised that the demographics of northeast Scotland would be suitable for a long-term clinical study into Crohn’s and established this study in Aberdeenshire, Orkney and Shetland, 914 cases in all. These were followed up for 30 years, resulting in many publications and books. He said his colleagues were ‘only too happy to hand over these people with this terrible disease’ for his care and research. He liaised with and met Burrill Bernard Crohn, who wrote the forward for James’ book on Crohn’s disease (*Crohn’s disease* London, Heinemann Medical Books, 1972). However, James believed it was actually a Scottish surgeon and pathologist, Sir Thomas Kennedy Dalziel, who had first described the disease he called ‘chronic interstitial enteritis’. Dalziel gave an address, accompanied by a demonstration of specimens, to the BMA annual meeting in Brighton in July 1913, realising he was describing a new condition. As the First World War broke out the following year, the condition was lost sight of for another 20 years, until 1932 in the USA when Crohn made his discoveries. James Kyle published the history of this in the *British Medical Journal* in 1979 and often himself referred to Dalziel’s disease, rather than Crohn’s disease (‘Dalziel’s disease – 66 years on’ *Br Med J* 1979;1:876). In the 1964 typhoid epidemic in Aberdeen, James became the designated surgeon for any interventions required, carrying out daily ward rounds with Ian MacQueen (the medical officer of health), who quickly placed Aberdeenshire under strict restrictions. James gained his fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh in 1964 and his DSc in 1972. As a clinician, James, affectionately known as ‘JK’, was a quiet, caring surgeon with ‘a good pair of hands’, always considering the needs of his patients and the wider needs of their families. His kindness and guidance to junior staff, and his courtesy to nursing and other ancillary staff earned him great respect. He was insightful, a good listener and a champion of the vulnerable. James enjoyed the process of writing and wrote prodigiously. James became increasingly involved in medical politics and the BMA, initially debating in the 1970s with the Labour secretary of state for health and social services, Barbara Castle, around the thorny question of private beds in NHS hospitals. He himself never practised private medicine. He campaigned for an increase in consultants’ salaries at this time (1972 to 1973), when their pay was not keeping up with inflation. James was regarded as an excellent chairperson, always knowledgeable about his subject, decisive but fair and sensitive, but could see through what he termed as ‘skulduggery’ with a sharp insight. He was a member of the General Medical Council from 1979 to 1994, chairman of the Scottish Committee for Hospital Medical Services from 1977 to 1981, of the Scottish Joint Consultants’ committee from 1984 to 1989 and chairman of the representative body of the BMA from 1984 to 1987. This was a tumultuous time when the BMA was vehemently opposing the Conservative Party in its quest to radically restructure the NHS by introducing market forces. Although the BMA was defeated, they were applauded for their defence of the principles of the NHS. This period also saw the emergence of AIDS and the BMA was instrumental in influencing how the medical profession responded, particularly around the ethics of testing, confidentiality and the design of the public awareness campaigns. James was a British Council lecturer in South East Asia and South America from 1963 to 1974. He was an external surgical examiner in surgery in Belfast, Dundee, Edinburgh, Sydney and the West Indies and lectured widely on surgery throughout the world, from Iran, China, India, South East Asia, Australia, New Zealand, USA, Canada, Egypt, South Africa, Grenada, South America, Eastern Europe to Russia. He retired from clinical work in 1989. He was president of the Aberdeen Medico-Chirurgical Society in its bicentenary year 1989 to 1990, chairman of the Grampian Health Board from 1989 to 1993 and of the Raigmore Hospital NHS Trust in Inverness from 1993 to 1997. At Raigmore he pioneered the construction of accommodation for families and patients receiving treatment as the hospital covered an extensive geographical area, named Kyle Court in his honour. He received a CBE in 1989 for services to medicine and was made a burgess of Aberdeen in 1990. He and Dorothy relocated in retirement to the beautiful area of Gairloch, Wester Ross, northwest Scotland. James had many interests outside medicine. He was keen on sport, although not in a particularly competitive way. He played tennis, swam and skied and had been in his school cricket and rugby teams. In retirement, he loved to swim in the Atlantic Ocean as often as possible from April until November. (In Aberdeen he swam with other medics in the North Sea throughout the year!) He swam in the sea until he was 92 and passed onto his family the delight of what is now known as ‘wild swimming’. He also enjoyed hill walking and many weekends were spent hiking up the Scottish mountains with his family or the Aberdeen medics walking group. He was a polymath. In retirement he studied for degrees in astronomy and Scottish archaeology. Huge energy was put into his main interest, philately, and he built up a renowned stamp collection, with a particular interest in the Gilbert and Ellice Islands, the Cayman Islands and St Helena. He wrote numerous articles for *Gibbons Stamp Monthly* and researched extensively the postal history, history, geography, industries and natural habitat of these islands. His other hobby from boyhood was being a radio ham. It culminated in him receiving the Scottish Island radio ham trophy – awarded for broadcasting from all the northern Scottish islands, including those which were uninhabited! He was a volunteer for the War Memorials Trust and documented all the war memorials of northern Scotland, as well as publishing articles about them. He loved history and read extensively. He loved poetry and literature and could recite large lines of both. He was a patron of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. He adored opera, and whilst with the BMA and GMC would frequently attend the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden after a fraught day! Having travelled much of the world, he had a wealth of knowledge and understanding of countries and cultures and their histories, having always read up in great detail about his destinations. He enjoyed travel and adventure and had many hair-raising stories to tell of his escapades! In character James was a quiet person, a private and humble man. He was a generous and caring man with a big heart. He was profound and wise and a good listener. Although quiet, he had a great sense of humour and a sharp wit. He died, at the age of 98, on 12 September 2023, after a life well lived. Predeceased by his wife Dorothy, he was survived by their two daughters, Frances and Maureen.
Resource Identifier RCS: E010505
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching MacKay, Colin (1936 - 2023)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by David C Smith
Publication Date 2024-11-08
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E010000-E010999/E010600-E010699
Occupation General surgeon University administrator
Details Colin MacKay was a consultant surgeon at the Western Infirmary and Gartnavel General Hospital in Glasgow and a former president of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow. Born to Kenneth MacKay and Margaret Blair Dawson MacKay née McLachlan in a nursing home in the Park Circus area of Glasgow on 8 November 1936, he was subsequently evacuated along with his cousins on his mother’s side to Tighnabruaich in Argyll, where he started primary school. His father was the manager of the Milngavie branch of the Bank of Scotland and home was the bank house. After returning to Glasgow, Colin was enrolled at Hillhead High School and he never grew tired of recalling for the benefit of his own children and grandchildren how, as a small boy, he travelled each day, unaccompanied, by bus from Milngavie into school in the West End of the city. In addition to high academic achievement there, he performed with enthusiasm and skill in the school cricket XI. Intent on a career in medicine, he entered the medical faculty at Glasgow in 1954 and, after picking up numerous prizes and a BSc in physiology along the way, graduated in 1961 with the Brunton medal, awarded to the graduate with the highest marks in the finals, and went to work in the Western Infirmary, eventually becoming the Hall fellow and lecturer in surgery in Sir Charles Illingworth’s academic unit. His training involved rotation through other units at the Western, together with a period at one of the district hospitals, in Colin’s case the Royal Alexandra Infirmary in Paisley. In 1964 Illingworth was succeeded in the regius chair by Andrew ‘Drew’ Kay and, with his support and encouragement, Colin, by now married with two young children, was awarded a prestigious Medical Research Council travelling fellowship to Boston University, where he worked on gallstone disease and bile salt metabolism – a research subject which he developed further on his return to the Western 12 months later. He was appointed as a senior lecturer in 1970 and continued to work closely with Kay until 1982, when he was appointed as a consultant surgeon at Gartnavel General Hospital, where he was acknowledged as a friendly and wise mentor to young surgeons in training, many of whom went on to become successful surgeons themselves. He remained there until his retirement in 1996. Both Illingworth and Kay had successfully combined their clinical and research activities with active involvement and subsequent presidency of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow, which has played an important role in the development and oversight of postgraduate medical and surgical training since its foundation in 1599. Colin MacKay was elected to the college council in 1972 and became an honorary treasurer four years later, a post he held for 10 years – a period during which the college’s finances were always in an extremely healthy state. As a combined college of physicians and surgeons, the college had automatic representation on an extremely wide and ever-expanding range of medical bodies. The president needed support to fulfil all these commitments, and the posts of vice president (medical and surgical) were created. Colin was elected as the first surgical vice president in 1992 to support the then president, Donald Campbell. As a result of this increasing involvement in intercollegiate activity, his many abilities and interpersonal skills came to the attention of office bearers from the three other surgical royal colleges in the British Isles – Edinburgh, England and Ireland. Together they had responsibility for managing and supervising surgical training and examinations across the UK and Ireland through the Joint Committee for Higher Surgical Training (JCHST), which met four times a year and rotated its meetings through each college with the host-president taking the chair. It was recognised that continuity of JCHST work would be better ensured by the appointment of a permanent chairman for a four-year period and Colin MacKay was immediately recognised as the obvious choice for this post, being nominated by the president of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. He combined these activities with membership of the Greater Glasgow Health Board and the General Medical Council, as well as being an examiner for numerous home and overseas universities and surgical colleges. In 1996, on his election as visitor (president elect) of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow, he retired from clinical practice and served as college president for three years from 1997. This covered the year when the college celebrated the 400th anniversary of the granting of its royal charter by James VIth in 1599. Inevitably it was an extremely busy year involving many special events, the highlights being a visit to the college by Her Majesty the Queen accompanied by the Duke of Edinburgh and a gala dinner where the principal guests were Mary McAleese, the president of Ireland, and Scotland’s new first minister, Donald Dewar. These memorable occasions and many others were hosted with great aplomb, dignity and good humour by Colin MacKay supported as ever by his wife Helen. He was awarded the CBE for services to medicine after stepping down as president in 2000. The following year he was invited to chair the board of governors of the University of the Highlands and Islands Millennium Institute – the body charged with the task of assimilating 15 colleges and higher education facilities throughout the north of Scotland and the Western Isles into a single institution – the University of the Highlands and Islands (UHI). He had family connections with the highlands. His father’s family hailed from Shieldaig in Wester Ross. His paternal grandfather had come down to the west of Scotland to take up the position of head gardener at the home of the Dowager Duchess of Hamilton – the White House – in Lamlash on the Isle of Arran. At the conclusion of a very successful eight years as chairman, full university title was granted to UHI and its degree awarding status was recognised. He worked closely and harmoniously with two principals, Bob Cormack and James Fraser. Colin’s pivotal role in guiding the institution to full university status was recognised in a statement by UHI following his death and, in a message of condolence to the family, James Fraser made special mention of Colin’s ability to get the best out of people, his compassion, his eye for detail and his great sense of humour, all of which ensured the success of the UHI project. It was therefore very appropriate that he was one of the first recipients of an honorary fellowship awarded by the new university. All that Colin MacKay did in his highly productive life was underpinned by his deep Christian faith and the strength and stability of his family life. He was an elder in the Free Church for more than 50 years, firstly in Partick Highland, then the City Free Church and finally in Crow Road Free Church. He was a close friend of Donald MacLeod, who had been his pastor at Partick Highland and latterly greatly valued the ministry and regular visits from the Rev Colin Dow. Prayer and daily reading of his Bible were the mainstays of his life and all that he achieved. The other great source both of support and enjoyment was his family, particularly his wife Helen (née Miskimmin), to whom he was married for 57 years. She had her own career as a specialist in care of the elderly. She beautifully complemented all that Colin did and was a wonderful hostess both at official functions and in their home in Bearsden, where their hospitality was legendary both for friends and the many visitors from overseas arriving in Glasgow to visit his hospital, the college or their church. Colin and Helen enjoyed travelling, particularly in North America, where they had visited every state, but no matter where they were they always ensured their presence in church each Sunday. He and Helen also enjoyed being part of the Moynihan Travelling Surgical Club, which met twice a year, once in the UK and once abroad. His other great delight was his family – one son, also Colin, and two daughters, Elspeth and Helen. Their spouses Gill, Donald and Donald were warmly welcomed into the family circle, which expanded further with the arrival of six grandchildren who all greatly appreciated the unconditional love and support shown to them by their grandparents. Elspeth is now an administrator for the Langham Partnership, an international Christian Charity, Helen junior became a consultant in palliative care and Colin junior is a consultant surgeon. Colin MacKay died on 17 December 2023 at the age of 87. His passing has deprived many areas of Scottish life of a much valued and highly regarded servant. He leaves a substantial legacy – firstly a group of surgeons still in clinical practice trained and encouraged by him and, secondly, the greater availability of higher education in the north of Scotland through the continuing growth of the University of the Highlands and Islands.
