Search Results for

First Title value, for Searching Charles, Thomas ( - 1873)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Blaker, Harry ( - 1846)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Weisl, Hanuš (1925 - 2007)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by K M N Kunzru
Publication Date 2010-10-14
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001000-E001099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373234373234
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon Trauma surgeon
Details Hanuš Weisl was a consultant orthopaedic and trauma surgeon in South Glamorgan, Wales. He escaped his native Prague in the last kindertransport to London in June 1939. His parents, Alfred, a dentist, and Marie née Mandler, a doctor, eventually joined him in England after the Second World War. After qualifying from Manchester, he acquired British citizenship. He was appointed as a house officer in Manchester Royal Infirmary in 1948 at the inception of the NHS. After serving as an assistant lecturer in anatomy at his medical school, he worked as a surgical registrar at Rhyl, and became a senior registrar in orthopaedics at Cardiff and at Prince of Wales Orthopaedic Hospital, Rhydlafar (near Cardiff). Working with Dilwynn Evans, he developed a special interest in children’s deformities. He was appointed as a consultant orthopaedic surgeon in Bolton in 1963, and returned to Wales in 1969 to Cardiff and Rhydlafar as a consultant, specialising in club feet, and later in deformities caused by spina bifida. He published on many subjects, mostly children’s orthopaedic problems, including papers on skull caliper tractions and hip problems in spina bifida. He died on 17 July 2007 from a cerebral haemorrhage after a fall at home. His wife, Reba, predeceased him in 1997. He left a daughter and a grand-daughter.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001051
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Wolfson, Leonard Gordon, Baron Wolfson of Marylebone in the City of Westminster (1927 - 2010)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

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

First Title value, for Searching Wyatt, Arthur Powell (1932 - 2009)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Christopher Russell
Publication Date 2010-10-14 2012-03-08
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/373236373236
Occupation General surgeon
Details Arthur Powell Wyatt was a consultant surgeon in the Greenwich health district. He was born in Hornsey, Middlesex, on 14 October 1932. His father, Henry George Wyatt, a medical missionary in China, died as a neutral during the Sino-Japanese War in 1938. His mother, Edith Maud née Holden, also a missionary, was a teacher. Arthur spent his early childhood in China, before returning to England in 1940 to attend Eltham College, then the school for the sons of missionaries. During the war it was evacuated to Taunton School and afterwards returned to Eltham. Wyatt entered St Bartholomew's Hospital, qualifying in 1955 with the Walsham prize in surgical pathology. After junior posts, he passed the FRCS in 1960 and became a lecturer in surgery at St Bartholomew's for two years. He then became a senior registrar at King's College Hospital, from which he was seconded to the post of postgraduate research surgeon at Moffat Hospital, University of California, San Francisco (from 1965 to 1966). In 1967, he joined Austin Wheatley at the Brook General Hospital to establish a vascular service, his experience at St Bartholomew's under Taylor, in San Francisco and at King's making him almost uniquely qualified for such a position. Austin Wheatley died prematurely in 1969 and was replaced by Arthur Wyatt, Mervyn Rosenburg and Ellis Field in 1970. They soon established the Brook as one of the places in London in the 1970s for young surgeons to establish their credentials in surgery. The hospital provided a wide range of experience with a heavy emergency workload. Arthur proved a master at difficult and complex operations, having wide experience in pneumatosis coli, oxygen therapy, transhiatal oesophagectomy for carcinoma, thoracic sympathectomy for axillary hyperhidrosis and introducing new methods of fixation for rectal prolapse. He took a full and active part in hospital management, as well as being a regional adviser in general surgery for the South East Thames Region. He was an active member, secretary and president of the surgical and proctological sections of the Royal Society of Medicine. He was a member of the Court of Examiners of our College. He was well recognised locally and became president of the West Kent Medico-Chirurgical Society. Like his parents, Arthur was a committed Christian, and was active in the Christian Medical Fellowship. After retirement, he retraced his Chinese experience to re-establish links with that country. He developed his long term interest in gardening. It was while establishing his new garden that he became aware of the tumour which eventually proved fatal. He accepted the diagnosis with calm bolstered by his Christian faith. He died on 11 October 2009 and was survived by his wife, Margaret Helen née Cox, whom he married in 1955, and their three sons, John, Robert and Andrew. A son, David, predeceased him.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001053
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Harvey, John Scott (1946 - 2010)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by N Alan Green
Publication Date 2010-11-11
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001000-E001099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373237373237
Occupation General surgeon
Details John Harvey was appointed as a consultant general surgeon at the Llandough Hospital in 1982. The hospital later became an integral part of Cardiff Medical School, and was renamed 'University Hospital Llandough' in 2008 during the celebrations marking the 75th anniversary of the hospital and 125 years of Cardiff University. Harvey was born on 5 April 1946 in Manchester into a non-medical family, the son of Arthur Harvey, a clerk who worked for the Manchester Ship Canal Company, and his wife Eliza Jane née Scott, a coalminer's daughter. After secondary schooling at Manchester Grammar School, where he was a foundation scholar, he entered the University of Leeds for his medical training. Qualifying in 1968, he held house appointments at the Leeds General Infirmary. He obtained his MPhil when he was a university lecturer in physiology and passed the FRCS when working on rotating appointments in the Leeds area. To gain more practical experience, he proceeded to a surgical registrar appointment at the Clayton and Pinderfield hospitals in Wakefield. Most of his higher surgical training took place in Wales, as a senior registrar in South Glamorgan, and he acquired a specialist interest in vascular surgery during this period. Over the years he became the respected 'anchorman' of the Cardiff vascular service. He was active in many aspects of Welsh surgical practice, becoming president of the Welsh Surgical Society and also an excellent chairman of the Welsh Surgical Travelling Club. Fond of teaching both undergraduates and postgraduates, in a student yearbook he was quoted as saying: "if you want to pass the exam you need to use the correct words: to gain a distinction you need to put them in the right order". He was a very private man in many ways, but had a keen sense of humour. He would never flout his learning, but when he took an interest in a subject his knowledge took many by surprise. There were many family holidays to the USA, and he became interested in the American Civil War and was an ardent fan of baseball. He staggered and entertained all his colleagues with a verbatim recitation of all 13 stanzas of the famous baseball poem 'Casey at the Bat' at one of the local surgical society meetings. His colleagues described him as "one of the most self-deprecating and caring surgeons" they knew. In 1968 John Harvey married Maureen Grayson: they had one daughter, Rachel Elizabeth, and a son, James. A sufferer from diabetes, he withstood the rigours of treatment for leukaemia and maintained the unique ability of never being rude to anyone, even during the final days when aplastic anaemia developed and his suffering was great. He died on 6 January 2010 in South Glamorgan.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001054
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Porritt, Arthur Espie, Baron Porritt of Wanganui and Hampstead (1900 - 1994)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-05-25 2012-03-13
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/372421372421
Occupation General surgeon
Details Arthur Espie Porritt was born in Wanganui, New Zealand, the elder son of E E Porritt, VD, MD, FRCS, and of Ivy Elizabeth, née Mackenzie, whose father was also a medical practitioner. After education at Wanganui Collegiate School and Otago University, where he had an outstanding athletic record, he secured a Rhodes scholarship to Magdelen College, Oxford, in 1923. He went on to St Mary's Hospital, London, with an Oxford scholarship, qualifying MRCS LRCP London and MB BCh Oxford in 1928, and becoming FRCS in 1930 and later MCh Oxford. After house surgeon and registrar jobs at St Mary's he was appointed assistant director of the surgical unit there before becoming assistant surgeon and then surgeon to his teaching hospital. He was later also consultant surgeon to King Edward VII Hospital, the Royal Masonic, St John and Elizabeth, Paddington General, the Royal Chelsea, Princess Louise, Kensington Children's and Hitchin Hospitals. Porritt was an essentially general surgeon with a special interest in breast and abdominal surgery. An ever kind and considerate doctor much loved by his patients, he was a tireless worker, an expert teacher and a true leader. Always cheerful and optimistic, and supremely practical, he was an ideal member of staff for an undergraduate hospital. He was always popular with students, nurses and resident staff who found him most approachable, and he had a wonderful capacity for getting on with people of all ages. In the operating theatre he was quick, decisive, and never out of temper. His busy life did not allow him to publish many papers but his book, *Essentials of modern surgery*, written with the late R M Handfield-Jones, was popular and widely read and went into six editions between 1939 and 1956. In 1929, with D G A Lowe, he had also written a book on athletics. Shortly after the outbreak of the second world war he joined the RAMC as a lieutenant-colonel in charge of the surgical division of a hospital with the BEF. After the withdrawal from France he served in Egypt for two years. Recalled to the UK in 1943 he joined 21 Army Group with the rank of brigadier and became a consultant surgeon to Montgomery's army in north-west Europe. On demobilisation he returned to his pre-war work, having been made OBE in 1943 and advanced to CBE in 1945. From his early school days, Arthur Porritt had made his mark in swimming, riding, rugby and, most notably, in athletics, where his performance soon reached the highest international level. He was already an athlete of national standing before leaving New Zealand: he was a member of the Oxford University athletic team in 1923 and became president in 1925. His sprint record of 9.9 seconds for the 100 yards in the Oxford v Cambridge event remained unbroken for many years. He also achieved records in the 100 and 220 yard hurdles at Oxford before going on to represent his country in the Olympics in Paris in 1924, where he took a bronze for the 100 metres, and in Amsterdam four years later. He again acted as team manager in 1936. Knee trouble in 1928 compelled him to give up competitive running but he became a member of the Olympic International Council, and a member of the Commonwealth Games Federation, of which he was chairman from 1945 to 1966, and later vice-president. He rode with the Burghley hunt until he was 50. Outside the ambit of his hospital and private work Porritt gave himself unstintingly to many important activities. He served on the College Council from 1950 to 1966 and was President 1960 to 1963. He was honorary Fellow of the Faculties of Dental Surgery and of Anaesthetics, Hunterian orator, Webb-Johnson lecturer and a patron of the College. He was a member and vice-chairman of the trustees of the Hunterian Museum until his death. The very first year of his Presidency of the College he was also President of the British Medical Association, a unique distinction. He performed a notable task as chairman of the Medical Services Review Committee of the BMA: what became known as the 'Porritt Report' put forward a number of valuable ideas and recommendations, some of which were to be subsequently fulfilled. For these services he was awarded the gold medal and honorary fellowship of the BMA, though he had twice resigned his membership in the past. He was a man of integrity who made close and firm friendships with all manner of people. Not surprisingly, he became an honorary Fellow of every Royal Surgical College in the Commonwealth, as well as the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland and the College of Surgeons of South Africa. He also held the United States Legion of merit and was a Knight of the Order of St John. He had a particular love for some of the other medical bodies, notably the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries, of which he was Master, and of the Hunterian Society, over which he twice presided. He had been President of the Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland and was a Fellow of the American Surgical Association and of the French Academy of Surgery. In addition he was patron and past President of the Medical Council on Alcoholism, and had been President of the Medical Commission on Accident Prevention and of the Company of Veteran Motorists. In 1973 he was appointed Chairman of the Arthritis and Rheumatism Council; the African Medical and Research Foundation (amongst other things sponsoring the flying doctor service in East Africa) and also Chairman of the Royal Masonic Hospital. Prior to the second world war Porritt had been appointed Surgeon-in-Ordinary to the Duke of York. Shortly after the war he became Surgeon to the Royal Household and then Serjeant-Surgeon from 1952 to 1967. He was awarded the KCMG in 1950; the KCVO in 1957 (later advanced to GCMG, 1967 and GCVO, 1970) and a baronetcy in 1963 on completing his period as PRCS. After finishing service on the Council of the College he became President of the Royal Society of Medicine for two years. He considered it fortuitous that his appointment as Governor-General of New Zealand in 1967 compelled him to give up active surgery for he did not think it wise for most surgeons to continue long after retirement from hospital work. He and Lady Porritt then had a very happy and fulfilling five years in the country of his birth. On his return to Britain Lord Porritt of Hampstead and Wanganui he made a nmber of sincere and thoughtful contributions to the work of the Upper House and continued to attend there until the end of his life. He was a keen Freemason, had been Master of several lodges and became Senior Grand Deacon in 1951 and Junior Grand Warden in 1964. He was a founder member and vice-President of Lord Horder's Fellowship for Freedom in Medicine, which was dedicated to the highest standards of medical care and very much concerned with the freedom of patients as well as doctors. Porritt was a great ambassador. Apart from his many overseas trips on athletic business (and he attended the Commonwealth Games and Olympics into his ninth decade), he had ranged far and wide for surgery and was a powerful advocate of Britain's finest medical brains and skills being freely available abroad. He was also anxious that foreign medical graduates should be encouraged to study here and, as chairman of the medical advisory committee of the Ministry of Overseas Development, he was well able to further these aims. His first marriage to Mary Frances Wynne in 1926 was dissolved; in 1946, he married Kathleen Peck who had served as a sister in the QAIMNS during the war. They had two sons and a daughter. Fully active until a few weeks before his death, Lord Porritt died peacefully at his home in St John's Wood on New Year's Day 1994, aged 93. A portrait by Sir James Gunn hangs in the College. The Hon Jonathon Espie Porritt, formerly director of Friends of the Earth and one-time Ecology Party parliamentary candidate, inherited the baronetcy and gave the address at his father's service of thanksgiving in St Margaret's Church, Westminster Abbey, on 26 April 1994. The service was attended by the Governor General of New Zealand, the Lord Chancellor, representatives of seven members of the Royal Family, the President and Council of the College, the Chairman and members of the Board of the Hunterian Trustees, the Court of Patrons and a large congregation. This was followed by a reception at New Zealand House.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000234
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Brock, Russell Claude, Lord Brock of Wimbledon (1903 - 1980)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-06-01 2007-03-21
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/372422372422
Details Born on 24 October, 1903, the son of Elvina and Herbert Brock. Educated at Christ’s Hospital he entered Guy’s Medical School, with an arts scholarship, at the age of 17. As a medical student he early showed the brilliance and force of character which were to mark his whole career. He won the Treasurer’s Gold Medal both in medicine and in surgery, and the Golding Bird Medal in pathology. He also won the BMA Prize Essay in 1926. After qualifying with the Conjoint Diploma he sat the London MB BS examination a year later and obtained honours in medicine, surgery and anatomy. He became Hunterian Professor in 1928 and in 1929 he was awarded a Rockefeller Travelling Fellowship and joined the department of Evarts Graham in St Louis, from which time he developed his interest in thoracic surgery. On his return he became surgical registrar and tutor at Guy’s and in 1932 a research fellow of the Association of Surgeons of Great Britain. In 1935 he won the Jacksonian Prize, and in the same year was appointed consultant thoracic surgeon to the LCC. In 1936 he was appointed to the staff of Guy’s and the Brompton Hospital and Surgeon to the Ministry of Pensions at Queen Mary’s Hospital, Roehampton. During the second world war he was thoracic surgeon and regional advisor in thoracic surgery to the EMS. After the war he was elected to the Council of the College to the work of which he had devoted so much time despite his heavy clinical and teaching commitments. He served from 1949 to 1966 successively as a member of Council, Vice-President and finally President from 1963 to 1966. During this period he delivered an outstanding Bradshaw Lecture in 1957 and Hunterian Oration in 1960. After relinquishing the Presidency he became a member of the Court of Patrons and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Hunterian Collection. On retirement from his hospital posts in 1968 he continued to devote himself to his private patients and to his researches as director of the College’s department of surgical sciences which he had promoted while President. He maintained that private practice and hospital care were complementary to the NHS. He was active in promoting the Private Pensions Plan, of which he was Chairman from 1967 to 1977 and President in 1978. As well as being himself a pioneer in numerous cardio-thoracic techniques Brock was always interested in the work of others, from Sir Astley Cooper – a predecessor at Guy’s – to contemporary surgeons such as Alfred Blalock, who came to Guy’s as a visiting professor. One of the numerous honours which he particularly cherished was that of honorary visiting physician to the Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore. In all he received twenty or more honorary Fellowships and Doctorates from the British Isles, Europe and North and South America, as well as numerous prizes and gold medals. He was President of the Thoracic Society in 1951, President of the Society of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland in 1958 and President of the Medical School of London in 1968. He wrote extensively on surgical subjects: from his first paper as a student in the *Guy’s Hospital gazette*, written at the age of 20, to one of his last, before he retired at 65. Apart from his own publications he contributed many chapters to other volumes and one hundred and twenty individual papers with the same number in collaboration. His best known publications were: *The anatomy of the bronchial tree*, *The anatomy of congenital pulmonary stenosis*, *The life and work of Astley Cooper*, and *Lung abscess*. He wrote succinctly and would not tolerate misuse of the English language – to the patient who asked ‘Do I need surgery, Sir?’ he replied, ‘Everyone needs surgery, Madam, what you need is an operation!’ In teaching and training students and young surgeons he expected the same dedication which he displayed himself, and would not tolerate laziness nor suffer fools gladly. Those who passed successfully through the fire could be sure of his continued interest and encouragement. Brock’s literary interests were early appreciated at Guy’s where he was chosen as assistant editor of the *Guy’s Hospital reports* in 1935, before he was appointed to the staff, and editor in 1939. He remained in office till 1960. His others interests were historical and antiquarian. He had an extensive knowledge of old furniture and prints, a special interest London Bridge and its environs. He was closely involved in identifying, restoring and preserving the operating theatre at old St Thomas’s Hospital. In 1927 he married a Frenchwoman, Germaine Louise Ladezere and they had three daughters. Brock was not an easy man to know nor, on occasion, to work with. His shyness had a determined character, and his brusque manner was both in compensation for his shyness and cloak which concealed his essential kindness and generosity. His last years were saddened by the death of one of his three daughters, who had married Colin Howe FRCS, followed by that of his wife and also by the modifications which circumstances made necessary to his beloved department of surgical sciences. In 1979 he married Christine Palmer Jones who survives him. He died at Guy’s Hospital on September 3, 1980.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000235
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Richardson, William Worsley (1915 - 2005)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2007-02-01 2007-03-08
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/372513372513
Occupation General surgeon
Details ‘Bill’ Richardson, who ultimately became one of only two consultant general surgeons at Chase Farm Hospital in Enfield, had an interesting and varied career before studying medicine. Although he was born in Sydney, Australia, in 1915, his early childhood was spent in Fiji, where his father, Pud, grew bananas for export, and his mother, Margaret, was a schoolteacher and governess. At the age of nine, Bill was sent to board at Barker College in Hornsby, then to Suva Grammar School in Fiji, and finally at Knox Grammar School at Wahroonga, New South Wales. Whilst boarding at Knox, his father moved to Innisfail, North Queensland, to the South Johnston Sugar Mill. Bill left school at 16 to work in the laboratory of the Colonial Sugar Refinery. During the Depression years he lived in a boarding house, but later rented a flat in Kirribilli, with views over Sydney harbour and the new bridge. He lived a ‘bohemian’ life, mixing with a group of young people, including his future wife, Margaret. He then moved to Auckland, to work in a New Zealand sugar refinery. He and Margaret married in 1936, although it was unheard of for an employee to marry so young. A son, Marcus Worsley, was born in 1940, and the following year Bill joined the Navy, where he served on motor gun-boats escorting larger vessels through the Mediterranean. He returned to New Zealand in 1945. The Repatriation Board supported his studies at Otago University in Dunedin, which Bill supplemented by back-breaking work during vacations in a brewery. His wife was the first medical artist at Otago Medical School. Graduating at the age of 36, he became house surgeon at Dunedin Hospital under Michael Woodruff who, though a fiery and unpredictable chief, supported Bill Richardson in his application for a Nuffield fellowship to study in England. Arriving in London with his wife and son in 1954, he worked for two years at the Bland-Sutton Institute of the Middlesex Hospital. A daughter, Patricia Margaret ('Patsy'), was born in 1956. During this time he worked on breast cancer, as an assistant pathologist, and produced the Scarff-Bloom-Richardson classification of the disease in 1957. He published (jointly with Bloom) ‘The natural history of untreated breast cancer (1805-1933)’, based on the records of the Middlesex Hospital Cancer Charity. Having passed the FRCS in 1955, he became registrar to Oswald Lloyd-Davies, who became his mentor and long-time friend, and, working with R Vaughan Hudson, developed an interest in thyroid diseases. He was appointed consultant at Chase Farm Hospital in 1960. He was an excellent mentor to staff at all levels, retaining links with overseas trainees and teaching them with enthusiasm In addition to his heavy workload for the NHS in general and vascular surgery and urology, he also developed a substantial private practice. In the seventies, when private practice was under threat, he helped set up the private North London Nuffield Hospital, which opened in 1976. He loved to travel and spoke fluent Italian. When his wife developed encephalitis, he nursed her back to health. After she died in 1989, he returned to Adelaide, where he enjoyed a quiet independent life in his own home, near his family, reading, listening to music and continuing to travel. He died on 27 July 2005, after a short illness. He is survived by Marcus and Patsy. He also had a grandson, Thomas.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000326
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Baker, Robert Large (1820 - 1885)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Baker, William Morrant (1839 - 1896)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2009-11-04
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/372923372923
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born on Oct 20th, 1839, the son of B Russell Baker, a solicitor of Andover. Educated at the Andover Grammar School, and then apprenticed to George Speke Payne, a local surgeon. In 1858 he entered St Bartholomew’s Hospital, and qualifying in 1861 he was appointed Midwifery Assistant. In 1867 he was made Demonstrator of Anatomy and became associate editor of the 6th edition of Kirkes’ *Physiology*. He was Warden of the College from 1867-1874, when he showed himself to be a kind and wise friend to many students. In 1869 he succeeded Sir William Savory (q.v.) as Lecturer in Physiology, and held that post for sixteen years. In 1870 he was elected Casualty Surgeon, in 1871 Assistant Surgeon, and full Surgeon in 1882. He was also Surgeon to the Skin Department at St Bartholomew’s Hospital, Surgeon to the Evelina Hospital for Sick Children, a Member of the Court of Examiners at the Royal College of Surgeons, and Examiner at the Universities of London and Durham. He retired from the staff of St Bartholomew’s Hospital in 1892 on account of ill health. He then left his house in 26 Wimpole Street, removing to Woburn Square, and later in 1896 to his country house, Nutbourne Manor, Pulborough, where he died on Oct 3rd, 1896. He was buried at West Chiltington, and a tablet to his memory by his house surgeons is on the west wall of the church of St Bartholomew-the-Less. He married Annie Mills, of Andover, the sister of Joseph Mills, the anaesthetist, and had six children, two sons and four daughters. His eldest son was a student at St Bartholomew’s Hospital at the time of his father’s death, and some years ago presented to the hospital the collection of prints dealing with St Bartholomew’s which his father had delighted to collect. This collection is now in the Library of St Bartholomew’s Hospital Medical College. Baker’s works, which were numerous, may be seen in his biographies. He was a hard-working, capable surgeon of the period immediately preceding the aseptic era of surgery, who was more especially interested in diseases of skin and of the tongue, an organ he removed with an écraseur. He is best remembered at his own hospital by his paper on “Synovial Cysts in Leg in Connection with Diseases of the Knee-joint”, published in the *St Bartholomew’s Hospital Reports*. The result of this paper was that Baker had his name given to this disease, and ‘Baker’s cysts’ were well known in this country. It remained for D’Arcy Power to show that these ‘Baker's cysts’ were really part of a tuberculous affection of joints, which had not been recognized by Morrant Baker. He also invented a useful tracheotomy tube made of red rubber. Publications: “Synovial Cysts in Leg in Connection with Diseases of the Knee-joint.” *St Bart.’s Hosp. Rep.*, 1877, xiii, 245. “On the Use of Flexible Tracheotomy Tubes.” *Med.-Chir. Trans.*, 1877, lx, 71.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000740
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Balding, Daniel Barley (1831 - 1923)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Ball, Sir Charles Bent (1851 - 1916)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2009-11-04
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/372925372925
Occupation General surgeon
Details The younger son of Robert Ball, LLD, Director of the Dublin Museum of Science and Art, and brother of Sir Robert Stawell Ball, the Astronomer Royal, was born in Dublin on Feb 21st, 1851. After a brilliant career at Trinity College, Dublin, he practised for a short period in South Wales; but returned to Dublin, where he obtained a Poor Law appointment which he held till 1879, when he took the Fellowship of the Irish College of Surgeons, and devoted himself entirely to surgery. He was Surgeon to Sir Patrick Dun’s Hospital, Consulting Surgeon to a large number of institutions, and a member of many important committees. In 1895 he was appointed University Anatomist in succession to Henry St John Brooks, and succeeded Sir George M Porter as Regius Professor of Surgery in the University of Dublin, holding both posts till the end of his life. In 1903 he received the honour of knighthood, and in 1911 he was created a Baronet of the United Kingdom. Ball was for many years the most prominent figure in Irish surgery, recognized as lavish in public work, a good all-round surgeon, but best known as a specialist in rectal diseases. His most important book – *The Rectum and Anus, their Diseases and Treatment* – was for many years considered the standard work in the English language. His other works are mentioned in the biographies. ‘Ball's operation’ for pruritus ani consisted in dividing the sensory nerves supplying the region. He married on July 22nd, 1874, Annie Julia, daughter of Daniel Kinahan, JP, of Roebuck Park, Dublin, by whom he had four daughters and three sons, of whom the eldest – C Arthur Kinahan Ball, FRCSI, Surgeon to Sir Patrick Dun’s Hospital – succeeded to the title. Ball practised at 24 Merrion Square, and died after an illness of several months on March 17th, 1916. His portrait is in the Honorary Fellows’ Album. Publication: *The Rectum and Anus; their Diseases and Treatment*, 12mo, London, 1887 and 1894.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000742
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Ball, Daniel (1799 - 1895)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Bally, William Ford ( - 1859)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Bancks, Thomas ( - 1880)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2009-11-04 2013-08-06
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/372928372928
Occupation General surgeon
Details Educated at St Bartholomew's Hospital; practised at Stourbridge, where he was Surgeon to the Iron and Coal Works. He died before 1880, but for ten years before this date his address was unknown to the *Medical Directory*. Publications: "On Fracture of Cranium." - *Lancet*, 1846, ii, 581. "Imperforate Vagina." - *Prov. Med. Jour.*, 1843, v, 450. "Strangulated Hernia." - *Ibid.*, 1844, 493. "Poisoning by Lead." - *Lancet*, 1849, i, 478.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000745
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Thornberry, David John (1950 - 2009)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by John Blandy
Publication Date 2011-06-09
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001200-E001299
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373429373429
Occupation consultant in rehabilitation medicine
Details David John Thornberry was a consultant in rehabilitation medicine at Derriford Hospital, Plymouth. He was born in London on 31 July 1950, the son of Cyril Joseph Thornberry, a consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist, and Elizabeth Mary née Marks, a radiographer. His sister went on to become a consultant anaesthetist. He was educated at Cambusdoon Preparatory School in Ayrshire and then Harrow. He studied medicine at Queens' College, Cambridge, and St Thomas' Hospital, London. He held junior posts at St Thomas', including appointments as an orthopaedic house surgeon and as a senior house officer in the accident and emergency department. He then specialised in surgery, becoming a senior house officer in general surgery at Portsmouth and then a registrar at Wolverhampton. It was while he was working as a registrar that he developed multiple sclerosis, being diagnosed in 1979. He retrained as a medical officer in the artificial limb and appliance service at Selly Oak, Roehampton, Exeter and Plymouth. He was appointed as a consultant in rehabilitation medicine at Derriford Hospital, Plymouth, in 1990 with a particular interest in neurological disability and amputees. As his multiple sclerosis progressed, he began to work part-time. He was a member of the British Society of Rehabilitation Medicine, a committee member of the International Society for Prosthetics and Orthotics, Engineering in Medicine and of the national executive of the British Society of Rehabilitation Medicine. He married Judi in 1977. They had two daughters, Hannah Kate and Alice Elizabeth, and a son, David Thomas. Outside medicine, he enjoyed sailing, rowing and rugby. He was a talented artist, adapting his style to his ability. He died 15 August 2009 from complications of metastatic melanoma and his multiple sclerosis.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001246
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Till, Kenneth (1920 - 2008)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by T T King
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/373430373430
Occupation paediatric neurosurgeon
Details Kenneth Till was a paediatric neurosurgeon at Great Ormond Street Hospital, London. He was born in Stoke-on-Trent on 12 February 1920, the son of Reginald Till, a ceramic designer, and his wife, Grace Adelaide née Smallcombe. He was educated at Poole Grammar School, Dorset, and later at Downing College, Cambridge, and St George's Hospital Medical School, London, winning an Anne Selina Fernee scholarship and the Brackenbury surgical prize. He graduated in 1944 and, while a house surgeon at St George's, encountered neurosurgery in the form of Wylie McKissock, into whose operating theatre he ventured at Atkinson Morley's Hospital, Wimbledon, a branch of St George's. McKissock was impressed and offered him an appointment as a neurosurgical house surgeon at Great Ormond Street Hospital where, ultimately, he made his career. After house jobs at St George's and National Service in the RAF, he obtained the FRCS in 1953 and was appointed first assistant to McKissock at Great Ormond Street. He spent 1956 at the Chicago Memorial Children's Hospital, and in 1959 he was appointed as a consultant neurosurgeon at Great Ormond Street, where he remained single-handed until 1970. He also held a consultant appointment at University College Hospital and honorary appointments at the Whittington Hospital, London, and Queen Mary Hospital, Carshalton, Surrey. Till was an exceptionally rapid surgeon, with wide interests. Together with the engineer, Stanley Wade, and the author Roald Dahl, whose son had developed hydrocephalus following a head injury and was under Till's care, he helped develop the Wade-Till-Dahl valve for the treatment of this condition. This device, which followed the appearance of the first valved shunts in the US designed by Holter and Nulsen, was simple, cheap, re-sterilisable and less likely to become blocked with debris, since the valves were of metal. It had considerable success, though it did not provide a pressure against which the CSF drained, a consideration that subsequently became regarded as important and led to more complex designs. Till's contributions to the literature covered a number of topics, especially craniopharyngioma and spinal dysraphism. He was involved in the development of Great Ormond Street Hospital as a centre for cranio-facial surgery and was a founding member of the International Society for Pediatric Neurosurgery. In 1975, he published a textbook, *Paediatric neurosurgery: for paediatricians and neurosurgeons* (Oxford, Blackwell Scientific). After retirement he moved to Somerset and acted as a technical adviser to publications which included the *British Journal of Neurosurgery* and the *Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry*. He married Morwenna Tunstall-Behrens, a doctor who had engaged in leukaemia research and was also a distinguished plantswoman. They had one daughter and three sons. Till's interests outside the profession were gardening, photography and music. He died on 8 July 2008 of complications of Waldenström's macroglobulinaemia.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001247
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Tuckwell, William (1784 - 1845)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2008-05-01
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/372689372689
Occupation General surgeon
Details Was born of yeoman stock at Aynho, Oxfordshire, and was educated at the local grammar school under Mr Leonard, known for his scholarship and his addiction to green tea. He was apprenticed to a surgeon at Woodstock, and afterwards became a pupil of John Abernethy at St Bartholomew’s Hospital, where he formed friendships with Frederic Carpenter Skey (q.v.) and Sir George Burrows. He came to Oxford without introductions, friends, or money, and was made ‘Chirurgus Privilegiatus’ by the University on Nov 10th, 1808. He took lodgings in ‘The High’ and soon acquired a practice, for he had ability, engaging manners, and was not lacking in self-esteem. He was elected Surgeon to the Radcliffe Infirmary on March 15th, 1809, succeeding Edward Metcalfe Wardle, Surgeon from 1781-1808, and held the post until 1836, when he was made a Life Governor. He was also Consulting Surgeon to the Warneford Hospital, Oxford. His wife Margaret (d. 1842) bore him four children, of whom the eldest son, the Rev W Tuckwell (b. 1830), the head master of the Collegiate School at Taunton, wrote *Reminiscences of Oxford*, and Henry Matthew Tuckwell, MD (b. 1835), the second son, long had the chief medical practice in the City and University. Lewis Stacey (b. 1840), the fourth son, became Vicar of Northmoor, Oxon. Tuckwell practised in High Street, Oxford, in the somewhat gloomy stone house facing Magdalen College School, but died at Cowley House, where he had retired, on Sept 20th, 1845. He was well adapted for University practice: his professional knowledge was of so high an order that there was some talk of his coming to London when John Abernethy retired. He was also a good classic and acquainted with French, Italian, and Spanish. He dined often at high tables, and his own dinner-parties were noted for conviviality and wit. He was, too, a skilled player at piquet, whist, and chess. In costume and behaviour he was a survival from more picturesque times. His son says: “He paraded Oxford in a claret-coloured tail-coat with a velvet collar, canary waistcoat with gilt buttons, light brown trousers, two immense white cravats propping and partly covering the chin, a massive well-brushed beaver hat. His manner and address appear to have been extraordinarily winning: he overflowed with anecdote and quotation, yet knew how to listen as well as talk.” He preserved, too, the charitable spirit of practitioners before the introduction of out-patient departments by throwing open his surgery in the early morning to necessitous patients, to whom he gave the same quality of service as to those who were able to pay him adequate fees.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000505
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

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
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First Title value, for Searching Moyle, John Grenfell (1787 - 1860)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Godwin, Richard Bennett ( - 1871)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Ranger, Ian (1925 - 2008)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by N Alan Green
Publication Date 2008-05-01 2014-06-30
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/372693372693
Occupation General surgeon
Details Ian Ranger was a true general surgeon who worked in the United Norwich Hospitals from 1967 to 1988. He was the son of William Ranger and Hatton Thomasina née Grigg. His father had been a schoolmaster, army officer and businessman, who emigrated to Australia in 1920, where Ian and his brother (Sir) Douglas were born. He was educated at Scott's College, Warwick, Queensland, and the Church of England Grammar School, Brisbane, returning to England before the Second World War to finish his schooling. He followed his elder brother Douglas to the Middlesex Hospital. After qualifying he worked for a year at the Bland Sutton Institute of Pathology under Leslie Le Quesne. In 1958 he spent a year at the Boston City Hospital under J Englebert Dunphy, with whom he retained strong links and whilst there gave practical classes in surgical technique to medical students. Carl Walter, inventor of the Fenwal bag used in blood transfusion, made students smear their forearms with lamp black and scrub it all off before operating. This may have altered Ian's views on his own scrub up technique, as at times he used a special cream to smear his hands and arms, declaring that it was better after a gentle soap and water wash to trap any residual germs in! On returning to the UK, Ian completed his thesis on oesophageal reflux. In 1964 he began a long locum in Cambridge during the illness of Brian Truscott and was appointed to his definitive post in Norwich in 1967. He worked with one surgical firm at the West Norwich Hospital with his equally enthusiastic senior colleague, Alan Birt. Other commitments were to the Jenny Lind Hospital for Children. But he displayed even more energy in his enthusiastic efforts at Cromer and District Hospital. Here he performed some major and heroic surgery, much to the consternation of the anaesthetists, and certainly the pathology department and perhaps some of the registrars working in Norwich. He recommenced emergency surgery there to the benefit of so many patients in north Norfolk, and liaised with a voluntary organisation, the Cromer Allies, to raise funds for an extra ward and new operating theatre. He published papers on sialography, the dissemination of micro-organisms by a suction pump, superior mesenteric artery occlusion, and was a Hunterian Professor in 1961. Naturally left-handed, he was completely ambidextrous, working rapidly with never a wasted movement. Many residents went to Norwich from overseas to rotate through the surgical firms. Ian was surgical tutor for East Anglia for three years. In retirement he divorced himself from medical activities, but is remembered by his colleagues for his enthusiasm and forceful character. He married Janet, who predeceased him. They had two sons, Alistair and Piers. Alistair became a GP in Scotland. Ian Ranger died quite suddenly in Cringleford, Norwich, on 14 February 2008, after a period of ill health with heart problems.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000509
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Neame, John Humphrey (1926 - 2007)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Neil Weir
Publication Date 2008-05-01 2009-05-07
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/372694372694
Occupation ENT surgeon