Resource Identifier RCS: E010679
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Gask, George Ernest (1875 - 1951)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2013-06-27
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E004000-E004999/E004100-E004199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/376338376338
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born on 1 August 1875, the fourth and youngest son of Henry and Elizabeth Gask, he was educated at Dulwich College. He studied at Lausanne, Freiburg, and Baden before entering St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical College in 1893. He qualified in 1898, and was appointed house surgeon to John Langton. He held the usual posts of demonstrator of pathology and surgical registrar, and in 1907 was elected assistant surgeon under D'Arcy Power. By 1914 he was recognized as an excellent consultant and teacher, and well-known as an expert mountaineer and alpinist. He was particularly interested in the surgery of the chest, at that time a new specialty. The outbreak of war in August 1914 found him ready and equipped to play a distinguished part in the RAMC. He went to France in 1916, was four times mentioned in despatches, and won the DSO in 1917. He was appointed consulting surgeon to the Fourth Army in 1918, and was created CMG in 1919 for his services. He was active throughout in securing the most up-to-date surgical treatment for wounds of the chest and lungs. The West London Medico-Chirurgical Society awarded him its gold medal for his part in this work. Gask was not only an extremely able surgeon and a man of imperturbable character, he was moved by a deep sense of mission to improve the education of younger surgeons. Though silent and reserved, he exerted considerable personal magnetism and evoked warm affection in those who knew him well. He was withal a shrewd judge of men, and determined and unhurrying in the pursuit of any goal that he set before himself. Before and during the war he prepared the way for the introduction of whole-time professorial units in the teaching hospitals, and when he was appointed the first professor of surgery in the University of London in 1919, he was ready at once to start his unit at St Bartholomew's. He was bold enough to bring (Sir) Thomas Dunhill from Melbourne as his deputy, and had as his assistants Geoffrey Keynes and R Ogier Ward. This brilliant team established the success of Gask's innovation beyond criticism. Gask served as professor till 1935, when he retired at the age of sixty and was succeeded by (Sir) James Paterson Ross. Gask instituted the exchange of duties with leading surgeons from outside his hospital, thus bringing to St Bartholomew's among others Harvey Cushing, Moynihan, (Sir) David Wilkie, G Grey Turner, and (Sir) Max Page, all Fellows of this College. He usually walked to the Hospital from his house at 4 York Gate, Regent's Park, nearly 3 miles away, arriving at 9 am. During the period of his professorship Gask took an active part in professional activities. He was an original member of the Radium Trust, and served on the Medical Research Council 1937-41; he was one of the originators of the project for a Postgraduate Medical School in London, which he hoped to see established at one of the old undergraduate teaching hospitals, whose great traditions might thus be carried on at a new level. When the British Postgraduate Medical School was set up at the London County Council's Hammersmith Hospital he gave himself wholeheartedly to its service, as perhaps the most active member of its governing body. He took a leading part in the conduct of the *British Journal of Surgery*, attracting a wider membership to the general committee as the original founders gave up the work, and he himself succeeded Moynihan as chairman of the editorial committee and maintained the very high standard which the *Journal* had won. He examined in surgery for the universities of Oxford, Cambridge, London, and Bristol. At the College he was a member of Council 1923-39 and vice-president 1933-34, being elected in March 1933 after the sudden death of Sir Percy Sargent. He gave a Hunterian lecture in 1930, and the Vicary lecture the same year; he was Bradshaw lecturer in 1932, and gave a special Hunterian lecture in 1937, describing the lately discovered papers of John Hunter's army service in Portugal in 1762-63. He was president of the Medical Society of London in 1935. With all this busy practice and administrative work Gask found time for much writing both professional and historical. With W G Spencer he issued a revision of Walsham's Practice of surgery in 1910, which was long a popular textbook, and with J Paterson Ross he published a pioneer study of the *Surgery of the sympathetic nervous system* in 1937. His historical writings were reprinted in a volume which his numerous friends and admirers gave him on his seventy-fifth birthday in 1950. Gask retired completely from all this activity in 1935 at the age of 60, settled in the country, and devoted himself to gardening. He served as a magistrate and on the rural district council. If he had not returned to full activity during the second world war, which broke out four years later, it might have been asked how a man of such great abilities, personal eminence, and successful achievement failed to win the very foremost position in his profession. Gask's very qualities were his only drawback he was ambitious not for himself but for his ideas, he was without guile and without a sense of rivalry. His calm and happy nature had the infinite patience of genius, but not its driving impetus. Immediately war broke out in September 1939, Gask was invited act temporarily as a surgeon at the Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford, and a took part in the work of the rapidly expanding Oxford medical school. He was made a member of the high table at Christ Church, where his scholarly and friendly nature was warmly appreciated, and he admitted MA by decree of the University. He had been elected emeritus professor of surgery in the University of London when he retired in 1935 and consulting surgeon and a governor of St Bartholomew's. As the war went on he added to his duties at Oxford, becoming adviser in surgery for the region (Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Berkshire) under the Ministry of Health's Emergency Medical Service, and also working for the Nuffield Provincial Hospitals Trust and for the Bucks and Oxon region hospitals Council. Gask married in 1913 Ada Alexandra, daughter of Lieutenant-Colonel Alexander Crombie, CB MD of the Indian Medical Service. He died on 16 January 1951, aged 75, at his home Hatchmans, Hambleden Henley-on-Thames, survived by his wife and their son, Dr John Gask. He had suffered for some months from coronary thrombosis. The funeral at Hambleden was conducted by the Dean of Christ Church, and the memorial service was held at St Bartholomew-the-Less on 1 February. He left £1,000 to St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical College. Gask practised a technique of extreme gentleness in the handling of tissues, at a time when the importance of this was barely appreciated, and later developed and taught the "no-touch" technique, the tissues being moved entirely by forceps. He was never ruffled even in the most trying circumstances, and an unexpected crisis made him pause for reflection rather than rush ahead. He believed in learning from the work of other surgeons, was an early member of Moynihan's Chirurgical Club for visiting surgical clinics in Britain, and for many years organized the very successful European tours of the Surgical Pilgrims. Earlier he had been a regular visitor to Switzerland for climbing and was honorary secretary of the Alpine Club. Many foreign honours came to him: he was an honorary Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, of the Académie de Chirurgie in Paris and the Société chirurgicale at Lyons, and a corresponding member of the Roman Academy of Surgery. He was decorated with the Legion of Honour (Officier) in 1937. The *British Journal of Surgery* for July 1950 (vol 38, no 149) was dedicated to him in honour of his seventy-fifth birthday. It contains a good photograph and an unsigned appreciation by Geoffrey Keynes. Gask was a man of splendid physique and fine appearance. Principal publications:- *The practice of surgery*. 10th edition of W J Walsham's *Surgery, its theory and practice*, by W G Spencer and G E Gask, London, 1910; 11th edition, *Surgery, a textbook*, by Gask and H. W Wilson, 1920. Methods of treating wounds of the chest, Lettsomian Lectures. *Trans Med Soc Lond* 1921, 44, 161. A contribution to the study of the treatment of epithelioma of the tongue by radium. Hunterian lecture, Royal College of Surgeons. *Lancet*, 1930, 1, 223. Vicary's predecessors. Thomas Vicary lecture, RCS 1930. *Brit J Surg* 1931, 18, 479-500. Experiences of the surgery of the sympathetic nervous system. Bradshaw lecture, RCS 1932. *Brit J Surg* 1933, 21, 113-130. *Surgery of the sympathetic nervous system*, with J Paterson Ross. London, Bailliere, 1937. A German translation of this book was published. Clean wounds, ancient and modem. Annual oration 1934. *Trans Med Soc Lond* 1934, 57, 270. Changing surgery. Presidential address 1935. *Trans Med Soc London*, 1936, 59, 1. John Hunter in the campaign in Portugal 1762-63. Special Hunterian lecture, RCS *Brit J Surg* 1937, 24, 640-668. *Essays in the History of Medicine*. London, Butterworth 1950, with portrait photographs of Gask. This volume was prepared by a group of his friends, published by subscription, and presented to him at a small gathering in his sick-room on his seventy-fifth birthday, 1 August 1950.