Details John Humphrey Neame was an ENT surgeon in Norwich. He was born in London on 14 July 1926, the eldest son of Humphrey Neame, an ophthalmological surgeon on the staff of Moorfields Hospital, and Minnie née Goodwin. Neame followed his father to Cheltenham College and then went to Lincoln High School, Portland, Oregon, during the war, returning to Trinity Hall, Cambridge. He went on to complete his clinical studies at University College Hospital, London, where he was influenced by Miles Formby. After junior posts, he specialised in ENT, becoming house surgeon, registrar and senior registrar at the Royal National Throat Nose and Ear Hospital. He was appointed consultant ENT surgeon to the Salisbury Hospital Group and Swindon and Marlborough hospitals. He was blessed with plenty of opportunities to fish and much enjoyed working with electronics. In 1960 he married Ruth Richards, with whom he had two sons, Stephen and Robert, and a daughter, Rachel. Both of his sons have entered the medical profession. He died on 13 July 2007, the eve of his 81st birthday.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000510
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Smith, Charles William (1923 - 2006)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Neil Weir
Publication Date 2008-05-08 2009-05-07
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/372695372695
Occupation ENT surgeon
Details Charles William Smith was a consultant ENT surgeon in York. He was born in Kenton, London, on 24 October 1923, the first son of Cecil Smith and Mabel née Gibb. His father, who had served in the First World War with the Royal West Kent Regiment (known as ‘the Dirty Half Hundred’), was badly wounded in the face at the Battle of the Somme, and remained disfigured and partially incapacitated for the rest of his life. Charles Smith and his brother were both educated at the Merchant Taylors’ School in Northwood and were brought up in a happy Christian household. He always maintained that his acceptance at St Thomas’ Medical School was more due to the fact that the Dean recognised his father from the war than his own academic prowess. At medical school he was a keen athlete and rugby player. His first house job was with the ENT department, which no doubt shaped his future career. He continued his training at the Royal Waterloo, the Charing Cross and the Royal Marsden hospitals, and then fitted in his National Service (spent in the Royal Army Medical Corps serving in Chester and Klagenfurt, Austria), before becoming chief assistant to the ENT department at St Thomas’ in 1956. He was appointed, initially as the sole ENT consultant, to the York hospitals in 1959 and served there until 1988. During this time he not only developed his own department, but was also the lead clinician in the planning of the new York District Hospital. Charles Smith became a member of the Court of Examiners at the RCS in 1962. He served as chairman of the York division of the BMA and was president of the North of England Society of Otolaryngology, the section of otology at the RSM and the Visiting Association of Throat and Ear Surgeons of Great Britain. He was honorary treasurer of the British Academic Conference in Otolaryngology, and served as honorary treasurer and then president (from 1984 to 1987) of the British Association of Otolaryngologists. During the time of his presidency he did much to represent the specialty’s interests in Europe and was founder president of the European Federation of Oto-Rhino-Laryngological Societies (EUFOS). At the end of his term of office he was awarded a gold award by the International Federation of Oto-Rhino-Laryngological Societies (IFOS). His appointment to the Archbishop’s council reflected his longstanding friendship with Donald Coggan who, ahead of him at school, had been a curate to the Rev Marshall Hewitt (Charles’s future father-in-law). He persuaded his superior that Charles was a suitable match for his only daughter, and was given the privilege of marrying them at All Soul’s Langham Place. When Charles Smith eventually arrived in York he found Donald Coggan was Archbishop. Charles Smith married Moyra (née Hewitt) in 1955. They had five children, Penn, Basil, Johanna, Rupert and Jeremy. His wide range of other interests included his local church, motor caravanning, gardening, photography, golf, natural history and fly fishing. He was master of the Merchant Taylors’ Company of York. He died on 2 October 2006.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000511
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Ryan, Rowena Marion (1958 - 2005)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Neil Weir
Publication Date 2008-05-08 2022-03-17
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/372696372696
Occupation ENT surgeon
Details Rowena Ryan was an ENT consultant at Northwick Park Hospital, London. She was born in East London, South Africa, on 4 February 1958, where her father, Cecil Crawford Lindsay Ryan, was serving as a diplomat. Her mother, Dorothy Hazel née Lampkin, had been a secretary. Her paternal grandfather had qualified at Trinity College, Dublin, and became a general practitioner in Bath. She was educated at Alexandra College, Dublin, where she won the Governors Association scholarship, and went on to read medicine at Trinity. After qualifying she held junior posts at the West Middlesex, Stoke Mandeville, Hammersmith and Addenbrooke’s hospitals, before becoming an ENT registrar at the Royal Ear Hospital and senior registrar at the Royal National Throat, Nose and Ear Hospital. She was appointed as a consultant ENT surgeon to Northwick Park and the Central Middlesex hospitals in 1996, where her principal interest was in paediatric audiology. She was an examiner for the intercollegiate FRCS (otol) and was chair elect of the ENT comparative audit group of the British Association of Otorhinolaryngologists - Head and Neck Surgeons. In 1989 she married Audoen Healy, a dentist, with whom she had a daughter, Greta, and a son, Duncan. Outside work and family, her passions were music, literature, foreign languages, squash and tennis. She died of cancer of the pancreas on 9 December 2005.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000512
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Young, Austen (1914 - 2005)

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First Title value, for Searching Goodlad, William ( - 1844)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2008-06-12 2012-02-15
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/372698372698
Occupation General surgeon
Details Practised as a surgeon in Bolsover, then in Bury, and finally in Mosley Street, Manchester, where he was Surgeon to the Union Hospital. He died at his residence at Cheetham Hill on Feb 14th, 1844. He became known as a medical author by winning the Jacksonian Prize in 1812 with his Essay entitled "Diseases of the Vessels and Glands of the Absorbent System", republished as *A Practical Essay on the Diseases of the Vessels and Glands of the Absorbent System. To which are added Surgical Cases with Practical Remarks,* 8vo, London, 1814. On his title-page it appears that this republication is the Jacksonian Essay in substance, and we also infer from the dedication that he received his professional training at the Manchester Infirmary as pupil of its Surgeon, Robert Wagstaffe Killer, to whom he dedicates his book "as a token of respect for his abilities, and of gratitude for his friendship". The book was published by Goodlad in German in conjunction with Carmichael and Henning under the title *Ueber die Skrofelkrankheit*, the translator being J L Choulant (Leipzig, 1818). His Jacksonian Essay in MS (4to) is in the College Library. PUBLICATIONS: In addition to the work mentioned, Goodlad further published:- "Observations on Mr Barlow's Theory on the Origin of Urinary Calculi." - *Edin. Med. and Surg. Jour.*, 1809, v, 438. "Observations on Purulent Ophthalmia." - *Ibid.,* 1810, vi, 15. "Case of Inguinal Aneurysm, Cured by Tying the External Iliac Artery." - *Ibid.*, 1812, viii, 32. "Additional Observations on the Treatment of Scrofula." - *Ibid.*, 1815, xi, 204. "Observations on Diseases which are produced by Irritation in the Urethra." - *Lond. Med. Repos.*, 1814, ii, 449. "History of a Tumour Successfully Removed from the Face and Neck, by previously Tying the Carotid Artery." -* Lond. Med.-Chir. Trans.*, 1816, vii, 112. *A Letter to Sir B. C. Brodie containing a Critical Inquiry into his Lectures illustrative of Certain Local Nervous Affections*, 8vo, London, 1840.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000514
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Sheppard, James Pook (1787 - 1854)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2008-06-12
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/372699372699
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born at Dorchester on Aug 12th, 1787. He was educated at Lymington, Hants, was then placed under a well-known surgeon at Salisbury, and in 1807 entered St Thomas’s Hospital, where, under the tuition of Sir Astley Cooper and Cline, he soon acquired a superior knowledge of anatomy and surgery. Sir Astley Cooper chose him as his prosector, in which capacity he prepared many of the dissections used in Sir Astley’s lectures. He was promised the post of Demonstrator of Anatomy and was strongly urged to accept it by his masters, who had formed a high opinion of his talents. Sheppard, however, felt debarred by his health from settling in London. He had been struck by Worcester on passing through it, and there he settled without local friends or connections. He won his way by merit, his career being watched with interest by both Cline and Cooper, the latter of whom became his personal friend. In 1815 he was unsuccessful in obtaining the post of Surgeon at Worcester General Infirmary, but succeeded in 1819. In hospital, as in private, practice he endeared himself to his patients by his tenderness and humanity. He made it his rule, if summoned to the hospital and to a private patient at the same time, to attend first to the public duty. He loved his profession sincerely, and continued throughout life to be an ardent student, in this emulating his master, Sir Astley Cooper. He was ready at all times to foster every effort made in the provinces to advance medical science, and was lavish in his endeavours for the good of others, often going unrewarded, though he had a numerous family to provide for. The thought of personal gain never entered into his calculations. He was a very skilful operator, but no man was ever more anxious not to operate without due cause. As an accoucheur he won celebrity and was for some years frequently consulted in difficult cases. In diagnosis he was remarkable for his accuracy. In consultation his opinions were given with clearness and confidence, but with the greatest courtesy to those who differed from him. He had the gift of making his patients feel, in times of sickness and sorrow, that they had a friend on whose sympathy and religious principle they might depend. Thus he made many lasting friendships. In 1828 he became one of the proprietors and surgical editor of the *Midland Medical Reporter*, published for four years in Worcester, and afterwards - in 1832 - led to the formation of the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association which has since developed into the British Medical Association. With Sir Charles Hastings he was appointed joint Hon Secretary of the Association in 1832, and held that office till 1843, when Sir Charles Hastings was appointed President of the Council and Sheppard retired in favour of Robert James Nicholl Streeten, who became sole Secretary with a salary of a hundred guineas a year. In 1849, on Streeten’s death, Sheppard - then an active member of the Central Council - succeeded him in the office, and discharged its onerous duties till his death. He was as valuable in social as in professional life. His nature was eminently truthful, his judgement sound, and his memory accurate. While these qualities gave weight to his opinions, they made him candid and courteous to the opinions of other men. His tastes were simple and his disposition gentle; and if ever his dislike of all unfairness and dissimulation gave occasion for him to administer a rebuke, he performed it as an unwelcome task. He was very well read, especially in politics and history. He possessed in a high degree the then popular art of quotation from favourite authors. He knew his Shakespeare thoroughly. His domestic affections were very strong and he avoided society. In March, 1853, he fell ill and lingered for a year, dying in Worcester on Feb 20th, 1854. During the whole of his trying illness he behaved with the most exemplary fortitude and patience, very frequently expressing his sense of ‘the value of suffering’.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000515
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching North, John (1790 - 1873)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Thorpe, Robert ( - 1851)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Wingfield, Charles (1787 - 1846)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Lawrence, John ( - 1863)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Martin, Thomas (1779 - 1867)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2008-06-12
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/372704372704
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born at Pulborough, Sussex, on Nov 3rd, 1779, the eldest child of Peter Patrick Martin, who had migrated from Edinburgh whilst the Jacobite Rebellion of 1745 was still fresh in the popular recollection and settled in Pulborough as a general practitioner. A clever and well-informed man, he advocated opinions far in advance of his time, and secured a good social and professional position. He continued to frequent medical schools to the advanced age of 91 and was hence known as the ‘Old Student’; his death occurred suddenly in Paris. Thomas Martin was encouraged by his father to read widely. At the age of 15 he joined the Petworth Corps of Yeomanry, embodied owing to the threat of invasion from France, and served for two years. On Oct 1st, 1796, he entered the United Hospitals of Guy’s and St. Thomas’s. Cline was at that time lecturing on anatomy with Astley Cooper as his assistant and demonstrator. Fordyce at seven o’clock in the morning was teaching to large classes the practice of medicine, including materia medica and chemistry; Haighton, the principles of midwifery and of physiology. Among the surgeons were William Cooper, the uncle of Astley Cooper. Those were the days of dissecting under difficulties, when bodies for dissection were obtained through a class of men later named ‘resurrection men’. Students were little cared for as regards libraries and reading-rooms, but the Medical and Physical Society of Guy’s was already flourishing. The students of those days visited in turn the other hospitals, to witness at St Bartholomew’s operations by Sir James Earle, the son-in-law of Pott, and by Abernethy, then Assistant Surgeons; at the London Hospital Sir William Blizard was in high repute; at Westminster, Lynn, who had assisted John Hunter in the formation of his Museum, was pre-eminent as an operator. Thomas Martin became early familiar with private practice as locum tenens for Prince at Tunbridge Wells. After eighteen months he went in the same capacity to ‘Old Newnham’ at Brighton, and then to Wicher, of Petersfield. After that, on Feb. 19th, 1810, he settled in practice at Reigate, and a few years after married a Miss Charrington. At Reigate he built up a large practice. In 1812 he was one of the Associated Apothecaries and Surgeon-Apothecaries who, led by Dr G Mann Burrows, agitated for medical improvements by legislation. He was the founder of the Surrey Medical Benevolent Society, acting as Secretary, and later as President, being present at fifty-four annual meetings. When Sir Charles Hastings founded the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association at Worcester, Martin supported him by forming the South-Eastern Branch, which he and his son, P Martin, fostered with Pennington, Bird, and Ansell. Martin started the “Institute of Medicine, Surgery and Midwifery” for the spread of their opinions as to medical reform. The Poor Law Medical Officers chose Martin as Treasurer, their object being to obtain redress for grievances under the New Poor Law System. In 1830, perceiving that the population around him was becoming troublesome in a variety of ways from the want of rational evening employment and recreation, Martin, with the support of Lords Somers and Monson, suggested the formation of a Mechanics Institute on the new Birkbeck type, and this became a recognized benefit to the neighbourhood. In addition, he established or helped other institutions - the Cottage Gardeners’ Society, the Victoria Club Benefit Society, the Surrey Church of England Schoolmasters’ and Schoolmistresses’ Association, a Savings Bank for adults and a Penny Bank for children, National Schools at Reigate and at Red Hill, church buildings, etc. Benevolence was his watchword throughout life, and he was courteous, tactful, strong of will, an early riser, marvellously energetic both in body and in mind. From his father he inherited a liking for medical classics; he was musical, and after getting through a hard day’s work in the saddle, although the byways around Reigate might be knee-deep in mud, he would ride the twenty miles into London to listen to an oratorio and ride home again to breakfast and his daily round. When he was 85 he drove twice in one week to the Crystal Palace at Sydenham to listen to a Handel Festival Society Concert, and in the same week to the Harveian Oration by Dr H W Acland, and was aggrieved because he could not also visit the Royal Academy on the same day; for he had lost a leg in an accident, replaced by an artificial limb. Just before he died he read through the latest edition of Carpenter’s *Physiology*. He died at Reigate on Feb 12th, 1867. His son, P Martin, who had been in practice with his father, predeceased him; William Martin (q.v.) survived him.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000520
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Brown, Richard Willson ( - 1860)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Chavasse, Thomas (1800 - 1884)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Crowfoot, William Miller (1838 - 1918)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 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/373531373531
Occupation General surgeon
Details The grandson of William Henchman Crowfoot (often cited as Henchman Crowfoot) (qv), and the elder son of William Edward Crowfoot (qv). The Crowfoots of Beccles were well known as medical men in East Anglia for more than a century, and each generation followed worthily in the footsteps of its fathers. Crowfoot was educated at Fauconberge School, Beccles, and then at Basle; he received his professional training at St Bartholomew's Hospital, where his student career was brilliant, for he won exhibitions and scholarships with ease. In 1857 he won the University of London Gold Medal in Anatomy and Physiology at the Intermediate MB examination, and in 1859 the Gold Medal in Comparative Anatomy, Physiology, and Surgery - carrying with it an Exhibition - and the Gold Medal in Midwifery. He was offered an appointment at St Bartholomew's Hospital immediately after graduating, but preferred to enter into practice with his father at Beccles, where he greatly increased an already large number of patients. He was for many years Surgeon to the Beccles Hospital, of which he was Hon Consulting Surgeon at the time of his death. As a medical practitioner he gained the affection and confidence of a large circle of patients. Always keeping himself abreast of medical knowledge and procedure, his opinions were received with marked attention by his colleagues, and his wide experience was always at the disposal of his younger brethren. Michael Beverley, MRCS, who was associated with him professionally for over fifty years, bore witness to his popularity in the medical circle at Norwich and to his high social and scientific qualifications. Crowfoot was an enthusiastic naturalist, botanist, and archeologist, and an early supporter of the Volunteer movement which started in 1860, and in which he held the rank of Hon Lieutenant-Colonel. He was a sound public man, both as a magistrate, and as a worker on Borough and County Councils and on Diocesan Committees. To the proceedings of medical meetings in Norwich he contributed many valuable papers, and among these his address as President of the East Anglian Branch of the British Medical Association was a signal success. He married Catherine Ann Bayly, by whom he had three sons and three daughters. One son, William Bayly, followed in his father's footsteps and joined him in practice, but died in 1907. One daughter married H Wood-Hill, practising in Beccles, and another daughter married N E Waterfield, FRCS. He died, after his retirement, at his residence, Blyburgate House, Beccles, on April 6th, 1918, and his funeral was attended by the Mayor and Corporation in state.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001348
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Crowther, William Lodewyck (1817 - 1885)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2011-09-07 2022-09-12
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/373532373532
Occupation General surgeon Politician
Details Educated at St Thomas's Hospital and at the Hotel-Dieu and La Charité, Paris. He settled in practice in Hobart Town, Tasmania, and was Surgeon to HM General Hospital from 1860-1869. Towards the close of his life he devoted himself to politics and was a well-known public man, being a member of the Legislative Council and of the Tasmanian Court of Medical Examiners, and twice a Minister without a portfolio. He was also Surgeon Major in the South Tasmanian Volunteer Artillery. About the year 1868 or 1869 he sent a valuable Tasmanian Collection to the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons, and for this service received the signal honour of the Honorary (Gold) Medal (1869), of which the previous recipients had been very few - viz, James Parkinson in 1822, Joseph Swan (qv) in 1825, and George Bennett (qv) in 1834. Subsequent recipients have been men of the highest distinction, such as Owen, Erasmus Wilson, Paget, and Lister. The Library contains a "List of Specimens presented to the Museum...by W L Crowther...Hobart Town" in Sir William Flower's handwriting. The Hon Mr Crowther died of peritonitis at his residence in Hobart on April 12th, 1885, being then one of the oldest practitioners in the Colony. Publications: "On the Median Operation for Stone, with Section of the Urethra only, and Dilatation of the Prostate." - *Lancet*, 1867, ii, 126. "Urethrotomy or Lithotrity in Aged and Debilitated Subjects." - *Ibid.*, 1873, ii, 624. **See below for an expanded version of the original obituary which was printed in volume 1 of Plarr’s Lives of the Fellows. Please contact the library if you would like more information lives@rcseng.ac.uk** William Lodewyck Crowther was a surgeon, naturalist and politician who served as premier of Tasmania from 20 December 1878 to 29 October 1879. He is known to have collected and dissected the bodies of Aboriginal Tasmanians; in 1869 he was suspended from his post as an honorary medical officer at Hobart General Hospital after being charged with mutilating the body of William Lanne, then considered the ‘last’ male Aboriginal Tasmanian. Crowther was born on 15 April 1817 at Haarlem in the Netherlands, the son of William Crowther, a doctor, and Sarah Crowther née Pearson, the daughter of George Pearson, a former mayor of Macclesfield, Cheshire. The family emigrated to Hobart in what was then known as Van Diemen’s Land in 1825. Crowther became a boarder at Claiborne’s Academy, Longford in around 1828, and it was while he was at school that he developed an interest in natural history. In 1832 he was apprenticed to his father for five years and then became a partner as a surgeon apothecary and accoucheur. In February 1839 he sailed on the *Emu* to England, arriving in June. He sold a natural history collection of Tasmanian animals to the Earl of Derby and used the money to pay for his living costs and fees at St Thomas’s Hospital Medical School and for another year of study in Paris. He gained his conjoint examination in 1841. On 12 November 1841 he married his cousin Sarah Victoria Marie Louise Muller, the daughter of Colonel A B Muller, equerry to the Duke of Kent. They had 11 children. In 1842 Crowther returned to Hobart and took over his father’s practice. His focus was on surgery, particularly of the bladder for stone and he rose rapidly in his profession. He wrote two papers for *The Lancet* (‘A few remarks on the safety of the median operation for the removal of stone from the bladder, the section being limited to the membranous urethra, with simple dilation of the prostate gland’ *Lancet* 1867 ii 126 and ‘Urethrotomy or lithotrity in aged and debilitated people’ *Lancet* 1873 ii 624). In 1860 he was appointed as an honorary medical officer at Hobert General Hospital. He continued collecting and was elected as a corresponding member of the Royal Zoological Society. Between April 1840 and 1868 he donated a large number of specimens to William Flower, the curator of the museum at the Royal College of Surgeons of England. The collection included the complete skeleton of a sperm whale, Tasmanian fish and a dolphin, together with ‘the bones of an Australian male’. In March 1869 he was awarded the gold medal of the College. In the same month he was suspended from his post at Hobart General Hospital after being charged with mutilating the body of William Lanne, a whaler, and reputedly the last ‘full-bloodied’ male Aboriginal Tasmanian. Lanne died in early March 1869 in Hobart from cholera and dysentery aged just 34. His body was taken to the morgue at the General Hospital and, as *The Times* reported on 29 May 1869, there followed an ‘unseemly struggle’ for his skeleton: ‘It is stated that on the night before the funeral a medical gentleman connected with the hospital abstracted the skull, intending to send it to the English College of Surgeons, and inside the scalp the skull of the corpse of a white man, also in the dead-house, was inserted in lieu of that which had been removed. When this mutilation was discovered the hands and feet were cut off to frustrate any attempt of the first mutilator to obtain the whole skeleton. The trunk was then buried, the coffin carried to the grave covered by a black opossum skin rug and followed by above a hundred citizens. In the following night, it is stated, the body was raised from the grave by order of the house surgeon of the hospital.’ An inquiry took place. Crowther was suspected as having carried out the first mutilation and was suspended from his post. A petition was sent to the Governor Charles Du Cane seeking an annulment of his suspension, but without success. The outcry over what had happened to Lanne directly led to the introduction of the 1869 Anatomy Act, regulating the practice of anatomy in the colony and protecting the dead from dissection without prior consent, the first legislation of its kind in Tasmania. Lanne’s skull was later donated to the anatomy department of the University of Edinburgh by Crowther’s son, Edward. It has since been returned to Tasmania. Crowther was a popular if controversial figure in Hobart and was active in politics. He was elected to the House of Assembly as the member for Hobart. He resigned, but from 1869 to 1885 held the Hobart seat on the Legislative Council. From 1876 to 1877 he was a minister without portfolio in the administration of Thomas Reibey. In December 1878 he was invited to form his own government as premier and served until October 1879, the first medical practitioner to hold that office in Tasmania. Apart from his surgical career, Crowther also had a number of successful business interests. In the 1850s he owned saw mills and exported timber to other Australian colonies and New Zealand and frame houses to California. He also owned whaling ships and shipped guano to Tasmania and the mainland. He later transferred his interests to the new Anglo-Australian Guano Company. Crowther became a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England in 1874. In 1889 a statue of Crowther was erected in Franklin Square in Hobart. After a campaign led by the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre, in August 2022 the City of Hobart Council voted to remove the monument. Sarah Gillam
Resource Identifier RCS: E001349
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Jenkins, Terence Percy Norman (1913 - 2007)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2008-06-19 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/372709372709
Occupation General surgeon
Details Terry Jenkins was a general surgeon to St Luke’s and the Royal Surrey County hospitals in Guildford. He was born in Shoreditch, London, on 21 April 1913, the second son of Harold and Louise Jenkins, who had a chemists’ shop. They moved to Harrow a few years later. He was educated at the John Lyon and Harrow county schools, from which he won a scholarship to University College Medical School. On qualification in 1936 he won the Magrath scholarship, and went on to be house surgeon to William Trotter. At the outbreak of war he joined the RAMC and served in France, Belgium and North Africa, mostly doing orthopaedics, and reaching the rank of major. On demobilisation, he was appointed to the Guildford hospitals as a general surgeon. There he built up St Luke’s from a Poor Law institution to a respected hospital. An experienced general surgeon, his particular contribution was to the prevention of burst abdomen by the use of a continuous looped nylon suture, placed with centimetre bites, without tension. The method had been introduced by Gordon Gill, his colleague, and the results were published in 1976. Terry married twice. His first wife was Kathleen Creegan, by whom he had two sons, Tony (an engineer) and Edward (an architect). He then married Rosemary Dockray, by whom he had a son Andrew (a senior retail manager) and a daughter, Philippa (a management accountant). He died on 16 July 2007.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000525
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Chavasse, Sir Thomas Frederick (1854 - 1913)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Wilkes, Frank Roger (1934 - 2006)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2008-01-24
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000400-E000499
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372628372628
Occupation General surgeon
Details Roger Wilkes had a distinguished career in the Royal Navy as an officer and surgeon serving at home and at sea in aircraft carriers. In 1982 he was the senior surgeon at sea on SS *Canberra* during the Falklands War. Later he was surgeon commodore and dean of naval medicine. Roger was born in Smethwick on 3 August 1934, the son of Frank Arthur and Gwendoline Alice Wilkes, who were both pharmacists. He attended Alexandra House School and King Edward IV School, Stourbridge, Worcestershire, from which he entered Birmingham University Medical School in 1952. There he played regularly for the second rugby XV, and as a student did nightshifts at Cadbury’s chocolate factory and worked as a ward orderly at Wordsley Hospiral, where he was inspired by Maurice Hershman and Sister Jarvis and her ward. After house jobs, he joined the Navy as a surgeon lieutenant and served at sea in HMS *Ark Royal* in the Mediterranean and North America. Two years surgical training took place at Royal Naval Hospital (RNH) Haslar, with further service at sea to follow on HMS *Victorious* in the Far East, Japan, East Africa with the Fleet Air Arm. It was during this tour that he was to operate on an unusual accident which took place at sea when a naval air mechanic was trapped in a closing mechanical canopy on a fighter aircraft, and sustained a severe crush injury with a stove-in chest, which required urgent resuscitation and surgery, followed by intermittent positive pressure respiration. Nylon traction sutures gave stabilisation. The patient was then evacuated by air to Singapore. After further stabilisation the patient made a full recovery and returned to duty. Roger was awarded the MBE for his initiative and skill at sea. His next posting was to the RNH Haslar for further surgical training, from where he passed the FRCS in 1966. He was soon at sea again on the aircraft carrier HMS *Eagle*, serving in South Africa and Singapore. After a short tour at RNH Plymouth, he joined HMS *Albion* as surgeon commander. In 1970 the Armed Services Consultant Advisory Board at our College appointed him a consultant in surgery. He was given a sabbatical year at the professorial unit in Aberdeen, returning to be head of the surgical unit at RNH Plymouth as surgeon captain. In 1982 the Falklands War saw him at sea again as the senior surgeon on SS *Canberra* ‘the great white whale’, for which he was awarded the Falklands medal. After hostilities ceased he returned to the UK and was appointed director of naval surgery, and in 1984 became chairman of the Defence Surgical Board, the senior surgeon of the three armed services. In 1988 he was promoted to surgeon commodore and appointed dean of naval medicine. In 1989 he became the Queen’s honorary surgeon. Retiring from the Royal Navy in 1992, he joined the National Blood Transfusion Service, and then worked for a while in general practice. He was the guest of honour at his old school and was written up in a local journal as a ‘Black County personality’. After a very good life, he retired finally in 1996, but developed dementia with Lewy bodies and was admitted to Bickleigh Down Nursing Home in Plymouth, where he died on 18 November 2006. He was survived by his second wife Marion, a former Queen Alexandra’s Royal Naval Nursing Service theatre sister, whom he had met over the operating table, and their daughter, Helen. There are also three children from his first marriage - Stephanie, Nicholas and Fiona.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000444
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Chesman, Thomas ( - 1874)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Chesshire, Edwin (1819 - 1903)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Chester, Arthur (1835 - 1870)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Chevers, Norman (1818 - 1886)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2011-04-20
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001100-E001199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373340373340
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born at Greenhithe, Kent, on April 27th, 1818. He was the son of Dr Forbes Macbean Chevers, RN, who was Surgeon on the *Phaeton* under Admiral Howe at his famous victory on June 1st, 1794, and on the *Tonnant* at Trafalgar. His mother was Anne, daughter of Lance Talman, of Newhouse, Kent. During his boyhood at Portsmouth his father was Flag Surgeon to the *Victory*. He was educated at St George's School, Haslar, and Guy's Hospital, finally at Glasgow, where he became MD at the age of 21. He next worked at pathology in London, and was one of the original members of the Pathological Society. He wrote on the structure of the heart and blood-vessels, on the "Causes of Death after Operation", which received a favourable notice from Sir James Simpson. His papers were published in the *Guy's Hospital Reports*. At Guy's Hospital there was then a remarkable galaxy of famous men on the staff - Astley Cooper, Hodgkin, Addison, Bright, Gull, and Hilton. For nine years Chevers continued his pathological work at Guy's Hospital as well as private practice at 22 Upper Stamford Street, on the site of a previous marsh - Maze Pond, Borough. He entered the East India Company's service on the Bengal side as Assistant Surgeon on August 1st, 1848, served for a few months with the troops at Dum Dum, and was Civil Surgeon at the stations of Parulia, Chittagong, and Howrah until 1855. He next acted as Secretary to the Medical Board of India during the Mutiny, and after two years was promoted Secretary to the Director-General of the Medical Department. For two years he was Inspector-General of Jails in Bengal; in April, 1862, he was appointed Principal of the Calcutta Medical College, Professor of Medicine, and Physician to the Hospital attached to the College, and was promoted Surgeon on September 18th. He was a member of the Senate of Calcutta University and was Hon Physician to Queen Victoria. Students enrolled whilst he was Principal rose in number from 409 to 1441 per annum; paying students in 1861 numbered 33, in 1873 1076. After serving as Examiner in Medicine he was, before his retirement, President of the Faculty of Medicine. As an authority on sanitation he was a member of committees concerned with the drainage and water-supply of Calcutta, and of an inquiry as to the identity of a man claimed to be Nana Sahib responsible for the massacre at Cawnpore. Chevers was promoted Surgeon Major on August 1st, 1868, retired on March 31st, 1876, with the rank of Deputy Surgeon General, and on May 24th, 1881, was made a CIE. He took part in the work of the Epidemiological Society and was President from 1883-1885. In 1884 he was appointed a member of the Special Cholera Commission; he lectured on "Health in India", and was President of the Sanitary Branch of the Social Science Congress at Birmingham. At his house, 32 Tavistock Road, Westbourne Park, he received and gave help to Indian students, and occupied himself with the *Commentary on the Diseases of India*, completed a few months before his death. He had shown symptoms of debility before his death, attributed to cardiac failure, on December 2nd, 1886; he was buried at Kensal Green. Chevers led a blameless and noble life, in which a commanding intellect and vast stores of learning were devoted to the advance of knowledge, the relief of suffering, and the welfare of his fellow-men, especially those of the great Indian Empire in which his lot had been cast, his best work done, and his well-merited reputation acquired. Publications: Besides his early pathological papers Chevers made a number of communications in India and wrote two books: *A Manual of Medical Jurisprudence for India, including the Outline of a History of Crime against the Person in India*, 3rd ed, 1870. This originated in a Report on Medical Jurisprudence published in the *Indian Ann. of Med. Sci.* It is his chief work, a classical book of reference, including information on "Unfavourable Aspects of Indian Civilization". It was awarded the Swiney Prize - a silver cup of the value of £100 - and also the sum of £100 given by the Society of Arts and by the Royal College of Physicians of London in 1879 for the best work on medical jurisprudence published during the preceding ten years. On the other hand - *A Commentary on Diseases in India*, 1886, was written when the whole field of tropical disease was becoming revolutionized by advances in parasitology and bacteriology. In his old age he clung to bygone ideas: "As I have already intimated, I have lived and practised and shall probably die firm in the belief that intermittents and remittents are caused by a specific poison or morbific entity which emanates from certain soils" (p.162). On the enteric fever of Jenner: "but I cannot abandon the belief, founded upon the observations of a life-time, that there occur every year in Bengal thousands of cases of what I recognize, by its history and symptoms, as paludal remittent with or without bowel complications, more or less amenable to quinine; and that there also occur, only at intervals, small groups of isolated cases of that which also by its history and characteristics I perceive to be enteric fever" (p.186). The comma bacillus of cholera: "That the comma-shaped bacilli ordinarily found in cholera do not induce that disease in the lower animals, and that there are no grounds for assuming that they do so in man" (p.816). *A Brief Review of the Means of Preserving the Health of European Soldiers in India*, 8vo, 4 parts, 2 tables, Calcutta, 1858-1860. It contains an article, "Did James the First of England die from the effects of Poison or from Natural Causes?" - *Indian Ann. Med. Sci.*, 1862, xv, 187. *On the Preservation of the Health of Seamen, especially of those frequenting Calcutta and the other Indian Ports*, 8vo, Calcutta, 1864.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001157
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Cheyne, Robert Romley (1811 - 1886)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Edward VII (1841 - 1910)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Edwardes, George ( - 1859)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Dover, Frederick ( - 1885)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Edwards, Charles ( - 1887)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Choudhury, Abdur Rashid (1936 - 2010)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Sarah Gillam
Publication Date 2011-11-10 2022--8-30
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/373733373733
Occupation Neurosurgeon
Details Rashid Choudhury was a consultant neurosurgeon at the Riyadh Armed Forces Hospital, Saudi Arabia. He was born in a remote village in the district of Hailakandi, Assam, India, the son of Imran Ali Choudhury and Sumsun Choudhury. He came from a humble background and had to work hard to become a surgeon. He matriculated in 1952 and studied medicine at Assam Medical College, Dibrugarh, qualifying in 1960. He completed a masters degree in surgery and became an assistant professor in the general surgery department at Assam Medical College when, in 1968, he was awarded a scholarship by the government of Assam to train in neurosurgery in the UK. He gained his fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons of England in 1970, and of the Glasgow and Edinburgh Royal Colleges in 1971. In 1973 he was awarded a ChM in neurosurgery by the University of Aberdeen. He worked as a neurosurgeon in Edinburgh, Newcastle and Aberdeen and, from 1973 to 1978, in Derby. In 1973 and 1978 he returned to Assam to set up a neurosurgical centre, but a lack of proper facilities meant these plans had to be abandoned. From 1982 to 1995 he was a consultant neurosurgeon at the Riyadh Armed Forces Hospital Saudi Arabia. His final medical post was as a medical assessor of retired miners receiving benefits in the UK. He was married to Amyna and they had two sons. Rashid Choudhury died on 24 October 2010.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001550
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Dudley, William Lewis (1821 - 1902)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Dudley, Benjamin (1808 - 1888)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2011-10-06 2013-08-08
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/373635373635
Occupation General surgeon
Details Studied at Guy's Hospital, and practised at Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, where he was for some time in partnership with Joseph Brampton Wright, and died there after retirement on May 30th, 1888.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001452
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Druitt, Robert, junior (1814 - 1883)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2011-10-06
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/373636373636
Occupation General surgeon
Details Son of Robert Druitt, senr, surgeon, of Wimborne, Dorsetshire. He was a pupil for four years of Charles Mayo, Surgeon to the Winchester Hospital, and in 1834 entered as a medical student at King's College, London, and Middlesex Hospital. He took up general practice, living in Bruton Street, Berkeley Square, where he was successful and rapidly became known as a medical writer. He is best known for his *Surgeon's Vade-Mecum*, which was first published in 1839, ran into eleven editions, was translated into several European languages, and in all more than forty thousand copies were sold. Druitt was much engaged in literary work and was a versatile writer. For ten years he edited the *Medical Times and Gazette*; in 1845 he wrote a "Popular Tract on Church Music"; he wrote, too, a small work on "Cheap Wines, their use in Diet and Medicine", which appeared in the *Medical Times and Gazette* in 1863 and 1864 and was twice reprinted in an enlarged form in 1865 and 1873. In 1872 he contributed an important article on "Inflammation" to Cooper's *Dictionary of Practical Surgery*. In addition to his literary activities Druitt took an active interest in Public Health matters. He wrote in the *Transactions of the Royal Institute of British Architects* (1859-1867) on "The Construction and Management of Human Habitations". From 1858-1867 he was one of the Medical Officers of Health for St George's, Hanover Square, and from 1864-1872 he was President of the Metropolitan Association of Medical Officers of Health, before which he delivered a number of addresses. He retired in 1872 on account of ill health, and went for a time to Madras, whence he wrote some interesting "Letters from Madras" to the *Medical Times and Gazette*. On his retirement he was presented with £1215 in a silver cup as a mark of sympathy from 370 medical men and other friends. He was one of the few recipients of the MD Lambeth, granted by the Archbishop of Canterbury. He married a Miss Hopkinson in 1845, by whom he had three sons and four daughters, all of whom survived him. He died at Kensington on May 15th, 1883, after an exhausting illness. There is an engraved portrait of him by R B Parkes in the College Collection. His younger brother was William Druitt (qv).
Resource Identifier RCS: E001453
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Bates, Grant James Edward Mills (1953 - 2011)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Christopher Milford
Publication Date 2011-10-06 2011-11-24
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001400-E001499
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373637373637
Occupation ENT surgeon
Details Grant Bates was a consultant ENT surgeon at the John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford. He was born on 7 June 1953 in Launceston, Tasmania, the son of Mills Bates, a doctor, and Margaret née Duffas, the daughter of a gamekeeper, but went to the UK, to Oxford (Merton College) and then to the London Hospital to study medicine. His postgraduate training in ENT included spells as a senior house officer on the professorial unit at Gray's Inn Road in London, as a registrar in Oxford and then as a senior registrar in Bristol. He also spent time as a research fellow in both San Francisco and Brisbane, before returning to Australia (Cairns) as a consultant for two years before electing for life in Oxford in 1992. In Oxford he threw himself into teaching undergraduates and postgraduates with his normal 'high energy' approach. As well as teaching the medical students, he became involved with the organisation of the student Christmas show and was often dragged on to the stage as part of the entertainment! Later, he took on the programme director's role for the regional training of registrars. Throughout, he was an inspirational teacher. Training included fitness sessions with him at the gym! Later he became an anatomy tutor at Merton and an intercollegiate examiner for the exit exam. During his time as a consultant in Oxford, he developed his interest in rhinology and provided a regional service for complex rhinologic pathology. He also became one of the pioneers (and an international expert) of endoscopic stapling for pharyngeal pouch. As well as putting huge effort into his clinical role, he also had an interest in medical politics and became chairman of the medical staff committee (both at the Radcliffe Infirmary and the John Radcliffe on separate occasions). In 1997 he also found time to serve as secretary of the laryngology section of the Royal Society of Medicine. He became known to even more people (if that was possible) when he took on the nationally important role of honorary secretary of the British Association of Otorhinolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery (ENTUK) from 2002 to 2005. During his time with ENTUK he helped 'defuse' the political time bomb of disposable tonsillectomy instruments that were introduced for a short period (and were associated with a sharp increase in postoperative haemorrhage rates) to avoid the sterilisation concerns at the time regarding variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. But for his illness it is difficult to believe he would not have taken on more prominent national roles within the specialty in the future. Although known within ENT for his input in these professional areas, he was probably equally recognised for his 'extra-curricular activities'. Grant was a glowing example of how to achieve a good 'work/life balance' well before the phrase first became popular. It is almost impossible to list the number of things that he 'crammed' into his life - he was an accomplished sub-aqua diving instructor and had a lifelong interest in underwater photography. Later in life he would throw in the odd London marathon run with training for the Engadin cross-country ski marathon in Switzerland, various triathlons, windsurfing and sailing (obtaining his Royal Yachting Association - RYA - coastal skipper certificate). He took up real tennis whilst in Oxford and spent many enjoyable hours on court (his definition of ENT was 'early nights and tennis'). He was a lifelong environmentalist and became a trustee of the Shark Trust in 2005. He was passionate about sharks and their conservation, and was an amazing advocate for the Trust, sharing his own experiences through talks and awareness events, and encouraging everyone he met to support the cause. When all the 'trappings' of life are stripped away, the important things come down to relationships with people - family, friends, patients. He was the devoted husband of Sue (née Wilkinson), whom he married in 1981, and the enormously proud father of Rebecca and James. He was the 'ultimate' communicator and he touched an enormous number of people's lives with his kindness, generosity and huge sense of fun. He was a great example to us all as to how to enjoy life and, at the same time, give of your best professionally. He died peacefully at Sobell House in Oxford on 18 September 2011 after a short illness.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001454
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Clark, George Ogilvie ( - 2007)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Tina Craig
Publication Date 2011-11-10 2013-09-30
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/373739373739
Occupation ENT surgeon
Details George Ogilvie Clark was a consultant ENT surgeon to the Wolverhampton Area Health Authority and the Dudley Guest Hospital. He qualified in medicine in 1946 at Aberdeen University and held early appointments as ENT registrar at Dundee Royal Infirmary and senior ENT registrar at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary. Before taking the fellowship of the college in 1957, he passed the fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh in 1953. In the RAMC he had served as a captain. He was living in Wolverhampton when he died on 11 November 2007 survived by his wife, Eileen N Clark.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001556
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Watt, Sir James (1914 - 2009)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Alan Green
Publication Date 2011-05-05
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001100-E001199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373347373347
Occupation General surgeon
Details Sir James Watt was medical director general of the Royal Navy. During his long and distinguished career he was a delightful, scholarly contributor to the Travelling Surgical Society, with which he first went as a guest on the club's visit to Heidelberg in May 1965 when he was a surgeon commander. He was promoted to surgeon rear admiral and became the first dean of naval medicine and founder of the Institute of Naval Medicine based at Alverstoke, Gosport. By 1972, he had been promoted to surgeon vice admiral and became medical director general (naval), a post he held with distinction until 1977, being knighted in 1975. James Watt was born in Morpeth, Northumberland, on 19 August 1914. His parents were Sarah and Thomas Watt, a teacher and businessman respectively, the latter distantly related to the engineer James Watt. A great grandfather married a descendant of John Knox of Edinburgh and an uncle was a director of Eastman Kodak, USA, and was responsible for the early development of colour photography. James attended King Edward VI Grammar School in Morpeth and was awarded the governor's prize in two successive years for declamation, perhaps an augur for future lecturing. Qualifying in 1938 from Durham University, James was a house surgeon at Ashington Hospital and then a resident medical officer at the Princess Mary Maternity Hospital in Newcastle. He served during the Second World War with the Royal Navy. From January 1941 to September 1942, he was a surgeon lieutenant commander on the cruiser HMS *Emerald* in the Far East until the fall of Singapore. His next posting was on North Atlantic convoys aboard the destroyer HMS *Roxborough*, which had many casualties on which he operated, being held up by an orderly, during one of the worst storms in living memory. After a short respite in February 1944 on HMS *Asbury* at the Royal Navy base in New Jersey, USA, James returned to the Far East aboard the aircraft carrier HMS *Arbiter* from 1944 to 1947, during which time he was mentioned in despatches. Following his demobilisation, in 1947 he returned to the Royal Victoria Hospital as a surgical registrar. Two years later, he then returned to the Royal Navy and served on HM hospital ship *Maine* during the Korean War, and later as a surgical specialist to the Royal Naval Hospital in Hong Kong from 1953 to 1955, the year in which he obtained the FRCS. The next year he became a consultant in surgery to RN Hospital, Plymouth, then Malta (1961) and Haslar (1963), before being appointed the first joint professor of naval surgery to the Royal College of Surgeons of England and RN Hospital Haslar (1965 to 1969). He was made dean of naval medicine and medical officer in charge of the Institute of Naval Medicine from 1969 to 1972, and was then director general (naval) from 1972 to 1977. During his career, he published widely on subjects as diverse as burns, cancer chemotherapy, peptic ulceration and hyperbaric oxygen therapy. Showing an early interest in the history of medicine, many articles and lectures followed in this field and involved much painstaking research, his scholarship being evident to many learned societies. These included a biography of James Ramsay (1733-1789), whom he described as a naval surgeon, naval chaplain and morning star of the Anti-Slavery Movement in his guest lecture to the Travelling Surgical Society in 1992 at RNH Haslar. In 1995, in Israel, he lectured on mediaeval pilgrims and Crusaders and their bequests to surgery in a presentation which was both erudite and humorous. He was a member of the British Society for Surgery of the Hand, the International Society for Burns Injuries and was a corresponding member of the Surgical Research Society from 1966 to 1977. He supported many other associations and societies, including the Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland. A fellow of the Medical Society of London, he became a member of the council from 1976 and was president in the year 1980 to 1981. He gave the Lettsomian lectures in 1979 and was elected a trustee. He was responsible for the re-organisation of the library and selling the valuable books to the Wellcome Institute, thereby guaranteeing the future of the Society. In 2009 he was elected an honorary fellow, a rare honour. James Watt was made an honorary freeman of the Worshipful Company of Barbers in 1978. He delivered the prestigious Thomas Vicary lecture at the Royal College of Surgeons of England in 1974. A fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine, he was president (its 91st) during the active rebuilding programme (1982 to 1984), and was made an honorary fellow in 1998 for his many major contributions. His administrative flair and commitment were recognised in several spheres, including the environmental medicine research committee. He was a governor of Epsom College from 2000, becoming its vice president. From 1983 he was vice-president of the Society for Nautical Research and in 1996 he was president of the Smeatonian Society of History at the University of Calgary, where he had been made an honorary member in 1978. His eclectic interests resulted in over 100 publications on surgery, burns and history, especially of nautical medicine. He edited and contributed to four books including *Starving sailors: the influence of nutrition upon naval and maritime history* (London, National Maritime Museum, 1981) and *Talking health: conventional and complementary approaches* (Royal Society of Medicine Services, 1988), wrote five articles in the *Dictionary of National Biography* and three chapters in a two volume book *Meta incognita, a discourse of discovery: Martin Frobisher's Arctic expedititions, 1576-1578* (Canadian Museum of Civilization, 1999), which won the Canadian prize for maritime history in 2000. He served on the editorial board of the *British Journal of Surgery* from 1966 to 1977. Researches on Nelson took him on regular trips to libraries in Paris and culminated in a lecture to the Worshipful Company of Barbers in 2005, on surgery at the Battle of Trafalgar - surely a major undertaking for a man approaching his 90th year, celebrated in due style by the section of history of the Royal Society of Medicine. The published version entitled 'Surgery at Trafalgar' makes fascinating reading in *The Mariner's Mirror* of May 2005 (Vol.91 No.2, pp.266-283). Over the years, James Watt was visiting professor in history to the University of Calgary (1985), visiting fellow at the Australian National University, Canberra (1986), and foundation lecturer to the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (1990). His historical contributions earned him election as a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries. Throughout his long, full, life James Watt was an active practising Christian, supporting not only local church activities but also the council of reference of the Christian Medical Fellowship. Heavily involved with Christian activities in the Royal Navy, he was a founder member of the Naval Christian Fellowship, which has been extended to navies throughout the world, a lasting blessing to naval personnel and their families. His private devotional life remained paramount in his daily living. He was president of the Royal Naval Lay Readers Society (1974 to 1983), the Institute of Religion and Medicine (1989 to 1991), and ECHO International Health Services (1983 to 2003), which provides financial support to health care institutions and initiatives in sub-Saharan Africa. He was vice-president of the Churches' Council of Healing from 1987 and a trustee of the Marylebone Centre Trust. His writings included *What is wrong with Christian healing?* (Churches' Council for Health & Healing, 1993), and also *The church, medicine and the New Age* (1995). He thought that the United Kingdom perhaps needed a Wesleyan revival. His many friends throughout the world crossed denominations, and he was widely admired by many Jewish thinkers. He remained unmarried. His relaxation came from music and walking, though age took its toll on the latter. He showed a keen interest in tennis and rugby. From his long-time home at Wimbledon, James retired to live on the Stockbridge Road in Winchester. Having found this too hilly for walking with his failing heart, in 2009 he moved to a flat in Otterbourne, also in Hampshire. He became unwell before Christmas 2009 and was admitted to hospital with a minor stroke, from which he made an initial recovery but died some 10 days later on 28 December 2009. He will be remembered fondly not merely for his high achievements, but also as a self-effacing somewhat ascetic scholar who devoted his life to his chosen commitments.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001164
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Nott, Malcolm George (1925 - 2004)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Sarah Gillam
Publication Date 2011-11-10 2015-04-24
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/373743373743
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon Trauma surgeon
Details Malcolm George Nott was a consultant orthopaedic and trauma surgeon in Rochdale. He was born on 8 July 1925 and studied medicine in Madras, India, qualifying MB BS in 1952. Prior to his appointment in Rochdale he held posts at Hartshill Orthopaedic Hospital, North Staffordshire Royal Infirmary, and Biddulph Grange Hospital. He was a member of the British Orthopaedic Association. The RCS was notified of his death in August 2004.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001560
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Nicks, George Rowan (1913 - 2011)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Raymond Hurt
Publication Date 2011-11-10 2012-11-14
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001500-E001599
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373744373744
Occupation Cardiothoracic surgeon
Details Rowan Nicks was a cardiothoracic surgeon in Sydney, who in later life became one of the most well-known and admired surgeons in Australia, noted especially for his work in promoting the training of surgeons in developing countries. He was born in Auckland, New Zealand, on 24 February 1913 to George Anthony Nicks, a timber mill owner, and his wife, Laura Nicks née Logan. He was the younger of two brothers. As he grew older, he leaned further away from his father and his life in commerce, and became closer to his Irish mother, whose considerable influence encouraged him to study and later to become a surgeon. This was important and significant. He was educated at Auckland Grammar School, Knox College, Dunedin, and later at Otago Medical School. After an old-style apprenticeship to Kenneth Mackenzie, senior surgeon in Auckland, he sailed to England as a ship's surgeon to study for the primary FRCS examination under John Kirk at the Middlesex Hospital. Following a meeting with Sir Gordon Gordon-Taylor, he joined the Royal Navy (from 1940 to 1946) and during periods of leave visited the Brompton Hospital as he had become attracted to chest surgery. He then decided that this was to be his future career. He obtained his English fellowship in 1945 and worked for a year at the Brompton Hospital under Tudor Edwards and Sir Clement Price Thomas - this led later to his appointment in 1947 as surgeon to a newly created thoracic unit at Greenlane Hospital in Auckland. He had been awarded a travelling scholarship to visit Clarence Crafoord in Sweden, Johann Holst and Carl Semb in Norway, and Edward Churchill and R Swert in the United States. In 1952 a further period of study leave enabled him to visit Russell Brock in London, John W Kirklin at the Mayo Clinic and Alfred Blalock in Baltimore. In 1955 he was invited to move to Australia, to a full-time appointment at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Sydney. This he somewhat reluctantly accepted, but under his direction and against considerable local opposition this new unit became a leading Australian cardiothoracic centre with an international reputation. He received a government grant, which enabled his team to design the first automatic pacemaker. His wife Mary Mattinson, a St Thomas' Hospital trained theatre sister, whom he had met in England at the Haslar Royal Naval Hospital in 1941, died from leukaemia in 1969 and was a devastating blow for Rowan, especially as they had no children. He became restless, retired from his appointments in Sydney, and decided to spend time in India and Africa to teach the mysteries of cardiothoracic surgery to the new generation of young surgeons in the developing world. From 1970 to 1972, he was a visiting professor in Kampala (Uganda), Delhi and Shiraz (Iran). He wrote: 'I regarded myself as an uncomfortable catalyst between the old and new worlds. I believed that medical horizons were limitless and that we should rise to the ideals of our profession.' Apart from this clinical work overseas he worked tirelessly with the Royal Australasian College to promote surgical training opportunities in Australia and New Zealand for surgeons from developing countries. In 1991 he established the first of the various Rowan Nicks scholarships, initially intended for surgeons from African and Asian countries. Over the next 20 years, 48 scholars from 20 countries were awarded these scholarships, the recipients of which were enabled to obtain training and experience that would otherwise have been unavailable. He also established an exchange fellowship between Australasia and the UK and the Republic of Ireland. These fellowship programs increased interaction between the surgical communities of Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom in both research and clinical practice. Not surprisingly, in 2005 he received the RACS International Medal, to add to his several other college decorations, including membership of the Court of Honour. He became president of several Australian surgical societies, was a member of the court of examiners of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, and wrote extensively on almost every aspect of cardiovascular, pulmonary and oesophageal surgery. He published three notable books - *Surgeons all: the story of cardiothoracic surgery in Australia and New Zealand* (Sydney, Hales and Iremonger, 1984), *The dance of life: the life and times of an antipodean surgeon* (Melbourne, Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, 1996), his fascinating autobiography, and *By the way* (Potts Point, NSW, 1999), an anthology of his poetry. Belatedly, in the eyes of many, in 2010 he became an Officer of the Order of Australia in recognition of his huge contributions to Australian surgery. He bought an apartment overlooking Sydney harbour at Potts Point, where he swam regularly until his late eighties, and where he died peacefully on 26 May 2011, in his 98th year.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001561
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Naylor, Henry Gordon (1937 - 2010)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by N Alan Green
Publication Date 2011-11-10 2012-03-21
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/373745373745
Occupation General surgeon
Details Henry Naylor, always known as 'Harry', was a consultant general surgeon to the Basildon and Thurrock NHS Trust and trained at the Royal Free Hospital in London. He was for a time medical director at Basildon Hospital. He had a fine reputation as a surgeon, and as a teacher he was very popular with London Hospital graduates. His family roots were in the countryside near Burnley in Lancashire. His father, Tom Naylor, was a 'weights and measures' inspector and his mother, Grace née Leaver, worked in the mills after leaving school early, as did her three brothers. The couple married in 1935. After qualifying, Tom was promoted, and he and Grace moved to Batley in Yorkshire, where Harry was born on 3 February 1937. Tom Naylor served in the Army during the Second World War, and sadly died of starvation and dysentery in a Japanese prisoner of war camp in south-east Asia. Grace and young Harry moved back to Burnley to live with her brother, Bruce Leaver, and her sister-in-law Annie. She did not know her husband's fate for several years after the war. The Leavers had one son Kenneth, several years younger than Harry, and the two boys were more like brothers than cousins, and developed a lifelong relationship. Harry went to a local primary school and passed the 11-plus scholarship to Burnley Grammar School. Hating school dinners, he went home each day for lunch. Out of school, he was taught to smoke by his uncles on the Leaver side of the family, a habit that lasted for many years. Harry joined the local scout group; the scoutmaster was the Reverend Harry Hardman, a late entrant to the Church of England. He married young Harry's mother in 1951. Stepfather Harry served in several rural parishes and exerted a great influence on his 14-year-old stepson, encouraging in him a deep love and appreciation of the countryside. In 1954 Harry went to the Royal Free Hospital in Gray's Inn Road to study medicine. Even in his student days he was a charismatic character and enjoyed life to the full. Having failed the second MB at the first attempt, he mixed with students in the next intake. As a result, he met Ann Worsfold in 1960 and married her the following year. They had no children. House appointments followed qualification. He enjoyed his time as an orthopaedic house surgeon working with Charles Gray, but was less enamoured with the statutory medical post at the North Middlesex Hospital. Examinations did not come easily to him, and at one stage he seriously considered entering general practice and joining his good friend, Michael Hudson, who had taken this pathway. They met each year on a Thursday of a Lord's test match, and continued this tradition as a token of their friendship over the years. Deciding on surgery as a career, he first did a casualty post at the Royal Free Hospital, before going to the Luton and Dunstable Hospital. Here he fell under the spell of Donald Barlow and was greatly influenced by him. Harry followed Barlow to Southend, one of the many hospital appointments of this talented surgeon in the days when travel by car was much easier. His chief also built up a reputation as a chest surgeon and Harry worked with him at the London Chest Hospital. He also worked under (Sir) Reginald 'Reggie' Murley at the Royal Northern Hospital, 'a member of that dwindling band of men known as "characters": a quality composed of a judicious mixture of intelligence, ability and individuality'. He valued his time as a surgical registrar to George Qvist at the Royal Free Hospital, and admired this superb clinical teacher of undergraduates and postgraduates in the generality of surgery, even if he was a little 'tempestuous and impatient' of character. Qvist expected his assistants to be readily available, capable and tolerant of his demands on them. It was a time when registrars accepted their post was not just a job, but a way of life. Therefore, at the Royal Free there existed a friendly spirit between all those in surgical training, fostered by Harry Naylor in particular. Registrars were encouraged to write many clinical papers, but not engage in the type of research leading to a MS thesis, as Qvist regarded this as a mark of a future academic 'professor of surgery'. Harry was in his element when hospitals celebrated Christmas, at a time when patients were admitted for several days: as a result the wards had a 'family atmosphere'. Many old patients were invited back if they were living alone and, as was the case at the Royal Free Hospital, many 'down and outs' were invited to share the patients' Christmas meals and enjoy the festivities. Staff and families dined off the remnants of the turkeys, carved to perfection by the surgeons on the unit for the 'patients'. All this helped the great spirit of friendship existing in those days. The remnants of the meals were washed down with a plentiful supply of alcohol, now forbidden by most NHS trusts on 'health grounds'. He joined John Hopewell as a senior registrar. Hopewell was a general surgeon and the first urologist to the Royal Free, and the first surgeon in the UK to carry out a renal transplant. Harry Naylor was taught modern urology and, more importantly, how to behave as a consultant in an ethical manner. His chief described Harry as 'enthusiastic and very cheerful' as a colleague. Even at these early stages of his surgical career, he was a great charmer of ladies and could defuse any explosive situation, particularly when the ward sister was laying down the law. As a time-expired senior registrar, he went to Orsett to join Eric Colburn, a general practitioner, but an unexpected vacancy of locum consultant came up, which he occupied until he gained his definitive appointment. Harry Naylor was a member of the Peripheral Vascular Club, initially intended for surgeons working in peripheral hospitals, and also freeman of the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries. He had many hobbies, including fishing, which was almost an obsession, shooting, gardening, and good food and wine in the company of friends. He enjoyed watching cricket, particularly test matches, and was a follower of Burnley Athletic Football Club. Another abiding passion was jazz music, on which he was very knowledgeable and certainly enthusiastic. After 30 years of marriage to Ann, they separated and divorced in 1994. He then married Sue née Jennings, and this brought further happiness and support to Harry. His later years were blighted by debilitating ill-health. But he did not allow this to dampen his spirits and he maintained an active life with immense support from Sue. In the end he was wheelchair-bound and in need of permanent oxygen. He died on 15 January 2010. At his funeral service a jazz band played and later a memorial service was held in Basildon on 15 April. He was survived by his second wife Sue and by Ann Naylor.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001562
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Clark, Charles Denley (1908 - 2001)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2008-07-10
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/372713372713
Occupation Accident and emergency surgeon General surgeon
Details Denley Clark was a consultant surgeon at Pinderfields Hospital and Pontefract General Infirmary. He was born in Thailand (then Siam) on 12 August 1908. His father, Percy Leonard Archibald Clark, was a missionary, as was his mother, Mary Lenore née Denley. He was educated in Thailand until the age of ten, when he was sent to boarding school in Devon, and thence to Leeds Central High School. He qualified from Leeds Medical School in 1933, and spent three years in junior posts at Leeds General Infirmary and at St James’s and passed the Edinburgh Fellowship, before going to Labrador, Canada, for two years to serve with the International Grenfell Association. He published an account of these experiences, in which he told of the difficulties of managing ten huskies, the high prevalence of tuberculosis, and the widespread lack of food. On returning to the UK, he became resident surgical officer at the Woolwich Memorial Hospital, and completed his surgical training at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital, St Peter’s and St Mark’s. In 1943 he joined the RAMC as surgical specialist, serving in Chester before being posted to the Far East, where he served with 33 Field Surgical Unit, 13 CCS in Burma, and 14 Mobile Surgical Unit and 53 Indian General Hospital. In 1946 he was appointed officer in command of 72 Indian General Hospital, in Malaya, with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. After demobilisation, he was senior registrar in Woolwich and at the Brook Hospital, and became consultant surgeon to the Royal Herbert Military Hospital in 1949. In 1950 he was appointed consultant surgeon to Pinderfields Hospital and Pontefract General Infirmary. After retiring at 65, he returned full-time for the next five years to set up the first consultant-led accident and emergency department at Pinderfields. He married Margaret Eileen Canneva (née Goulden) in 1954. There were no children of the marriage, which ended in divorce in 1965. He married for the second time, to June Elizabeth Nichols, in 1976. There were no children. He was a keen skier and gardener. He died from Alzheimer’s disease on 27 January 2001.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000529
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Chisholm, Alexander Bain (1804 - 1889)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Motha, Joseph Thambiah (1947 - 2010)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Sarah Gillam
Publication Date 2011-11-10 2015-11-19
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/373747373747
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon
Details Joseph Thambiah Motha was an orthopaedic surgeon in West Suffolk Hospital, Bury St Edmunds. He was born in Trivandrum, Kerala, India on 13 January 1947, the sixth child and fifth son of Vincent Motha, a businessman, and Philomena Motha. His father died when he was just three months old and Motha was brought up by his widowed mother. He was educated at the Holy Angels Convent and then went on to St Joseph's School, Trivandrum. He left secondary school with first class honours and went on to do a pre-university year at the Intermediate College in Trivandrum. He subsequently studied medicine at Trivandrum Medical College. After qualifying in 1972 he worked for a short period in Kerala before going to Tanzania. He worked in Dar es Salaam for three years and then went to Kano in Nigeria, where he spent another three years. He then moved to the UK, where he trained to become an orthopaedic surgeon and held posts at Bronglais Hospital, Aberystwyth, Northampton General Hospital and King George Hospital, Ilford, London. In 1987 he began working at West Suffolk Hospital, Bury St Edmunds. Outside medicine, he enjoyed playing music. He was a self-taught guitarist and played in several bands, at medical school and latterly in Bury St Edmunds. He also enjoyed collecting antiques, DIY and gardening. In 1977 he married Shantha in Trivandrum. They had a daughter, Reeya, and a son, Rohit. Motha died on 26 September 2010, in London, aged 62.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001564
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Christie, William Ledingham ( - 1920)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Müller, Maurice Edmond (1918 - 2009)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Sarah Gillam
Publication Date 2011-11-10 2014-08-22
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/373749373749
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon
Details Maurice Edmond Müller was an eminent Swiss orthopaedic surgeon who developed internal fixation techniques to treat bone fractures and designed new hip protheses. He was born in Biel, Switzerland, and studied medicine at the universities of Neuchâtel, Berne and Lausanne. He gained his MD from the University of Lausanne in 1944. From 1944 to 1946 he was a resident in orthopaedics at the Clinic Balgrist, Zürich. In 1947 he went to Jimma in Ethiopia, where he worked at the Hospital for Tropical Surgery. The next year, he returned to Switzerland, and held training posts in general surgery at Liestal and Fribourg. From 1952 to 1957 he was chief resident in orthopaedic surgery at the Clinic Balgrist in Zürich. In 1960 he was appointed director of the clinic for orthopaedics and traumatology at the Kantonsspital, St Gallen, a post he held until 1967. From 1963 to 1980 he was professor of orthopaedic surgery at the University of Berne, and chairman and director of the department of orthopaedic surgery, Inselspital, Berne. He pioneered the development of a standardised set of implants and surgical instruments for the fixation of fractured bones. In 1958, with Martin Allgöwer, Hans Wilenegger, Robert Schneider and Walter Bandi, he founded Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Osteosynthesefragen (AO) - the Association for the Study of Internal Fixation. He was also renowned for his joint replacement work. In 1965 he started Protek AG, which manufactured and distributed the protheses and surgical instruments he designed for the replacement of osteoarthritic or misshapen hip joints. From 1974 all profits went to the Fondation Maurice E Müller, which Müller set up to advance education and research in orthopaedic surgery. He received numerous awards for his work, including being made an honorary citizen of Berne. He became an honorary fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1982. In Berne, he helped establish the Zentrum Paul Klee, a museum dedicated to the work of the Swiss artist. He was married to Marty. They had three children, Jean Pierre, Janine and Denise. Maurice Müller died on 10 May 2009 in Berne, aged 91.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001566
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Churchill, Frederick (1843 - 1916)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2011-05-25
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001100-E001199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373356373356
Occupation General surgeon
Details Son of John S M Churchill, JP, of Wimbledon. He received his professional training at the University of Edinburgh and at St Thomas's Hospital, where he was Surgical Registrar. He was at one time Pathological Assistant at the Royal Infirmary, Edinburgh, and was also Resident Medical Officer at the York Road Lying-in Hospital. He was for many years in practice at 4 Cranley Gardens, South Kensington, and was Surgeon to the Victoria Hospital for Children, Chelsea, from 1871-1889. He was also for a time Hon Surgeon to the Young Women's Home, Sloane Street. He died at Cranley Gardens on June 22nd, 1916. His father was the well-known medical publisher. Publications: "Statistics of Limb Amputations, 1862-9." - *St Thomas's Hosp. Rep.*, i, 503. *St Thomas's Hospital Statistical Reports (Medical)*, 1868-70, 8vo, London, 1868-70. Translation of Liebreich "On the Use and Abuse of Atropine." "Report of Private Obstetrical Practice for Thirty-nine Years," 8vo, Dublin, 1872; reprinted from *Dublin Jour. Med. Sci.*, 1872. "The Complications of Hernia." - *St Thomas's Hosp. Rep.*, iii, 159. *Face and Foot Deformities: with illustrations of new appliances for the cure of birthmark, club-foot, etc.*, 8vo, 14 plates, London, 1885; American ed., 1885. *High-pressure Education, being an Exposition of the Evil Effects upon the Rising Generation of Hurry and Worry at School*, 12mo, London, 1885. *Causation and Treatment of Congenital Club foot*, 8vo, London, 1887. "On a New Mode of Arresting Haemorrhage by Temporary Compression." - *Lancet*, 1865, ii, 510, 556, etc. "The Therapeutic Value of the Hypophosphites Combined Soluble Tonic for Children." - *Brit. Med. Jour.*, 1880, i, 472. "Mechanical Distortion of the Spine." - *Ibid.*, 1871, i, 638. A memoir of considerable merit based on an instance of curvature of the spine dependent upon an inequality in the length of the lower extremities, and associated with hypertrophy of the right patella.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001173
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Church, William John (1798 - 1886)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Clapp, William (1814 - 1888)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Clapton, Edward (1830 - 1909)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2011-05-26
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001100-E001199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373359373359
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born at Stamford on April 28th, 1830, the second son of Jeremiah Clapton, at one time Mayor and Alderman of Stamford, and Steward of one of the Manors of which the Marquis of Exeter was lord. Jeremiah Clapton was Conservative agent for the borough for some forty years. Edward Clapton accordingly inherited a strong Conservative tradition. Through both parents also he was heir to a devout evangelicalism. One of a large family, he had from the first to make his way in the world. He was educated at Stamford Grammar School, where among his schoolfellows were the future Bishops Ellicott and Atlay. Apprenticed at the age of 16 to William Burdett, a local practitioner, he showed great promise, being thorough and possessed of a good memory. He entered St Thomas's Hospital, then situated at London Bridge, in 1850. Here he carried off a number of scholarships and prizes, and in 1861 was appointed an Assistant Physician. He had become Lecturer in Botany in 1860, and was Lecturer in Materia Medica and Therapeutics in 1861, when he designed a map showing the distribution of medicinal plants mentioned in the *British Pharmacopoeia* of 1867. He acquired a successful consulting practice at No 10A St Thomas's Street, while residing at Towercroft, Eltham Road, Lee. He was often called in consultation in the City and South of London, and proved a valuable physician to the South-Eastern and to the London, Brighton and South Coast Railways. His business-like habits enabled him not only to carry on his professional work, but also to devote much time to his many scholarly interests. Poor health, which had lasted from boyhood, compelled him early (1875) to resign his positions as Physician (elected 1871) to St Thomas's Hospital and Lecturer on Materia Medica, but he continued for some time to practise and to hold the posts of Physician to the Magdalen Hospital and to the London Assurance Company, as well as being Hon Consulting Physician to the Miller Memorial Hospital, Blackheath, St John's Hospital, Blackheath Cottage Hospital, and the Royal Kent Dispensary. A saintly and deeply religious man, Clapton was a firm supporter of various evangelical movements and an ingenious biblical scholar. His work, the *Precious Stones of the Bible*, employed most of his leisure for many years. In order to secure material for this study, he obtained specimens of precious stones of all kinds from Bible lands, many of these being obtained for him after the most laborious search by grateful patients. He then made a minute investigation of the passages in the Scriptures containing symbolical references to these precious stones, connecting the stones in the breast-plate of the High Priest with the description of the foundations of the New Jerusalem. As an instance of the remarkable character of these researches may be quoted his comments concerning the ruby, which is distinguished by its blood-red colour; but the similarity of the ruby to blood is more close than mere resemblance, for the colour in each case may be attributed to the presence of oxide of iron. Again, the word for ruby in Hebrew is Odem, and means 'blood-red', and is composed of the same Hebrew letters as Adam, which means 'taken out of red earth', which, the author says, is "an exact description of the ruby, which consists of pure alumina". Clapton made various, purely theological deductions from this, but was also always on the lookout for other lessons connected with the chemistry of the human body, more particularly the existence of certain derivatives of alumina in man. He was thus led to formulate theories as to the origin of cancer, which he submitted to the Cancer Research Committee. He caused a casket to be constructed of the different woods mentioned in the Bible, and in this he deposited his gems, and exhibited the collection in 1899 at the Ecclesiastical Art Exhibition of the Church Congress, each day giving demonstrations thereon. He, however, preferred to speak on his curious collections only to friends in his own home, where his museum proved him to be a Biblical critic from the scientific point of view. He was brought by his studies into close contact with the leaders of the Palestine Exploration Fund, the Victoria Institute, and the London Society for Promoting Christianity among the Jews, of which he was Hon Physician. He was one of the earliest members of the Medical Prayer Union, and was connected with many other institutions, such as Marshall's Trustees, of which he was Chairman. Himself very tolerant, he enjoyed the friendship of many distinguished men, both in and out of the Church. He was a member of the Athenaeum. "He journeyed to Cos to identify the plane tree under which the Father of Medicine sat to expound his wisdom," and presented to the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons two of the boughs and a bundle of twigs of the sacred tree. In his holidays he visited all the spas of Europe in succession in order to test their merits or the reverse, and was a high authority on the subject. His museum was designed to illustrate the early history of Judaism, Christianity, and Medicine. Clapton died at his residence, 41 Eltham Road, Lee, Blackheath, on Tuesday, September 28th, 1909, and was buried in the family vault at Stamford. His wife, eldest daughter of John S M Churchill, the medical publisher, had predeceased him. His son, the Rev Louis C Clapton, was (1909) Rector of Lee, and his elder daughter married a son of an old friend and colleague, Le Gros Clark, FRCS (qv). There is a photograph of Clapton in the Fellows' Album. . Publications: *The Precious Stones of the Bible*, 2nd ed., 1899. *The Life of St Luke*, 1902, in which he states that St Paul's 'thorn in the flesh' was probably recurrent malaria, Beelzebub being the 'Lord of Flies' and the thorn being Beelzebub's messenger. *The Life of St George*, 1902. "Map of Geographical Distribution of Medicinal Substance contained in the British Pharmacopoeia of 1867." "On the Effects of Copper upon the System." - *Clin. Soc. Trans.*, 1870, iii, 7. Various papers in medical journals, *Pathol. Trans.*, and *St Thomas's Hosp. Rep*.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001176