Resource Identifier RCS: E004155
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Learmonth, Sir James Rognvald (1895 - 1967)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2014-08-26
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/378067378067
Occupation Neurosurgeon
Details James Learmonth was born on 23 March 1895 at Gatehouse-of-Fleet, in the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright, the elder son of William Learmonth and Kathleen Macosquin Craig. His father, a native of Edinburgh, was the headmaster of the parish school of Girthon, having previously spend many years in Orkney. His mother came from Coleraine, Northern Ireland. Learmonth's second Christian name, with its Scandinavian spelling, was used by his family and his contemporaries for many years. His scholastic training began under favourable auspices, for his father was a typical Scots dominie with a wide range of scholarship, and gave him by his example and influence a powerful intellectual stimulus. He continued his education at Kilmarnock Academy, and in April 1913 he entered the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Glasgow. His medical studies were interrupted by the first world war in which he saw active combatant service, having been commissioned to the King's Own Scottish Borderers. A gruelling period in France was followed by a tour of duty as officer-in-charge of the Anti-Gas School, Scottish Command. He returned to the University of Glasgow in October 1918 graduating MB ChB with Honours in June 1921; he gained the Brunton Memorial Prize as the most distinguished graduate of the year. After holding the posts of house physician and house surgeon at the Western Infirmary, Glasgow, he was appointed assistant to Professor Archibald Young, first at the Anderson College of Medicine and later at Glasgow University. In the interval, during the year 1924-1925, he made his first visit to the United States, having been elected to a Rockefeller Fellowship of the Medical Research Council to be spent at the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota. Here he came under the aegis of Dr Alfred W Adson in the section of neurosurgery, an experience which was to influence much of his surgical life. Returning to Scotland he obtained his ChM degree with high commendation in 1927 with a thesis on the pathology of spinal tumours, and in the following year his FRCS Edinburgh. This was succeeded by an invitation from Dr Will Mayo to join the permanent staff of the Mayo Clinic. From 1928 to 1932 his work was concentrated on his chosen specialty, and he was appointed Associate Professor of Neurological Surgery in the University of Minnesota. Much time was also spent in research, mainly on the innervation of the bladder. His interest was greatly aroused in the role of surgery of the sympathetic nervous system in treatment of peripheral vascular disease and pelvic dysfunction. In October 1932 he was appointed to the Regius Chair of Surgery in the University of Aberdeen in succession to Sir John Marnoch. He remained a faithful alumnus of the Mayo Clinic, however, and was gratified when some thirty years later, in 1964, he received a Mayo Centennial Outstanding Achievement Award. In Aberdeen he still retained his special interest in surgical neurology but his clinical range was widely extended, both in teaching and in practice, to include all fields of surgery. He became increasingly involved also in the tasks of administration and medical school planning at Foresterhill, the new home of the Aberdeen School. In 1935 he was honorary surgeon to HM The King in Scotland. He was Vice-President of the Section of Surgery at the Annual Meeting of the British Medical Association that year, and President of the Section in 1939. In 1939 he succeeded Sir David Wilkie as Professor of Systematic Surgery in the University of Edinburgh. The onerous duties which now confronted Learmonth, especially anxious to justify his election to this chair, were not lessened by the outbreak of war which considerably disrupted the work of his department. Learmonth and his depleted staff made an important contribution to the care of the wounded by organising a unit at Gogarburn Hospital for the treatment of peripheral nerve and vascular injuries, as well as meeting the demands of the civilian population at the Royal Infirmary. For his wartime services he was appointed CBE in 1945. In 1946 he took over the Regius Chair of Clinical Surgery vacated by Sir John Fraser. As the holder of both Edinburgh chairs he was fully engaged in teaching and administration as well as his own practical surgery. He organised the rapidly-developing units in vascular, thoracic, paediatric, plastic, and urological surgery, and he instituted, as a forum for surgical discussion, a Saturday morning departmental meeting, which has become a regular feature of the Edinburgh scene and a valuable training ground for young surgeons. He was elected President of the Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland in 1948. In that year he was called in to attend King George VI at Buckingham Palace. On 12 March 1949, assisted by James Paterson Ross and others, he carried out a successful lumbar sympathectomy for the relief of impaired circulation of the King's right leg. He later received the accolade of KCVO at the Sovereign's hands. In 1950 he was made a Chevalier of the Légion d'Honneur. In 1951 he was appointed a member of the Medical Research Council and in the same year was awarded the Lister Medal "in recognition of his distinguished contribution to surgical science". In 1954 he made a tour of Australia as a Sims Travelling Professor. His international reputation was attested by his election to Honorary Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons of England and of the American College of Surgeons in 1949, of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons in 1954, and of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow in 1954. In addition he was made, *honoris causa*, a Doctor of Medicine of the University of Oslo in 1947, a Doctor of Laws of the Universities of Glasgow (1949), St Andrews (1956), and Edinburgh (1965). He was a member or an honorary member of many surgical societies including the International Surgical Society, the Academies of Surgery of Paris, of Lyons, of Belgium, and of Denmark, and an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Medical Society of Edinburgh. In September 1956 he decided to retire from Edinburgh University. He had found the pace becoming too fast and the strain increasingly severe. He chose to live in the pleasant village of Broughton, in Peebleshire, resisting the call to return to his native Galloway. Now within convenient reach of both Edinburgh and Glasgow he was able to indulge in the quiet pleasures of the countryside, tending his modest garden with scientific care and reading the classics of English and ancient literature, biographies and history. From 1960 to 1966 he served as Assessor of the General Council of the Court of the University of Glasgow, an appointment which gave him much satisfaction. He died on 27 September 1967, of bronchial carcinoma, at the age of seventh-two and was cremated privately in Edinburgh. He was survived by his wife, Charlotte Newell Bundy of St Johnsbury, Vermont, USA whom he first met at the Mayo Clinic and married in 1925. There were two children, Jean Katherine Bundy born 1929, and James William Frederick born 1939. Learmonth's literary output was considerable; 118 papers stood in his name as author or co-author. The impressive list of his publications covered a wide range but were mainly concerned with his specialties, vascular and neurological surgery. Notable amongst his contributions were the Heath Clark Lectures (1947) on the *Contribution of surgery to public health*, the Harveian Oration on the *Surgery of the spleen* (1951) and the Linacre Lecture on the *Fabric of surgery* (1953). He was the MacEwan Lecturer in 1956 and the John Fraser Lecturer in 1961. In 1954 he delivered the Stephen Paget Lecture on the *Surgeon's debt to animal experiment*. Learmonth had an intellectual appearance, studious and alert, not tall but of sturdy physique; purposeful, quiet-spoken with a quick wit and a dry humour. His eyes had a quizzical, if at times a searching and slightly disapproving look, often modified by a shy disarming smile. If under stress he seemed austere and even brusque, in his relaxed moments he had a boyish gaiety and was warm-hearted and kind. He was held to be supremely competent as a surgeon of the academic type, his skill being based on his profound knowledge of anatomy and pathology and his wide scholarship. Meticulous and painstaking to a degree, he was careful and delicate in the handling of human tissue. He was gentle, reassuring and courteous to his patients. He was a fine teacher and gave much encouragement to research projects, not only in the subject under investigation but on the literary standard to be attained on publication; if his comments were sometimes outspoken, they were always fair. He maintained the highest ethical standards of the profession. His hobbies were few and he never indulged actively in sports, but he played an occasional game of golf; he had the rare pleasure once of doing a hole in one at Spey Bay. He also enjoyed watching cricket. When pressed to contribute his "scientific philosophy" to a Mayo Clinic publication in the year of his death, he summed it up characteristically by quoting the principles which Francis Bacon declared should guide the ideal scientist. To these he added Sydenham's comment that "he had weighed in a nice and scrupulous manner whether it be better to serve men or to be praised by them" and, as Learmonth wrote, "decided on the former". Selected publications: Leptomengiomas (endotheliomas) of the spinal cord. *Brit J Surg* 1927, 14, 397. The innervation of the bladder. *Proc Roy Soc Med* 1932, 25, 24. The surgery of the sympathetic nervous system. *Brit J Surg* 1937, 15, 426. *The contribution of surgery to preventive medicine*. Heath Clark Lectures, 1949. London, 1951. *The fabric of surgery*. Linacre Lecture, 1952. *The Eagle*, 1953, 55, 119. *A search for similarities*. Macewen Memorial Lecture. Glasgow, 1956. *Surgery and the community*. Maurice Bloch Lecture. Glasgow, 1960.
Resource Identifier RCS: E005884
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

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 Rothnie, Norman George (1927 - 2011)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by N Alan Green
Publication Date 2011-11-16 2013-11-25
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001500-E001599
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373777373777
Occupation General surgeon
Details Norman Rothnie was a greatly respected consultant general surgeon with a major interest in peripheral vascular and also in thyroid surgery. He worked for over 30 years at the Royal Berkshire Hospital and made many contributions in peripheral vascular surgery. A tall man who 'never looked down' on anyone, he was known by his friends for his infectious good humour, and by his patients for his level-headed advice, laced with transparent kindness and sympathy. Imperturbable in the operating theatre, he never spared himself in the pursuit of excellence, and his large hands belied a gentle operative surgical technique, which he passed on to his many trainees. He was born on 21 January 1927, in Watford, Hertfordshire, the eldest child of Andrew Abercromby Rothnie, a bank manager, and his wife Melissa Furey née McConnach. The family was completed by two younger sisters. After a brief foray south of the border, the family left Watford and returned to Pitlochry, where Andrew Rothnie became the local bank manager. It was here that Norman received his early education. A permanent move to England occurred when Norman's father was appointed manager of the Regent Street branch of the Royal Bank of Scotland. The family took up residence in Moor Park in northwest London, and Norman continued his secondary education at Watford Grammar School. Even at this early stage his natural leadership qualities were apparent, and he was elected head boy in his final year. Early thespian tendencies were also evident at school, where he acted in school plays, usually in lead roles, as physically he stood head and shoulders above his peers. In 1945 he entered St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical School, which had been evacuated to Cambridge during the war. Undergraduate students coming straight from school formed a quarter of the intake, the remainder had served in the Armed Forces during the Second World War or had worked in industries allied to the war effort. For the first two terms students shared the facilities of the Cambridge University pre-clinical medical school. Some students were housed in Queens', and enjoyed the collegiate atmosphere, although wartime rationing of food was a problem. At Easter 1946, all Bart's preclinical students left Cambridge and returned to Charterhouse Square, West Smithfield, London, to continue their studies. Most of the medical school buildings had survived the war-time bomb damage inflicted on the City, except for the refectory, which was reduced to one storey. Norman was able to live with his parents in Moor Park and was often to be seen in the dissecting room on a Saturday morning, wearing his kilt, perhaps before or after a game of golf. He was a relaxed but diligent student, who obtained the Kirkes scholarship in medicine and the coveted Brackenbury prize in surgery before sitting the qualifying examinations. With this surgical prize he was guaranteed to obtain the house surgeon post on the professorial surgical unit in 1950 with Sir James Paterson Ross. John Kinmonth was the assistant director at the time and later Norman was to gain a lecturer post at St Thomas' under Kinmonth's guidance. The Christmas shows produced by students and staff were an essential part of the festivities at Bart's. Norman was in his element as the shows toured each ward, and he both wrote and acted in comedy sketches, usually incorporating wry comments on consultants of the day. A 'pot pourri' of the best of the shows was staged at the Cripplegate theatre after Christmas, where Norman proved a superb compere, particularly when joined by a colleague of much smaller stature. Norman then proceeded to a senior house surgeon post at Hill End Hospital, in cardiothoracic surgery, with Oswald Tubbs and Ian Hill for a further year. This mental hospital in St Albans had served as a war-time sector hospital for Bart's, and specialties such as orthopaedics, neurosurgery and cardiothoracic surgery remained at Hill End for many years before returning to West Smithfield. Having decided on a surgical career, Norman obtained a post as a demonstrator of anatomy at the London Hospital for a year in 1952, during which time he passed the primary FRCS examination. In February 1953 he began his National Service. He served as a junior specialist in surgery, firstly at the Queen Alexandra Military Hospital, London, in association with Westminster Hospital, and then at the Army Chest Centre, Connaught Hospital, Hindhead, Surrey. Some of his earlier publications were produced during this period, including 'The management of serious primary pleural effusion in young adults' (*Tubercle*. 1954 Aug;35[8]:182-7) and 'Lipothymoma; a report of a case and a review of the literature' (*J R Army Med Corps* 1956 Jan;102[1]:39-43). Back in civilian life, he became a junior surgical registrar to the surgical professorial unit at Bart's under Sir James Paterson Ross and with Gerard Taylor. After a year, during which he passed the final FRCS, it was time to get more 'cutting' experience in a peripheral hospital. He spent two years in general surgery with Reginald S Murley at St Albans, combining this with some orthopaedic experience under A F Rushforth. In October 1957 he joined the surgical unit at St Thomas' Hospital under John Kinmonth as a lecturer in surgery, a post he held for two years. He benefitted from working with Frank B Cockett, who had an established expertise in the management of varicose veins, and George Kent Harrison, a Canadian by birth, who joined Norman R Barrett as St Thomas' Hospital was taking its first steps in cardiac surgery. His research work blossomed, and included the investigation of 'deficiencies of haemostasis following total body perfusion', the subject of his MS thesis, and animal experimental work on the use of patch grafts in the heart. He published and delivered many papers on both of these subjects, and gave an Arris and Gale lecture at the RCS in 1961 on 'Abnormal bleeding after total body perfusion' (*Ann R Coll Surg Engl*. 1961 Aug;29:102-12). In October 1960, Norman moved back to St Bartholomew's Hospital as a lecturer in surgery with senior registrar status under Gerard Taylor and assistant director of the surgical unit, B N Catchpole. He was able to gain wider experience by working on other general units at Bart's. This period was highly productive, and he wrote many papers, mainly on vascular surgery, including some work on autologous vein grafts and the revascularisation process. In 1963 he undertook a four-month sabbatical visit to the main surgical centres in Denmark, Sweden and Norway, to learn about their clinical and research work on gastroenterology, thyroid and peripheral vascular surgery. He was appointed as a consultant general surgeon to the Royal Berkshire Hospital in July 1965. Within a year he became a RCS tutor, with responsibility for postgraduate educational and training programmes. For the following eight years, up until 1982 he was the Oxford regional adviser to the RCS. Other commitments during this period were to local and regional ethics committees, but the ultimate local accolade came when he was elected president of the Reading Pathological Society. At a national level, Norman played a major role on the education advisory committee of the Association of Surgeons, and as a member and then chairman of the specialist advisory committee on general surgery. He was particularly interested in manpower issues and was on the manpower advisory panel of the RCS. He was an active member of the Grey Turner Club from 1973 and was the driving force behind the foundation of the Peripheral Vascular Club in 1968, and became its secretary and then president. It was felt that there was little opportunity in the UK for general surgeons with an interest in peripheral vascular surgery and working outside the teaching centres to discuss informally the problems of their specialty. Membership was limited to 15-20 members, and although they joined the new Vascular Surgical Society of Great Britain and Ireland, composed of those from teaching centres, they maintained an independent forum, as a travelling club, which met in the spring. The format of the meetings was to have formal papers on a Friday afternoon, followed by an evening dinner, and on Saturday morning there was a 'confessional', a sympathetic, but nevertheless keenly critical, forum for discussion and debate. Norman was very much a family man. He married Margaret (Peggy) V Deane on 30 July 1952 and they had four sons: Iain and Neil, and the twins, Bruce and Stuart. Only Neil followed his father's footsteps. He trained at St Bartholomew's and became a general surgeon. At the family home in Sonning, Berkshire, and the holiday villa in Spain, visitors were always very welcome. On social occasions, and when entertaining staff and colleagues at home, Norman always wore a kilt. In hospital, he always expected high standards and his juniors had to be smart on duty. On one occasion, after a reprimand for substandard attire, all three members of his firm appeared in morning dress the next day. This was one of the few occasions when their chief was lost for words! Sadly Peggy died of metastatic breast cancer on 1 November 1985. After a year Norman married his secretary of many years standing, Mary Ellen Dredge, much to the delight of his family. They were able to enjoy some 25 years together and in his autumn years of retirement their move to Budleigh Salterton in Devon proved a great success. Norman was able to indulge in his passion for golf and together Norman and Mary enjoyed travel. Even in retirement, Norman was always one to stand up and lead. Wherever he went, he was the life and soul of the party, whether taking charge as the self-appointed head of a Saga tour group, or arranging for *The Royal Scotsman* train to make an unscheduled stop at his home town of Pitlochry simply to get fresh supplies of his favourite whisky from a nearby distillery. Norman died of a ruptured thoracic aneurysm outside his home in Budleigh Salterton on 29 January 2011 at the age of 84. He was survived by Mary, his four sons and their families. His grandson Alexander qualified as a doctor from Imperial College just a few months after his death.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001594
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Monro, James Lawrence (1939 - 2013)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Steve Karran
Publication Date 2013-09-30 2014-02-24
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E004000-E004999/E004400-E004499
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/376626376626
Occupation Cardiac surgeon
Details James Lawrence 'Jim' Monro was a cardiac surgeon at Southampton General Hospital, where he successfully developed the service for infants and children. Jim's medical lineage could hardly have been stronger. He was born in Singapore on 17 November 1939, at the start of the Second World War, the son of Jack Monro, professor of surgery in Singapore, and Landon Carter Monro née Reed. His father's Scottish antecedents, a branch of clan Monro of Fyrish, Easter Ross, included, in the 18th and 19th centuries, four medical directors of Bethlem Hospital, commonly known as 'Bedlam'. Jim's American mother was the granddaughter of Major Walter Reed of the US Army Medical Corps, who had identified the *aedes aegypti* mosquito as the vector for yellow fever. The Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington is named in his honour. Following the bombing of Pearl Harbour in December 1941 and the entry of Japan into the war, Jim's father managed to get his wife, Jim and his baby sister Mary on to the evacuation ship *SS Ulysses*. He stayed behind to care for the injured civilians and, with the fall of Singapore, was interned in Changi prison. His family managed to reach Perth, Australia, and then went on, six months later, to San Francisco by sea and eventually to Landon's family in Virginia. On VE Day, Jim, his sister and mother sailed back to the UK on the *Queen Mary*, zig-zagging across the Atlantic at 30 knots to avoid any remaining U-boats. They returned to witness bombed-out buildings and the devastation of post-war London. Initially they stayed with relatives near Richmond, and Jim started to go to school in Putney. After VJ Day, the family were reunited with an emaciated Jack Monro. He was given extra rations and was soon able to attend a refresher course at his alma mater, the London Hospital. Six months later, his recovery was sufficient for the whole family to return to a comfortable government house in Singapore. At the age of nine Jim went back to the UK for his schooling, first in Barnstaple and then at Sherborne. His parents also eventually returned to the UK, and Jack Monro was a consultant general surgeon at the Princess Margaret Hospital in Swindon. Jim spent time with his father in the operating theatre, and even removed an appendix before ever becoming a medical student. Jim's poor A level grades prevented him from taking up an offer at Pembroke College, Cambridge, but he gained a place at this father's old medical school with the help of a 'crammer'. At the London his attitude to exams improved and he soon won a scholarship and several prizes. He was not alone, however, in enjoying, and fully participating in, medical student activities, both on and off the pitch. Cars and stuffed monkeys featured; a Bentley-owning Robert Winston, the future IVF innovator, was one of his contemporaries. Jim passed the conjoint exam in January 1964 and gained his MB BS in May 1964. He was also awarded the Frederick Treves prize in surgery. Directly after qualifying, he held two house posts at the London, under Clifford Wilson and Jack Ledingham in medicine and David Ritchie in surgery. Suitably inspired by this lively Scottish surgeon, Jim soon headed for the primary FRCS course. He passed this in January 1966, and then worked at Birmingham Accident Hospital as a casualty officer. He then moved south again, and arrived at St James' Hospital, Balham, to work under Dan Desmond and Norman Tanner. In March 1967 he returned as a registrar to David Ritchie at the London Hospital, and worked on the vascular surgery unit with Douglas Eadie, and also on a nascent cardiac surgical unit with John Weaver, who had studied open heart surgery with Brian Barratt-Boyes in Auckland, New Zealand. Barratt-Boyes had pioneered the use of human aortic valves (homografts) with good results, and John Weaver's team was now replicating this success. Around this time, Christiaan Barnard was also starting cardiac transplantation in South Africa. With the blessing of John Weaver, Jim then went to work with Brian Barratt-Boyes at the Greenlane Hospital. These years were adventurous, with a particularly fruitful extension of his stay for a second year of training. By this time, Brian Barratt-Boyes had started using a cooling technique in small babies. He had performed this with success in 200 patients by the end of Jim's second year and this experience proved particularly valuable for Jim in later years. Barratt-Boyes subsequently described Jim as one of the best three young cardiac surgeons he had helped train. Jim returned to the cardiac unit at the London in 1972. Having been interviewed unsuccessfully for a consultant post in Edinburgh, Jim was tempted by an invitation from Keith Ross to apply to join him in Southampton. On 11 May 1973 he was duly appointed and his outstanding career as a cardiac surgeon took wing. Keith operated on relatively few children, so Jim was asked to develop the paediatric cardiac surgery. Over the years, the number of these patients treated grew rapidly. Jim, meanwhile, also played a full part in the treatment of adults, so that over 300 cases of open heart surgery were performed annually. In Southampton, the old tuberculosis sanatorium at the Western Hospital had become the cardiothoracic hospital but, by 1981, the cardiac unit had split off and relocated to the General Hospital. Cardiologists Alan Johnson and Neville Conway were soon providing a stream of patients requiring coronary artery bypass grafts. A major advance in angiography for childhood congenital defects occurred with the arrival of Barry Keeton, who had trained at the Mayo Clinic around the same time as the advent of echocardiography. Vast improvements in post-operative and, particularly, intensive anaesthetic care were likewise provided by John Manners and John Edwards. The cooling technique that Jim had learnt in New Zealand soon proved highly beneficial, with, for example, a successful repair by Jim in 1974 of a seven-week-old baby with persistent truncus arteriosis (a previously rapidly fatal cardiac deformity). Complete repairs of Fallot's tetralogy in babies likewise now replaced the temporary Blalock or Waterstone 'shunts', which needed full repair at a later date. The advent of therapy with prostaglandin, which opened the ductus arteriosis and thereby increased lung perfusion, proved another significant advance in the treatment of 'blue babies', producing dramatic post-operative benefit. Among the large number of tiny babies that he operated on was one weighing less than a bag of sugar. Jim was one of the most technically accomplished cardiac surgeons of his generation and his international reputation attracted many junior colleagues to work with him in Southampton. He was a genuine team player, always courteous and polite. Junior staff were inspired by his unflagging enthusiasm and keenness to teach anyone who wished to learn. They found he was, moreover, always helpful and supportive. His determination to develop and improve the treatment of his young charges led to a large number (over 150) of peer-viewed papers, as well as two influential textbooks (written with Gerald Shore) - *A colour atlas of cardiac surgery. Acquired heart disease* (London, Wolfe Medical, 1982) and *A colour atlas of cardiac surgery. Congenital heart disease* (London, Wolfe Medical, 1984). Even towards the end of his career, he continued to operate on the most complex and difficult problems in these babies (with a seven-hour procedure being undertaken on his last list), whilst actively and enthusiastically training his junior staff in less complicated procedures. By the time of his retirement, he had operated on the full range of cardiac abnormalities in 2,000 babies with outstanding results. This was all in addition to operating on some 10,000 adult patients. In 2001, in response to the Bristol inquiry into high death rates among babies who had undergone heart surgery, Jim was asked to chair a committee to review paediatric heart surgery across the UK. The Monro report called for a decrease in the number of units performing children's heart surgery. To Jim's immense disappointment, the committee's recommendations were not acted upon. Jim's standing with his surgical colleagues was reflected in his appointment first as a council member, vice president and then president in 2003 of the European Association for Cardio-thoracic Surgery. He was also president of the Society for Cardiothoracic Surgery in Great Britain and Ireland from 2000 to 2002. All of these achievements, however, were only part of the man. The parents and families of his young patients speak in glowing terms of his kindness and the support shown to them through such desperate times. Although his great charm earned him the sobriquet of 'Gentleman Jim', his real qualities were much deeper. He was a true leader. In 1973 Jim met Jane Dunlop. Within three weeks, he had the good sense to propose, and, after a week of diligent enquiries by Jane in relevant quarters, their engagement was duly achieved. Marriage ensued on 29 September 1973, four weeks after he started his clinical commitments at Southampton. They had three children - Charles, Rosie and Andrew. Despite the pressures of work, Jim managed to enjoy a full family life, with tennis, golf, skiing and horse riding playing prominent roles. Earlier in his life Jim had played rugby (breaking his jaw twice), and had represented Scotland at rifle shooting. He had a decent golfing handicap. He was also a brave and accomplished skier, winning slalom races against Continental colleagues at European surgical gatherings. His ability in a dinghy was less apparent, however, with his drenching providing considerable amusement for 300 spectators during an island trip. Following his retirement he also became a fine draughtsman and water-colourist. In 1997, Jim developed colonic carcinoma. This was treated successfully by his old friend, Bill Heald, in Basingstoke. He was able to resume working after this, however, in 2006, two years after his retirement, prostate cancer was also diagnosed and treatment commenced. Jim died on 29 August 2013, aged 73, and was survived by his wife and family. At a commemoration of his life at Romsey Abbey, tributes of admiration, respect and love were paid to him, not only by colleagues from far and wide, but by many of his former patients, whose lives he had not only saved but had otherwise transformed by his continuing care and support.