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Clapton, William ( - 1912)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Brooks, James Henry (1807 - 1886)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2010-05-13
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000900-E000999
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373162373162
Occupation General surgeon
Details Educated at Guy’s and St Thomas’s Hospitals. He was appointed Hospital Assistant to the Forces on Dec 15th, 1826, and resigned on August 24th, 1828. Was Resident Surgeon of the General Lying-in Hospital, York Road, Lambeth. He practised for many years at Henley-on-Thames and was District Surgeon to the Great Western Railway. His death occurred at Henley on January 24th, 1886.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000979
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Selvachandran, Prince Selvadurai (1938 - 2009)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by John Blandy
Publication Date 2011-06-16
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/373435373435
Occupation General surgeon
Details Prince Selvadurai Selvachandran was head of surgery at the Green Memorial Hospital in Manipay, Jaffna, Sri Lanka, until it was virtually destroyed in the civil war. He was born on 4 January 1938, the son of S S Selvadurai, principal of the American Mission College, Udupiddy, treasurer of the Jaffna diocese of the Church of South India, and a leader of the Jaffna community. Selvachandran and his brother, Benjamin Selvarajan, were educated at their father's college and then at Jaffna College, Vaddukoddai. They then went on to train in medicine at the Christian Medical College in Vellore. There Selvachandran met his future wife, Brenda. Selvachandran then returned to Jaffna, to the Green Memorial Hospital, Manipay, the oldest medical school in Ceylon, which had been founded as an American mission hospital in 1848. There he continued to work, eventually becoming medical superintendent and head of surgery. He moved to the Channel Islands, to Jersey, in 1984, where he became an associate specialist in general surgery. Sadly, he developed Alzheimer's disease and died on 1 May 2009 leaving his widow Brenda and their three children, Brinthini, Suthan and Sashi.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001252
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Cother, William ( - 1852)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2008-08-07
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/372717372717
Occupation General surgeon
Details Practised as a surgeon at Gloucester. He was for many years Surgeon to the Infirmary, of which he became Consulting Surgeon. He was also Consulting Surgeon to the County Lunatic Asylum. He died on or before Sept 27th, 1852, and his death was reported to the College in May, 1854.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000533
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching James, John Haddy (1788 - 1869)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2008-08-08
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/372718372718
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born at Exeter on July 6th, 1788, the son of a retired Bristol merchant. He was educated at the Exeter Grammar School and was apprenticed in 1805 to Benjamin W Johnson, and from 1806-1808 to Robert Patch, who was well known as a Surgeon to the Devon and Exeter Hospital. He thus came under the influence of John Sheldon, FRS, another of the surgeons who had been one of the distinguished ornaments of the Hunterian School of Medicine in London. James went to London after his apprenticeship and stayed there from 1808-1812, living for a year as house pupil with John Abernethy and serving as House Surgeon at St Bartholomew’s Hospital. He was gazetted Assistant Surgeon to the 1st Life Guards on Oct 27th, 1812, was present at the Battle of Waterloo, exchanged on July 30th, 1816, and commuted his half pay on Sept 3rd, 1830. The Regimental Order Book of the Life Guards contains an entry on Waterloo Day that “Assistant Surgeon James is not in the future to expose himself under fire” as he had done on the previous day. James returned to Exeter, and was elected Surgeon to the Devon and Exeter Hospital on June 11th, 1816, in succession to Sydenham Peppin. He had then taken a house in Cathedral Close and was beginning general practice. Two years later, in 1818, he gained the Jacksonian Prize at the Royal College of Surgeons of England with his essay “On Inflammation”, and he was already an advocate of provincial as against exclusively metropolitan education for medical students. On Jan 7th, 1819, Samuel Barnes and James made a communication to the Committee of the Devon and Exeter Hospital in the following terms: “It being the intention of two of the surgeons of the Hospital, Mr Barnes and Mr James, to give an annual course of Anatomical Demonstrations to the medical pupils of the place on subjects procured from London for this purpose, they request, in concurrence with the other medical officers of the House, permission to employ the laboratory of the Hospital for this purpose.” Permission was readily given, a pathological museum was formed, and James made the catalogue. He resigned the office of Surgeon on Sept 2nd, 1858, and made over to the hospital the anatomical and pathological specimens which he had prepared, but remained interested in the collection and continued as Curator until 1868. The effect of the action taken by the Exeter Surgeons was to make the medical apprentices a body corporate instead of being wholly subservient to their individual masters. In furtherance of his views James became one of the original members of the Provincial and Surgical Association, the forerunner of the British Medical Association. He gave an address at Liverpool in 1839, and was elected President of the Exeter Meeting in 1842. He also took an active part in municipal affairs, becoming a Town Councillor in 1820, Sheriff in 1826, Mayor in 1828, and retiring when the old Corporation was dissolved in 1833. He married: (1) in 1822 Elizabeth Wittal (*d.* 1839), by whom he had nine children; and (2) in 1840 Harriet Hills, of Exmouth, without family. One of his sons was William Wittal James (qv). He died on March 17th, 1869, at the lower corner house of Chichester Place, East Southernhay, where he had lived for many years. He had been ill for five years suffering from glaucoma and optic neuritis which gradually culminated in blindness. Lineal descendants continued in the neighbourhood of Exeter, and collateral branches in and about the town in various professional avocations. James is described as a small, handsome, well-built man. In society his manner charmed by the happy combination of vivacity, good breeding, and intelligence; but he carried military discipline into the sick-chamber, where he was feared and obeyed; respected though beloved. His own confidence in medical art was unbounded. He was a good anatomist but not a good operator; he wanted dexterity and he wanted composure. His operations were planned with great care, yet having with considerable formality announced that he would do one thing, he would often conclude by doing something entirely different. He was one of the few surgeons who had tied the abdominal aorta for aneurysm of the internal iliac. He was a most assiduous note-taker and left eleven volumes in folio written by himself. There is an oil painting in the Board Room of the Exeter and Devon Hospital. It is said to be very like, but “it lacks the fire of the man”.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000534
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Nedham, John ( - 1856)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Pierpoint, Matthew (1791 - 1855)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Rae, Sir William (1786 - 1878)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Smith, Samuel (1790 - 1867)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Terry, Henry (1791 - 1873)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Jukes, Alfred (1792 - 1844)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2008-08-08 2014-08-22
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/372724372724
Occupation General surgeon
Details Held the office of House Surgeon to the Birmingham General Hospital for ten years; he was then elected Surgeon in 1823 and held office until March, 1843, when his place was filled by S H Amphlett (qv), who had been his pupil. He appears to have belonged to a medical family in the town, for Fred Jukes, living at 45 Cherry Street, took his MRCS in 1819 and was also for ten years Resident Surgeon to the Birmingham General Hospital. Alfred Jukes died on or before July 28th, 1847. See below for an amended version of the published obituary: Alfred Jukes was a surgeon at Birmingham General Hospital. He was born in Bordesley, Birmingham, on 24 September 1792, the son of John and Elizabeth Jukes née Mansfield. The family were dissenters and Alfred was baptised on 30 October 1792 at the Unitarian New Meeting House in Moor Street, Birmingham. Alfred's father, John, inherited a manufacturing business from his father, Joseph, and in 1818, in *Wrightson's Triennial Directory*, he was described as a plater and button manufacturer. Alfred was one of at least eight sons and two daughters: three of the family died in infancy. The 1841 census reported that Alfred Jukes was living at 17 New Hall Street, Birmingham, and he was described as a surgeon. He published a booklet: *A case of carcinomatous stricture of the rectum; in which the descending colon was opened in the loin* (London, Churchill, 1842). His brother, Frederick Jukes, was also a surgeon in Birmingham. In April 1825 Alfred married Sarah Meredith, the daughter of James Meredith. They had three children, Sarah Elizabeth, Alfred Meredith and Joseph Hordern. Alfred Jukes died on 9 October 1844 at his home at 17 New Hall Street, Birmingham, at the age of 52. A note on the back of his portrait says his death was caused by 'a fall on the stairs while attending a patient', but a report in the *Admission Register of the Manchester School* stated that he died 'after a long and painful illness, aggravated, if not caused, by injury received whilst dressing a very bad case of a patient at the hospital'. Sarah Gillam
Resource Identifier RCS: E000540
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Clark, John (1784 - 1845)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Cooper, John ( - 1860)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2008-08-08 2011-07-21
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/372726372726
Occupation General surgeon
Details Practised at 35 Bedford Street North, Liverpool, and later at 60 Rodney Street. He was at one time Surgeon to the Liverpool South Dispensary and the Lunatic Asylum, as well as Lecturer on the Principles and Practice of Surgery, and on Clinical Surgery, at the Liverpool School of Medicine. He was then appointed Surgeon to the Liverpool Infirmary. In 1858 he was Consulting Surgeon to the Infirmary. His death occurred apparently between 1858 and 1860.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000542
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching De Beaux, John Louis Marcus (1921 - 2008)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2008-08-21
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/372727372727
Occupation General surgeon
Details John de Beaux spent much of his career working in the Colonial Medical Service, and then worked in Elgin, Scotland, as a consultant surgeon. He was born in Amritsar, India, on 3 December 1921, into an old Anglo-Indian family with many connections in the Colonial Service. His father, Louis Dudley de Beaux, served in the Indian Army through the First World War, retired in 1924 to join the Indian Police and in 1929 started his own business in books and stationery. His mother was Alice Maud Taylor. John de Beaux was educated at the Lawrence Royal Military Schools in Sanawar, from which he matriculated, and Ghora Gali, from which he took an intermediate science degree. He studied medicine at Madras Medical College from 1940 to 1945. After qualifying, he completed house surgeon and casualty officer posts at the Irwin Hospital, New Delhi, before going to England to specialise in surgery, beginning with registrar posts at the Winford Orthopaedic Hospital, Bristol, and the Mount Gold Orthopaedic Hospital, Plymouth. In 1948 he followed his family tradition, at first in the former Italian colonies in Africa, including Eritrea and Somalia, which were under the Foreign Office, and later in the Colonial Service in the British Solomon Islands from 1952 to 1957 (from which he published a paper on yaws). From 1957 to 1967 he was in Fiji, where for the last seven years he was the senior consultant surgeon. Largely influenced by the need to educate his children, he returned to the UK in 1967 as a consultant surgeon to Dr Gray’s Hospital, Elgin. There he remained until he retired in 1986. Dr Gray had founded his hospital in his native Elgin with a fortune made in India under the East India Company. John married Patricia Frieda Bateman, a farmer’s daughter, in 1952. They had two daughters (Patricia Anne and Jane Verina) and two sons (Samuel John and Andrew Charles). Andrew is a surgeon. John counted fishing, gardening, squash and hill-walking among his hobbies. He died of carcinoma of the prostate on 31 January 2008.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000543
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Jarrett, Llewellyn Neville (1946 - 2006)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2008-08-21 2009-02-10
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/372728372728
Occupation Trauma surgeon
Details Lyn Jarrett was a consultant in accident and emergency surgery at Queen’s Medical Centre, Nottingham. He was born on 18 September 1946 in Freetown, Sierra Leone. His father, Neville Jarrett, was a banker and his mother, Rosamond née Morrison, a housewife. He was educated at the Methodist Boys’ High School and the Prince of Wales School in Freetown, before going to England in 1966 to study medicine at Newcastle. After qualifying, he completed house officer jobs at Sunderland General Hospital and a senior house officer post at Nottingham General Hospital, where he continued to train in surgery. He then moved to the Queen’s Medical Centre, Nottingham, and to registrar posts at Derby Royal Infirmary and Leicester General Hospital, before being appointed as a consultant in accident and emergency surgery at the Queen’s Medical Centre, Nottingham, in 1987. He developed an interest in sports injury during his training in accident and emergency surgery and was medical consultant to Nottingham Forest Football Club for more than 20 years. He was also chief medical officer at the Donington Park Racing Circuit and medical consultant to the Nottingham Panthers ice hockey team. He married Resil Nicol-Cole, a solicitor, and had two daughters, Lynne and Nnenna, both of whom followed careers in marketing. Lyn died after a brief illness on 8 December 2006.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000544
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Wainwright, Denys (1908 - 2008)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Sarah Gillam
Publication Date 2011-11-29 2014-04-07
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/373829373829
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon
Details Denys Wainwright was an orthopaedic surgeon in north Staffordshire. He was born on 5 August 1908 in St Helens, Lancashire, the son of Reginald Wainwright, an architect, and Marion Wainwright née Draper, a general practitioner. He was educated at Prescott Grammar School and then went to Liverpool University to study medicine, qualifying in 1932. He held junior posts in Liverpool and Oswestry, and subsequently became a registrar to Sir Harry Platt and Sir John Charnley, the pioneer of hip replacement surgery. In 1937 he was appointed as a consultant surgeon to what is now the North Staffordshire Royal Infirmary in Stoke-on-Trent. He did much to improve orthopaedic and trauma services in the area. He was president of the orthopaedic section of the Royal Society of Medicine in 1965 and vice president of the British Orthopaedic Association from 1973 to 1974. He published extensively, particularly on the management of trauma and children's orthopaedics, was editor of *The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery*, and helped establish the journal *Injury*. He retired in 1973, and went to live in north London. He continued to travel and teach, and was a visiting professor in Sudan. Outside medicine, he was interested in golf, sailing, painting, bridge and skiing. In 1937 he married Shelagh, whom he met in Liverpool. They had two sons, Richard and Anthony, and a daughter, Patty. Denys Wainwright died on 27 October 2008, at the age of 100. He was survived by his children: his wife predeceased him.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001646
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Cottle, Ernest Wyndham (1847 - 1919)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Cottingham, Edwin ( - 1858)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Cotton, Charles (1811 - 1858)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Coulson, William (1802 - 1877)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Coulson, Walter John (1834 - 1889)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Coultate, William Miller (1814 - 1882)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Coumbe, John Batten (1853 - 1924)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Couper, John (1835 - 1918)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2011-08-19
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/373474373474
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born in Glasgow on November 7th, 1835, the son of John Couper, Professor of Materia Medica in the University of Glasgow, and Charlotte, daughter of Charles Tennant, of the St Rollox Chemical Works. The family of Couper is of ancient lineage in Scotland, and the name is the northern variant of the English 'Cooper' or 'Cowper'. After the death of Professor Couper in 1855, John Couper, who had begun his education at Glasgow Academy and at the University, went to Paris to perfect himself in French. He then returned to Glasgow and graduated in 1858, having been one of Lister's pupils at Edinburgh, where he also studied anatomy and physiology under Allan Thomson. After graduation he came to London and continued his study of anatomy at University College under Professor Viner Ellis (qv). Later he studied operative surgery under Langenbeck at Berlin. On his return to London he was appointed Demonstrator of Anatomy at the London Hospital Medical College largely through the influence of Professors Sharpey and Ellis. Turning his attention to ophthalmology, he also became Assistant to George Critchett (qv) at the London Ophthalmic Hospital in Moorfields. His researches in ophthalmology enabled him in 1883 to produce a 'magazine ophthalmoscope' which facilitated the measurement not only of errors of refraction, but of degrees of astigmatism. At the London Hospital his career was one of unswerving and upward progress. He was successively Demonstrator of Anatomy, Professor of Physiology, Assistant Surgeon, and full Surgeon and Professor of Surgery. As Professor of Physiology at the London Hospital he lectured conjointly with Hughlings Jackson, who was wont to say of his colleague that "no man had more knowledge worth communicating". It is probable that some of this knowledge was shown in communicating to Hughlings Jackson the value of the ophthalmoscope in diagnosis. As Professor of Surgery Couper gave a special course of lectures on diseases of the eye. On retiring under the time limit he was appointed Consulting Surgeon, and went to live at Ellesborough in the Chiltern Hills, whence he afterwards removed with his family to Falmouth. His death occurred on April 30th, 1918, and he was buried at Falmouth. He was survived by a widow, three daughters, and one son, Colonel Duncan Campbell Couper, RE. He left £178,000. Couper was amongst the last of the general surgeons who practised ophthalmology. A pupil of Lister, he introduced the use of the spray and dressings at the London Hospital before Lister came to King's College Hospital. He was a good but slow operator and was a pioneer in operations on the kidney and liver; he did much to popularize the use of the ophthalmoscope, more especially in estimating errors of refraction by the direct method of examination. Shy and somewhat retiring in manner, he wrote no books, though he made many contributions to the medical periodicals. He practised for many years at 80 Grosvenor Street, Grosvenor Square, W, and at the time of his death was Consulting Surgeon to the London, the Royal London Ophthalmic, and the Scottish Hospitals. He married in 1868 Helen Macfarlan, daughter of Alexander Campbell, Surgeon to the 1st Life Guards, and his wife Helen, daughter of the Rev Duncan Macfarlan, DD, Principal of Glasgow University, and Minister of the Cathedral. There is an excellent bust of Couper by Miss Anna Dabis and a three-quarter length portrait in oils, both in the Medical College of the London Hospital, and his coat of arms - two laurel branches inclining towards each other -appears in one of the College windows. Publications:- "Wounds of the Intestines." - *Trans. Pathol. Soc. Lond.*, xiv, 160. "An Attempt to Reduce a Dislocation of the Lower Jaw which had lasted nearly Four Months." - *Lond. Hosp. Rep*., 1864, i., 177. "The Diagnosis of Astigmatism by the Ophthalmoscope." - *Brit. Med. Jour.*, 1870, ii, 804. "A Magazine Refraction Ophthalmoscope." - *Trans. Ophthalmol. Soc.*, 1883, iii, 297.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001291
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Courtenay, John (1808 - 1854)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Elliott, John (1861 - 1921)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Elliott, Robert (1804 - 1872)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Ellis, George Viner (1812 - 1900)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2011-11-16
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/373791373791
Occupation Anatomist
Details Born on September 25th, 1812, the second son of Viner Ellis, of Duni House, Minsterworth, near Gloucester, where his family had for many years been landowners. He was educated at the Crypt Grammar School, and then at the Cathedral Grammar School, and was afterwards apprenticed to Dr Buchanan, of Gloucester. On the advice of his scientific uncle, Daniel Ellis, FRS, Edinburgh, he was entered as a medical student at the newly-founded University College, London, where his career was one of distinction, In his vacations he studied in Paris, and he also followed courses of lectures and worked at anatomy in Berlin. He was for a long period Demonstrator of Anatomy under Professor Richard Quain, and succeeded him in the Chair of Anatomy in 1850, resigning with the title of Emeritus Professor in 1877. He never mingled much with the professional world. At the time of his death in the year 1900, Viner Ellis was *magni nominis umbra* to the younger generation of medical students, but in his day he had been one of the ruling spirits of the world of anatomy in this country. He gave his whole working life to the study and teaching of his chosen subject. Though too austere and unsympathetic in manner and strict in discipline to be popular with the great body of students, he was held in the highest respect by all, and in almost affectionate regard by a chosen few. Though he disdained the art of clothing the dry bones of anatomy with any flesh of human interest, his lectures were so exact in detail and so clear in expression that they were always listened to with close attention if not with pleasure. He taught most conscientiously, having his students' credit greatly at heart. Such was his grief when University College men failed badly in the Royal College of Surgeons examinations, that on one occasion, after they had figured very poorly, he appealed to his class, with tears rolling down his face, to remove this disgrace from him. His name soon became a household word with medical students at large when he published his famous *Demonstrations of Anatomy: being a Guide to the Knowledge of the Human Body by Dissections*. This appeared in 1840, and quickly became the standard text-book in English and American dissecting-rooms. The 11th edition was published in 1890 (edited by Professor G D Thane). A number of quaint anecdotes were told of Ellis. His class was always in perfect order, and once when his colleague, Professor Robert Grant, then very old and feeble, found his men unmanageable, he called Viner Ellis to his aid. After a brief but convincing interview with Ellis the unruly became quiet as lambs in 'poor old Grant's' lecture-room. He hated smoking and forbade it to his dissectors, who once, so the legend runs, petitioned the Council of University College for leave to purify the air in the dissecting-rooms with tobacco smoke. The petition was granted, and Ellis at once sent in his resignation, only withdrawing it when he had received assurances that he should never again be asked to tolerate the accursed thing. When he subsequently caught a comfortable party of smokers round a stove, his anger was memorable. He was secretive as to his place of residence, and students out-of-doors were wont cautiously to shadow him on his way home, but he always apparently succeeded in giving his followers the slip. The popular myth was to the effect that he kept two *ménages*. In the afternoons he used to go round to each individual dissector and would show his approval of a hard worker by patting him on the shoulder with hands "too visibly subdued to that they worked in" - a mark of approval not always properly appreciated. He spent most of his time in the dissecting-room, looking in after his midday lecture and sniffing the air as though to gain an appetite for lunch. To the specially privileged he would sometimes unbend, the hard face wrinkling every now and then into kindly smiles. He would reveal unsuspected depths of knowledge and feeling, and would tell stories of the old resurrectionists, some of whom he had known, or would show a love of literature in discussing the Elizabethan poets. He was an expounder rather than a discoverer in anatomy, a rigorous verifier and systematizer of what was already known. He discovered the corrugator ani muscle, a fact commemorated in a student's epitaph composed in his memory:- "Here lies, beloved by few, and feared by many, Georgy, discoverer of the corrugator ani." After his retirement Professor Ellis built himself a house in his native place, and lived quietly there with his sister. He devoted himself to the cultivation of his garden and was a successful apple-grower. He also taught the older boys of the parish in a night school, for he hated to be idle. With Viner Ellis passed away almost the last of the great teachers who had first made the Medical School of University College famous. He died at his residence, Severn Bank, Minsterworth, Gloucestershire, on April 25th, 1900. He was several times Examiner in Anatomy at the University of London, but refused to join the Court of Examiners of the Royal College of Surgeons, who in his day were required to test the knowledge of candidates in surgery as well as in anatomy. Publications:- In addition to the *Demonstrations of Anatomy*, Ellis published:- *Illustrations of Dissections in a Series of Original Coloured Plates the Size of Life, representing the Dissection of the Human Body,* fol., London, 1867; 2nd ed., 2 vols., 8vo, New York, 1882. This is as much a classic as the *Demonstrations*. The drawings were finely executed from nature on stone by G H FORD. They were from Ellis's dissections. He wrote the greater part of the description of the nerves in his and Sharpey's edition of Jones Quain's *Elements of Anatomy*, 6th ed., 1856. He also contributed several papers on scientific subjects to the *Lond. Med. Gaz.*
Resource Identifier RCS: E001608
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Ellis, Sir Herbert Mackay (1851 - 1912)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Ellison, King (1800 - 1860)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Elsworth, Richard Cogswell (1859 - 1922)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Elwin, John Fountain ( - 1890)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Embleton, Dennis (1810 - 1900)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2011-11-16
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/373796373796
Occupation Physician
Details Born at Newcastle-upon-Tyne on October 1st, 1810, and came of a Northumbrian stock, both his father and mother being natives of Alwinton. He was educated at Witton-le-Wear, Durham, and in 1827 was apprenticed to T Leighton, Senior Surgeon at the Newcastle Infirmary, to whom £500 was paid as Embleton's apprenticeship fee. He studied at Guy's and St Thomas's Hospitals, and at Grainger's, and, probably, also at Pilcher's School of Anatomy. After qualifying in 1834 he spent much of his time in the South of Europe, studying his profession in Paris, Rome, Bologna, and Pisa, among other places. He was a great pedestrian and wandered on foot over France, Spain, and Italy. He was never tired of talking of the adventures of those days - those halcyon days - of the beauties of the Southern scenery, of the grandeur of the cities, and of the manners and habits of the people with whom his own kind and genial disposition rendered it easy for him to amalgamate. He spoke French and Italian well, was familiar with the literature of France and of Italy, and loved the warmth and brightness of their sunny climate as much as if he had been a native. To the end of his life he retained his affection for Frenchmen and Italians, who were always welcome to his hospitable board and to his almost open house. He became a Doctor of Medicine of Pisa after the usual examination. He ended his wanderings in 1836 and settled in practice as a physician in Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1837, and joined the Newcastle School of Medicine in September, 1839, as Demonstrator of Practical Anatomy and Curator of the Museum. The School had been established in 1884 by George Fife, Samuel Knott, and Alexander Fraser, who were later joined by John Fife (qv) and others. Embleton lectured first on anatomy and physiology, and acted as Registrar, and in 1852 was appointed Reader in Medicine at the University of Durham. On the closer connection of the University with the Medical School at Newcastle, he was appointed in 1870 the first Professor of Medicine and of the Practice of Physic. In 1872 Dr Edward Charlton succeeded him, and thus his long tenure of office at Newcastle and Durham ceased after a period of thirty-three years. He was the representative of the University of Durham on the General Medical Council from 1858 (the year of its inception) to 1872, and was Physician to the Newcastle-upon-Tyne Infirmary from April, 1853, to May, 1878, when he became Consulting Physician. In the wards of the Infirmary he was perhaps less the popular clinical teacher than the student and the friend of students. Popularity had never any charm for him. He was a careful observer of facts, and extremely painstaking and accurate both in his accumulation and application of data. He was Physician to the Newcastle-upon-Tyne Dispensary and Fever House from 1856-1873. Though a man of the study not in love with popularity, Embleton was nevertheless locally most popular. At different times he was Vice-President of the Literary and Philosophical, the Natural History, and the Antiquarian Societies of Newcastle. He was actively interested in science at large, and in literature, was a good naturalist and a fine antiquarian. For years he was one of the best-known leaders of the educational movement in the North of England, and no savant ever visited Newcastle without asking for, and making the acquaintance of, Embleton. To within two years of his death, when he met with an accident, Embleton was one of the best-known figures in his native town. Carrying himself, even in his latest years, perfectly erect, he walked with a briskness, a firmness, and a rapidity of step that made him the envy of many. His robust inherited constitution enabled him to pass through an attack of pneumonia in extreme old age. After no long period of declining health this Nestor of the profession in Northumbria passed quietly away at his residence, 19 Claremont Place, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, early on the morning of Monday, November 12th, 1900. He was buried in St Andrew's Cemetery. He married in 1847 Miss Turner, a lady devoted to natural history and scientific pursuits; she died in 1869. He was survived by two daughters, of whom one had nursed him with great devotion. His only son, Dennis Cawood Embleton, MD, MRCS, had predeceased him by a few months at Bournemouth, where he had been for long in a large practice. Dennis Embleton, his grandson (MRCS 1906), was at the time studying medicine at Christ's College, Cambridge. A portrait of Embleton accompanies his biography in the *Lancet*, and his photograph is in the Fellows' Album (1867), where he already appears as a venerable man. Embleton had outlived his Newcastle contemporaries, with the exception of Lord Armstrong and T Lightfoot, the oldest local surgeon. At the time of his death he was one of three surviving original Fellows, the other two being Carsten Holthouse (d July 18th, 1901) and Henry Spencer Smith (d November 29th, 1901) (qv). Publications: *A Visit to Madeira in the Winter*, 1880-1: *two Lectures*, 8vo, London, 1882. *The History of the Medical School, afterwards the Durham College of Medicine at Newcastle-upon-Tyne*, 1832-72, 8vo, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 1890. "On an Ancient British Burial at Ilderton, Northumberland, with Notes on the Skull" (with the Rev. W. GREENWELL), 8vo, 2 plates, 1863; reprinted from *Nat. Hist. Trans*. *A Case of Cyanosis*, 8vo, 1863. *Report from the Newcastle and Gateshead Fever Hospital on Typhus and Small-pox, for the year* 1864-5, 8vo, Newcastle, 1865. *On the Shoulder Tip Pain, and other Sympathetic Pains in Diseases of the Liver*, 8vo, Newcastle, 1870. Here his ability and the peculiar bent of his mind are well shown. Sir Thomas Watson alluded to the importance of this paper, or the one following, in his classic lectures on the Practice of Physic. "Tenderness and Pain of the Pneumogastric Nerves and the Importance of the Sign in Cases of Disease of the Stomach, Liver, and Heart." "On the Spinal Column of *Loxomma Allmanni* (Huxley), from the Northumberland Coalfield." - *Brit. Assoc. Rep.* 1889, 580. "On the Egg." - A lecture. *Northumberland Nat. Hist. Trans.*, 1894, xi, 255. "On the Anatomy of *Eolis*, a Genus of the Mollusks of the order Nudibranchiata" (with ALBAN HANCOCK). - *Ann. Of Nat. Hist.*, 1845, xv, 77; 1848, 2nd ser., I, 88; 1849, 2nd ser.,183. "Account of a Ribbon-fish (*Gymnetrus*) taken off the Coast of Northumberland" (with ALBAN HANCOCK). - *Ann. Of Nat. Hist.*, 1849, 2nd ser., iv, 1. "On the Anatomy of Scyllaea" (with ALBAN HANcocx). - *Brit. Assoc. Rep.*, 1847, 77. "On the Anatomy of *Doris*, a Nudibranchiate Mollusk." - *Ibid.*, 1850, 124. He sent his work "On the Anatomy of Doris" to the Prince Consort, who, at the request of the Queen, sent him a work on the Natural History of Braemar. Papers on folk-lore, dialogues and poetry in the Northumbrian dialect, short History of Featherstone Castle, lives of his friends, Joshua Alder, John and Albany Hancock, and W. C. Hewitson.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001613
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching England, William (1823 - 1903)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Reading, Alexander David (1965 - 2011)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Sarah Gillam
Publication Date 2011-11-18 2014-06-03
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/373798373798
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon Trauma surgeon
Details Alexander Reading was a consultant orthopaedic and trauma surgeon at Spire South Bank Hospital, Worcester, Alexandra Hospital, Redditch, and the joint clinic in Droitwich. He studied medicine in Glasgow, qualifying MB ChB in 1990. He gained his FRCS in 1994. He was a specialist registrar in orthopaedic surgery in the west of Scotland, and then held a clinical research fellowship in Leicester. In 2002 he was appointed to his consultant post. He specialised in hip and knee replacement surgery, and published papers on hip replacement, particularly on the prevention of infection. He was a member of the British Orthopaedic Association, the British Orthopaedic Research Society and the British Hip Society. In his spare time he was an assistant coach for a boys' football team, and played cricket, tennis and golf. Alexander Reading committed suicide on 15 June 2011, aged 45. He was survived by his wife Sarah, a former nurse, and sons Jonny and Wils.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001615
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Shah, Bhanu Ratilal (1931 - 2011)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Sharma, Chandra Maulishwar Prasad (1933 - 2009)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Sarah Gillam
Publication Date 2011-11-18 2014-06-06
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/373800373800
Occupation General surgeon Urological surgeon Urologist
Details Chandra Maulishwar Prasad Sharma was a consultant general and urological surgeon in Patna, India. He qualified MB BS in Patna in 1958 and gained his FRCS in 1965. He was a senior surgical registrar at the Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast, and a surgical registrar at West Wales General Hospital, Carmarthen. He then became a consultant general surgeon for Dyfed Area Health Authority. In 2009 the Royal College of Surgeons was notified of his death.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001617
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Sharma, Hari Narayan ( - 2007)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Robinson, Maurice Patrick ( - 2010)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Sarah Gillam
Publication Date 2011-11-18 2014-06-06
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/373802373802
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon
Details Maurice Patrick Robinson was a consultant orthopaedic surgeon at the Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital in Oswestry, Shropshire. He qualified in 1952, gained his FRCS in 1958 and was formerly a senior registrar at the Middlesex Hospital. He died on 8 September 2010.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001619
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Radcliffe, Anthony ( - 2006)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Jerry Kirk
Publication Date 2011-11-18 2012-02-01
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/373803373803
Occupation ENT surgeon
Details Anthony Radcliffe was a consultant ENT surgeon in London. He was born in South Africa and grew up in the same small village as his long-term friend Aaron Klug, the Nobel laureate, who influenced him greatly. Radcliffe qualified in Ireland and completed junior posts at the West London Hospital, Hemel Hempstead, and was encouraged by John H Young, the influential house governor of the Royal National Throat, Nose and Ear Hospital, to go there. He subsequently obtained ENT consultant posts at Willesden General Hospital, the London Jewish Hospital and the Royal National Throat, Nose and Ear Hospital. He was a renowned operator and teacher, and acquired a larger private practice in Harley Street, London. His reputation ensured that he had a stream of medical visitors. When the Royal Society of Medicine no longer offered a venue for the presentation of difficult and puzzling ENT problems, he formed a club to do so. His wife, Lillian, was his practice manager. His son is a consultant ENT surgeon at the Royal Free Hospital.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001620
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Pownall, Philip John (1937 - 2008)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Sarah Gillam
Publication Date 2011-11-18 2015-07-20
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/373804373804
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon
Details Philip John Pownall was an orthopaedic surgeon in Bolton. He was born on 22 February 1937 and studied medicine at Manchester University, qualifying MB ChB in 1961. He gained his fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh and of England in 1971 and 1972 respectively. Prior to his consultant appointment, he was a tutor and honorary senior registrar in orthopaedic surgery in Leeds. He was a fellow of Manchester Medical Society. His death was reported to the Royal College of Surgeons in 2008.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001621
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Pothalingam, Somasunderam (1926 - 2008)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Sarah Gillam
Publication Date 2011-11-18 2015-04-24
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/373805373805
Occupation General surgeon
Details Somasunderam Pothalingam was a surgeon at the Children's Hospital in Colombo, Sri Lanka, and at Wanstead Hospital, London, and an honorary assistant in surgery at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School in London. He qualified MB BS in 1951 from the University of Colombo, in what was then Ceylon. He went on to gain his fellowship from the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh in 1964 and from the Royal College of Surgeons of England in 1967. Somasunderam Pothalingam died on 6 October 2008. He was 81. He was survived by his wife, Margie, and sons Ketish and Natesh.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001622
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Pyper, James Bothwell (1924 - 2010)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Sarah Gillam
Publication Date 2011-11-18 2014-06-06
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/373806373806
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon
Details James Bothwell Pyper was a consultant orthopaedic surgeon in Northern Ireland. He qualified in Belfast in 1946 and gained his FRCS in 1951. Prior to his consultant appointment, he was a registrar at the Princess Elizabeth Orthopaedic Hospital in Exeter and a senior registrar in orthopaedic surgery for the Northern Ireland Hospitals Authority. He died on 23 March 2010.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001623
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Quinby, Janice Mary (1951 - 2008)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Sarah Gillam
Publication Date 2011-11-18 2016-01-20
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/373807373807
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon Priest
Details Janice Mary Quinby was an orthopaedic surgeon at the Freeman Hospital, Newcastle upon Tyne. She gained her FRCS in 1982. She was an ordained priest. She died on 1 November 2008, aged 56.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001624
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Sarah Gillam
Publication Date 2011-12-20 2015-02-27
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001700-E001799
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373968373968
Occupation Vascular surgeon
Details Geoffrey Gilling-Smith was a consultant vascular surgeon at Royal Liverpool Hospital. He was born on 15 November 1955 at St George's Hospital, London, the son of Dryden Gilling-Smith, a businessman. His mother, who was head of the physics and chemistry department at the French Lycée in South Kensington, spoke French and he was bilingual. When he was 11 his aortic coarctation was repaired by Charles Drew at the Westminster Hospital. Brought up in Tadworth, he gained a scholarship to Epsom College, where he captained the shooting team, and he went on to study medicine at Charing Cross Medical School. He was a casualty officer in Ealing, a senior registrar at St Mary's and a research fellow at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School, Hammersmith Hospital, prior to his appointment to his consultant post in Liverpool. At Liverpool he was greatly involved in training and education. His particular expertise within vascular surgery was the endovascular treatment of arterial disease, specifically aortic aneurysms. He was a member of the council of the Vascular Society and a member of the European Society for Vascular Surgery. He was a surgical tutor for the Royal College of Surgeons. Outside medicine he had a wide range of interests, including painting, music, particularly jazz, motor bikes and fast cars. He was also a member of the board of his father's company and was involved in other companies which he helped to establish. Geoffrey Gilling-Smith died on 17 January 2010 from aortic valve disease. He was survived by his wife Lynda, his two children, his sister and parents. He was 54.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001785
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Pool, Kenneth Raymond Stanley ( - 2005)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Sarah Gillam
Publication Date 2011-11-18 2015-04-24
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/373810373810
Occupation Obstetrician and gynaecologist
Details Kenneth Raymond Stanley Pool was a consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist at the Royal Victoria Hospital, Folkestone, Buckland Hospital, Dover, and William Harvey Hospital, Ashford. He studied medicine at King's College Hospital Medical School and qualified in 1952. He gained his FRCS in 1958. Prior to his consultant appointments he was a surgical registrar at the Central Middlesex Hospital, London, a demonstrator in anatomy at King's College, Newcastle upon Tyne, and a senior registrar in obstetrics and gynaecology at King's College Hospital, London. He was a member and then fellow of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. Kenneth Raymond Stanley Poole died in early 2005.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001627
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Ramsay, Gordon Stuart (1919 - 2010)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Sarah Gillam
Publication Date 2011-11-18 2014-06-03
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/373811373811
Occupation General surgeon
Details Gordon Stuart Ramsay was a consultant general surgeon at the Royal London Homeopathic, Metropolitan and Bromley hospitals, London. He was born on 11 December 1919 in Streatham, south London. He was educated at Merchiston Castle School, Edinburgh, and then St Bartholomew's Medical School. During the Second World War he was evacuated, along with many other Bart's students, to Queens' College, Cambridge. He qualified in 1943 and, after a casualty post at the West London Hospital, joined the Army. He was posted to the 52nd Lowland Division, and was sent to Aboyne, Scotland. After junior posts, he became a consultant general surgeon, but he also developed an interest in colorectal surgery. Outside medicine he was passionate about music. He played the piano and treated and became friends with several famous musicians and composers, including Benjamin Britten, Sir Peter Pears and Sir Adrian Boult. Gordon Stuart Ramsay met his wife Christine at the West London Hospital. Sadly, she died on the night of their 63rd wedding anniversary, in May 2007. He died on 1 August 2010, aged 90, and was survived by their two daughters, Rosemary and Fiona.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001628
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching O'Riordan, Sean Michael (1944 - 2006)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Sarah Gillam
Publication Date 2011-11-18 2015-04-24
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/373812373812
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon Trauma surgeon
Details Sean Michael O'Riordan was a consultant orthopaedic surgeon at Lincoln County Hospital and Grantham and Kesteven General Hospital. He was born in York on 3 August 1944, the eldest of three children of John Joseph O'Riordan, a psychiatrist, and Theresa Margaret O'Riordan née Markham, the daughter of a farmer. He was educated at Barlborough Hall, Derbyshire, and Mount St Mary's College, Sheffield. He then studied medicine at the London Hospital Medical College, gaining a scholarship to study for a BSc in anatomy. He qualified MB BS in 1968. He was a house physician at the London Hospital. Prior to his consultant appointments, he was a registrar in orthopaedic surgery at Broomfield Hospital, Chelmsford, and then a senior registrar at the London Hospital. In 1971 he spent 10 months in Ethiopia as a resident medical officer at the Gambo Leprosy Control and Rural Health Centre. Outside medicine, he was interested in golf and tennis. In July 1972 he married Ann Patricia Webb, a nurse. They had three children - Trish, Dee and Paul - and two grandchildren. Sean Michael O'Riordan died suddenly at his home on 2 May 2006, aged 61.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001629
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Strach, Erich Hugo (1914 - 2011)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Sarah Gillam
Publication Date 2011-11-25 2015-05-01
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001600-E001699
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373813373813
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon
Details Eric Hugo Strach was a consultant orthopaedic surgeon on Merseyside. He was born in Brno, Czechoslovakia, into a Jewish family. His father, Cornelius Strach, was a businessman; his mother was Helene Strach née Bachrich. He studied medicine at Prague University and graduated in 1938. After qualifying he spent some time in France with friends, the Nante family. As the situation in Europe worsened, his parents persuaded him not to return to Czechoslovakia. He stayed on in France and finally found work as a resident medical officer at a sanatorium in Dreux. After it was bombed in 1940, he drove the Nante family to relative safety in Brittany and then joined the Czech Army at Agde in southern France. He sailed with the Czech Army to Liverpool, where he found a post at Chorley Hospital as a house surgeon. He later moved on to become a senior house surgeon at Wigan Infirmary and then a registrar at Alder Hey Hospital. After the war, he returned briefly to Czechoslovakia to help deal with an epidemic of typhus in Terezin. On arriving in Prague he discovered that his sister Ilse, her two children and his parents had been killed in the concentration camps. He decided to return to England, and went back to work at Wigan Infirmary. Deciding to become a surgeon, he gained his FRCS in 1951. He was a senior orthopaedic registrar at Alder Hey, Liverpool Royal Infirmary and then Clatterbridge. He was eventually appointed as a consultant orthopaedic surgeon at St Helens Hospital. He also held a consultant post at Whiston Hospital and had a private practice. After he retired he spent a couple of years at the Royal Liverpool Hospital. He specialised in the treatment of children with spina bifida, and devised two appliances for these patients - the Strach-Edney calliper and a shunt to drain fluid from the heads of children with hydrocephalus. A keen amateur astronomer, he designed and built his own solar observatory in his garden and was a member of the Liverpool Astronomical Society. In retirement, and with the fall of the Iron Curtain, he was able to return to Czechoslovakia for the first time. With his wife he revisited Prague, Brno and Slavkov (Austerlitz) and met his few remaining relatives. He helped plan the erection of a stone in the Jewish cemetery in Slavkov to commemorate the Austerlitz victims of the Holocaust and organised the renovation of the synagogue there. He also developed links with the holocaust memorial and education centre at Beth Shalom, in Nottinghamshire, where a rose was planted in the memorial garden in memory of the family he had lost. In 1945 he married Margaret Forshaw. They had three children - Helen, Steven and Angela - and six grandchildren. Eric Hugo Strach died in his sleep on 10 January 2011. He was 96.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001630
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Smith, Harman Gilbert (1915 - 2006)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Sarah Gillam
Publication Date 2011-11-25 2015-05-22
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/373814373814
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon
Details Harman Gilbert Smith was a senior orthopaedic surgeon at Middlemore Hospital, Auckland, New Zealand. He was born in Whangarei, New Zealand, on 10 October 1915 and studied medicine in Dunedin, qualifying in 1940. His first posts were as house surgeon and registrar at Auckland and Greenlane hospitals. He then joined the Navy and served as a surgeon in the Pacific. He was in Japanese waters when the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima in August 1945. Following his demobilisation, he went to the UK, where he was initially an anatomy demonstrator at the Middlesex Hospital, and then trained at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital. He gained his FRCS in 1948. In 1950 he returned to New Zealand. He was a casualty officer at Auckland Hospital and then became an orthopaedic surgeon at the Middlemore Hospital. He also developed a large consulting and medico-legal private practice. At Middlemore Hospital he established new patient clinics, including one for clubfeet. He also played a major role in the development of an orthopaedic training scheme. He gained his fellowship of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons in 1959 and later served as an examiner for the college. He was secretary, editorial secretary and president (from 1974 to 1975) of the New Zealand Orthopaedic Association. He was a fellow of the British Orthopaedic Association and a corresponding member of the Association of Bone and Joint Surgeons and of the American Fracture Association. He continued his involvement in the Navy, serving in the Royal New Zealand Naval Volunteer Reserve. His services were recognised with an OBE in 1967. He was also honorary surgeon to two governors general. He was married to Jill. Harman Gilbert Smith died on 27 January 2006. He was 90. He was survived by his daughters, Susan and Philippa.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001631
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Urquhart-Hay, Donald (1929 - 2011)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by N Alan Green
Publication Date 2011-11-25 2017-01-19
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/373815373815
Occupation Urological surgeon Urologist
Details Donald Urquhart-Hay was a well-known New Zealand urologist who enjoyed an enviable worldwide reputation. He had an excellent postgraduate training in the United Kingdom, mainly in London and organised by the Institute of Urology, and pioneered renal transplantation in Wellington, New Zealand. When serving in the Royal New Zealand Naval Volunteer as a commander, one of his many outside commitments was as an aide-de-camp to Sir (later Lord) Arthur Porritt when he was governor-general of New Zealand from 1967. Donald was born in Christchurch on 24 May 1929, the son of Walter Hay, a manager in the local Bank of New Zealand. He was named after Donald Urquhart, a captain who served with the New Zealand Shipping Company. His mother was Beryl Eunice née Robertson, the daughter of a draper. The family lived in Eltham in the province of Taranaki, and Donald was educated at Stratford High School, after primary schooling in Eltham. In addition to a good academic record, he developed a natural aptitude for woodwork and painting, and a lifetime interest in clocks. Graduating from University in 1954, he spent two years of house appointments in Auckland. Being drawn to surgery, he decided to travel to the UK and first spent 18 months training in orthopaedics, before taking on a busy post in general surgery with some urology at Southend General Hospital. Sir Eric Riches encouraged Donald to think seriously about the developing specialty of urology for his future career in surgery. Fortuitously, the Institute of Urology was developing a three-year training programme, based first at St Paul's Hospital, Endell Street, and rotating through the Royal Marsden and the Hospital for Sick Children, Great Ormond Street. Working with Sir David Innes Williams, John Blandy and Richard Turner-Warwick, he had a good grounding for any surgeon wishing to specialise in urology. They emphasised to him the need for good basic research, as well as the necessity of well-organised training programmes. This was at the time when urology was developing as a specialty and separating from general surgery. Donald was influenced by many other urologists in the UK, including J D Ferguson, Howard Hanley and David Wallace. Donald then went to work with James Dempster, who nurtured his interest in renal transplantation. He met Geoffrey Chisholm, another New Zealand-born surgeon, who was at first senior registrar to Ralph Shackman at Hammersmith Hospital and the Postgraduate Medical School, and was then appointed to the consultant staff. Geoffrey was doing work in the field of organ preservation and transplantation. Urquhart-Hay's early research was on greyhounds, ideal for his research as they were 'obedient, thin and never barked!' All this work was made possible at the Hammersmith because of the existing renal dialysis programme set up by Eddie Kulatilake. Returning to New Zealand in 1966, Urquhart-Hay obtained a post as an admitting and outpatient medical officer at Wellington Hospital and, from 1967 to 1994, was visiting urologist to the hospital. He continued his research work on renal transplantation at Wallaceville Research Unit and performed the first human transplant in New Zealand at Wellington Hospital on 2 April 1969 (1). During this period, from 1966 to 1971, he also acted as medical officer to the clinic for sexually transmitted diseases. Following his baptism into urology, he pursued this specialty relentlessly as it split from its general surgical roots, and worked hard for its advancement in New Zealand. He was an ardent supporter of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, for whom he was an examiner over many years. He was unwavering in his support of the Urological Society of Australia and New Zealand, and designed and commissioned the Society's crest and its motto - *Juncta ad aquam* (joined across the water). Publications were numerous and included 'Comparison of epidural and hypotensive anaesthesia in open prostatectomy' (*N Z Med J*. 1969 May;69[444]:281-7), 'Voluntary sterilisation in the male'. (*N Z Med J*. 1970 Apr;71[455]:230-2) and papers on his experiences of renal transplantation. He had a great interest in medical and military history, and produced an entertaining and very readable book *Beyond the figleaf: essays on urology, sex and medical miscellania* (Wellington, Steele Roberts, 22009). This fluently written narrative covered a wide variety of topics, ranging from Florence Nightingale, the history of sex, to alcohol and the medical profession, as well as details of various urological societies. Naturally his superb work was recognised further afield, and in 1992 he became chief of urology and renal transplantation for the Ministry of Defence, Saudi Arabia. His fame spread in the Middle East and he became an adviser in urology and renal transplantation to the Department of Health in Dubai from 1993 to 1995, and during this latter period was also visiting professor in urology to the Sultan Qaboos University, Muscat, Oman. Outside his medical duties he enjoyed sailing and was a member of the Bentley Owners Club of England and of New Zealand. He was first a district surgeon to the Order of St John and, from 1981, was appointed chief commissioner, a role he continued for seven years. As a member of the Antiquarian Horological Society of England, he possessed a collection of some 200 clocks, which he wound lovingly each week. His most prized possession, a mantle clock given by Lord Nelson to his mistress, Emma Hamilton, was kept 15 minutes fast, in honour of Nelson's commitment to punctuality! He also had a fine collection of old surgical instruments. Donald retired from Wellington Hospital in 1994, to continue in several roles. He acted in an advisory capacity for the Accident Compensation Corporation, and from 1997 to 2002 was full time urologist to Palmerston North Hospital. In 2007 he served as a member of the Capital and District Health Board of Wellington. He also engaged in medico-legal work. After many years of living in Wellington, he moved with his wife to Ta Horo, near the Otaki River. Here they built an English style garden and Donald built a dry stone wall using the large supply of stones from the nearby river. Donald died on 13 August 2011 at Mary Potter Hospice in Wellington, at the age of 82. He was survived by his wife Pamela (née Bowden-Hennin), whom he had met while studying for the primary FRCS in 1957, their two sons (Simon and Timothy), daughter (Charlotte) and seven grandchildren. [(1) 1968 deleted, 2 April 1969 added. Confirmed by Renal History page, Capital and Coast District Health Board of Wellington.]
Resource Identifier RCS: E001632
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Wadge, Winifred Joan (1904 - 2010)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Neil Weir
Publication Date 2011-11-25 2014-06-06
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/373816373816
Occupation ENT surgeon
Details Winifred Joan Wadge was a consultant ENT surgeon at the Royal Ear Hospital (University College Hospital) and the Nelson Hospital, Wimbledon. She was born on 22 May 1904 in Ilford, Essex, the second of three children to Frederick Collett Wadge, a solicitor, and Winifred Hardwick Wadge née Shacklock, whose father was the owner and manager of Mansfield Brewery. Both her brothers became doctors. Educated at St Paul's Girls' School from 1915 to 1923, Winifred Wadge went up to Newnham College, Cambridge, to read natural sciences and physiology. On completion of her BA in 1926 she became a research assistant to B A McSwiney in Leeds. With him she published two papers on the sympathetic nervous system in the *Journal of Physiology* ('Effects of variations in intensity and frequency on the contractions of the stomach obtained by stimulation of the vagus nerve.' *J Physiol*. 1928 Aug 14;65[4]:350-6, 'The sympathetic innervation of the stomach: I. The effect on the stomach of stimulation of the thoracic sympathetic trunk.' *J Physiol*. 1930 Oct 31;70[3]:253-60). It is highly probable that this experience led Winifred Wadge to consider medicine as a profession, as her next move was to study anatomy at University College, London (UCL) (from 1929 to 1931), before starting her clinical studies at University College Medical School in 1931. As a student she continued her interest in physiology as an assistant in the UCL department of physiology. After qualifying MB BS in 1936, she became a house surgeon to the ENT department of University College Hospital, which was situated in the Royal Ear Hospital and was encouraged to do ENT by F E Watkyn-Thomas and Myles Formby. Part of this job was to work with the general surgeons Gwynne Williams (who in 1935 also became dean of the medical school) and E K Martin, both of whom also influenced her choice of career. No doubt torn between these surgical specialties, Winifred Wadge became casualty officer at King Edward VII Hospital, Windsor, and later undertook several short-term anaesthetist appointments at UCH, before electing to pursue a career in ENT, starting as a registrar at UCH in 1937. Throughout the Second World War she held the post of first assistant and in 1946 she was appointed as an assistant surgeon. She was advanced to full surgeon in 1948. In 1953 she wrote the section on throat and oropharynx in Watkyn-Thomas' *Diseases of the throat, nose and ear* (London, H K Lewis & Co). On her retirement in 1969 she became consulting surgeon. Winifred Wadge led a busy life outside medicine. She followed the country pursuits of riding and gardening, loved music and collected antique furniture and pictures. Perhaps her greatest pursuit was to breed, exhibit and judge Pembroke Welsh corgis of the Whielden line. Winifred Wadge died on 6 April 2010, aged 105. She never married.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001633
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Wadsworth, Paul Vincent (1919 - 2010)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Neil Weir
Publication Date 2011-11-25 2013-10-18
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/373817373817
Occupation ENT surgeon
Details Paul Vincent Wadsworth was a consultant ear, nose and throat surgeon to the Brighton and Haywards Heath hospitals and, for many years, also principal laryngologist to Glyndebourne Opera. He was born in Harewood, Yorkshire, on 2 November 1919, the son of Joseph Harold Wadsworth, a school master, and Clarice Seymour Wadsworth née Hemmines. He was educated at Leeds Grammar School and, in 1938, won an open exhibition in natural sciences to St Peter's College, Oxford, where he played both rugby and cricket for his university (during the Second World War no blues were awarded). He did, however, become a member of Vincent's Club, the elite sporting and social club, and was selected to play two games of cricket for his native Yorkshire. His clinical studies were at the Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford. On qualification in 1944 he became a senior house officer to George Grey Turner at the Postgraduate Medical School, before serving in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve as a surgeon lieutenant, being one of the first officers to visit Hiroshima following its destruction by an atomic bomb. After the war Paul Wadsworth decided to train in ear, nose and throat surgery and, influenced by Ronald Macbeth, he returned to Oxford as a senior house officer and later a registrar at the Radcliffe Infirmary (from 1947 to 1951). He completed his training as a clinical tutor (senior registrar) with Ion Simson Hall at the Royal Infirmary, Edinburgh, where he developed an interest in surgery for otosclerosis. In addition to being appointed as a consultant ENT surgeon to the Royal Sussex County Hospital and the Sussex Throat and Ear Hospital, Paul Wadsworth was also on the staff of the Royal Alexandra Children's Hospital, Brighton, and the Haywards Heath and Cuckfield hospitals. He readily adapted to the use of the operating microscope, which enabled him to introduce stapedectomy, transsphenoidal hypophysectomy and later homograph tympanoplasty to Brighton. A somewhat domineering Yorkshireman, with strong leadership qualities, Paul Wadsworth started teaching sessions and regular interdisciplinary team meetings, effected the appointment of an audiological scientist, and established Brighton as a major training centre with the creation of a senior registrar rotation with the Royal National Throat, Nose and Ear Hospital, London. Paul Wadsworth was president of the Sussex Medico-Chirugical Society (founded in 1847) and an active member of the Brighton and Mid Sussex division of the British Medical Association, serving as secretary (from 1957 to 1960) and chairman (in 1967). For relaxation he played golf regularly at the Dyke Golf Club in Sussex and enjoyed sailing. In 1948 he married Elizabeth, the daughter of R H Emmett of Southsea, a doctor, who at that time was a colonel commanding the Royal Engineers Territorial Unit at Portsmouth. Paul Wadsworth died on 24 October 2010, aged 90. He was survived by his wife, three daughters and seven grandchildren.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001634
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Upsdell, Jack (1919 - 1997)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Tina Craig
Publication Date 2011-11-25 2013-02-14
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/373818373818
Occupation General surgeon
Details Jack Upsdell was surgeon superintendent to the Whakatane Hospital in New Zealand. He was born on 18 May 1919 in Wembley, Middlesex. His mother was Caroline Ruth née Barrat and his father, George Edgar Skynner Upsdell was a priest who became headmaster of the Central British School in Hong Kong. His grandfather had been a headmaster in Sissinghurst, Kent. Jack was educated at the Central British School in Hong Kong, Falconbury Prep School in Bexhill and Westminster School. He studied medicine at Queen's College, Cambridge and the Middlesex Hospital where he was given a scholarship. His early appointments were as orthopaedic house surgeon to the Middlesex and resident surgical registrar to Mount Vernon Hospital, Northwood. He was also surgical registrar to the Civil General Hospital in Singapore and to Epsom General Hospital. Moving to Australia he was appointed clinical assistant to the Royal Adelaide Hospital, South Australia before taking up the post of surgeon to the Ashburton Hospital, New Zealand. He then became surgeon superintendent to the Whakatane Hospital serving the Bay of Plenty area in New Zealand. In 1944 he married Mary Eileen Isobel Dick on 18 April in Blackheath, London. They had five children; Marion, John, Martin, Timothy and David. While in Australia Jack was a medical officer with the Bush Church Aid Flying Medical Service and he listed 'the Church' as his sole extra-curricular interest. Mary died on 12 November 1989 in Hamilton, New Zealand and Jack married Patricia Stringer in December 1990. He died on 25 September 1997 in Hamilton, aged 76 years.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001635
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Dingley, Lionel Aldred (1888 - 1950)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

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/376144376144
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born on 4 May 1888, the eldest of the three sons of Edward Alfred Dingley, MD, MRCS, JP, of Wednesbury, Staffordshire, and Emily Habberfield, his wife. The second son John Ralph Dingley, MRCS became medical superintendent of the East Sussex Sanatorium at Robertsbridge. The third son died in infancy. L A Dingley was educated at Epworth College, Rhyl, North Wales, and at University College Hospital, where he won the Fellowes gold medal in clinical medicine and the prize in clinical surgery. He took both the London University and Conjoint qualifications in 1912, and served as house surgeon to Sir Rickman Godlee and house physician to Risien Russell. He joined his father in general practice at Wednesbury, and afterwards took into partnership Alan Wilson, MC, MRCS and B J Shaw, FRCS. He lived at first at Longcroft, Walsall Street, and later at Brunswick House, Holyhead Road, Wednesbury. While in this general practice he was also surgeon, and ultimately senior surgeon, to the West Bromwich and District General Hospital, which he largely developed, and surgeon to the Hallam Hospital, West Bromwich. He was twice chairman of the West Bromwich and Smethwick division of the British Medical Association. Dingley was commissioned captain, RAMC(T) on 1 April 1915, and rose to the rank of lieutenant-colonel. He was awarded the Belgian Croix de Guerre for his service in the war of 1914-18. During the war of 1939-45 he was chairman of the West Bromwich and Smethwick medical war committee. He was a medical referee for the Ministry of Pensions, and for the Royal National Hospital for Consumption at Ventnor; and he examined for the General Nursing Council. After the introduction of the National Health Service in 1948 he became chairman of the Birmingham Regional Hospital Board and of the West Bromwich Hospitals Management Committee. Dingley married on 3 June 1930 Martha Auguste Bauknecht, who survived him with a son and daughter. He died at The Nest, Lower Road, Myddle, Salop, to which he had retired, on 16 March 1950, aged 61. He was a deeply religious man, and had served as a Methodist preacher. He was a warm friend, with a ready laugh. Publications:- Massive collapse of lung following surgical operations. *Lancet*, 1914, 1, 1305. Case of CCI, poisoning due to bursting of a patent fire extinguisher. *Lancet*, 1926, 2, 1037. Sudden death due to a tumour of the pituitary gland. *Lancet*, 1932, 2, 183.
Resource Identifier RCS: E003961
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Courtney, Sydney (1805 - 1879)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Dick, John Lawson (1870 - 1944)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

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/376146376146
Occupation Medical Officer
Details Born in Edinburgh on 27 November 1870, the third child and second son of Alexander Dick, grain merchant of Leith, and Catherine Lawson, his wife. He was educated at Stewarts College and the University of Edinburgh, where he graduated MB CM winning the university medals in midwifery and gynaecology, pathology and physiology. He was also medallist in midwifery and gynaecology of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. He served as house surgeon in the gynaecological wards at the Royal Infirmary and was also university demonstrator of pathology. In 1892 he won a Buchanan scholarship and completed his training at St Bartholomew's, taking the English Conjoint degree in 1894 proceeding to the English Fellowship in 1896. After serving as house surgeon at the Hospital for Women and Children, Manchester, and for a short time as assistant medical officer at the Lancashire County Asylum Rainhill, and senior house surgeon at the Stanley Hospital, Liverpool Dick went out to South Africa where he settled in practice at Cradock and was appointed to the Queen's Central Hospital. During the war served as surgeon-captain attached to the colonial forces, and won the Queen's medal. While the surrounding country was disaffected, Dick was granted one of the only permits to leave the town of Cradock by day or night, so that he might visit his country patients, many of whom were Boers, to within a radius of forty miles; he was never attacked on any of his journeys. After the war he served a term of office as deputy mayor of Cradock. Returning to Britain, Dick took the Edinburgh MD in 1906 and practised from 1908 at Rossendale, 89 Cazenove Road, Stamford Hill, London, N, in partnership with J W Hunt, MD, MRCS 1876, and J M Laughton, MB Edinburgh. He served during the war of 1914-18 as civil surgeon at the City of London military hospital. He then entered the administrative department of the commission for medical services of the Ministry of Pensions, and became president of medical boards for the County of London. Dick became deeply interested in problems of social medicine, particularly in their relation to children. He made a particular study of rickets as it affected the young "of all animals kept in captivity". He published a paper, "The teeth in rickets" in the *Proc Roy Soc Med*. 1916, 9, children's diseases, p 83, and in 1919 a book on *Defective housing and the growth of children*. But his views were most effectively published in his Rickets - a study of economic conditions and their effects on the health of the nation, 1922. His ideas were controversial, for he disbelieved in vitamin deficiency, and debated keenly in favour of his own teaching of the economic causes of rickets and dental caries, and the best ways and means of defeating these plagues. Dick married in 1911 Norah Winifred Duke, who survived him with a son and two daughters. Mrs Dick wrote and broadcast on medical subjects under the pseudonyms of Winifred Lawson and "A doctor's wife". While working in London, Lawson Dick lived at 42 Cholmely Park, Highgate. He retired to The Gables, Chichester Road, Dorking, where he died on 13 June 1944, aged 73.
Resource Identifier RCS: E003963
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Cathcart, Charles Walker (1853 - 1932)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Chamings, Alfred John Wilson (1903 - 1937)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Chapple, Harold (1881 - 1945)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Cheatle, Sir George Lenthal (1865 - 1951)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2013-05-20
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/376150376150
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born 13 June 1865, the elder son of George Cheatle, a solicitor, and Mary Ann Crafter Allen, his wife. His younger brother, Arthur Cheatle, also distinguished himself as a surgeon. He was educated at Merchant Taylors School and at King's College Hospital, with which he was connected for the rest of his long life. Here he came under the influence of Lister, from whom he derived his superlative surgical standards. He cherished a profound regard for the great master, and was reputed to have acquired certain personal mannerisms from him, no doubt unconsciously, for instance a slight sigh before answering any question. He was also influenced by Lister's assistant, Sir William Watson Cheyne. From both Lister and Cheyne he learnt to combine clinical and research work, and throughout his life made it a habit to carry through his own pathological examination of tumour-tissue removed at operation. Cheatle, who would in any case have been distinguished as a brilliant surgeon, in fact made himself doubly famous by the valuable knowledge of cancer, which his pathological researches brought forward. He advocated the cutting of microscopic sections of the whole of an affected organ; and he devised and employed a special giant microtome, with which his name has been associated. His research work was done partly at the hospital and partly in his house, 149 Harley Street. He was always ready to help a friend by investigating pathological material submitted for his opinion. He was also extremely kind and generous to students and younger colleagues. Cheatle was modest and reserved, and kept himself aloof from matters outside his immediate interests; he affected the manners and dress of a fashionable consultant of late Victorian times, which obscured from those who did not know him well his sterling character and great scientific attainments. He was not a ready speaker nor a voluminous writer, but none the less his views exerted a considerable influence on current investigations of cancer. Though often unorthodox, he was uncom¬promising in his opinions. He was particularly concerned with mammary cancer, and his results were summed up and expressed in his classic book *Tumours of the breast*, written in collaboration with Max Cutler (1931). He was awarded the Walker prize in 1931 by the Royal College of Surgeons for his work on cancer, and was elected an honorary Fellow of the American College of Surgeons in 1932. During 1936 he was invited to lecture at the Hines Hospital, Chicago, and to act as consulting surgeon there, a position restricted to American citizens; the United States government generously made it possible for him to accept this honour by granting him American citizenship for one week, a privilege probably unique. Cheatle qualified in 1887; and after serving as house surgeon and house physician was appointed Sambrooke surgical registrar at King's College Hospital in 1890, and became assistant surgeon and demonstrator of surgery in 1893. He was subsequently lecturer in surgical pathology, having been for some time director of the hospital's museum. In due course he became surgeon and lecturer in surgery, and senior surgeon in 1923. He retired in 1930, when he was elected consulting surgeon and emeritus lecturer on clinical surgery. He had also been surgeon to the Nightingale Hospital for Gentlewomen, the Hospital for Paralysis and Epilepsy, Regent's Park, the Italian Hospital, the King Edward VII Hospital, the Surrey Dispensary, and the Sevenoaks Hospital. He was elected a Fellow of King's College, London in 1919. During the South African war Cheatle was a consulting surgeon to the forces, was mentioned in despatches, won the medal with four clasps, and was created CB in 1901. He was promoted KCB in 1918 for his services in the first world war, when he held the rank of surgeon rear-admiral, Royal Naval Medical Service; was in a hospital ship during the Gallipoli campaign in 1915, and later served at Haslar Royal Naval Hospital. He was subsequently a member of the consultative board and of the Naval Medical Service committee at the Admiralty. Cheatle served as a vice-president of King's. College Medical Society in 1889, and in 1920 when it became the "Listerian Society" he addressed the members on his recollections of Lister; he had assisted Lister in the last operation that he performed. At the Royal Society of Medicine he served as president of the surgical section 1925-26. Cheatle was a skilled games-player. He was in the medical school cricket XI 1889-93; was for many years president of the lawn-tennis club, to which he presented the "Cheatle cup" for the students' singles champion; and helped to found the hospital golfing society in 1913. Many well-earned honours came to Cheatle. He was created CVO in 1912, an Officer Cavalier of the Italian Grand Cross in 1910, and Chevalier of the French Legion of Honour in 1935. He was also an Associate of the Order of St John of Jerusalem. Cheatle married in 1902 Clara Denman Jopp, daughter of Colonel Keith Jopp, Royal Engineers, and a cousin of Robert Louis Stevenson, the writer. Lady Cheatle was president of the Ladies Guild of the Royal Medical Benevolent Fund from 1930 to 1940. Her histrionic gifts were well known in Britain and America, and she expended herself on behalf of medical and other charities. She died on 24 December 1942, after forty years of devoted married life, at Green Gates, Gordon Avenue, Stanmore, Middlesex, survived by their two sons and one daughter. Sir Lenthal Cheatle subsequently lived with his daughter, Mrs McKenzie, at Lismore Cottage, Sparrows Herne, Bushey Heath, where he died, aged 85, on 2 January 1951. A memorial service was held in King's College Hospital chapel, Denmark Hill, on 25 January 1951. Publications:- Inflammation, and Diseases of the breast, in A J Walton, *Surgical diagnosis*. London: Arnold, 1928, 1, 1 and 2, 652. Suppuration, in C C Choyce *System of surgery*, 3rd ed London: Cassell, 1932, 1, 141. Observations on the incidence and spread of cancer. *Brit med J* 1908, 1, 437. Tetanus antitoxin in treatment of wounds in road or garden or field accidents. *Brit med J* 1910, 1, 1203. Recollections of Lister. *King's College Hosp Gaz* 1920. *Tumours of the breast*, with Max Cutler. London: Arnold, 1931. 596 pages, folio. Orthopaedics of sentry-go. *Brit med J 1943*, 2, 213. A letter criticizing "the fantastic and rather ridiculous performance" of the sentries' march outside Buckingham Palace.