Resource Identifier RCS: E004443
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Williams, John Hunter (1925 - 2020)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Cary Mellow
Publication Date 2021-05-05
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/384569384569
Occupation Plastic surgeon
Details John Hunter Williams was born at Wharewhitu Private Hospital in Dannevirke. His father Charles Skinner Williams was an Orthopaedic and General Surgeon (who was also involved in veterinary Orthopaedics) in the Manawatu area. He was given the name John Hunter in memory of the 18th century Scottish anatomist-surgeon from St Bartholomew’s, who along with his brother, William Hunter, was a famous anatomic and surgical pioneer (and possible grave robber) – thus John’s fate was sealed – he just had to become a surgeon!! Charles “retired” from surgical practice in Palmerston North and became a Surgeon / GP in the Far North, based at Kaeo Hospital. Thus started a love of the Far North for John. John attended Hadlow Preparatory School in Masterton (he was one of 18 pupils). As a teenager he contracted polio and was left with left sided weakness; he was able to recover sufficiently to study at Whanganui Collegiate. He took up study at Dunedin staying at Selwyn College (his father Charles had been at Knox). John’s son Charles, a GP in Howick, Auckland, would also stay in Selwyn in future years – in John’s old room no less (but he never found “JHW” carved in the wood paneling!) He was interested in radio and electronics and studied for his BSc – after graduation entering second year at the Medical School. In his memoirs, he states (with typical humility) that he was not good enough in mathematics to have a career in radio engineering or physics! He spent his fifth year selective at Kaitaia Hospital, and his final year as a medical student in Auckland, to be closer to the family in Northland, graduating MB ChB in 1951. While in Auckland, he would frequently do extra work after hours in the Casualty Department for experience. It was here that he had met a Canadian nurse, Sister Joan Hammond, who was on a working holiday travelling the world. She came to like NZ, and John, and she and John subsequently married in Kaeo, keeping her here In NZ! John was a house surgeon in the Auckland District Health Board. For his first house surgeon job, he was assigned to Plastic Surgery at Middlemore Hospital under Mr W M Manchester. The Plastic Surgery Unit was in its infancy and John was only its third Plastic Surgery house surgeon. A previous house surgeon Jack Sinclair (later Professor of Physiology at the new Auckland Medical School) warned John to pay great attention to Mr Manchester’s teaching, so he could repeat the litanies exactly word-for-word on the ward rounds – as would many subsequent medical students, house surgeons and registrars have to also! In his memoirs, John recalls Mr Manchester’s willingness to teach, taking every opportunity to do so – ward rounds, clinics, and theatre lists. Subsequently John worked as a house surgeon in General Surgery at Auckland and at Greenlane Hospitals. In his second year, having enjoyed the supportive atmosphere and spirit of Middlemore, he asked to return there, being assigned to the Clarke/Innes General Surgery team, Harman Smith for Orthopaedics, Ross Dreadon for General Medicine, and another stint in Plastic Surgery with Mr Manchester. In 1954 John became the Plastic Surgery registrar (but was also the General Surgery registrar at the same time!) He and the new full-time Orthopaedic surgeon O.R. Nicholson both had an interest in hands and frequently combined to treat hand injuries, something that would eventually be formalized some years later. John had decided that he wanted to be a surgeon from the time of his graduation; he briefly flirted with the thought of anaesthetics, but apparently, Mr Manchester insisted that he should not be anything other than a Plastic Surgeon. After two years as a registrar, John was given a grant in 1956 to travel to Britain, to obtain a Fellowship in Surgery. Joan and their two boys, Charles and Matthew, travelled to Canada, to be with the Hammond family, while John travelled to England as a ship’s medical officer on the Shaw Savill MV “Taranaki”. He stayed at the Nuffield Accommodation of the College of Surgeons, London, and attended various courses prior to sitting for the Fellowship. He also worked as a prosector at The Royal College of Surgeons, with small jobs at The Royal Marsden Hospital, and Smallfields in Surrey. He obtained both his Edinburgh and English Fellowships. Joan and the children came over to England and for a short time they were reunited as a family living in Nutley, Sussex, until the cold weather drove them home (and Mr Manchester summoned John back to Middlemore!). From June 1958 John was a Full Time Plastic Surgeon at Middlemore Hospital. He now had a dedicated Plastic Surgery registrar and a house surgeon. During John’s absence overseas, Mr Manchester had obtained the FRACS, and John too was encouraged to do so, passing this in 1963, the same day as Joan Chapple, the first woman Plastic Surgeon in Australasia. John saw a progression in anaesthesia practice from the referring GPs and hospital house surgeons giving anaesthetics, to anaesthetics being given by specialist anesthetists; so too from procaine infiltration with heroin sedation, to open chloroform and ether. Mr Manchester insisted the best anaesthesia was ether, but younger anaesthetists were more keen on more modern techniques, and from a surgical point of view it enabled use of bipolar diathermy instead of multiple 5/0 silk ties, and without the risk of explosions! So too John saw the change from nurse-threaded sutures to pre-bonded atraumatic sutures. This all had especially important consequences for the two areas of Plastic Surgery that John would develop a worldwide reputation in – cleft lip and palate and hypospadias. An innovation John developed was to bore a hole in the hard palate in a cleft palate patient to enable attachment of the lateral palatal Veau flaps, enabling less bleeding, less scarring and a better long-term result. Mr Manchester became involved with more and more overseas trips in his role in the ranks of the IPRS, becoming Secretary General, and being in demand as a visiting professor. This meant that John could do cleft lip and palate surgery whenever Mr Manchester was absent. In addition, as the volume of cleft lip and palate patients became too large for Mr Manchester to do himself, John came to do more and more of this delicate surgery. He also took over the treatment of hypospadias patients from Mr Manchester. John entered private practice at the insistence of Mr Manchester in 1965, having rooms initially at 101 Remuera Road with a group of Orthopaedic Surgeons and radiologists, and later at 81a Remuera Road, with his own purpose designed rooms (designed especially for him by a long-term patient). He operated at the Mater Hospital, and subsequently also the Auckland Adventist Hospital. Meanwhile he continued with his work on hypospadias at Middlemore Hospital employing one-stage repairs for distal hypospadias and two stage for the more severe proximal. He presented “an account of his efforts” at the IPRS World Congress in Melbourne. At the same meeting, Charles Devine and Charles Horton presented their work on one-stage repairs and performed a televised operation. Later he would travel to Norfolk, Virginia, to a meeting on Reconstructive Genital Surgery organized by Charles Horton. Their results were excellent, so John adopted the Horton-Devine techniques, including the one-stage flip-flap and the free preputial lining graft techniques, and taught and demonstrated them to younger surgeons in NZ and Australia. He modified it further using a Durham-Smith waterproofing waistcoat flap. John shared exactly the same birthday with Charles Horton and they were thenceforth friends and correspondents. On one occasion John presented a video of his proximal hypospadias free graft technique at the Annual Scientific Meeting of the RACS, accompanied by Handel’s Water music, to spontaneous applause because his technique was so fluid! Other developments were the adoption of the Gibbons catheter (rather than a perineal urethrostomy) and caudal anaesthesia. John became involved in College organisation, becoming a Plastic Surgery Division Board member and later Chairman, as well as being a College examiner for a number of years. John visited Western Samoa with Interplast Australia, but was not happy to do cleft lip and palate or hypospadias surgery, as he was concerned that the patients would be left without adequate follow-up. So too he spent time in South Vietnam at Qui Nhon Hospital with the civilian surgical team at the time of the Tet Offensive – a dangerous time! William Manchester retired from his post at Middlemore Hospital in 1979 and John became Head of Department. The unit had grown from one Plastic Surgeon and house surgeon in 1952 to six surgeons with six registrars and four house surgeons. He continued to work on cleft lip and palate and hypospadias up until his hospital board enforced retirement at age 65 in 1990. He developed a worldwide reputation, not just in one area of expertise, but two – both cleft lip and palate and hypospadias. After retirement from his Part Time Visiting Surgeon position, he was reemployed by his successor, and continued to do outpatient clinics and surgery at Middlemore and also for a time, at Waitakere Hospital. John continued in private practice for some years also. Away from Plastic Surgery, John had a number of interests. He loved tinkering with devices such as machines, taking them apart and repairing them. So too he was intensely interested in computers, becoming an acknowledged expert in the Linux operating system. He became proficient in social media having his own Instagram account and communicating with grandchildren and great-grandchildren in this manner well into his 96th year. His garden in Pakuranga was a source of great pride. John’s father had built a matchbox-sized one-room bach at Tauranga Bay, adjacent to Whangaroa Harbour, in the Far North. It was here that the Williams family would travel for many holidays over the years. Fishing was excellent and John built a Sunburst sailing dinghy from plans in the 1960s – it is still being sailed in Tauranga Bay by the family today. John would often sail around the Whangaroa area well into the 2000s. A review of family holiday photos shows lots of sun, sunhats, and especially smiles. John was a very supportive family man – his beloved Joan and his children, grandchildren and great grandchildren were very dear to him. John was a superb surgeon with world-renowned expertise in two major areas - both cleft lip and palate and hypospadias – a rare achievement. He had extremely high standards and was unceasingly humble as a surgeon, often remarking after a great operation that it was a barely adequate result – “perfection is only just good enough”. He was always very considered in his advice to others, and like his predecessor WMM, he was a patient and excellent teacher. He passed away after a short illness at the place that he had spent over 45 years of his life – Middlemore Hospital – on November 20, 2020. His beloved wife Joan predeceased John by four years. His children and their partners, Charles and Phyllis, Matthew and Janice, Andrew and Anne, James, Joanna and David; grandchildren Jonathan, Sarah, Amanda, Molly; and great grandchildren Brynn, Paityn, George, survive him. “The kauri is fallen, The karakia chanted, The long haul charted, The giant lies still.” Nancy Bruce, 1960.
Resource Identifier RCS: E009956
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Gordon-Taylor, Sir Gordon (1878 - 1960)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2008-03-07
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000400-E000499
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372643372643
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born on 18 March 1878 at Streatham Hill, London, the only son of John Taylor, wine merchant of Dean Street, Tooley Street, London Bridge and Alice Miller Gordon daughter of William Gordon, stockbroker of Union Street, Aberdeen; he and his sister were taken by their mother to Aberdeen when their father died in 1885. Educated at Gordon College and Aberdeen University, as a student he would retire at eight in the evening and would be called by his mother at midnight in order that he might continue his studies. As a result, he passed in English in March 1896, in logic and geology in March 1897, in botany in July 1897 and obtained the degree of MA with third-class honours in classics in April 1898. On the family returning to London, he entered the school of the Middlesex Hospital, being awarded a gold medal in anatomy in the intermediate examination for the London MB. Qualifying in May 1903 with the conjoint diploma and passing the final MB London also, he became, in addition to his other duties, a demonstrator of anatomy under Peter Thompson, working together with Victor Bonney to obtain first-class honours in anatomy in the BSc in 1904. In 1905 he took the BS examination and in 1906 the MS, at the same time passing the Fellowship examination. His first consultant appointment was that of surgeon to out-patients at the Royal Northern Hospital but, when a vacancy occurred at the Middlesex, he applied and was appointed to that hospital in 1907 at the age of 29, becoming assistant surgeon to (Sir Alfred) Pearce Gould and (Sir John) Bland Sutton. He also became attached as consultant to a number of smaller hospitals, St Saviours, the West Herts, Potters Bar, Welwyn, Kettering, Teddington and Hampton Wick Hospitals, and to the Ross Institute for Tropical Diseases. During the war of 1914-18 he was gazetted Captain in the RAMC in March 1915 and, serving first at home, proceeded to France being involved in the battles of the Somme and Passchendaele. He was promoted Major, later acted as consulting surgeon to the 4th Army, and was awarded the OBE, returning to England in December 1918. By his experiences in France he had proved the value of prompt and fearless surgery in wounds of the abdomen, which often necessitated multiple resections of the intestine. After the war he built up a great reputation as an intrepid general surgeon, whose profound knowledge of anatomy and whose operative skill enabled him to undertake the most formidable operations. As a result of his war experience, he was a pioneer in the use of blood transfusion, using the Kimpton Tube technique as he distrusted the addition to blood of anti-coagulants, and so he was one of the first in the field in performing immediate gastrectomy for bleeding peptic ulcer. A truly general surgeon, it was however particularly in the field of the surgery of malignant disease affecting the breast, mouth and pharynx that his interest lay. His enthusiasm for anatomy led him to become an examiner in the Primary Fellowship examination in London for many years 1913, 1919, 1940-4 and 1950-3, and in 1934 he was the first surgeon anatomist to go to Melbourne, Australia, to participate in the second Primary examination to be held in that country as at the first only one anatomist, William Wright of the London, had taken part. He made five subsequent visits to Australia as an examiner, and conducted the examination in Calcutta and Colombo in 1935 and 1949. In 1932 he was elected to the Council of the College and thus began another of his life interests. In 1938 he spent some time as lecturer in surgery at the University of Toronto, where he delivered the Balfour lecture. On the outbreak of war in 1939 he offered his services to the Army, and, being rejected on grounds of age, he crossed Whitehall to be received enthusiastically by the Royal Navy, being gazetted Surgeon-Lieutenant and, very rapidly, promoted Surgeon Rear-Admiral, a very fruitful association which led him all over the world. He was, at some time, an examiner in surgery to the Universities of Cambridge, London, Leeds, Belfast, Durham and Edinburgh. At the College he was elected to the Council in 1932, was Vice-President 1941-3, Bradshaw lecturer in 1942 and a Hunterian professor in 1929, 1942 and 1944. In 1945 he delivered the Vicary lecture, and again in 1954. In 1950 he was appointed Sub-Dean of the Institute of Basic Medical Sciences in recognition of his great assistance to overseas students. In 1952 when a memorial plaque to John Hunter was unveiled in St Martins in the Fields, he delivered the address, and in 1955 he was appointed a Hunterian Trustee. In 1941 he acted for a time as exchange Professor at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, Boston and again in 1946, when he was also postgraduate Professor in Cairo. In 1943 he was a member of a mission to Russia sponsored by the British Council and, while there, he conferred the Honorary Fellowship on the Russian Surgeons Yudin and Burdenko. For the remainder of his life he acted as surgical adviser to the British Council in their choice of representatives to undertake missions abroad and to areas where British surgery could be of assistance. After his theoretical retirement during the war, distinctions were showered upon him. An outstanding orator, the result of punctilious care, effort and his upbringing in the classics, he gave the first Moynihan memorial lecture in Leeds in 1940, the oration to the Medical Society of London in 1940, the Syme oration to the Royal Australasian College in 1947, the Lettsomian lectures to the Medical Society of London in 1944, the Sheen memorial lecture to the University of Wales in 1949, the Rutherford Morison memorial lecture in Newcastle in 1953, the Hunterian oration to the Hunterian Society in 1954, the John Fraser memorial lecture in Edinburgh in 1957, the Diamond Jubilee oration to the Royal Army Medical Corps in 1958, the Mitchell Banks memorial lecture in Liverpool in 1958, the Cavendish lecture to the West London Medico-Chirurgical Society in 1958, the Harveian lecture to the Harveian Society in 1949, and the Founder's Day oration to the Robert Gordon College, Aberdeen. All his life he maintained his contact with Scotland and with the classics, introducing Latin and Greek quotations in his addresses without any suspicion of pomposity. He was elected a member of the Highland Society of London in 1955, was Vice-President of, and honorary surgeon to, the Royal Scottish Corporation, was chairman of the Horatian Society and a member of the Classical Association. His very infrequent holidays were spent in the Highlands. He was President of the Medical Society of London in 1941-2, President of the Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland in 1944-5, and President of the Royal Society of Medicine in 1944-5, being elected an Honorary Fellow in 1949. In 1956 he was awarded the gold medal of the Royal Society of Medicine, and on his eightieth birthday the *British Journal of Surgery* published a special edition in his honour. The Australasian College honoured him in 1949 by founding the Gordon Taylor prize for the best candidate in their Primary examination, on the suggestion of six of their Fellows all holders of the Hallett Prize, and that College commissioned his portrait by James Gunn in August 1960. He himself presented the portrait of his wife, painted in 1922 by Cowper, to the Australasian College. His own portrait by Anna Zinkeisen was commissioned by the Middlesex Hospital, where it now hangs. He was made consultant surgeon to the Alfred and St Vincent Hospitals in Melbourne and was an honorary member of surgical societies in Belgium, Norway, Greece, France and Germany, although his feelings for the last were antipathetic. A keen cricketer and member of the MCC, he was a regular attender at Lords, and it was one evening on leaving the ground that he was struck down by a motor car, sustaining injuries from which he died. A touch of irony, as he was an inveterate walker and detested motor cars, and never had any desire to drive one; having sold his Rolls at the outbreak of war in 1939, he never subsequently owned a car. It must be obvious to any reader of this tale of achievement that this was no ordinary man: indeed he was rightly regarded as the doyen of surgery of his generation. Few men, if indeed any others have inspired such universal respect, admiration and affection. Pre-eminent as a surgeon himself, he performed over one hundred hind-quarter amputations, his joy was to educate, instruct and help young surgeons from all over the world. In Australia his was a name to conjure with, and at the Middlesex out of his forty house surgeons twenty-five achieved consultant status, and of these, twelve at the Middlesex itself. He never forgot a face and, more important, the name that went with it. Christmas cards, penned in his own florid handwriting, were sent every year to surgeons all over the world. He lived for surgery and to keep himself fit always walked and became an expert ballroom dancer. He delighted to entertain visiting surgeons in the Oriental Club or his beloved Ritz, and, although abstemious himself, he was a connoisseur of food and wine. His dapper, trim figure in double-breasted jacket, hatless and with bowtie and wing collar, complete with the pink carnation in the button hole, brought a thrill of excitement to any surgeon lucky enough to encounter him and to be recognised immediately and addressed by name. He was indeed, as Sir Arthur Porritt, the President, described him in his funeral oration quoting Chaucer's words, “a very parfit gentil knight”. He married Florence Mary FRSA, FZS, eldest daughter of John Pegrume, who died in 1949. He died in the Middlesex Hospital following an accident on 3 September 1960. He was cremated at Golder's Green on 8 September, D H Patey reading the lesson. A memorial service was held in All Souls, Langham Place on Thursday 13 October 1960, conducted by the Vicar and by the Chaplain of the Middlesex Hospital. The oration was delivered by Sir Arthur Porritt, who was supported by the Council of the College. The lesson was read by T Holmes Sellors, and the church was filled by representatives of many learned societies and Sir Gordon's colleagues, friends and patients A bibliography of his publications, compiled by A M Shadrake, was appended to the memorial pamphlet published by the Middlesex Hospital, and his principal writings are listed at the end of Sir Eric Riches's Gordon-Taylor memorial lecture *Ann. Roy. Coll. Surg. Engl.* 1968, 42, 91-92; they included: Books 1930. *The Dramatic in Surgery*. Bristol, Wright. 1939. *The Abdominal Injuries of Warfare*. Bristol, Wright. 1958. *Sir Charles Bell, his life and times*, with E A Walls. Edinburgh, Livingstone. On Cancer Statistics and Prognosis 1904. *Arch. Middlesex Hosp.* 3, 128, with W S Lazarus-Barlow. 1959. *Brit. med. J.* 1, 455. Mitchell Banks Lecture. On Cancer of the Breast 1948. *Ann. Roy. Coll. Surg. Engl.* 2, 60. 1948. *Proc. Roy. Soc. Med.* 41, 118. On Malignant Disease of the Testis 1918. *Clin. J.* 47, 26. 1938. *Brit. J. Urol.* 10, 1, with A S Till. 1947. *Brit. J. Surg.* 35, 6, with N R Wyndham. On the Oro-pharynx 1933. *Proc. Roy. Soc. Med.* 26, 889. On Retroperitoneal and Mesenteric Tumours 1930. *Proc. Roy. Soc. Med.* 24, 782. 1930. *Brit. J. Surg.* 17, 551. 1948. *Roy. Melb. Hosp. clin. Rep.* Centenary Volume, p. 189. On the Hindquarter Amputation 1935. *Brit. J. Surg.* 22, 671, with Philip Wiles. 1940. *Brit. J. Surg.* 27, 643. 1949. *J. Bone Jt. Surg.* 31 B, 410, with Philip Wiles. 1952. *J. Bone Jt. Surg.* 34 B, 14, with Philip Wiles, D H Patey, W Turner-Warwick and R S Monro. 1952. *Brit. J. Surg.* 39, 3, with R S Monro. 1955. *British Surgical Progress,* p. 81. London, Butterworth. 1959. *J. Roy. Coll. Surg. Edin.* 5, 1, John Fraser Memorial Lecture. On War Surgery 1955. War injuries of the chest and abdomen. *Brit. J. Surg.,* Supplement 3. On Tradition Moynihan (1940) *Univ. Leeds med. Mag.* 10, 126. Rutherford Morison (1954) *Newcastle med. J.* 24, 248. Cavendish Lecture (1958) *Proc. W. Lond. Med.-Chir. Soc.* p. 12. Fergusson (1961) *Medical History,* 5, 1. The surgery of the "Forty-five" rebellion. (Vicary Lecture 1945). *Brit. J. Surg.* 33, 1.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000459
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Banting, Sir Frederick Grant (1891 - 1941)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2013-04-10
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E003000-E003999/E003800-E003899
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/375984375984
Occupation Physician