Resource Identifier RCS: E003967
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Cholmeley, William Frederick (1866 - 1949)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Choyce, Charles Coley (1875 - 1937)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Christianson, Ralph Alfred (1913 - 1947)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Browning, Charles (1805 - 1878)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2010-05-26
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/373187373187
Occupation General surgeon
Details Educated at Guy’s Hospital. He practised in London first in the neighbourhood of Dorset Square, and was at one time Surgeon, and then Senior Surgeon, to the Kilburn Dispensary. His death occurred at his residence, 25 Portsdown Road, Maida Vale, W, on November 1st, 1878. A photograph of him is in the Fellows’ Album. Publications: “Case of Successful Tracheotomy in Croup.” – *Med. Times and Gaz.*, 1858, ii, 34. “Case of Recurrent Encephaloid Disease of the Eyeball, with Secondary Deposits.” – *Ibid.*, 1859, i, 576. Contributions to *Lancet* and *Brit. Med. Jour.*, 1858.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001004
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Clarke, Ernest (1857 - 1932)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Clarke, James Jackson (1880 - 1940)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Cayley, Henry (1834 - 1904)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2010-11-24
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001100-E001199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373291373291
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born on December 20th, 1834, the fourth son of Edward Cayley, JP, banker, of Stamford, Lincolnshire, and Frances, daughter of the Rev Richard Twopeny, MA, Rector of Little Casterton, Rutlandshire. Among his brothers were the late Sir Richard and Dr William Cayley of the Middlesex Hospital. He was collaterally descended from Sir William Cayley, of Brompton, Yorkshire, a loyal Cavalier, knighted by Charles I in 1640 and created a baronet on April 26th, 1661. At an early age Henry Cayley joined the Medical Department at King's College, where he was a painstaking and methodical student. He entered the Indian Medical Service in 1857, passing in at the head of the list. He chose the Bengal side, was gazetted Assistant Surgeon on January 29th, 1857, and landed at Calcutta at the end of April. During the Mutiny he did not see active service, but was on duty with the 53rd Foot, and had medical charge of a detachment of the 37th and 38th Regiments at Benares and Allahabad, and of Major Anderson's troop of Royal Artillery and other details in the Fort of Rajghat. He was awarded the Mutiny Medal and was appointed Civil Surgeon of Gorakpur, on the Nepal frontier, and was placed in charge of the 2nd Sikh Police Corps in March, 1858. He held his post at Gorakpur from 1858-1864, with an interval of thirteen or fourteen months when he was absent on sick furlough in England. He held the Joint Civil Surgeoncy of Simla, a coveted post, from March, 1864, to March, 1866; then he became Civil Surgeon at Burdwan and next at Howrah, an important town and district on the Hugli, facing Calcutta. In May, 1867, he was put on special duty as Joint Commissioner of Ladak, in Tibet. He was the first officer deputed to this post, which involved medical work carried on among the people of the country and among the Nadirs and others coming from Central Asia, combined with political duties. His skill succeeded in making the European system of medicine popular among, and appreciated by, the tribes beyond the Indian frontier. The people of the country sought his services, and he discharged his politico-medical duties so satisfactorily that he was several times thanked by the Governments of the Punjab and of India. His headquarters were at Leh, a town on the Indus river situated at an elevation of 11,000 feet. His duties here were commercial and political. The appointment was the first in this place, and his status was that of Resident and Joint Commissioner. The Punjab Government, recognizing the delicacy and tact which were necessary in dealing with an alien native Government, corrupt and hostile officials, suspicious and turbulent merchants and tradesmen, obtained sanction for the appointment of a British official on condition that he was a medical officer. This tribute to the powers of conciliation and management possessed by members of the Indian Medical Service was justified by repeated experience of the humanizing influence of medicine and the popularity of medical men on the Punjab frontier. The objects of the appointment were to develop the trade to Central Asia and Eastern Turkestan-of which Leh was an emporium and channel -to protect merchants from oppressive imposts, and to report on the commerce and political condition of those regions. The country was only accessible by bad roads and high passes, open during the months of June, July, and August. Cayley resided during the remainder of the year at Simla. He spent four seasons at Leh, and submitted elaborate reports of his observations and proceedings. Immediately on his arrival at Leh he opened a dispensary, which was at first viewed with suspicion, but was soon resorted to by patients of all grades and classes. In an interesting paper on the medical topography and prevalent diseases of Ladak, published in the *Indian Medical Gazette* of November, 1867, and January, 1868, he thus describes the opening of his dispensary:- "I had with me a hospital compounder as an assistant and a small supply of the most necessary medicines and instruments. Two of my small tents were soon converted into a hospital. A grove of poplar trees served as an operating theatre, and for surgical assistants numerous Ladaki amateurs were always at hand, who took great interest in the proceedings." Cayley did his work at Leh with rare tact, energy, and humanity, and relinquished his post in 1871. From March, 1871, to March, 1872, he was on furlough in Europe, attending lectures, hospitals, etc., and he studied especially at Moorfields. On his return to Bengal, after serving as Civil Surgeon of the 24th Pergunnahs, he acted for a short time as Deputy Superintendent of Vaccination, and held posts at Cuttack. In March, 1874, he was appointed to succeed Surgeon Major N C Macnamara (qv), as Superintendent of the Eye Infirmary at Calcutta and Professor of Ophthalmic Surgery in the Calcutta Medical College. He also then became Surgeon Superintendent of the Mayo Hospital for Natives and its affiliated dispensaries. These charges involved service as Presidency Surgeon, and he retained them for over twelve years with the exception of one year's furlough in 1877-8. His practice, both consulting and general, was extensive and lucrative, and he was a hard worker, much appreciated by both natives and Europeans for his skill and kindliness. He was especially successful as an ophthalmologist. He took a prominent part in establishing the Calcutta Medical Society, of which he was President for two years, and wrote frequently for its *Transactions* and for the *Indian Medical Gazette*. He finally left India on April 12th, 1884, and in January, 1885, was appointed a member of the Medical Board at the India and War Offices. While holding these appointments he retired from the Bengal Army in April, 1887, and was unexpectedly called upon, in June, 1889, to complete the course of lectures on Military Medicine at the Army Medical School, Netley, where Professor D B Smith had broken down in health. His lectures were at first not much appreciated, for his two predecessors, Smith and Surgeon General Maclean, had each in his way been admirable, Maclean being famous for his vivid descriptions of tropical diseases. Cayley was small, quiet, and had a poor delivery. However, his work as lecturer was soon recognized to be sound and conscientious, and he began to be followed with appreciative attention by the 'surgeons on probation'. Retiring from the Professorship of Military Medicine in 1897, he went to live at Weybridge, and seemed to have settled down when the South African War broke out. He thereupon volunteered for service, and went out with the rank of Colonel in charge of the Scottish National Red Cross Hospital, stationed at Kroonstadt in the Orange Free State. He performed his duties here with all his old zeal and ability, his services being mentioned in despatches. He was created a CMG and awarded the South African Medal with Clasps. In 1891 he had been appointed Hon Surgeon to the Queen, and he also received the Coronation Medal and was appointed Hon Associate of the Order of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem in England. Thus was recognized the value of his services during some forty-three years. Though of slight physique, Cayley was a man of great energy-hunting, riding, shooting, a golfer and a yachtsman. His mental equalled his bodily vivacity. His power of work was prodigious. In Calcutta he was on the move from early morning till late evening, and by way of refreshment he would then take a smart gallop on the racecourse. Everything he did was done with heart and energy, and he never showed signs of flagging or fatigue. In disposition he was even-tempered and kindly, staunch and honourable. In all relations of life he was eminently sound, and in professional life diligent, skilful, and humane. He was accordingly esteemed highly both as friend and physician. Though orthodox, he was tolerant and charitable. His intellectual abilities were of a high order. He was keen in inquiring and sound in judgement. On most questions he was well informed, and his opinions were clear and strong. He had a facile pen, and, thought not eloquent, was fluent in speech, plain, practical, and intelligible. He had studied his profession well, and up to the last continued to familiarize himself with scientific and medical progress. Though he made ophthalmic surgery his speciality, he was an excellent general surgeon and a well-informed physician. His position in Calcutta brought him into close contact with native medical practitioners and students, with whom his relations were always friendly and agreeable. With colleagues and fellow-officers he was most popular. Deputy Surgeon General Cayley was thrown from his horse in South Africa and sustained severe injuries. He married on July 10th, 1862, Letitia Mary, daughter of the Rev Nicholas Walters, and was survived by her, two daughters, and six sons. Of the sons one was then Assistant Health Officer of Bombay. Two others rose to high rank in the Army; one as Major-General Sir Walter de Saumarez Cayley, KCMG, and the second as Major-General Douglas Edward Cayley, CMG. Cayley died at Leavesden Weybridge, the house he had bought on his return from the Boer War, the date of his death being March 19th, 1904. He was buried in Weybridge Cemetery. His estate exceeded £60,000. He was Honorary Surgeon to the King at the time of his death. The Cayley family, of which the present representative is Sir Kenelm Henry Ernest Cayley, tenth baronet, is ancient, known to have been settled at Owmby as early as the thirteenth century. Only four generations had elapsed between the subject of this biography and Sir William of Brompton, the Cavalier. Thus five generations in one family had extended over a period of three hundred years, and this is accounted for by the late marriages of its members. Portraits of Henry Cayley accompany his biographies in the *Calcutta Medical Reporter* and *British Medical Journal*. Publications: Cayley contributed valuable papers to the *Indian Annals of Medical Science* as well as to the journals mentioned in the course of this article.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001108
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

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 Flower, Sir William Henry (1831 - 1899)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

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/373972373972
Occupation Museum director
Details The second son of Edward Fordham Flower and Celina, the eldest daughter of John Greaves, of Leamington. He was born at Stratford-on-Avon on November 30th, 1831. His father was founder of the brewing business known as Flower & Sons, which continued to be carried on at Stratford-on-Avon. The elder brother was the founder of the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, and his younger brother was Chairman of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trustees. William Henry Flower was educated at University College, and graduated MB at the University of London in 1851 after studying at the Middlesex Hospital. At University College he won the Sharpey Gold Medal in Physiology and the Grant Silver Medal in Zoology. He volunteered during the Crimean War in 1854, saw active service in the field, and held a hospital appointment at Scutari. On his return home he was elected Assistant Surgeon, Lecturer on Anatomy, and Curator of the Museum at the Middlesex Hospital. In 1861 he became Conservator of the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons of England in succession to John Thomas Quekett, holding the post until he was succeeded by Charles Stewart in 1884. He served the office of Professor of Comparative Anatomy and Physiology at the College from 1870-1873, the previous occupant of the chair being T H Huxley (qv); and a second time from 1876-1884, replacing William Kitchen Parker. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1864, served as a Member of the Council, was a Vice-President and was awarded a Royal Medal in 1882. When Sir Richard Owen (qv) retired from the Directorship of the Natural History Museum at South Kensington, Flower was appointed in his place in 1884, and held the post until 1898, when he resigned on account of ill health, and was succeeded by E Ray Lankester, FRS. He was elected to the Council of the Zoological Society in 1862 and served continuously until 1869; he became Vice-President in 1870 and acted as President for twenty years from Feb. 5th, 1879. He was also President of the Anthropological Institute from 1883-1885 and was more than once President of the Anthropological Section of the British Association. He was President of the British Association at the Newcastle-upon-Tyne Meeting in 1889. Flower was decorated CB in 1887 and was promoted KCB in 1892; he was a corresponding member of the Institute of France, and received the Prussian order 'Pour la Mérite'. He was also an Hon LLD of Dublin and Edinburgh and a DCL of Durham. He married in 1858 Georgiana Rosetta, daughter of Admiral William Henry Smyth (1788-1865), one of the founders of the Royal Geographical Society, and by her he had three sons and three daughters. He died after some months of ill health at Stanhope Gardens on July 1st, 1899, was cremated at Woking, and was buried at Stone, Buckinghamshire. A portrait by the Chevalier Schmidt, of Berlin, was given to Lady Flower, and there is a bust in the Natural History Museum at South Kensington. A small engraving representing Flower in middle life hangs in the Conservator's room at the College of Surgeons. An enlarged photograph by Messrs. Elliott and Fry was presented to the College in 1918. Urbane, easy of access, a good administrator, and an inheritor of his father's capacity for business, Flower was excellent as the Director of a large museum, whilst his scientific ability was of the greatest service to the two great institutions he was called upon to serve - the Hunterian Museum at the Royal College of Surgeons, and the Natural History Collection which was housed in the noble building at South Kensington. As guardian of a national collection he was successful in the difficult task of making it interesting to the general public without destroying its utility for scientific students, and he was thus justly pronounced to be "an originator and inventor in museum work". He was a morphologist and a comparative anatomist, as is shown by his *Osteology of Mammalia* published in 1870, by his work on the Monotremata and Marsupialia, and by his important contributions to the anatomy of the Cetacea, the outcome of which is to be seen in the 'whale room' in the College of Surgeons.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001789
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Buchanan, Andrew ( - 1877)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2010-05-26 2013-08-07
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/373194373194
Occupation General surgeon
Details Was in general practice at 61 Broad Street, Ratcliff Cross, in 1847, then at Heath House, Commercial Road, E, where he was Surgeon to the Mercers' Almshouses, Stepney, to the Coopers' Almshouses, Ratcliff, and to the Government Vaccination Station, Stepney. By 1858 he had emigrated to New Zealand, where he died in or before 1877.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001011
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Martin, Kenneth Whittle (1917 - 2009)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Sir Barry Jackson
Publication Date 2010-06-10 2018-05-10
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/373195373195
Occupation General surgeon
Details Kenneth Whittle Martin, known as 'Poppy' to his family, was a general surgeon in Worthing with an interest in urology. He came from a long line of doctors dating back to at least 1774. He was born on 18 July 1917 in Singapore, the son of William Whittle Martin, an army ENT surgeon, and his wife Katie, née Partington, the daughter of a mill owner. When aged three, his family moved from the Far East to Hove in Sussex, a county in which he lived for almost all of the rest of his life. He attended Mowden School in Hove and then Charterhouse, where he was a senior scholar and captain of cricket. Following the family tradition, he decided to read medicine and went to St Thomas' Hospital Medical School, armed with a shilling a day pocket money given to him by his mother. Qualifying in 1940, he was house surgeon to W H C 'Hugo' Romanis and Norman 'Pasty' Barrett, before enlisting in the Royal Navy and serving as a surgeon lieutenant from 1941 to 1946. During his war service he served in hospitals at home and in the Indian Ocean on HMS *Fortune* and in the Far East on HMS *Duke of York*. Three years before his death he wrote an account of his wartime experiences in a privately published book entitled *Poppy's war*. After demobilisation, he returned to St Thomas' as a surgical registrar, during which time he passed the FRCS examination. He was then appointed as a resident assistant surgeon, a particularly busy post but one which gave him extensive operative experience. In 1954 he was appointed as a consultant surgeon at Worthing Hospital, allowing him to return to his Sussex roots, and he remained on the staff of that hospital for 28 years, retiring at the age of 65 in 1982. Although he practised a wide range of general surgery, he developed a particular interest in urology and had an enviable local reputation as *the* waterworks specialist. In retirement he enjoyed fishing and bridge and developed considerable expertise in investment management. He founded the Bosham Investment Club and became adept at tracking the movement of stocks and shares by complicated graphs on his computer. He also enjoyed overseas travel, both with his family and as a longstanding member of the Grey Turner Travelling Surgical Club. Ken married Daphne Esplin Stewart in 1941 and they had two sons and two daughters. He and Daphne were inseparable throughout their 68 years of marriage. Both were notably somewhat non-conformist and idiosyncratic. On one occasion Ken was asked to look after a leg which a colleague had amputated when the hospital incinerator was closed. He put the leg in the boot of his car and drove to a secluded area of the beach where he threw the limb into the sea, resulting in a police investigation after it was later washed up on the beach. He was wonderful company, being a fund of stories and good humour. Apart from increasing deafness, he retained good health throughout his long life until he died of old age on 22 July 2009, four days after his 92nd birthday.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001012
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Pringle, Robert (1927 - 2009)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Rey, Charles Humphrey Jules (1915 - 2010)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2010-06-10
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/373197373197
Occupation General surgeon
Details Charles Humphrey Jules Rey was a general surgeon in Guernsey. He was born on 15 August 1915, in Bognor Regis, into a family of French origins. His father, Jules Frederick Rey, was a general practitioner. His mother was Bertha Maud née Bevan. He was sent as a boarder to his preparatory school and from then to Harrow as an entrance scholar. He enjoyed his schooldays and was a regular visitor to anniversary dinners. During his time there a petition allegedly signed by 400 boys called for a reduction in the excessive number of parades. This aroused considerable press coverage, not least in Germany. A question was asked in Parliament, and Eton offered to send a platoon to restore order. He went on to Guy’s Hospital in 1933, where he was noted for his elegant morning dress and carnation, and qualified in 1939. After house jobs at Guy’s, he joined the RAMC. He served at first with a searchlight unit and was then posted to Burma. There he rose to the rank of major, serving as a surgeon in casualty clearing stations and military hospitals, but he also took on the responsibility of a deputy assistant director of medical services, arranging for the evacuation of some 180,000 casualties in 21 months. Years later, while waiting to receive the Burma Star in Guernsey, he found himself sitting next to a soldier whose life he had saved from a gunshot wound in the shoulder. On demobilisation, he decided to specialise, completed registrar jobs at Guy’s and in other hospitals, and passed the FRCS in 1952. During this time he made friends with Jim Dickson, another Guy’s man, who had gone to Guernsey. He told Charles of an impending vacancy in the practice of Bostock and Webber, and there Rey moved in 1957. He worked closely with Dickson to provide a surgical service, but was also on call for general practice, the police doctor rota and became the divisional surgeon of the Guernsey division of St John Ambulance Brigade. He played a major part in planning the Princess Elizabeth Hospital. He was exceptionally courteous, dignified and self-disciplined. He made his calls in a Rolls-Royce and a three-piece suit. He married Thelma, who had studied at the same college of art as his sister. They had no children. He kept fit by a daily swim, which he continued even after undergoing cardiac surgery. He died at the age of 94 on 16 January 2010 from a lung abscess.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001014
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Somervell, James Lionel (1927 - 2009)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2010-06-10
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/373198373198
Occupation General surgeon
Details James Somervell continued his family’s tradition of missionary work in India. He was born on 23 April 1927 in Kodaikanal, southern India. His father, Theodore Howard Somervell, was a surgeon and mountaineer, who took part in the ill-fated 1922 and 1924 Mallory expeditions to conquer Everest. He became superintendent of the Neyyor Hospital and of the South Travancore Medical Mission, and, in the later phase of his career, was based at Vellore Christian Medical College. James’ mother, Margaret Hope Simpson, was also from a missionary background. He was educated at the Downs School, Colwall, and then Peekskill High School, New York (during the Second World War). He then studied at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, going on to University College Hospital for his clinical studies. He qualified with the Trotter medal in surgery and the Yellowes medal in medicine. He became a house surgeon to R S Pilcher and then completed a house physician appointment at the North Middlesex Hospital. He was subsequently a casualty officer at the Royal Surrey Hospital. He then became a registrar at the Vellore Christian Medical College, southern India, under Paul Brand. In 1956, he joined the London Missionary Society, which sent him to work in the CSI Campbell Hospital in Jammalamadugu, southern India, where he stayed for the next 12 years. In 1968, he returned to England as a senior registrar at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham. He published on neonatal and infantile intestinal obstruction in India, on family planning by salpingectomy, with a record of 500 cases, and on leiomyosarcoma of the rectum. Like his father, his main interest outside medicine was mountaineering. In 1952 he married Mary Stapleton and they had two sons and one daughter. He died on 20 August 2009.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001015
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Wooler, Geoffrey Hubert (1911 - 2010)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Raymond Hurt
Publication Date 2010-06-10
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/373199373199
Occupation Cardiothoracic surgeon
Details Geoffrey Wooler was a consultant cardiothoracic surgeon at Leeds General Infirmary and a pioneer of open heart surgery. He was born in 1911, the son of a successful Leeds businessman. He was educated at Leeds Grammar School and Giggleswick School, before going up to Cambridge to read law. After two terms, he switched to medicine and went on to the London Hospital for his clinical studies. After qualifying in 1937, he was house surgeon to Tudor Edwards, who stimulated his interest in thoracic surgery and arranged for him to visit the Charité Hospital in Berlin, where the bold and pioneering surgery of Ernst Ferdinand Sauerbruch attracted visiting assistants from all over the world, even though Sauerbruch, who was both a Nazi and a bully, treated them abominably. Wooler had already joined the Territorial Army and, after passing the FRCS, became a graded surgeon and served in the 70th General Hospital RAMC in North Africa from the Algerian landings to Italy, rising to the rank of lieutenant colonel. He was mentioned in despatches after the battle of Casino. After the war, he returned to the London Hospital to become first assistant to Tudor Edwards and Vernon Thompson, meanwhile completing an MD thesis on his surgical experiences in the Middle East. Almost immediately Philip Allison invited him to join him as a consultant thoracic surgery at the General Infirmary in Leeds. When Allison moved to Oxford, Wooler was joined by John Aylwin. In 1957 he set up an open heart unit with one of the first heart lung machines, designed by Denis Melrose at the Hammersmith Hospital. For a time Leeds and the Hammersmith were the only two units doing open heart surgery in the United Kingdom. Later he was joined by Marian Ion Ionescu, a refugee from Romania, and together they developed the use of pig valves to replace damaged mitral valves, a technique which did not require post-operative anticoagulants. This new method established Wooler’s reputation in Leeds. His reputation was further enhanced when Lord Woolton collapsed at the Conservative Party conference in Scarborough. He was thought to have pulmonary oedema from heart failure, even though the sputum was pure pus. Wooler was called in. The X-ray showed an elevated left diaphragm. Wooler diagnosed a subphrenic abscess which had ruptured into the lung. He drained the abscess and Woolton recovered. Wooler and Aylwin both owned Rolls-Royces, the former being chauffeur-driven. Such was the thoracic social scene in the 1950s. Geoffrey retired in 1974, to run a restaurant. This turned out to be a disaster and after a year he sold it to the chef, though he continued to live next door. He was a born bon viveur and raconteur, and recorded his adventures in a delightful and amusing memoir entitled *Pig in a suitcase* (Otley, Smith Settle, 1999), which modestly left out any reference to his considerable achievements in surgery, not least of which were his development of biological tissue heart valves and his experience of 50 cases of drainage of subphrenic abscesses. He died on New Year’s Day 2010, in his 99th year.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001016
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Allamand, Pablo Juan Bautista (1909 - 2009)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2010-09-09
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/373200373200
Occupation General surgeon
Details Pablo Juan Bautista Allamand was the doyen of surgery in Chile. Born on 5 August 1909, he was made an honorary fellow of our College in 1972 during the presidency of Sir Edward Muir. He died on 27 July 2009.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001017
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Attard, Joseph (1932 - 2009)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
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/373201373201
Occupation General surgeon
Details Joseph Attard (known to all as ‘Pep’) was a consultant general surgeon in Malta. He was born on 14 September 1932 in Senglea, a town in the Grand Harbour area of Malta. His father was Caesar Attard, a general practitioner and junior surgeon at the main civil hospital of Malta in Floriana. His mother, Gabriella Tenaglia, was the theatre nurse at the private Blue Sisters’ Hospital. His education at St Joseph’s School, Valletta, was interrupted by the air raids of 1940, when the family was evacuated to Birkirkara, where part of the Jesuit College had been transformed into a hospital where Caesar Attard became the chief surgeon. Joseph completed his secondary education in the College and matriculated in 1948. He entered the medical school at the Royal University of Malta, graduating in 1955. He then did house jobs at St Luke’s University Hospital in Malta and went on to England to specialise in surgery, working in various hospitals in London, Gulson Hospital in Coventry and Southampton General Hospital. In 1961 he married Maureen Brown, a nursing sister at the Temperance Hospital in London. By the time they returned to Malta in 1970 they had two boys and one girl, none of whom followed in their parents’ footsteps. On settling down in Malta, Joseph set up in private practice, soon developed a large clientele and introduced cosmetic surgery to Malta. In 1974 Malta became a republic. The Royal Navy withdrew from the dockyard, and by 1977 there was turmoil. The two private hospitals were closed by the Maltese Government and Joseph worked abroad in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, and in various hospitals in England. Finally political stability returned and he was able to go home. He published on traumatic injuries of the pancreas. He was a keen violinist and enjoyed cooking. His wife, Maureen, died in 2006. He was still working when he developed a sudden homonymous hemianopia and was found to have a brain tumour from which, despite intensive treatment, he died on 11 April 2009.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001018
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
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First Title value, for Searching Black, Sir James Whtye (1924 - 2010)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
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/373202373202
Occupation pharmacologist
Details Sir James Black was a distinguished pharmacologist who developed not only beta-blockers but also cimetidine, which transformed the management of peptic ulcer. He was born on 14 June 1924, in Uddingston, Strathclyde, the fourth of five sons of a mining engineer from whom he inherited a love of music and singing. He was educated at Beath High School, Cowdenbeath, where he at first studied music and then later mathematics. At the age of 15 he won the Patrick Hamilton residential scholarship to St Andrews University, and then followed an elder brother into medicine, qualifying in 1946. He then became an assistant lecturer in physiology, and a year later went to the University of Malaya in Singapore as a lecturer, returning as a senior lecturer to Glasgow Veterinary School in 1950. From 1958 to 1964 he worked for ICI Pharmaceuticals and then went on to Smith Kline & French Laboratories, before being appointed as professor of pharmacology at University College, London. He was director of therapeutic research at Wellcome Research Laboratories (from 1978 to 1984) and was then appointed as professor of analytical pharmacology at King’s College Medical School, a post he held until he retired in 1993. Between 1992 and 2006 he was chancellor of the University of Dundee. The university built the Sir James Black Centre in his honour. In 1988 he won the Nobel prize for physiology or medicine for his work on the discovery of beta-blockers. In 2004, he was awarded the gold medal of the Royal Society. He was knighted in 1981 and appointed to the Order of Merit in 2000. In 1993 he was awarded an honorary fellowship of our College. He married first, Hilary Vaughan, who predeceased him, and secondly Rona MacKie in 1994. He died on 22 March 2010, leaving his second wife and a daughter from his first marriage.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001019
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Brown, Michael Meredith (1918 - 2009)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Raymond Hurt
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/373203373203
Occupation Thoracic surgeon
Details Michael Meredith Brown was a consultant thoracic surgeon at Midhurst Hospital. He was born on 1 May 1918 in Croydon, the first son of Bernard Meredith, an analytic chemist in the brewing industry, and Doris née Cortazzi, a bank clerk. He was educated at St Anselm’s Preparatory School, Croydon, Bradfield College, Berkshire, Jesus College, Cambridge, and then St Thomas’ Hospital, London, qualifying in 1942. Three years later, he obtained his fellowship of the College. He served in the RAF Volunteer Reserve as a squadron leader. After demobilisation and junior hospital posts, he was appointed as a consultant thoracic surgeon at Midhurst Hospital and to the Army at the Cambridge Military Hospital, Aldershot. His most important publication was a chapter on oesophagoscopy in Rob and Smith’s *Operative surgery* (London, Butterworth, 1978). He married a Miss Woodward in 1942. They had two sons and two daughters.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001020
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Chapman, Henry Wilson (1808 - 1875)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Greaves, Desmond Peel (1920 - 2008)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Enid Taylor
Publication Date 2009-05-15
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/372794372794
Occupation Ophthalmic surgeon
Details Desmond Peel Greaves was a consultant ophthalmic surgeon at University College and Moorfields Eye hospitals in London. He was born on 14 December 1920 in the West Riding of Yorkshire to Bernard Peel, an optician, and Beatrice Peel. He was educated at High Storrs Grammar School, Sheffield, and then went on to study medicine at the University of Sheffield, where he was the Edgar Allen scholar. After qualifying, he was a demonstrator in anatomy at Sheffield before completing his National Service in the RAF, with the rank of flight lieutenant. His ophthalmic training was at Moorfields Eye Hospital. From 1950 he was senior registrar and Pigott-Wernheiz research fellow at the Institute of Ophthalmology. He was appointed consultant ophthalmic surgeon to University College Hospital in 1952 and to Moorfields Eye Hospital in 1960. He was vice-dean and lecturer at the Institute of Ophthalmology. He was a recognised teacher in London University and a member of the Court of Examiners of our College. He retired in 1985. He was a council member and honorary secretary of the Ophthalmological Society of the United Kingdom, a council member of the European Society of Ophthalmology from 1970 and in 1980 president. From his student days he was an accomplished and enthusiastic pianist and a keen sailor, becoming a member of the Royal Thames Yacht Club. He married Barbara in 1948. They had two children - Francis, who is a doctor, and Julia, a pharmacist. Desmond Greaves died on 11 March 2008.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000611
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
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First Title value, for Searching Winstanley, John (1919 - 2008)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Enid Taylor
Publication Date 2009-05-15
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/372795372795
Occupation Ophthalmic surgeon
Details John Winstanley was an ophthalmic surgeon at St Thomas’ Hospital, London. He was born in London on 11 May 1919, the son of Bernard Joseph Winstanley, a captain in the Burma Sappers and Miners, and Grace née Taunton, the daughter of a solicitor. The younger of three sons, he was educated at Stoke House, Seaford, Sussex, and Wellington College, Berkshire. From 1937 to 1946 he served in the 4th Battalion Queen’s Own Royal West Kent Regiment, with the British Expeditionary Force in Europe, in the Western Desert and in Burma. He was wounded twice, was twice mentioned in despatches and won the Military Cross. After leaving the Army, he studied medicine at St Thomas’, qualifying in 1951. For the next five years he held resident medical appointments at St Thomas’ and Moorfields Eye Hospital. From 1956 to 1960 he was chief clinical assistant at Moorfields and senior registrar at St Thomas’. From 1959 to 1970 he was a consultant ophthalmic surgeon to Lewisham and Greenwich health districts. In 1960 he was appointed consultant ophthalmic surgeon to St Thomas’, a post he held until 1983. At St Thomas’ he expanded eye services, amalgamating with the Royal Eye Hospital, and developed a medical eye unit and a charity, the Iris Fund. He contributed papers on medical ophthalmology and medical history. He maintained his association with the armed services, serving as honorary consultant ophthalmic surgeon to the Army, to Queen Alexandra Military Hospital, Millbank, and to the Royal Hospital, Chelsea. He was a member of the Court of Examiners of the College from 1972 to 1978. He was a fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine (and vice-president in 1979). From 1973 to 1985 he was vice-president of the Faculty of Ophthalmologists, and from 1979 to 1990 a member of the council of the Medical Protection Society. A liveryman of the Society of Apothecaries of the City of London, he served on the livery committee from 1982. During his leisure time he enjoyed fishing and reading medical history. In 1959 he married Jane Mary Frost and they had one son (Richard) and two daughters (Emma and Sophie). He died from prostate cancer on 4 January 2008.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000612
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Kapur, Satya Bhushan (1920 - 2008)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Enid Taylor
Publication Date 2009-05-15
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/372796372796
Occupation Ophthalmic surgeon
Details Satya Bhushan Kapur was an ophthalmic surgeon. He was born on 4 March 1920 in Rangoon, Burma, the second child but first son of Lal Chand Kapur, a civil engineer with Burma Railways, and Bhagwanti Devi, whose father was an Ayurvedic physician. He was educated in Rangoon at the primary DAV School and then at BET High School. He began his medical education in 1938 at the Medical College, Rangoon, but this was interrupted in 1942 when Burma was invaded by Japan. The family were held in Burma during the Japanese occupation, but then fled to India, where he resumed his studies at King Edward Medical College, Lahore, Punjab, qualifying in 1946. He was one of the first Indian graduates to migrate to Britain and train successfully in ophthalmology. He was an ophthalmic house surgeon then a registrar at Guy’s Hospital, London, before becoming a registrar, then a senior registrar at Moorfields Eye Hospital. He was appointed consultant ophthalmic surgeon in 1962 to West Middlesex Hospital and later to St Albans City Hospital and Queen Elizabeth II Hospital, Welwyn Garden City. He was a member of the Royal Society of Medicine and of the BMA, and he served on the council of the Medical Eye Centre Association, UK. A physically fit man, he enjoyed swimming, golf, hill walking, and reluctantly gave up skiing at the age of 85. He married Toini Kylliainen in 1955 and they had two daughters, Suri and Mira, both of whom are medically qualified and live in Australia. He died on 4 April 2008.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000613
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
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First Title value, for Searching Chesterfield-Evans, Hugh Harvey (1922 - 2005)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Arthur Chesterfield-Evans
Publication Date 2009-05-15 2021-05-20
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/372797372797
Occupation General surgeon
Details As a consultant surgeon working in rural Australia, Harvey Chesterfield-Evans was a founder member and past president of the Provincial Surgeons Association. He was born in North Korea on 19 January 1922, the son of an Australian who worked for an American mining company and a New Zealander. He was educated at a missionary school, which left him with a marked distrust of organised religion. Before returning to Australia as a 16 year old, he had already assisted in operations and helped administer anaesthetics for the only doctor in the district. He had also witnessed the destructive Japanese occupation of North Korea, travelled widely, and absorbed Eastern cultures and philosophies, which encouraged a broader diagnostic approach in his later career. Harvey attended Sydney Grammar School and Sydney University faculty of medicine, graduating with second class honours. He married his wife Enid and became a general practitioner in Brisbane. With his wife and first child, Arthur, Harvey went to the UK to study for the fellowship, which he passed in 1955. They then returned to Australia, now with Deirdre and Nigel, to be followed two years later by Jan. Harvey established himself in a surgical practice in Wollongong. In 1968 he returned to the UK study neurosurgery in Edinburgh under John Gillingham, which greatly benefitted his patients in Wollongong, the nearest neurosurgeon then being in Sydney. Harvey dealt with a wide variety of surgical problems. The Port Kembla steelworks and the local mines were a constant source of accident and injury, in addition to the usual car accidents and elective surgery. As one of four ‘honoraries’ he was on call for 48 hours non-stop, every fourth weekend. The honorary system allowed specialists to admit private patients to hospital provided that pensioners or those who could not afford it were treated free of charge. This paternalistic system before Medicare ensured that no one who needed emergency surgery would go untreated. He believed in this system and treated everyone equally. Perhaps because of his upbringing in Korea, Harvey was always practical and inventive in his approach to surgical problems. As the senior surgeon in Wollongong for some years, his patients left hospital within four days, while other surgeons’ patients stayed in for ten. Together with a physiotherapist friend, Peter Swan, he developed a post-operative system for hand injuries which is now in widespread use. A strong believer that ‘prevention is better than cure’, he refused to operate on overweight patients because of the inherent risks and would tell them to “stop smoking and come back when you’ve lost three stone”. It did not help his popularity with some, but many complied, and it did help his success rate. He was an active member of the South East Medical Association, a local affiliate of the Australian Medical Association, but it was into the Provincial Surgeons Association (PSA) that he put his heart and soul, as one of its founders. In the 1950s, with the influx of post-war immigration and later the ‘ten pound’ immigrants, the need increased for experienced surgeons in the country regions of Australia. As with today, city-trained Australian doctors were reluctant to ‘go bush’, whilst surgeons who had trained in the UK and were emigrating to Australia found it impossible to obtain a position in a city. These surgeons were not products of the Royal Australasian College and had no affiliations or associations in Australia. Working in country towns, often far away from the capital, they were isolated. They faced everything from elective surgery to acute trauma, head injuries requiring decompression, caesarian section and multiple fractures. It was to meet this need that the PSA was formed. It quickly became not merely a fraternity, but a forum for brainstorming. At its meetings surgeons discussed their successes, their failures and their ideas. They invented new instruments and brought them to meetings to be discussed and fine-tuned. They telephoned each other when faced with a perplexing problem or shared a textbook over the phone. Lateral thinking was encouraged and indeed vital to their work. At the time of its inception the PSA was the only forum, medical or political, for rural surgeons. Today, the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons is specifically training surgeons for work in rural areas. As its founder and past president Harvey was involved in every aspect of the PSA, worked tirelessly to extend its membership, organised and hosted meetings, maintained its records and wrote its history – *A mantle of care: a history of the first twenty five years of the provincial surgeons of Australia* (Mangerton, NSW: Provincial Surgeons’ Association of Australia, c.1991). He was very proud of his work on the road trauma committee of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, which worked for some years to get seatbelts made mandatory. This was successful and the State of Victoria, home of RACS, was the first jurisdiction in the world to make wearing seatbelts mandatory. He spoke about the complete change in the pattern of road trauma injuries: instead of cases coming in with terrible head injuries, facial injuries from going through the windscreen and major chest injuries from the steering wheel hitting the chest, they were more likely to have abdominal organ ruptures, which were at least repairable with the hope of a normal life in the medium term. He was then part of RACS’ campaign for random breath testing to discourage drink driving. This campaign was also successful and caused another significant drop in Australia's road toll, which had been the highest in the world. Harvey was a generous contributor to his local area: he taught doctors and nurses, taught first aid to St John’s ambulance officers for 25 years (recognised by being made a serving brother of St John of Jerusalem). He was a charter member of West Wollongong Rotary, and was awarded its highest honour, a Paul Harris fellowship in 1989. He was a practical handyman, and as a founder member of the Illawarra Alpine Club, helped to build their lodge and organised the team that built the Rutherford scout hut at Tudor House. Meanwhile he raised four children and read voraciously – always fact rather than fiction, constantly educating himself. He resigned from his practice in 1984 with the re-introduction of Medicare. Having experienced the British NHS when training for the FRCS, he was disgusted that Australia could envisage an inferior system. He feared bureaucratic interference and, whilst espousing capitalism, practised socialism in terms of his attitude to people. In the two years before his death Harvey would have liked voluntary euthanasia, but did not have the strength: his demise was protracted by a system that, as he said, “has no mercy”. His mind was active until close to the end. After Sunday dinner with his family, he announced that he would not leave his bed again, had a last beer with a few friends, before losing consciousness under the care of the palliative care team and died on 15 September 2005 in Wollongong.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000614
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Dyde, John Anthony (1935 - 2010)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

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 Fuller, Alan Pearce (1929 - 2010)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Geraint Fuller
Publication Date 2010-09-30 2013-10-11
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/373208373208
Occupation ENT surgeon
Details Alan Fuller was an ENT surgeon at St Bartholomew's Hospital, London. He was born in Swansea on 18 March 1929, one of three sons, but the only one to survive more than 24 hours. His mother, Sarah Ann (née Williams), was later an hotelier and his father Frank Austin, who died when Alan was five years old, was on the sales staff of a firm of furniture manufacturers. His mother remarried, but Alan's stepfather later died when Alan was 12 years old. He was educated at Swansea Grammar School and in 1946 won a major county scholarship to St Bartholomew's Medical College. Alan was in the first entry after the college returned from evacuation to Queens' College, Cambridge. The entry was mainly made up of ex-servicemen, and for the first time women were admitted to the college. As a student he worked on the Clifford Naunton Morgan firm at the time when Reginald Murley was chief assistant. After qualifying, he held house appointments in general and ENT surgery, and a senior ENT house surgeon post in Swansea. He was able to do his National Service in the RAMC (1953 to 1955) as a junior specialist in otology as he had obtained the DLO in 1953. He served with the British Army of the Rhine (BAOR), in Singapore and in Malaya during the Malayan emergency. Whilst in Singapore he, with a fellow Bart's student, Michael Pugh, co-founded the Rahere dining club. On return from National Service he completed his ENT training at the Royal National Throat, Nose and Ear Hospital, before returning to Bart's in 1959 as chief assistant (senior registrar). Here he was much influenced by F C W Capps and (Sir) Cecil Hogg. He was appointed to the consultant staff of St Bartholomew's in 1963 and was also on the staff of Ealing Hospital (1963 to 1985), the Mile End Hospital (1964 to 1968), and later the Queen Elizabeth Hospital for Children and the Royal Masonic Hospital. Fuller was an enthusiastic teacher who served St Bart's Medical College as assistant dean (1971), sub-dean in charge of discipline (from 1972 to 1978) and admissions dean (1981 to 1985). He was president of the student's union and a keen supporter of the Gilbert and Sullivan Society and the rugby club (he had played in the second row as a student). Fuller had once unwittingly won an informal competition held by junior doctors at Bart's for the 'loudest tie of the week', but he later adopted bow ties after he found normal ones were grabbed by playful children while he looked in their ears. In 1973 Bart's celebrated the 850th anniversary of its foundation. Among the events was an outdoor play. Alan Fuller's perceived resemblance, in stature and beard, to King Henry VIII caused him to be cast as the monarch who had given Bart's a Royal Charter. In November 1982, Alan Fuller was summoned to King Edward VII Hospital, London, to attend HM Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, who had choked on a salmon bone which she could not dislodge. He removed it under a general anaesthetic given by his colleague Bryan Gillet. The Queen Mother, a keen angler, declared: "The salmon have got their own back". Some 11 years later the same problem happened to her again. Alan Fuller examined in surgery for the University of London, was a member of the Court of Examiners (from 1984 to 1990) and an external examiner for the ENT fellowship examination of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (from 1990 to 1992). He served on the councils and was a vice-president of both ENT sections of the Royal Society of Medicine. A delightful companion and most clubbable man, he was secretary of the Rahere Lodge for years, an enthusiastic member of the 17th London General Hospital Territorial Army (TA), a member of the Savage Club, and a liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Barbers. As a painter in pastels and watercolour he belonged to the London Sketch Club and the Medical Art Society (president from 1993 to 1996). He also in late life enjoyed rough shooting and sailing his hand built dingy aptly named *Incus*. Allan Fuller met Janet Marina Williams (known as 'Nini'), a professional caterer, on New Year's Eve 1956, successfully proposed to her on St Valentine's Day 1957 and married her the following month. Their happy married life culminated in their golden wedding anniversary celebrated the year before Nini died after a short illness. Alan Fuller's last years were clouded by Alzheimer's disease. He died on 6 May 2010, and was survived by his son, Geraint, who is a consultant neurologist, and two daughters, Rowena and Charlotte.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001025
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Gordon, Walter (1916 - 2003)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
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/373209373209
Occupation Thoracic surgeon
Details Walter Gordon was a thoracic surgeon. He was born on 11 January 1916 in Modderfontein, South Africa, the third child and second son of Herman Gordon, a confectionery manufacturer and businessman, and Anna née Rabinowitz , a housewife. He was educated at King Edward VII School, Johannesburg, and then at the University of Witwatersrand, where he studied medicine, qualifying in 1939. He then served as a captain in the South African Medical Corps during the Second World War. Following his demobilisation, he travelled to the UK, where he was a senior registrar in the regional thoracic unit in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and then a first assistant in thoracic surgery at St George’s Hospital, London. He subsequently emigrated to the United States, where he was a surgeon at the Veterans Administration Hospital and associate professor of clinical surgery at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, City University, New York. He was a member of the executive committee of the Society for Cardiothoracic Surgery in Great Britain and Ireland. In the United States he was a member of the Union of Concerned Scientists and was certified as a specialist by the American Board of Anesthesiology. He wrote on thoracic surgery, particularly on haematoma, tuberculosis and carcinoma of the oesophagus and lung. He married Stella Beryl Girdy in 1943. They had three children – Heryl, a teacher, Nayvin, a medical practitioner, and Shale, a cardiologist. He enjoyed playing chess, skiing, tennis and swimming. He died on 10 February 2003.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001026
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Hanna, Ghassan Salem Suleiman (1949 - 2009)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Neil Weir
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/373210373210
Occupation ENT surgeon
Details Ghassan Hanna was a Palestinian who left his troubled homeland during the Six-Day War of 1967 to realise his dream of becoming a doctor; he subsequently made his home in Britain, where he became a successful ENT surgeon. He was born into a Palestinian Christian family in Nablus on 19 October 1949, one of 11 children of a primary school headmaster. Having dismissed his chances of becoming Pope, Ghassan decided, at the age of seven, to become a doctor. The Six-Day War proved to be the catalyst. Leaving home, with no money and unable to complete his school leaving examinations, he fled to Amman, where he was cared for by one of his aunts. With no physics qualification, he could not gain admission to Cairo Medical School, but was instead accepted at Alexandria Medical School, from where he was later able to transfer to Cairo. He qualified in 1973. Hanna developed an interest in ENT surgery whilst practising in Dubai. His desire to return to Palestine was thwarted as his country was occupied, and he had discovered that he had not been included in the Israeli census. He decided to make his career in Britain and arrived in 1980. After obtaining the fellowship of the RCS and completing a registrar post at Wexham Park Hospital, Slough, he was, in 1988, appointed consultant ENT surgeon to the General Hospital (later the County Hospital) at Hereford. His special interest was head and neck cancer, and he delighted in teaching. Hanna married, in 1976, Wafa Nemer Bishara, whose family also came from Nablus. He created a beautiful garden at his home in the village of Clehonger near Hereford and took pleasure in his proficiency at Middle Eastern cuisine. In 2007 he retired from the NHS, but sadly died from a heart attack on 13 June 2009, as he and his wife were preparing for their joint 60th and 50th birthday party. He is survived by his wife, their son, who is a communications manager at Barnet and Chase Farm hospitals, and three daughters, all of whom are doctors.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001027
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Harries, Bernard John (1916 - 2009)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by T T King
Publication Date 2010-09-30 2013-11-25
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/373211373211
Occupation Neurosurgeon
Details Bernard Harries was a consultant neurosurgeon at University College Hospital (UCH) and the Whittington Hospital, London. He was born in Newport, Monmouthshire, on 30 April 1916, the son of Eric Henry Rhys Harries, an infectious diseases physician, and his wife, Edith Irene née Brazel. His grandfather, Arthur John Harries, was also a physician, in practice in London. He was educated at 'innumerable' preparatory schools, King Edward VI Grammar School, Birmingham, and University College School, and entered medical school at University College in 1933, obtaining the primary FRCS there. His clinical years (1936 to 1939) were at University College Hospital, where he was Goldsmid entrance scholar and won the Liston gold medal for surgery in 1938. From August to October 1939, he was a house surgeon to Julian Taylor, who also held a neurosurgical appointment at the National Hospital, Queen Square. Harries had been an officer in the cadet reserve of the Territorial Army from 1936 to 1939 and joined 131 Field Ambulance as a lieutenant in October 1939. Between January and May 1940, he saw service in Belgium and France, but was captured by the Germans with his unit and spent the rest of the war in various prison camps in Germany and Poland, including Stalag Luft III and IXb, Oflags VIIc and VIb, and Bad Soden-Salmünster. In 1943, he was transferred to surgical duties in a number of prisoner-of-war hospitals "as a kind of military house surgeon". These hospitals were run by some extremely able British and Australian medical personnel of all ranks who treated patients of many nationalities, but mainly British, Commonwealth and Americans. Harries, who seldom spoke of his war experience, felt he owed a great deal to the young physicians and surgeons with whom he worked at this time, a period in his life which included nine months in ophthalmics, nine months in rehabilitation of major injuries and nine months of primitive operative surgery. At the end of the war, he spent June to December 1945 at the Cambridge Military Hospital, Aldershot, where he was graded as a surgical specialist. Demobilised in 1946, he returned to the Territorial Army in 1951 and continued until 1961, as a major. Back in civilian life, he obtained the final FRCS in 1946, MB BS London in 1947, and started as a house surgeon at UCH again, to Julian Taylor and F J F Barrington, both of whom influenced him. He moved quickly to a post as a senior registrar in surgery at UCH, senior house surgeon at Queen Square and resident assistant surgeon at UCH. As Bilton Pollard fellow and Leslie Pearce Gould travelling scholar, he spent a year in North America - three months at the Montreal Neurological Institute with Wilder Penfield and William Cone, and nine at the Massachusetts General Hospital with James White, William Sweet and Jason Mixter. He also visited other units in the United States and on his return spent a year at Queen Square in the neuropathology department with J G Greenfield. His appointment at UCH in 1951 was as a "general surgeon with an interest in neurological surgery" which, even at that time, must have been unusual. In 1960 he became wholly a neurosurgeon, though he continued to have an interest in the surgery of phaeochromocytomas in which he had a large experience. In 1966 he also became a neurosurgeon to the Whittington Hospital, an honorary, though busy, appointment. It was intended that the Whittington and UCH units should eventually become a unified regional unit, but this plan was abandoned when the Whittington neurosurgery was transferred to the Royal Free Hospital in 1975. Harries continued to give a consultative service to the Whittington until 1979, when he retired from the NHS. As a neurosurgeon, Harries was held in high regard by his neurological and other medical colleagues, as a clinical opinion, an operator, for his care of his patients, and for his courtesy and kindness towards them and his colleagues. He belonged to a period when neurosurgical units were commonly small and sometimes, as in the case of UCH and the Whittington, often run almost single-handedly and were more isolated than would be the case later. His early involvement in some general surgery may, too, have separated him a little from the general run of neurosurgeons. He wrote on head injuries, spinal cord compression and phaeochromocytoma, and was a member of the Society of British Neurological Surgeons, Association of Surgeons, Surgical Travellers and was a founding member of the University Hospitals Association. Harries' other important field was in the University College Hospital Medical School, where he was a vice-dean and then dean. He played a part in the translation of the UCH Medical School into the School of Medicine, University College, London. He was also chairman of the medical committee of UCH and the south Camden district medical team, a trustee of the Sir Jules Thorne Trust, secretary of the statistical unit of the University Hospitals Association and chairman of the special trustees. In 1954 he married Irene Elsie Broadbent, whom he had met while in Boston. There were two daughters, Joanna Mary and Alison Jane, both of whom qualified in medicine, and four grandchildren. His extracurricular interests were his family and sailing, which he pursued by crewing for friends and by building his own small dinghies, thus developing an interest in carpentry. He was also a gardener and, after his retirement to Sussex, created a garden from a wasteland. He died on 19 March 2009 from bronchopneumonia after a series of strokes. He was survived by his wife and daughters.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001028
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

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
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Harvey, Richard Sutton (1803 - 1882)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Harvey, William (1806 - 1876)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2012-04-04
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/374338374338
Occupation General surgeon
Details Educated at Guy's Hospital; after a few years in general practice he restricted his attention to aural disease, being contemporary with Joseph Toynbee and James Yearsley. He was Aural Surgeon to the Royal Dispensary for Diseases of the Ear, to the Freemasons' Asylum for Female Children, and to the Great Northern Hospital. Harvey is remembered as giving rise to the 'banting' system of reducing corpulence. William Banting (1797-1878), undertaker, of St James's Street, 5 ft 5 in in height, before sixty could not stoop to tie his shoe without pain and difficulty, and was obliged to go downstairs backwards to avoid the jar. He had been advised to take more exercise; he walked long distances, rowed for hours, which improved his appetite and added to his weight. Fifty Turkish baths and gallons of physic failed to diminish his weight of 202 lb. He was in his sixty-sixth year when he consulted Harvey for deafness. Harvey, believing that his deafness and fatness were connected, cut off farinaceous foods and prescribed a diet of flesh meat, fish, and dry toast, which reduced his weight by 48 lb. and bettered his health. Banting published a pamphlet which attained world-wide notoriety, but only in the third edition mentions Harvey by name. Harvey published his own view, *On Corpulence in Relation to Disease, with some Remarks on Diet*, in 1872. He practised at 2 Soho Square, and later at 3 George Street. After suffering for many months from a tumour of the thigh, he died on December 5th, 1876. Publications:- *New and Improved Synoptical Table of the Diseases of the Human Ear* (with THOMAS BUCHANAN), 1848. *Excision of the Enlarged Tonsil and its Consequences in Cases of Deafness*, 1850. *Rheumatism, Gout and Neuralgia affecting the Head and Ear in connexion with Deafness*, 1852. The work related to the treatment of disorders of hearing by management of the general health. *On Corpulence in Relation to Disease*, 1872. *The Ear in Health and Disease, with Practical Remarks on the Treatment of Deafness*, several editions.
Resource Identifier RCS: E002155
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Harvey, William ( - 1924)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Folds, William ( - 1869)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Dumville, Arthur William (1813 - 1871)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Duncan, Andrew (1850 - 1912)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2011-11-02
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/373654373654
Occupation General surgeon
Details The son of Dr James Duncan, a well-known practitioner of Henrietta Street, Covent Garden. He was educated at Cholmeley School, Highgate, under the head master John Dyne; at King's College, London; Vienna, Strasburg, and Berlin. He entered King's College Medical Department as Warneford Scholar in 1868, won, among many awards, the Leathes Prize and Final Senior Scholarship, and eventually graduated with great success at the University of London. He became House Surgeon to Sir William Fergusson, John Wood, and Henry Smith in 1873, and in 1874 was appointed House Physician at the Seamen's Hospital, Greenwich. Here the systematic study of tropical diseases had only just begun. In 1875 he became House Surgeon to the Carey Street Dispensary and Medical Registrar to Charing Cross Hospital, and in 1876 was elected Surgical Registrar to King's College Hospital. At St Mary's Hospital he was Medical Tutor and Pathologist during 1877-1878, and might have gained a place on the staff of a teaching hospital when he decided to enter the Indian Medical Service, and passed in second in the list. All his home appointments were given up and he went to Netley, where he gained the Parkes Medal in 1885. In India he soon saw service, and in 1879-1880 was with Lord Roberts in the Afghan Campaign, being mentioned in despatches and receiving the Medal and Clasp. In the Battle of Charasiab he was dangerously wounded. Though severely affected in his general health he served also in the Black Mountain Campaign in 1891. In 1900 he retired with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel after twenty-one years' service, and returned to England as an invalid. His strong convictions, which were expressed fearlessly, affected his advancement in the Indian Medical Service. Shortly after joining the Indian Medical Service he wrote a paper entitled "The Insanitary Tendencies of State Sanitation", in which he criticized severely the views of the chief sanitary officials of the Indian Government. This was considered an act of insubordination, and he was punished for it in various ways. He himself believed, and all his friends were certain of it, that his advancement in the service was blocked at every turn; there is no doubt that he was regarded as a difficult and troublesome man - the fate of all young reformers. However, his opportunity came in 1885 when the subject chosen for the Parkes Memorial Prize Essay was "The Prevention of Disease in Tropical Campaigns". He sent home his original essay with additions, and was awarded the prize. Duncan returned to professional life in London with so high a reputation that he soon received many appointments. Amongst others he became Physician to the Seamen's Hospital, Albert Docks, and to the Western General Dispensary, Examiner in Tropical Medicine for the University of London, and Lecturer on Tropical Medicine at Westminster Hospital Medical School and the London School of Tropical Medicine. He died after a long illness on Oct 17th, 1912. He had resided and practised at 24 Chester Street, SW. Lieut-Colonel Crawford gives his promotions as follows: Surgeon, Bengal Army, March 30th, 1878; Surgeon Major, March 30th, 1890; Lieutenant-Colonel, March 30th, 1898; retired, Feb.1st, 1900. Publications:- *The Prevention of Disease in Tropical and Sub-tropical Campaigns*, 8vo, London, 1888. This is the enlarged Parkes Memorial Prize Essay. *The Practitioner's Guide*, of which he was joint author. *Guide to Sick Nursing in the Tropics*, 8vo, London, 1908. Articles on "Dysentery" and "Kala-azar" in Quain's *Dictionary of Medicine*, 3rd ed. "Heat Stroke." - *Edin. Med. Jour.*, 1908, n.s. xiii, 217. "The Stools in Dysentery." - *Ibid.*, 1904, n.s. xv, 349. "Tropical Dysentery." - *Internat. Clin.*, series 13, iv, 70. "Military Surgery" in Treves's *System of Surgery*, 1895. He was for many years a valued collaborator upon the literary staff of the *Lancet*, to which journal he sent some signed articles.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001471
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Finch, Charles Denyer (1819 - 1861)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Findlay, John ( - 1890)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Folker, William Henry (1826 - 1912)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

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/373974373974
Occupation General surgeon Ophthalmic surgeon
Details Born at Brighton, and received his education at New College School, Oxford. He was then apprenticed to James Fernandez Clarke, the well-known medical biographer attached to the staff of the *Lancet*, and afterwards completed his professional training at Charing Cross Hospital, where, among other prizes, he gained the final Silver Medal for Clinical Work. Eventually he studied in Paris under such masters as Trousseau, Velpeau, Nélaton, Malgaigne, Ricord, and Dubois. After qualifying he was elected, in 1853, House Surgeon of the North Staffs Infirmary, but resigned in three years' time and started in general practice at Hanley. In 1858 he was elected to the visiting staff of the Infirmary as Hon Surgeon, and held this post till 1890, when he became Surgeon to the New Ophthalmic Department, and held office till 1892, when he was elected Consulting Surgeon on his retirement. He continued, however, to be actively interested in the administrative work of the hospital, and was Vice-President in 1904-1905, and President in 1906. In 1899 he had given the first impulse to the movement for the erection of the King Edward VII Nurses' Home, and saw his project realized three years later in the fine building wherein the hospital nursing staff is accommodated. He was one of the first batch of certifying surgeons to be appointed by the Home Office under the Factory Act, and held the post to within a few years of his death, when his son succeeded him. Folker served enthusiastically in the Volunteers, which he joined in 1859. In 1860 he was appointed Battalion Surgeon to the 1st Battalion Staffs Volunteer Rifles, and retired with the Long Service Decoration in 1886. He was a Conservative in politics, and a Past Master of the Sutherland Lodge of Freemasons, 451, and held provincial rank in the Godefroi de Bouillon Preceptory. A dinner was given in his honour by his many friends in 1903, to celebrate the jubilee of his connection with the North Staffs Infirmary. A placid geniality of disposition, an unswerving steadfastness in friendship, and an invincible optimism were his main characteristics, and this combination of qualities inspired him with a well-nigh perpetual youth. His popularity among his younger colleagues was based on his power of giving advice as a senior and of sympathizing as a contemporary. He was a complete invalid for three years before he died at his residence, Bedford House, Hanley, on March 20th, 1912. He married in 1857 Ellen Jane, daughter of George Henry Fourdrinier, the well-known paper-maker, and was survived by four children, of whom the eldest son, Herbert Henry Folker, was Surgeon to the Ophthalmic Department at the North Staffs Infirmary. Folker's year of Presidency of the Staffordshire Branch of the British Medical Association was signalized by an address on the "Surgery of the Extremities", in which he compared the results of the many changes and advances in technique with which he had been personally associated. He wrote also on his own modifications of the operations for the cure of haemorrhoids and varicose veins, which involved specially devised instruments which carried his name. Publications: "Case of Tumour of the Tongue successfully Operated on." - *Lancet*, 1863, ii, 445. "Successful Ligature of the External Iliac." - *Ibid.*, 1864, ii, 89. "Secondary Haemorrhage - Successful Ligature of the Subclavian." - *Ibid.*, 1868, I, 313.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001791
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Forbes, John (1797 - 1890)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Gregory, John (1821 - 1861)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Gregory, Samuel (1800 - 1858)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Griffith, John (1866 - 1901)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2012-02-22
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E002000-E002999/E002000-E002099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/374237374237
Occupation Ophthalmic surgeon
Details Born at Aston, Oxfordshire, in May, 1866, the son of the Rev George Sandham Griffith, who at a later date became Rector of Ardley, Bicester. John Griffith was educated at Royse's School, Abingdon, and under Dr Grove at St Ives, Huntingdonshire. In 1884 he began his medical training at St Mary's Hospital, where he was Scholar in Pathology in 1888 and won the Prize in Ophthalmology in 1889. His career had been determined as it were by accident. An intimate friend at St Mary's was working for the Clinical Ophthalmic Assistantship, and suggested to Griffith that he too should compete. Griffith did so accordingly, beat his friend at the examination, and obtained the post, which he held at the time of his death, when he was Senior Clinical Ophthalmic Assistant. He was also appointed Clinical Assistant and Pathologist at the Royal Westminster Ophthalmic Hospital, and later was elected Assistant Surgeon, and then full Surgeon as well as Lecturer. Here his clinic was largely attended by enthusiastic students and practitioners. Shortly before his final breakdown in health he was appointed Lecturer at Jonathan Hutchinson's Policlinic. For the last ten years of his life he had worked regularly at the histology of the eye, and had made a large collection of microscopic slides. One process of great value which he introduced about the year 1893 was the use of euchlorine as a bleaching agent for the removal of pigment from the uveal tract. His efficiency in minute anatomy and pathology gave him a good position in the Ophthalmological Society, where he was often elected to serve on pathological sub-committees of reference. At St Mary's he proved an excellent, kindly, and inspiring teacher, to whose enthusiasm many students owed their early interest in ophthalmology. For the last five years of his life he assisted Anderson Critchett and Henry Edward Juler (qv) in their private practices, had made his mark and obtained a large private connection. He died of phthisis on August 25th, 1901, having practised latterly at 16 Harley Street. He was a keen pathologist and brilliant ophthalmologist, and at the time of his death, in addition to the posts above mentioned, he was Curator as well as Surgeon at the Royal Westminster Ophthalmic Hospital, and Ophthalmic Surgeon at the Kensington Institute for the Blind; he had also been Assistant Demonstrator of Anatomy and Assistant Pathologist and Curator at St Mary's Hospital. Anderson Critchett wrote of him:- "My dear friend and colleague, John Griffith, had such an interesting and attractive personality, and during his too short life had achieved so much work of sterling merit, that his memory must long survive with all who knew him. Before he had finished his student's career he was attracted to the study of ophthalmology, and devoted himself to it with that keen and indomitable energy which was one of his chief characteristics. He was an excellent pathologist, and enriched the museum at St Mary's Hospital with many valuable specimens. His special knowledge in this direction met with early recognition at the Ophthalmological Society. He did not, however, pursue this particular branch of study as an abstract science, but chiefly as a means to acquire knowledge which he could turn to practical advantage in the relief of human suffering. "For the last five years he assisted me in my private practice, where I had the happy experience of his exceptional ability, and it is with deep regret that I now pay this final tribute to a gifted colleague and a loyal friend." Publications: Griffith was joint-author of the chapter on "Refraction of the Eye" in Juler's *Ophthalmic Science and Practice*, 2nd ed, 8vo, illustrated, London, 1893. "Rare Form of Intra-ocular Melanoma." - *Ophthalmol Soc Trans*, 1894, xiv, 160, "Case of Filamentary Keratitis" (with G COWELL). - *Ibid*, xiv, 76. "Iritis a Sequel to Gonorrhoea." - *Ibid*, 1900, xx, 83. This was the latest subject of his study, wherein he maintained the frequency of the disease when compared with its syphilitic variety and laid stress on the length of its incubation period. "Criticism on Recent Views as to the Secretory Function of the Ciliary Body." *Ophthalmic Rev*, 1894, xiii, 247. "Choroidal Sarcoma in Infancy." - *Ibid*, 1895, xiv, 286. "Some Common Diseases of the Eyelids ; their Pathology and Treatment." - *Med Times and Hosp Gaz*, 1896, xxiv, 161, etc. "The Treatment of Idiopathic Ulcers of the Cornea in Children." - *Treatment*, 1897-8, I, 437.
Resource Identifier RCS: E002054
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon (1930 - 2002)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Tina Craig
Publication Date 2012-02-22 2013-09-03
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E002000-E002999/E002000-E002099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/374238374238
Occupation Member of the UK Royal Family
Details Her Royal Highness The Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon was admitted as an Honorary Fellow of the College on 11 April 1963. She was born on 21 August 1930 in Glamis Castle in Scotland, and christened Margaret Rose. At the age of six her life changed dramatically when her uncle, King Edward VIII, abdicated in order to marry the divorcee Wallis Simpson and her father became King George VI. She then became second in line to the throne after her elder sister, Elizabeth. Both the princesses were educated at home by a governess. Margaret was not expected to undertake official duties until she reached the age of 18 although she did join her parents and sister on a state tour of South Africa in 1947 - her first trip abroad. During the tour Margaret was chaperoned by the King's equerry, Peter Townsend. At the age of 18 Margaret "came out" and, a beautiful and vibrant woman, embarked on many official engagements. Her main interests were in welfare charities, music and ballet and she became president of organisations as diverse as the St John Ambulance Brigade, the Lowland Brigade Club, the NSPCC and the London Lighthouse. She also represented the Crown on various foreign tours including a highly successful trip to the Caribbean in 1955 during which calypsos were dedicated to her. The King died in 1952 and Margaret was devastated by his death. Around this time she began a relationship with Group Captain Peter Townsend, who was 16 years older than her and by then divorced with two children. Just before the coronation he asked her to marry him and she accepted. The Queen asked them to wait a year by which time it was made known that parliamentary sanction would not be given and the only way the marriage could proceed would be if Margaret renounced her right of succession. In October 1955 she announced that she had decided not to marry Peter Townsend. In 1960, Margaret married the photographer Anthony Armstrong-Jones who was created the Earl of Snowden and they had two children, David born in 1961 and Sarah in 1964. For a while the couple's life epitomised the so called "swinging sixties", mixing with the famous and fashionable names of the day and both having a series of affairs. They divorced in May, 1978. Her later years were beset by ill health exacerbated by heavy smoking and drinking. She suffered a series of strokes and died on 9 February 2002, aged 71. Her life, as one of her obituarists pointed out, was a contradiction between her unconventional tastes and behaviour and her "unquestioning assumption that her royal status commanded the utmost respect". The same writer summed up "verdicts on her life tended to divide between those accustomed to the ways of princesses and those unable to see the point of them".
Resource Identifier RCS: E002055
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Jones, Barrie Russell (1921 - 2009)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Enid Taylor
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/373216373216
Occupation Ophthalmologist
Details Barrie Russell Jones was professor of clinical ophthalmology at the University of London. He was born at Silverstream, near Wellington, New Zealand, on 4 January 1921. He obtained a degree in natural sciences from Victoria University, Wellington, before studying medicine at the University of Otago, Dunedin, qualifying in 1947. His early clinical training was in Wellington, but in 1950 he returned to Dunedin as a registrar in ophthalmology, where he trained under Rowland Wilson, who had done important research on trachoma. He went to London in 1951 to study for a PhD, at that time planning to return to Dunedin, but he was appointed to a training post at Moorfields Eye Hospital and then to a research post at the Institute of Ophthalmology. He was professor of clinical ophthalmology in the University of London from 1963 to 1980 based at the Institute, with the clinical component at Moorfields. At Moorfields he made fundamental changes to clinical practice, insisting that all trainees use the operating microscope and encouraging sub-specialisation. His own interests were in the micro-surgery of the lacrimal system and surgery to the eyelids often deformed by trachoma. His aim was always to make a major contribution to the eradication of preventable blindness throughout the world and in 1981 the International Centre for Eye Health was opened with Barrie Jones as the first director. The Centre is now based at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, with training centres in Africa, India and America. He retired in 1986. He gave many prestigious lectures and received many honours, including the CBE, the Gonin medal, the King Feisal International prize in medicine and the global achievement award from the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness. He was immensely respected by all. He was supported by his wife, Pauline, who accompanied him on many field trips when he was studying eye diseases resulting from infection, particularly those caused by chlamydia. In 2002 they finally returned to New Zealand. Barrie Jones died from pneumonia on 19 August 2009 and was survived by his wife Pauline, a daughter, Jenny, and three sons, Graham, Andrew and Peter.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001033
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Hawkins, Thomas Henry (1838 - 1881)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2012-04-11
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/374351374351
Occupation Ophthalmic surgeon
Details Studied at King's College Hospital and in Paris. He was House Surgeon at King's College Hospital, then at the Royal Ophthalmic Hospital. He later practised at Newbury, where he was Surgeon to the Speen Cottage Hospital, Ophthalmic Surgeon to the Newbury Dispensary, and Coroner for the Borough. Shortly before his death he migrated to South Australia, began practice in Adelaide, and died there on July 2nd, 1881.
Resource Identifier RCS: E002168
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Hawthorne, Arthur Neville (1820 - 1866)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England Updated obituary: Sarah Gillam
Publication Date 2012-04-11
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/374352374352
Occupation General surgeon Apothecary
Details Practised at Eccleshall, Staffordshire, and died on January 20th, 1866. *See below for an expanded version of the published obituary uploaded 02/04/2025:* Arthur Neville Hawthorne was a surgeon who practised at Eccleshall, Staffordshire. He was born in Ireland in around 1820. He started his medical career as an apothecary: in January 1833 he signed up as an apprentice to an apothecary in Dublin. He went on to become a member of the Royal College of Surgeons of England on 17 June 1840 and a licentiate of the Society of Apothecaries of London in 1843. On 8 June 1859 he became a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. He also gained a licence in midwifery in Dublin. He was a fellow of the Obstetrical Society of London. For most of his career he worked from a practice on the High Street in Eccleshall. In September 1860, listed as ‘gentleman’, he became an honorary assistant surgeon to the Staffordshire Rifle Volunteer Corps. In April 1850 he married Anne Buckley. They had five children: Arthur, Jane Kathleen, Archibald Stewart, Frederick Buckley and Edith Mary. Hawthorne died on 20 January 1866 of ‘apoplexy’, according to his *Lancet* death notice, aged 46. He was survived by his wife and children.
Resource Identifier RCS: E002169
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Haydon, Nathaniel John (1814 - 1884)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2012-04-11
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/374353374353
Occupation General surgeon
Details Studied at St Bartholomew's Hospital, where he gained the Senior Prize for Clinical Surgery in 1886, and afterwards in Paris. He practised first at Bodmin, then at Bovey Tracy, Devonshire, where he was Certifying Factory Surgeon, Surgeon to the Oddfellows, and Local Medical Referee to the Home for Incurables. In the early seventies he removed to Minchinhampton, Gloucestershire, where he was Surgeon to the Dispensary. Finally he returned to Devonshire, and practised at Bampton Street, Tiverton, where he died on December 6th, 1884.