Details Frederick Grant Banting, the discoverer of insulin, was born at Alliston, Ontario on 4 November 1891, fifth child and fourth son of William Thompson Banting, farmer, of Irish extraction, and Margaret Grant, his wife, of Scotch extraction. He was educated at Alliston High School and Toronto University, where he graduated MB in 1916. On the outbreak of war he had enlisted as a private, but was sent back to college. He joined the Canadian Army Medical Corps as soon as he had qualified and served in Canada, France, and England, being promoted captain on 9 December 1917. He saw a good deal of fighting, was wounded in the arm at Cambrai, and won the Military Cross in 1918. He was later invalided to England with blood-poisoning and while here took the MRCS in 1918. He went back to Canada in 1919 as resident surgeon at the Toronto Hospital for Sick Children. Next year he moved to London, Ontario, where he practised privately and was a part-time assistant in physiology at Western Ontario University. In 1921 he went back to Toronto as lecturer in pharmacology at the university, becoming senior demonstrator in the department of medicine in 1922, and professor of medical research in 1923, a chair which he held till his death. His own account of his early practice and research may be read in his Cameron lecture in the *Edinburgh Medical Journal*, 1929. On 16 May 1921 he began his research on the internal secretion of the pancreas, in collaboration with Professor J J R Macleod and Dr C H Best, and in less than a year announced (1) the discovery of the insulin treatment for diabetes. In 1889 Minkowski and Mering (2) had shown that the pancreas must have an internal secretion dealing with blood-sugar besides the external secretion dealing with food-stuffs in the gut. This internal secretion eluded them and also Schaefer (3), who called it "insulin", from its localization in the islands of Langerhans, as Laguesse had pointed out in 1893 (4). Opie (5) showed in 1901 that in diabetes the island tissue was usually weak or degenerate. In 1908 Zuelzer (6) and Scott (7) in 1912, extracted small quantities of active substance from the dead pancreas, which proved too toxic for medicinal use. In Macleod's department Banting elaborated a new technique for estimating minute changes in the blood-sugar, and with the help of Best's skill he was able to block the external secretion in dogs and recover from the still intact islands an extract which cured experimentally diabetic dogs. Banting and Best verified that the insulin was still present in the dead pancreas and could be extracted with alcohol before its destruction by ferments. This extract J B Collip purified from its toxic constituents, and thus made it available for the treatment of diabetes. The new treatment proved one of the most valuable discoveries, prolonging many lives and preventing much disability. Banting was rewarded by many honours. He was awarded the Starr gold medal for the doctorate and the George Armstrong Peters prize by Toronto University in 1922 and the Reeves prize and Charles Mickle fellowship in 1923; the Nobel prize for medicine with J J R Macleod in 1923; the Johns Scott medal, Philadelphia in 1923; the FRS of Canada in 1925; the Cameron prize at Edinburgh in 1927; the Flavelle medal of the Royal Society of Canada in 1931; the Apothecaries medal of London in 1934; the F N G Starr gold medal of the Canadian Medical Association in 1936; and the Rosenberger gold medal at Chicago in 1924. He was elected Hon FRCS in 1930, FRS in 1935, and Hon FRCP in 1936. He received the DSc from Toronto in 1923, Yale in 1924, and McGill in 1936, and the LLD from Queen's in 1923 and Western Ontario in 1924. He was knighted KBE in June 1934. Banting went to Stockholm in 1925 to receive his half of the Nobel prize and gave the Nobel lecture; as he felt that Best had been unjustly overlooked by the prize committee he shared his half-prize with him. He also set up a medical research institute at Toronto, afterwards called the Banting Institute, and patients benefited by insulin subscribed nearly £4,500 towards its funds. He became too an active vice-president of the Diabetic Association started in England for the mutual help of diabetics. Another enthusiasm of Banting's was medical care for the Eskimo, and he went to the Arctic in 1927 with a project of starting hospitals there, but the nomadic life of the Eskimo made the scheme impracticable. Banting inspired a real school of young research workers at his institute, and with them carried out much important work. After the completion of his insulin studies he turned his attention to the suprarenal glands, and also made important contributions to the elucidation of the aetiology of cancer, and published a valuable study of silicosis. He was active in helping refugee scientists, and early realized the need for planning medical research to anticipate the demands of the second world war. In this connexion, and in his work after the war had broken out, he showed an unexpected organizing ability. At the beginning of the war Banting came to England as a major in the Canadian AMC and meant to begin research at the Canadian Military Hospital. But in 1940 he went back to Canada to serve on the technical and scientific development committee set up in Ottawa, and began to work on the physiological problems of high flying and the elimination of airman's black-out. He worked at his own institute and at various air stations. In 1941 he started to fly to England on a mission connected with this work, but the aeroplane crashed at Musgrave Harbour in Trinity Bay, Newfoundland, on Friday 21 February. The navigator and another passenger were killed outright, but Banting did all he could for Mackey the pilot, before he himself died in the snow. Mackey, who had head injuries, was alone rescued alive. Banting's body was flown to Toronto where it lay in state in the university convocation-hall before the half-military funeral on 4 March. The service was read by the president of the university and the imperial, dominion, provincial, and city authorities were all represented. A memorial service was held in London on 5 March at St Martin's in the Fields and attended by the presidents of the Royal Colleges. Banting had married first in 1924 Marian, daughter of Dr William Robertson of Elvia, Ontario, and they had one son, William Robertson Banting, born 1929; but the marriage was dissolved in 1932. He married secondly in 1939 Beatrice Henrietta Ball, who survived him. He was a talented painter whose pictures of arctic landscape were particularly admired, and a keen amateur singer with a fine baritone voice. He was of large build, and of simplicity and charm of character, but a difficult colleague. A good portrait appeared in the *American Journal of Digestive Diseases*, 1934, 1, facing page 220. On 20 December 1943 a "liberty ship" named the *Sir Frederick Banting* was launched by Lady Banting, in the presence of the Canadian ambassador to the United States and representatives of Toronto University and other institutions connected with Banting's work, at the Bethlehem-Fairfield shipyard, Baltimore, Maryland. Lady Banting gave a portrait of Banting to hang in the cabin, and the ship was presented by the United States maritime commission to the British government (*Canad med Ass J*. 1944, 50, 181; *J Amer med Ass*. 1943, 123, 1121). Insulin references in text:- (1) Banting, Best and others, *Canadian medical Association Journal*, March 1922, 12, 141. (2) J v Mering und O Minkowski, Diabetes mellitus nach Pankreasexstirpation. *Arch exper Path*. 1889-90, 26, 371. (3) Sir E Sharpey Schafer, *The endocrine organs*. London, 1916. In the second edition (1926), p 343, Schafer says: "The term, insulin, was introduced by de Meyer *Archivio di Fisiologia*, 1, 1909. In ignorance of this it was employed as a convenient term to denote the autocoid of the islet tissue in the first edition of this work, published in 1916. It was independently adopted by Toronto workers in 1922." Banting stated, *Edinburgh Medical Journal*, 1929, that in the laboratory he and his fellow-workers had used the term "isletin", but that Macleod insisted on the term insulin for publication, unaware of its previous use. (4) Laguesse, Sur la formation des îlots de Langerhans. *Comptes rendus, Société de biologie*, 1893, 9th ser 5, 819. (5) Opie, On the relation of chronic interstitial pancreatitis to the islands of Langerhans and to diabetes mellitus. *J exp Med*. Baltimore, 1901, 5, 397. (6) Zuelzer and others, Neuere Untersuchungen über den experimentellen Diabetes. *Deut med Woch*. 1908, 34, 1380. (7) Scott, On the influence of intravenous injection of an extract of pancreas on experimental pancreatic diabetes. *Amer J Physiol*. 1911-12, 29, 306. See also Fielding H Garrison, Historical aspects of diabetes and insulin. *Bull New York Acad Med*. 1925, 1, 127. Bibliography of Banting's principal writings:- Insulin: The internal secretion of the pancreas, with C H Best.* J lab clin Med*. February 1922, 7, 251. Pancreatic extracts in the treatment of diabetes mellitus, with Best and others. *Canad med Ass J*. March 1922, 12, 141; *Trans Ass Amer Phys*. 1922, 37, 337; *Bull Battle Creek San and Hosp Clin*. 1922-23, 18, 155. Pancreatic extracts, with Best. *J lab clin Med*. May 1922, 7, 464. The effects of pancreatic extract (insulin) on normal rabbits, with Best and others. *Amer J Physiol*. September 1922, 62, 162. The effect of insulin on experimental hyperglycaemia in rabbits, with Best and others. *Ibid*. November 1922, 62, 559. Insulin in the treatment of diabetes mellitus, with W R Campbell and A A Fletcher. *J metab Res*. 1922, 2, 547. *The antidiabetic functions of the pancreas and the successful isolation of the anti- diabetic hormone, insulin*, with J J R Macleod. St Louis, 1923. 69 pp. Insulin. *J Mich med Soc*. 1923, 22, 113. The value of insulin in the treatment of diabetes. *Proc Inst Med Chic*. 1922-23, 4, 144. Discussion on diabetes and insulin, with P J Cammidge and others. *Brit med J*. 1923, 2, 445. Insulin in treatment of severe diabetes, with A McPhedran. *NY med J*. 1923, 118, 215; *Trans Ass Amer Phys*. 1923, 38, 370 (discussion, p 405). Observations with insulin on department of soldiers civil re-establishment diabetics, with J A Gilchrist and Best. *Canad med Ass J*. 1923, 13, 565. Insulin, with D A Scott. *Proc Trans Roy Soc Can*. 1923, 3rd ser 17, sect 5, p 81. The use of insulin in the treatment of diabetes mellitus (Nathan Lewis Hatfield lecture No 5). *Trans Coll Phys Phila*. 1923, 45, 153. Factors influencing the production of insulin, with S Gairns. *Amer J Physiol*. 1924, 68, 24. Medical research and the discovery of insulin. *Hygeia*, Chicago, 1924, 2, 288. Insulin. *Internat Clin*. 1924, 34th ser 4, 109. Pharmacologic action of insulin. *J Amer med Ass*. 1924. 83, 1078. Insulin. *Proc Intern Conf Hlth problems trop Amer*. Boston, 1925, 1, 728. *Diabetes and insulin* (Nobel lecture, 15 September 1925). Stockholm, 1925; also in *Sven läk-sälls Handl*. 1925, 51, 189, and *Canad med Ass J*. 1926, 16, 221. History of insulin (Cameron prize essay). *Edin med J*. 1929, 36, 1. Early work on insulin. *Science*, 1937, 85, 594. Medical research: *Inst quart Springfield*, 1924, 15, 11; *Ann clin Med*. 1924-25, 3, 565; *Canad med Ass J*. 1926, 16, 877; N.Y. state J. Med. 1932, 32, 311. Serum studies: Antitryptic properties of blood serum, with S Gairns. *Amer J Physiol*. 1930, 94, 241. Site of formation of phosphatase of serum, with A R Armstrong. *Canad med Ass J*. 1935, 33, 243. Cancer: Resistance to Rous sarcoma, with S Gairns. *Canad med Ass J*. 1934, 30, 615. Study of serum of chickens resistant to Rous sarcoma, with Gairns. *Amer J Cancer*, 1934, 22, 611. Resistance to experimental cancer (Walter Ernest Dixon memorial lecture). *Proc Roy Soc Med*. 1939, 32, 245. Silicosis, etc: Silicosis. *J Indiana med Ass*. 1935, 28, 9. Cellular reaction to silica, with J T Fallon. *Canad med Ass J*. 1935, 33, 404. Tissue reaction to sericite, with Fallon. *Ibid*. p. 407. Silicosis research. *Canad med Ass J*. 1936, 35, 289. Heart: Experimental production of coronary thrombosis and myocardial failure, with G E Hall and G H Ettinger. *Canad med Ass J*. 1936, 34, 9. Effect of repeated and prolonged stimulation of vagus nerve in dog, with G E Hall and G H Ettinger. *Ibid*. 1936, 35, 27. Experimental production of myocardial and coronary artery lesions, with Hall. *Trans Ass Amer Phys*. 1937, 52, 204. Vagus stimulation and production of myocardial damage, with G W Manning and Hall. *Canad med Ass J*. 1937, 37, 314. Miscellaneous: Observations of cerebellar stimulations, with F R Miller. *Brain*, 1922, 45, 104. Suprarenal insufficiency, with S Gairns. *Amer J Physiol*. 1926, 77, 100. Study of enzymes of stools in intestinal intoxication, with Gairns, J M Lang, and J R Ross. *Canad med Ass J*. 1931, 25, 393. I P Pavlov. *Amer J Psychiat*. 1936, 92, 1481. Physiological studies in experimental drowning; preliminary report by Banting and others. *Canad med Ass J*. 1938, 39, 226.
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Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
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First Title value, for Searching Brodie, Sir Benjamin Collins (1783 - 1862)

2025-08-02T08:00:54Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-07-28 2012-07-19
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Occupation Anatomist General surgeon
Details Was the fourth child of the Rev. Peter Bellinger Brodie, M.A., of Worcester College, Oxford, Rector of Winterslow, Wilts, by Sarah, daughter of Benjamin Collins, Banker and printer, of Milford, near Salisbury. The Brodies were originally a Morayshire clan, and the family was fortunate in relations. Dr. Denman, then the accoucheur, had married Brodie's aunt; Sir Richard Goff ['Goff' is crossed out, and the following added: Croft (Lady Croft & Mrs Baillie were Dr Denman's daughters)] had married a cousin; and Dr. Baillie, nephew of William and John Hunter, had married another cousin. Dr. Denman's son afterwards became Lord Chief Justice, and was well known as one of the advocates at the trial of Queen Caroline, whilst Peter Brodie, Benjamin's eldest brother, held a high position as a conveyancer. In 1797 Brodie and his brothers raised a company of volunteers at a time when a French invasion was much dreaded. He was privately educated by his father, and at the age of eighteen went up to London, devoting himself from the first to the study of anatomy. Brodie joined the medical profession without any special liking or bent for it, and in after-days he said he thought those best succeeded in professions who joined them, not from any irresistible prepossession, but rather from some accidental circumstance inducing them to persevere in their selected course either as a matter of duty or because they had nothing better to do. He rose to be the first surgeon in England, holding for many years a position similar to that once occupied by Sir Astley Cooper. Brodie had always a philosophical turn of mind. He learnt much at first from Abernethy, who arrested his pupils' attention so that it never flagged, and what he told them in his emphatic way never could be forgotten. Brodie used to say "that he had always kept in mind the saying of William Scott [afterwards Lord Stowell] to his brother John [subsequently Lord Eldon], 'John, always keep the Lord Chancellorship in view, and you will be sure to get it in the end.'" And a similar aim and distinction were Brodie's. In 1801 and 1802 he attended the lectures of James Wilson at the Hunterian School in Great Windmill Street, where he worked hard at dissection. It was about this time that he formed what proved a lifelong friendship with William Lawrence (q.v.). In 1803 Brodie became a pupil of Sir Everard Home at St. George's Hospital, and was successively appointed House Surgeon and Demonstrator to the Anatomical School, after which he was Home's assistant in his private operations and researches in comparative anatomy, and he did much work for him at the College Museum. "The latter employment," says Mr. Timothy Holmes (q.v.) in his *Life of Brodie*, "was of critical importance for Brodie in several ways - chiefly because it obliged him to work on scientific subjects, and thus prevented a too exclusive devotion to the pursuit of practical surgery. We cannot be wrong in attributing to this cause mainly his connection with the Royal Society, and the many-sidedness of his intellectual activities." At the College he came into contact with Clift, and, through Home, became an intimate in the learned coterie of Sir Joseph Banks, President of the Royal Society, and the chief link between distinguished men of science of two centuries. Brodie still diligently pursued his anatomical studies at the Windmill Street School, where he first demonstrated for, and then lectured conjointly with, James Wilson until 1812. In 1808, before he was twenty-five, he was elected Assistant Surgeon at St. George's, thus relieving Home of some part of his duties. Brodie remained in this position fourteen years, and his "regular attendance at the hospital was an immense improvement, in the interests both of the patients and the students, on the practice obtaining in the metropolitan hospitals of that day". All through life Brodie was consumed with the rage for work which his father had originally instilled into him. So devoted was he to every phase of his duties that he found no time to travel, only once visiting France for a month and often going without a summer holiday. His very recreations were arduously intellectual. Thus he took a leading part in the life of various learned societies - the Academical Society, banished to London from Oxford in the French revolutionary epoch, the Society for the Promotion of Medical and Chirurgical Knowledge, the Royal Medico-Chirurgical Society, of which he was President in 1839 and 1840. He contributed several valuable papers to the last-named society, and at its meetings he stimulated discussion, and had always something of interest to say. Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1810, he soon communicated a paper "On the Influence of the Brain on the Action of the Heart and the Generation of Animal Heat", and another "On the Effects produced by certain Vegetable Poisons (Alcohol, Tobacco, Woorara)". The first paper, the subject of which he doubtless derived from John Hunter, formed the Croonian Lecture: the two papers taken together won him the Copley Medal in 1811, an honour never before bestowed on so young a man. In 1809 Brodie entered upon private practice, and in 1822 became full Surgeon at St. George's Hospital, from which time forward his career was one of ever-increasing success. He became a Member in 1805, a Fellow in 1843, and from 1819 to 1823 he was Professor of Anatomy, Physiology, and Surgery at the College. He lectured upon the Organs of Digestion, Respiration, and Circulation, and on the Nervous System, the most interesting of his discourses being upon "Death from Drowning", a subject which Hunter had investigated without hitting upon the scientific explanation of that form of asphyxia eventually brought out by Brodie. While Professor at the College, Brodie was summoned to attend George IV, and with Sir Astley Cooper, who was the operator, and a formidable array of medical men of that time, assisted at an operation for the removal of a small sebaceous cyst from the king's scalp. He became Surgeon to George IV, and attended him during his last illness, when he went every night to Windsor, slept there, and returned to London in the morning. "His habit", says Mr. Timothy Holmes, "was to go into the king's room at about six o'clock, and sit talking with him for an hour or two before leaving for town." The king became warmly attached to him. He was Surgeon to William IV, and in 1834, when he was made a Baronet, he was appointed Serjeant-Surgeon. In this capacity he became examiner by prescriptive right in the College, a privilege abolished by the Charter of 1843, which Brodie was largely instrumental in obtaining. He was a Member of Council from 1829-1862, Hunterian Orator in 1837, Vice-President in 1842 and 1843, and President in 1844. He retired from St. George's Hospital in 1840, but for some time continued his activity at the College, which owes to him the institution of the Order of Fellows. The object of this institution, he maintained, was to ensure the introduction into the profession of a certain number of young men who might be qualified to maintain its scientific character, and would be fully equal to its higher duties as hospital surgeons, teachers, and improvers of physiological, pathological, and surgical science afterwards. The Fellowship may be said to have been largely instrumental in raising the college to what it now is - "the exemplar of surgical education to the whole kingdom". Brodie was the first President of the General Medical Council, having been elected in 1858. Within a week after receiving this honour he became President of the Royal Society, an office which he filled with great dignity and wisdom till 1861. He died, nearly blind following double cataract for the relief of which he had been operated upon by Sir William Bowman (q.v.), at Broome Park, Betchworth, Surrey, on Oct. 21st, 1862. Of the immediate cause of his death, Holmes says: "It seems that nearly thirty years [see BLOXHAM, THOMAS] previously he had suffered from a dislocation of the right shoulder. I am not aware that he ever made any complaint of the part after the dislocation had been reduced, but it was in this same joint that in July he began to complain of pain accompanied by much prostration; and this was succeeded in September by the appearance of a tumour, doubtless of a malignant nature, in the neighbourhood of the shoulder." It thus happened that he who had spent his life treating diseased joints died of a joint disease. He married in 1816 Anne, the third daughter of Serjeant Sellon by his wife Charlotte Dickinson, his brother-in-law being Monsieur Regnault, the French physicist. Three children survived to maturity: Sir Benjamin Collins Brodie F.R.S. (1817-1880), who became Professor of Chemistry at Oxford; a daughter who married the Rev. E. Hoare; and another son, the Rev. W. Brodie. [His granddaughter Mary Isabel married Sir Herbert Warren K.C.V.O. President of Magdalen College Oxford - 1885-1928] Brodie was distinguished as a surgeon with the bent of a physician. He was not a great operating surgeon, nor did he regard operations as the highest aim of surgery. His power of diagnosis was great, and he was a distinguished teacher with an elegant and clear deliverance. He attained high success by the legitimate influence of a lofty order of intellect, by his great stores of surgical knowledge, and the sound decided opinions he based upon them. He was single-minded and upright in character and free from all affectations. He knew his duty and did it well. He lived for a great end, the lessening of human suffering, and for that he felt no labour was too great, no patience too long. As a scientific man his object was truth pursued for its own sake, and without regard to future reward. He recognized the great traditions of wisdom, benevolence, and self-denial as the everlasting bases on which true medicine and surgery rest, and he was in truth a master of medicine. Of Brodie's manner as a lecturer, Sir Henry Acland says: "None who heard him can forget the graphic yet artless manner in which, sitting at his ease, he used to describe minutely what he had himself seen and done under circumstances of difficulty, and what under like circumstances he would again do or would avoid. His instruction was illustrated by the valuable pathological dissections which during many years he had amassed, and which he gave during his lifetime to his hospital." Mr. Timothy Holmes says: "It was Brodie who popularized the method of lithotrity in England, and by so doing chiefly contributed to the ready reception of an operation which has robbed what was one of the deadliest diseases that afflict humanity of nearly all its terror. This will remain to all time one of Brodie's greatest claims to public gratitude." Brodie used to tell that he once prescribed for a fat butler, suffering from too much good living and lack of exercise. Sir Benjamin told him "he must be very moderate in what he ate and drank, careful not to eat much at a time or late at night. Above all, no spirituous liquors could be allowed, malt liquor especially being poison to his complaint." Whilst these directions were being given the butler's face grew longer and longer, and at the end he exclaimed, "And pray, Sir Benjamin, who is going to compensate me for the loss of all these things?" Brodie's personal appearance is admirably portrayed in the picture by Watts. He was not, perhaps, strictly handsome, but no one can deny that the features are striking. A fine forehead, keen grey eyes, a mobile and sensitive mouth, and facial muscles which followed all the movements of one of the most active minds, lent to the countenance a charm and an expressiveness to which no stranger could be insensible. His frame was slight and small; but there was nothing of weakness about it. Those who knew him only as a public man would little suspect the playful humour which sparkled by his fireside - the fund of anecdotes, the harmless wit, the simple pleasures of his country walk. The following is a list of portraits of Brodie: (1) A bust by H. Weekes, R.A., in the Royal College of Surgeons. (2) A portrait in middle life, which appeared in the Medical Circular (1852, I, 817). The copy in the College is accompanied by a strikingly picturesque and vivid appreciation of Brodie as a teacher making his round of the wards. (3) A half-length by G. F. Watts, R.A., painted in 1860, which is reproduced in Timothy Holmes's *Life of Sir Benjamin Collins Brodie*, 1897. (4) A medal presented to Sir Benjamin Brodie in 1840 when he retired from office as Surgeon to St. George's Hospital. There is a bronze replica in the Board Room at St. George's Hospital, and an illustration of it in the *British Journal of Surgery* (1918-19, vi, facing p.158). PUBLICATIONS: - As an author Brodie achieved fame by his treatise on *Diseases of the Joints*, 1818, which went through five editions and was translated into foreign languages. He wrote also on local nervous affections, diseases of the urinary organs, the surgery of the breast, lighting-stroke, besides an important work, published anonymously in 1854, under the title of *Psychological Enquiries* [Times 21 Jan 1938. BRODIE - On Jan. 20, 1938. at Brockham Warren, Betchworth, Surrey, of pneumonia, SIR BENJAMIN VINCENT SELLON BRODIE, Bt., M.A. (Oxon), D.L., J.P., aged 75. Funeral at Betchworth Church, 3 p.m. Monday, Jan. 24. SIR BENJAMIN BRODIE. Sir Benjamin Vincent Sellon Brodie, Bt.,. died at his home, Brockham Warren, Dorking, yesterday at the age of 75. He succeeded as third baronet on the death of his father in 1880. Educated at Magdalen College, Oxford, and a barrister at Lincoln's Inn, he was a county councillor and then a county alderman for Surrey, High Sheriff in 1912, and a member of the Surrey Education Committee. He owned about 1,000 acres in Surrey. Sir Benjamin married in 1887 Caroline, daughter of the late Captain J. R. Woodriff, R.N., his Majesty's Serjeant-at-Arms, and they had one son and two daughters. Lady Brodie died in 1895. The heir is Captain Benjamin Colin (amended to Collins) Brodie, who was educated at Eton and Magdalen College, Oxford. He served throughout the War with the Surrey Yeomanry and the 4th Battalion, The Gordon Highlanders, winning the M.C. and bar. Later he became a captain in the Army Educational Corps. He is married and has two sons and one daughter.] [SIR BENJAMIN BRODIE Captain Sir Benjamin Collins Brodie, MC, the fourth baronet, died on Monday. He served with the Surrey Yeomanry at Gallipoli, with the Gordon Highlanders and the 1st Highland Brigade, British Army of the Rhine, in the First World War. He was joint headmaster of Holyrood School, Bognor Regis, from 1927 to 1940. He was twice chairman of the governors of Tonbridge School; and from 1945 to 1960 of Judd School, Tonbridge. He was twice Master of the Skinners' Company. Brodie succeeded his father in 1938 and the heir to the baronetcy is Brodie's son, Benjamin David Ross Brodie.]
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Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
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