Resource Identifier RCS: E002170
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Foster, John Frederick (1810 - 1880)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Fisher, William ( - 1858)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Fitzgerald, Thomas George (1829 - 1881)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

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/373925373925
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born in London on June 23rd, 1829, and was educated at University College, where he was Secretary of the Medical Society. He completed his medical training in Paris, Berlin, and Vienna, and entered the Army as an Assistant Surgeon on the Staff, his commission being dated April 13th, 1852. He served during the Crimean War as Professional Assistant to the Inspector-General of Hospitals on the Bosphorus, and was awarded the Medal and Clasp of the Order of Medjidie (5th class) for his services, as well as the Turkish Medal. He was appointed Curator of the Army Museum and Pathologist at Fort Pitt, Chatham, and was Inspector of Surgical Instruments and Superintendent of Medical Supplies to the Army. During the Franco-German War of 1870-1871 he was a Commissioner with the German Army in the Field and to the military hospitals at Strasburg and Metz. He retired on half pay with the honorary rank of Surgeon General on November 11th, 1877. During his whole service of twenty-five years and a half he spent more than twenty-one at home, for the most part in the Director-General's office, and it is remarkable that he had no regimental service. He died at Haverstock Hill on June 18th, 1881. Publications: *Medical and Surgical History of the Crimean Campaign*. *Reports on the Prussian Field Medical Arrangements and on Battle Field Surgery. Septicemia and Pyaemia*.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001742
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Beare, Robin Lyell Blin (1922 - 2007)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Brian Morgan
Publication Date 2012-02-06 2015-05-01
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/374152374152
Occupation Plastic surgeon Plastic and reconstructive surgeon
Details Robin Lyell Blin Beare was a consultant plastic surgeon at Queen Victoria Hospital, East Grinstead, and St Mary's Hospital, London. He was born on 31 July 1922 in Weybridge, where his father was a surgeon/GP. Robin went to Radley School, where he was a junior scholar. In 1940 he joined the RAF, trained as a pilot, and was shot down on a bombing raid over Berlin. He parachuted to safety, but was captured and from 1941 was a prisoner of war. After the war he worked as a test pilot researching ejector seats designed by Martin Baker, which left him with lasting back problems. When he left the Royal Air Force he continued to fly, then in 1947 decided to train in medicine at the Middlesex Hospital Medical School. He qualified in 1952 with a distinction in surgery, the Charles Bell prize in anatomy and the Leopold Hudson prize in surgical pathology. He was an assistant lecturer in the Bland Sutton Institute of Pathology, and then trained in general surgery at the Middlesex Hospital and in plastic surgery at Queen Victoria Hospital, East Grinstead, under the tutelage of Sir Archibald McIndoe. In 1956 he was appointed as a consultant at Queen Victoria Hospital and also at Mary's Hospital, Paddington, and had a regular clinic at Brighton. He continued working closely with McIndoe, and when McIndoe died in 1960 Robin succeeded him in his NHS work and also in his private practice at 149 Harley Street. His clinical interests were in facial reconstruction, cleft lip and palate, and burns. He was author of papers on surgical subjects including irradiation injuries of the perineum, skin grafts and flaps. He worked with his colleague John Watson on the design of the building of the new and quite revolutionary burns unit at Queen Victoria Hospital, which was opened in 1963. He was interested in fostering research in plastic surgery and was an original trustee of the Blond McIndoe Research Foundation. His private, mostly cosmetic, practice was considerable and one newspaper rated him as one of the top eight in the world. His colleagues remember him as a 'man of action' and very generous. He had a meticulous surgical technique and demanded a similar performance from others. He was a member of the Court of Examiners of the Royal College of Surgeons. He was honoured with the grand officer, first class, of the Order of Al-Istiqlal, Jordan. He was a passionate fisherman and enjoyed shooting and engineering projects. He also designed and made ornaments in silver and gold. Robin Lyell Blin Beare died on 1 December 2007, aged 85. He was survived by his wife Iris, sons Julian and John (an ophthalmic surgeon), and daughters Virginia and Karen.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001969
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Bell, Mervyn Stuartson (1937 - 2005)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Tina Craig
Publication Date 2012-02-06 2013-09-30
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/374153374153
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon
Details Mervyn Bell was consultant orthopaedic surgeon at Wigan from 1977 to 2004. Born in Hove in 1937, he qualified from Guy's Hospital in London working in the fields of general surgery and neurosurgery. On developing an interest in orthopaedics he moved to the Royal Free Hospital and the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre in Oxford before moving to Lancashire for his first consultant post. He specialised in surgery of the knee and spine and contributed what must have been an early article on hang gliding injuries to the journal *Injury* in 1976. Elected president of the Wigan division of the BMA in 1986 he continued working until shortly before his death. Travelling and languages were his passions and he was fluent in Spanish (in which he had a degree), French and German - he was working towards a degree in the latter before he became ill. He died from T cell lymphoma on 1 August 2005 leaving his wife, Dolores, and two daughters.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001970
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Collingwood, David (1858 - 1899)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2011-06-07
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/373413373413
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born at Liverpool on April 7th, 1858, the son of William Collingwood, well known as a member of the Royal Society of Painters in Watercolours. Educated at Liverpool College, he matriculated at the University of London in the winter of 1875-6. He began to study for his profession in the School of Medicine, University College, Liverpool (then the Royal Infirmary School of Medicine), where he won the Junior and Senior Medals for Anatomy and Physiology. He entered University College, London, in 1877, and won the Silver Medal for Medicine, graduating as MB BS with 1st Class Honours, in 1882. At University College Hospital he filled the offices of House Surgeon, House Physician, and Obstetric Assistant, and was also Assistant to the Professor of Medicine, Senior Demonstrator of Anatomy, and Assistant Teacher of Practical Surgery at University College. Threatened with tuberculosis, he went out to Sydney in 1884, where he joined Dr Twynam in practice. His health greatly improved; he put on weight and finally weighed nearly 15 stone. His professional activity became prodigious. "Eight horses", says his biographer in the *British Medical Journal*, "hardly sufficed to enable him to get through his daily round of work." He took his meals hurriedly and irregularly; to use his own expression, he did not feed but 'stoked' - indeed, he worked his body as if it were an engine made of materials that would not wear out. In addition to one of the largest practices in Sydney, Collingwood was Hon Physician to the Prince Alfred Hospital, Visiting Medical Officer to the Infant Home, Ashfield, and Hon Surgeon to the Women and Children's Hospital, Petersham, Sydney (the suburb where he resided). He returned to England in the summer of 1898, apparently cured of his old trouble, but fell ill again and was for some time an inmate of the Sanatorium of Hohennef. His death occurred at Ringwood on September 23rd, 1899. Mrs. Collingwood and two children survived him.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001230
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Collins, Chambers ( - 1875)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Collins, John Hammett (1817 - 1871)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Collum, Archie Tillyer (1868 - 1896)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2011-06-07 2012-03-22
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/373416373416
Occupation Anatomist General surgeon Physician
Details The fifth son of Robert Collum, MD, of the HEIC, who had been Staff Surgeon to Sir Charles Napier, and who afterwards practised as a physician in London. He retired first to Harmondsworth in Middlesex and then to Surbiton. A T Collum was educated at Epsom College, and entered Charing Cross Hospital as Scholar in 1885. He had a brilliant career as a student and was appointed Assistant Demonstrator of Anatomy in his second year. He served as House Surgeon and House Physician, and was elected Medical Registrar in 1892 and Assistant Surgeon in 1894, acting as Joint Demonstrator of Anatomy and Surgical Tutor. He died of septicaemia after a fortnight's illness in Charing Cross Hospital on February 12th, 1896, and was buried in Kensal Green Cemetery. Collum was a sound and practical teacher, with a gift for imparting his knowledge. He was genial, friendly, and scrupulously straightforward both on the football field and elsewhere. He was Treasurer of the Students' Club, and after his death there was a proposal to form an athletic ground in his memory. At the time of his death he held a commission as Surgeon Lieutenant in the Queen's Westminster Corps of Volunteers. Publications: "Malformation of the Alimentary Canal: Atresia at the Middle of the Duodenum." -*Trans. Pathol. Soc.*, 1895, xlvi, 60, 61. "Extrameningeal or Subcranial Haemorrhage, with Report of a Successful Operation." -*Lancet*, 1893, ii, 684.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001233
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Dunsterville, George Edward ( - 1890)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Fentem, Thomas (1812 - 1888)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Durham, Arthur Edward (1833 - 1895)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2011-11-02
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/373663373663
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born at Northampton, where his father lived to within two or three years of his son's death. He was for a time an employee in a bank, but disliked the work and decided to enter the medical profession. He entered Guy's Hospital as a student at the age of 22. Walter Moxon entered with him in the year 1855, and continued his strong competitor till they both joined the staff of the hospital. As the favourite pupil of John Hilton, Durham did many elaborate dissections to illustrate the nerve-supply of joints referred to in *Rest and Pain*, and Hilton alludes to these painstaking labours in a preface to the first edition of the book. In an early research on the physiology of sleep, Durham trephined the skulls of dogs and inserted glass into the opening so as to observe as far as possible the cortical circulation during life. Observations made after this procedure convinced him that the cortex of the brain was anaemic during sleep, and not congested, as had been generally supposed. He published the result of these researches in the *Guy's Hospital Reports* (1860), and also an excellent paper on "Movable Kidneys". As a surgeon Durham showed a keenly artistic sense. He was bold, prudent, and skilful; he particularly excelled in operations for rectovaginal fistula, harelip, lithotomy, and abdominal surgery. His remarkably long fingers, that seemed to have eyes in their tips, his flexible wrist and sinuous movements of the hand made him powerful, searching, and graceful in all his manipulations, while his invention of the lobster-tail tracheotomy tube has proved of great value. Durham held the following appointments and offices: Demonstrator of Anatomy at Guy's Hospital, and unrivalled as a teacher; Assistant Surgeon in 1861, full Surgeon in 1872, and Consulting Surgeon in 1894. At the Royal College of Surgeons he was elected to the Council in 1884 and continued in this office till the time of his death in 1895, having been Vice-President in 1892-1893, but never an examiner. He has been described as a painstaking practitioner, quick in diagnosis, prompt in treatment, an artist in the neat adjustment of dressings. He early adopted what was then the new Listerism, and was rewarded by the success of his cases. "I think he was the kindest man I ever knew", said Dr Hilton Fagge, who visited Durham shortly before his death and was co-editor with him of the *Guy's Hospital Reports*. Durham was never a strong man, and for many years suffered from attacks of vomiting, the cause of which was not traced. He was very deaf, but in his private practice was greatly assisted by his brother, Frederic Durham (qv), who acted presumably as his 'hearer'. He died on May 7th, 1895, and the body was cremated at Woking. He left a widow, and of his two surviving sons, one was already distinguished in the profession. His surviving brothers were Frederic (qv) and Francis Durham. His portrait appears in the Council Group by Jamyn Brooks, and near it, in the hall of the College, hangs a wax medallion of him by his daughter, Miss Durham, the Albanian traveller. There is an admirable likeness of him inset in his biography in the *British Medical Journal*. A copy of the photograph from which it is taken is in the Council Album. A number of instruments used by Arthur Durham are preserved in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons (see Conservator's Report in the *Calendar*, 1919). Publications: From 1867-1874 Durham was editor of *Guy's Hospital Reports*, and there published: "Physiology of Sleep." - *Guy's Hosp. Rep.*, 1860, 3rd ser., vi, 149. "Mobility and Displacement of the Kidneys." - *Ibid.*, 404. "Hermaphroditism." - *Ibid.*, 421. "On Certain Abnormal Conditions of the Bones: Mollities Ossium and Osteoporosis." -*Ibid.*, 1864, 3rd ser., x, 350. "Cases of Operations on the Larynx." - *Ibid.*, 1866, 3rd ser., xii, 540. "Case of Popliteal Aneurysm." - *Trans. Med.-Chir. Soc.*, 1864, xlvii, 25. "Case of Cyst of Epiglottis." - *Ibid.*, 7. "On Section of Laryngeal Cartilages for Removal of Morbid Growths." - *Ibid.*, 1872, lv, 17. "Case of Abdominal Aneurysm cured by Compression of the Aorta" (with WALTER Moxon). - *Ibid.*, 213. Articles on "Injuries of the Neck," "Diseases of the Nose," and "Diseases of the Larynx, and the Laryngoscope" in Holmes's *System of Surgery*, 2nd ed. Articles in Quain's *Dictionary of Medicine*, including "Intestinal Obstruction." "Dangers and Difficulties of Tracheotomy." - *Practitioner*, 1869, ii, 212.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001480
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Browne, Stanley George (1907 - 1986)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2012-04-12 2016-02-02
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/374355374355
Occupation Tropical medicine specialist
Details Stanley Browne was born on 8 December 1907, in New Cross, London, the second son of Arthur Browne, a civil servant, and of his wife Edith (née Lillywhite). The family originated in Norwich, and were connected with the foundation of English nonconformity. Early education was at Waller Road (New Cross) Elementary School, Brockley Central School and at LCC evening classes. On leaving school at the age of 16 he took an appointment in the Town Clerk's department of Deptford Borough Council. While there he passed the College of Preceptors' Senior Certificate examination with distinctions. He also studied at the LCC Evening Institutes in Forest Hill and Peckham, from which he took examinations of the Royal Society of Arts (English, with medal, and French with distinction), of the National Union of Teachers (including English with medal) and in Pitman's shorthand (120 words a minute). He took part five times in the All-England National Sunday School Union scripture examinations, winning gold, silver and bronze medals. In 1926 he passed the London Matriculation in the first division, and took supplementary logic in 1927. The same year he was awarded an LCC non-vocational scholarship tenable for two years at King's College. There he gained further prizes before proceeding to King's College Hospital with the Raymond Gooch Scholarship. At King's he won prizes, medals and distinctions in every branch of medicine, surgery, obstetrics and pathology. He became an Associate of King's College (AKC) and later FKC. After graduating in 1933 with honours in the London MB, BS (distinctions in surgery, forensic medicine and hygiene) and taking the Conjoint Diploma the same year he was appointed house physician to Sir Charlton Briscoe, JL Livingstone and Terence East and then house surgeon to Cecil Wakeley, Edward Muir, HLC Wood and Yates Bell. He was specially influenced by Cecil Wakeley and by Edward Muir, whose first house surgeon he was. Then, after locum medical and surgical registrarships he studied in Antwerp at the Institut de Médecine Tropicale. In 1934 he had successfully sat for the MRCP examination and in 1935 for the FRCS. As a postgraduate he had also been awarded the Murchison Scholarship of the Royal College of Physicians of London and the Sir Charlton Briscoe Prize for research from King's College Hospital. In 1936 he took the DIM Antwerp, and felt prepared for his life's ambition, to be a medical missionary. He sailed for Africa the same year to serve with the Baptist Missionary Society at Yakusu in the Belgian Congo (now Zaire). At Yakusu he was in charge of an area of 10,000 square miles in which he developed from scratch a programme of community care based on 18 health centres and 35 treatment centres. These became a model in Africa for the control of endemic diseases. One of his achievements was the discovery of the larval stage of *Onchocerca volvulus*, which led to the control of river blindness over a large area. His main scientific pre-occupation was in the field of leprosy. His prolific publications, both in English and French, gained him wide recognition. During his time in the Congo he was Medécin Agré, Congo, Belge; Médecin-Directeur, first of the École Agrée d'Infirmiers, then of the Service Médicale de la BMS, Yakusu and finally of the Leproserie de Yalisombo. In 1949 Browne left the Congo and was appointed senior specialist leprologist and director of the Leprosy Research Unit, Ukuakoli, Eastern Nigeria. There he did pioneering studies on B663, one of the newly synthesised riminophenazine compounds. It proved to be one of the three most effective anti-leprosy drugs, and was also found to have anti-inflammatory properties. It was later named Clofazimine. His work received wide recognition. He was appointed associate lecturer in leprosy at the Universities of Ibadan and Lagos and received a Leverhulme travel grant, to investigate training of medical auxiliaries in the Belgian Congo, and a World Health Organisation grant to visit leprosy research institutions. He became medical consultant to the Leprosy Mission, the Order of Charity, the Hospital and Homes of St Giles, the All-Africa Leprosy Rehabilitation and Training Centre (ALERT), the Albert Schweizer Hospital at Lambarene (English Committee), the Chairman of the Christian Medical Fellowship and of the editorial board of *Leprosy review*. He was also a member of the editorial board of the *International journal of leprosy* and of *Tropical Doctor*. He was secretary and treasurer of the International Leprosy Association and Vice-President (1971-73) of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. His foreign appointments included Conseiller Technique, Association de Leprologues de Langue Francaise; Visiting Professor, Institut de Médecine Tropicale, Antwerp; Membre Titulaire, Société Belge de Médecine Tropicale, and honorary member of the Argentine Society of Pharmacology and Therapeutics and of the Argentine Society of Investigative Leprology. Browne was an indefatigable worker, and published in all some 500 articles on medical subjects - mainly leprosy, tropical dermatology, filariasis, onchocerciasis and medical education in the tropics. These appeared in English and French in 30 or so journals. He was also a dedicated Christian - President 1969-71, of the Christian Medical Fellowship and Chairman, 1972-75, of the International Congress of Christian Physicians. The publications by which he wished to be remembered were *Congo, as the doctor sees it* and *Leprosy, new hope and continuity challenge*. He was proud to be the subject of a book by Sylvia and Peter Duncan (Odhams, 1958), *Bonganga, the story of a missionary doctor*. After leaving Africa "Leprosy Browne", as he was widely known, put the damage to his work at Uzuakoli during the Nigerian civil war behind him. As director of the Leprosy Study Centre in London he continued until it was closed in 1980. He was adviser in leprosy to the DHSS and medical secretary of Lepra. He remained an active Christian, and was President of the Baptist Union, 1980-81. He was a powerful speaker on religious occasions. He married in 1940 Ethel Marion Williamson, MA Oxon, daughter of the Rev HR Williamson, D.Litt, the distinguished sinologist. They had three sons, two of them doctors, members of the College. He died suddenly on 29 January 1986, aged 78.
Resource Identifier RCS: E002172
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Haynes, John Bishop (1803 - 1873)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Haynes, Raymond Levi (1809 - 1866)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Hayward, Henry ( - 1855)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Hayward, Thomas Ernest (1855 - 1906)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2012-04-12
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/374359374359
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born at Tewkesbury in 1855, was educated at St Bartholomew's Hospital, where he gained an Entrance Scholarship. After qualifying he held the following appointments: House Physician, Westminster Hospital; Resident Medical Officer, East London Hospital for Children; Registrar and Chloroformist, Evelina Hospital for Children. He then settled at Haydock, a colliery town near St Helen's, Lancashire, living at Clipsley Lodge, and having as partner Dr Andrew Thomson. He was appointed Medical Officer of Health for Haydock, which he made the source of original observations in the form of "Local Life Tables". He calculated from returns over the years 1881-1890 that an elimination of pulmonary tuberculosis would lengthen the average life of the individual by two and a half years, the elimination of cancer would increase the expectation of life at birth by 0.39 year in males, and 0.83 year in females. Dr and Mrs Hayward founded the Haydock Cottage Hospital and he did much surgical work in it, especially in connection with accidents among colliers. He gave important evidence, from knowledge gained among the Lancashire labouring classes, to a Select Committee of the House of Commons considering the Midwives Bill. He died at Haydock on June 8th, 1906. Publications:- "On Local Life Tables by Abbreviated or 'Short' Methods." - *Public Health*, 1897-8, x, 330. "On Life Tables: their Construction and Practical Application." - *Jour Roy Statistical Soc*, 1899, lxii, 443. "A New Life Table for England and Wales." - *Ibid*, 1903, lxvi, 366. "On the Construction and Use of Life Tables from a Public Health Point of View." - *Jour of Hygiene*, 1905, ii.
Resource Identifier RCS: E002176
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Heale, James Newton (1811 - 1891)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Cook, John Holford (1943 - 2006)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2009-06-23
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/372801372801
Occupation Anaesthetist Ophthalmologist
Details John Holford Cook began his career as an ophthalmologist, but later re-trained as an anaesthetist. Born on 16 May 1943, in the middle of the Second World War, he did not meet his father until he was three years old. He studied medicine at the Royal Free Hospital, London, and, following qualification, trained as an ophthalmologist. He later switched to anaesthesia, and ultimately became director of the intensive care unit at Eastbourne. There ‘Cookie’, as he was always known, was an enthusiastic teacher and trainer. He was clinical tutor for his hospital and a college tutor for the Royal College of Anaesthetists. He had many interests outside medicine. He had long been an enthusiastic radio ‘ham’ and built his own equipment and branched out into designing circuits for the radio control of the model boats that were built by his step-father. He mastered machine code for his computers and, when his children took up music, he decided to learn the trombone, which he played in the British Legion Band and the Eastbourne Concert Orchestra, using his computer to make new arrangements for his band. He developed adenocarcinoma of the lung and died on 27 December 2006, leaving his wife Lesley, four children and a grandson.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000618
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Cox, William Sands (1802 - 1875)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2011-08-19
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/373487373487
Occupation General surgeon
Details The eldest son of E T Cox, a well-known Birmingham surgeon (1769-1863). After education at King Edward VI Grammar School and at the General Hospital, Birmingham, he studied at Guy's and St Thomas's Hospitals, (1821-1823), and at the École de Médecine, Paris (1824). Early in his career he conceived the idea of establishing a school of medicine in Birmingham on the lines of Grainger's school in London. After visiting numerous schools, both British and Continental, he settled in Birmingham, was appointed Surgeon to the General Dispensary in 1825, and commenced to lecture on anatomy, with physiological and surgical observations, on Dec 1st, 1825, at Temple Row. In 1828 he succeeded, after opposition, in founding, in conjunction with Drs Johnstone, Booth, and others, the Birmingham School of Medicine, himself lecturing on anatomy at first, and later on surgery. He took an active part in the formation of the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association (now the British Medical Association): in 1840-1841 he founded the Queen's Hospital, Birmingham, and became its Senior Surgeon. In 1843 he secured a Royal Charter for his medical school by the title of Queen's College, and its scope was enlarged to that of a College in Arts in 1847, and in Theology in 1851. Cox's aim was to make his college into a university for the Midlands, but it appears his administrative ability was not equal to his creative power and he became embroiled in serious quarrels with his associates. This led to an inquiry in 1860 by the Charity Commissioners, with the result that the hospital and college were separated; thereafter Cox ceased to take part in the work of either. He left Birmingham on his father's death in 1863 and lived at Bole Hall, near Tamworth, at Leamington, and at Kenilworth, where he died on December 23rd, 1875. Cox left nothing to the institution he had founded, but he bequeathed £3000, with his medical library and instruments, to the Cottage Hospital at Moreton-in-the-Marsh, as well as other charitable bequests. There is a Maguire lithograph of him in the College Collection, dated 1854, and a portrait in Barker's *Photographs of Eminent Medical Men*, 1865, i, 61. Publications: *A Synopsis of the Bones, Ligaments and Muscles, Blood-vessels, and Nerves of the Human Body*, 1831. *A Letter to J T Law on establishing a Clinical Hospital at Birmingham*, 1849.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001304
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Davies, William Hugh (1923 - 2008)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by N Alan Green
Publication Date 2009-06-23 2010-01-13
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/372803372803
Occupation General surgeon
Details Hugh Davies was a consultant general surgeon with an interest in urology to the Hereford Hospital Group. Appointed in 1961, he continued work as a popular and well-loved surgeon, always being reticent about any personal achievements. In spite of his many sporting activities, he was a very self-effacing person. He was born in Swansea into a non-medical household on 25 March 1923. Hugh’s father, William Alfred Davies, owned a tin plate manufacturing firm and his mother, Florence (née Morris), was a housewife. From preparatory school in Malvern, he won a scholarship in 1936 to Marlborough College, where he continued to excel at sport. His excellence was seen in the school’s first teams at rugby football, hockey and cricket, and in his school work. He was awarded a scholarship to Caius College, Cambridge, to study natural sciences during the early years of the Second World War. Proceeding to St Thomas’ Hospital for his clinical studies, his sporting activities continued on the ‘rugger’ field and he gained a regular place in the United Hospitals XV. After house appointments at St Thomas’, he entered National Service as a major in the RAMC for 18 months. When his career veered towards surgery, he underwent general training at St Peter’s Hospital, Chertsey, and then in Portsmouth, before returning to his alma mater as a resident assistant surgeon. His wish to sub-specialise led him to travel north for higher training in the Newcastle urology unit. Hugh Davies obtained his definitive consultant post in Hereford as a general surgeon with an interest in urology, an area of the country he particularly enjoyed as it was close to his native Wales. He was a member of both the Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland and the British Association of Urological Surgeons. One former house surgeon and general practitioner wrote of him: “He was an excellent surgeon to work with and very careful. Perhaps this prolonged his surgery, but we knew he was a perfectionist.” “If asked to do a domiciliary visit, he would not leave it to the next day, but would come that day even if it was late. He would expect me to be there as it was important learning for a GP.” “Certainly we GPs had a high regard for Hugh and knew we would always have an excellent opinion and that our patient would always be very satisfied.” Apparently Hugh had a dry sense of humour: when his hat fell into the wound when operating, his assistants could hardly control their mirth. The surgeon merely raised his head and said “Another hat please, sister!” He married Shirley Peppitt, a general practitioner, in June 1961. Hugh and Shirley had a family of three: Jane, the elder daughter, became a personal assistant to the food critic Egon Ronay and later married; their son, Robert, became a GP and continues to practice in Ledbury, Hereford; the younger daughter, Katie, is a housewife. There are 11 grandchildren. Hugh Davies continued his sporting interests in any spare time by playing golf as a member of the local Worsley Golf Club and, in his earlier years in Hereford, was an active member of the Whitecross (Hereford) Tennis and Squash Club. He enjoyed collecting antiques and water colours and was knowledgeable in both. But above all he was a devoted family man. Shortly before his retirement Hugh he was involved in a road traffic accident and the injuries definitely stifled his latter years. His life continued to revolve around his immediate family, to whom he was very attached. William Hugh Davies died peacefully at Ledbury Cottage Hospital on 3 March 2008 and is survived by Shirley, their children and grandchildren. A service of thanksgiving was held at St Philip and St James Church, Tarrington, Herefordshire. One local general practitioner wrote of this final tribute to a much-loved man: “It was a lovely experience to come to the service and realise what a loving family he had, to hear the grandchildren read and run around the church, to hear of his exploits on the rugby field and to sing ‘Guide me, O thou Great Jehovah’ to the tune of Cwm Rhondda.”
Resource Identifier RCS: E000620
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Dawson-Edwards, Paul (1919 - 2008)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by N Alan Green
Publication Date 2009-06-23
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/372804372804
Occupation Urologist
Details Paul Dawson-Edwards was appointed consultant surgeon to the United Birmingham Hospitals in 1957 and became a well-regarded urologist based at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital and a teacher at the University of Birmingham. His interest in urology was fired by Hugh Donovan, and he formed an excellent unit with his colleague Guy Baines and then, up to his own retirement in 1984, with Michael Hughes. Paul was born in Coventry on 28 October 1919. Albert John Edwards, his father, was an engineer who worked for many years with the ‘Alvis’ racing team and his mother, Gladys Dawson, was a milliner. He was educated at Centaur Road Junior School and then, from 1930 to 1938, at King Henry VIII School, Coventry. There he excelled at most sports and became the school’s leading sportsman. For his medical studies he entered Birmingham University, where he had a good academic record and obtained a clinical prize in surgery. Again he excelled in a wide variety of sports. As vice-captain of the University Rugby XV he played mainly as a wing-three quarter and was a valued member of the athletics team. He also played for both Coventry and Moseley first XV teams. After qualification and house appointments, Paul married (Elizabeth) Jean Button, a nurse, on 14 April 1944. For two years he was a resident surgical registrar at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, where he gained good general experience. At this time he became a flight-lieutenant in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, based at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital and later at RAF Northallerton, where he specialised in trauma and orthopaedics. He went abroad from 1946 to 1947 as a squadron leader (orthopaedic specialist) in charge of Surgical Unit No 10 General Hospital, Karachi. Returning to the UK, surgery was obviously his ambition and Paul Dawson-Edwards commenced higher training as a demonstrator of anatomy at Birmingham University for a year before returning to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital as a surgical registrar. This was followed by a four year rotating appointment at senior registrar level in Birmingham. On becoming a consultant in 1957, he obtained study leave for a year in Boston, Massachusetts at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, where he was an assistant in surgery and carried out research at Harvard University. An interest in renal transplantation was fired by Francis D (Franny) Moore. He did animal research work with Joseph Murray, a pioneer in this field, who was awarded a Nobel prize in 1990. Paul was fortunate to be under the wing of Hartwell Harrison, who became a lifelong friend. Returning to Birmingham, the kidney unit was set up as an offshoot of the urology unit. By 1962 a minicoil artificial kidney had been developed by Denys Blainey and permission was given to start renal transplantation at the end of 1967. Paul carried out his first renal transplant in May 1968. He was associated with dialysis and transplantation for many years, before returning to full time ‘general’ urological practice. He amassed a large series of patients with benign and malignant retroperitoneal fibrosis, publishing on this subject, as well as the minicoil artificial kidney and the clinical aspects of renal transplantation. Although he was a fine surgical technician and natural teacher, he was regarded by some as a hard task-master. Certainly he did not suffer fools gladly, but was more than happy when all the ‘team’ pulled together. Paul and his wife, Jean, hosted regular ‘firm’ parties: at one of these he told students that they were more staid than those of his generation. The Dawson-Edwardses woke the next morning to find the entrance to their drive had been bricked up. He was a member of British Association of Urological Surgeons (BAUS) and served on its council (from 1970 to 1974) and on that of the Urological Club of Great Britain and Ireland. He was a founder member of the Midlands Urological Group who met each year at different centres to learn what other urologists were doing. Sport and cars played an important part of his life, although he was not as adept at maintaining the latter as was his father. After giving up rugby, he took up squash and tennis seriously and also enjoyed sailing and mountain walking. All these activities were continued until his knees needed replacing. His love of mountain walking inspired him to set up the Vacancy Club: once a year a group of registrars persuaded their consultant bosses to climb a peak in Snowdonia, perhaps in the hope of creating a vacancy! Paul was a formidable mixed hockey player and always enjoyed the traditional Boxing Day match against the General Hospital. Retiring in 1984, Paul and Jean were able to spend more time at their cottage in north Wales. He was a keen photographer and took up painting late in life, no doubt tutored by his friend and colleague, Arnold Gourevitch. Predeceased by his wife, Jean, he lived in his old home until his health forced him to enter a nursing home. But he enjoyed hearing from his friends and chatting with them at length over the phone: his intellect and memory remained sound. Paul Dawson-Edwards died of heart failure on 6 December 2008 and is survived by his three children (Elizabeth ‘Liz’, a retired company director, John, a civil engineer, and Sarah, a consultant radiologist in Norwich) and by his four grandchildren.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000621
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Mizbah, Geoffrey (1931 - 2005)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by John Blandy
Publication Date 2009-06-23
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/372805372805
Occupation General surgeon
Details Geoffrey Mizbah was a consultant surgeon in Ontario, Canada. Born on 13 September 1931, he studied medicine at Liverpool University, qualifying in 1945 and later gaining his FRCS. He emigrated to Oakville, Ontario, where he worked at St Michael’s Hospital. He spent much time in charitable work overseas, including visits to the British Methodist Hospital in Ilesha, Nigeria, in 1965 and later to St Kitts and St Nevis. He published a case report of combined intrauterine and extrauterine pregnancy. He died of cancer on 30 June 2005 aged 83, and was survived by his wife of 52 years, Helene.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000622
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Griffith, William ( - 1870)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Heath, Henry ( - 1855)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Jennett, William Bryan (1926 - 2008)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by T T King
Publication Date 2009-06-23
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/372807372807
Occupation Neurosurgeon
Details Bryan Jennett, professor of neurosurgery at the University of Glasgow, devised, with colleagues, two key diagnostic tools – the Glasgow Coma Scale, used throughout the world to assess consciousness, and the Glasgow Outcome Scale, used for patients with head injury. His work led to the defining of persistent vegetative state and the establishment of criteria for brain death. He was born on 1 March 1926 in Twickenham, Middlesex, the son of Robert William Jennett, a civil servant, and Jessie née Loudon. His mother’s family had farmed in Lanarkshire, Scotland, though there was a tradition of medicine. His father, an Irish Protestant, worked in the offices of the Royal Irish Constabulary in Dublin, but after his marriage was transferred to the British Civil Service in London, an option offered after the Troubles of 1916 and the establishment of the Irish Free State. At the start of the Second World War, Jennett was evacuated to rural Scotland, and then to Southport, where he attended George V School. He went on to study medicine at Liverpool, qualifying at the top of his year, in 1949, having been president of the British Medical Students’ Association. During his period in Liverpool, he was influenced towards neurosurgery by the lectures of Lord Cohen of Birkenhead on neurology. A neurosurgical house appointment at the Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford, with Sir Hugh Cairns and J B Pennybacker was followed by National Service at the Military Hospital, Wheatley, which confirmed him in a career in neurosurgery. At the suggestion of Walpole Lewin, who was responsible for the care of head injuries at the Radcliffe Infirmary, Jennett undertook a study of the incidence and features of epilepsy after blunt head injuries, work which later resulted in his important monograph on the subject (William Heinemann Books, 1962). From Wheatley and Oxford, he went to Cardiff and, in 1957, was appointed senior lecturer at Manchester, a post he held until 1962. During his period he was a Rockefeller travelling fellow at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), with W Eugene Stern. There he carried out experimental work on the effects of brain compression on tentorial herniation and the pupil, from which came two papers. The experience in UCLA introduced him to experimental work and research, and he considered staying on in the States, but in 1962 he was recruited to a combined academic and NHS appointment at Killearn Hospital in the West of Scotland Neurological Unit, Glasgow. There he was influenced by Sir Charles Illingworth, who had established a tradition of clinical surgical research. He published, in 1964, the first of five editions of *An introduction to neurosurgery* (London, Heinemann Medical), a small textbook in which he showed his skill in exposition. In 1968, he was given a chair of neurosurgery and, two years later, moved to the new Institute of Neurological Sciences at the Southern General Hospital, which he made into an outstanding centre of neurosurgical research and education in the UK. British neurosurgery had not been orientated much towards research, especially the laboratory sort for which Jennett had become enthusiastic after his experience in Los Angeles. In his new appointment, he showed a gift for co-operation and for enlisting accomplished scientists from other disciplines. With Murray Harper, he set up a Medical Research Council group on cerebral circulation, which studied the effects of carotid ligation, raised intracranial pressure, the sympathetic nervous system and the effect of anaesthetic agents on cerebral blood flow in primates and humans. He continued his studies of post traumatic epilepsy and greatly advanced the study of the pathology and outcome of head injuries. Together with Graham Teasdale, his successor in the chair, he devised a method of quantifying a head injury by using simple clinical observations. This became the Glasgow Coma Scale, an essential instrument in grading the severity of a brain injury. He and Michael Bond, who later became professor of psychological medicine at Glasgow, also devised a simple categorisation of the outcome of head injuries. Jennett’s studies with Hume Adams on the pathology of fatal head injuries drew attention to neuropathological evidence that these brains showed ischaemic damage, presumably occurring in the period immediately following the injury and, therefore, due, at least in some cases, to avoidable factors. This offered the opportunity of improving the outcome by attending to ventilation and avoiding hypotension in the early period after injury and controlling, if possible, raised intracranial pressure. Another co-operative effort, this time with Fred Plum of Cornell University, New York, led to the separation of a group of patients following severe head injury in which lack of awareness and of willed movement was associated with cycles of waking and sleeping, which they termed ‘vegetative state’, usually, though not always, permanent. Jennett’s special and characteristic contribution to the management of head injuries was to look at the evidence or collect new evidence, rather than rely on general impressions and past assumptions. If this sometimes seemed slightly cold-blooded, it was very successful in his hands and greatly changed the position of this important if somewhat depressing branch of trauma surgery. Management now depended on rational knowledge, rather than hopeful expectancy. In 1981 he published, with Graham Teasdale, *Management of head injuries* (Philadelphia, F A Davis Co. 1981), which incorporated these studies. Comparison of this book with earlier publications on the same subject shows how greatly the study of head injuries had advanced in a decade. Jennett’s later work inclined towards more general ethical, legal or administrative problems. When the development of heart transplantation created a need for organs to be taken from patients whose heart and circulation were still functioning, there developed a desire to redefine the criteria for death. Artificial ventilation of patients with very severe brain injuries produced a group of patients who appeared eventually to have no cerebral activity or cerebral circulation, if they were investigated, and who would die if ventilation were to be stopped, since they could not breathe spontaneously. Their circulation, however, continued as the heart remained beating. Such patients, at the endpoint of an overwhelming injury, provided an indispensable source of material for heart transplants. After much discussion, criteria were laid down which pronounced them to be, in effect, dead and therefore available as organ donors. This translation of a prognosis into a ‘state’ was not accepted by everyone in the profession and there was some unease and agitation about it. Jennett successfully brought his skill in laying out an argument, and in public debate, to bear on the problem. A somewhat similar difficulty arose over patients in the permanent ‘vegetative state’ he had described. They could live for many years in this state, fed by tube but showing no signs of higher mental functions, often to the distress of their relatives. The question arose whether their lives could be terminated by ceasing tube feeding. In the end, a judgement of the House of Lords decided it could. Jennett wrote an extensive study *The vegetative state: medical facts, ethical and legal dilemmas* (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2002), which examined all aspect of this difficult problem. The increasing expense of highly complex medical treatment, its effectiveness and its value for money was the subject of his Rock Carling fellowship and monograph (*High technology medicine: benefits and burdens*, London, The Nuffield Provincial Hospitals Trust, 1984) in which, in his usual clear and even-handed way, he examined all aspects of the subject, admitting its failings, which he tended to attribute to misapplication by doctors, but generally defending it. His intellectual and organisational gifts made him sought-after as an administrator. He was on many committees in the UK, especially those concerned with head injuries, epilepsy, criteria of brain death and allocation of resources. He was dean of the faculty of medicine of Glasgow University from 1981 to 1986, visiting professor to universities in the USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, a corresponding member of the American Neurological Association and the American Association of Neurological Surgeons, an honorary member of the Society of Neurological Surgeons in America and the stroke council of the American Heart Association. He was president of the International Society for Technology Assessment in Health Care. Jennett was a small man with great energy. He had a sharp tongue, pen and wit, and could be harshly dismissive of people of whom he had little opinion, which sometimes produced enemies. He married Sheila Pope, a fellow medical student at Liverpool, who became a respiratory physiologist at Glasgow. There were three sons of the marriage and one daughter. He and his wife pursued outdoor activities and he was interested in flora and fauna. He was a keen sailor, owned a series of yachts and did much cruising around the coast of Scotland and England. Though tone deaf, he was a sponsor of musical activities. His daughter became a professional cellist. Jennett died on 26 January 2008, aged 81, from the effects of multiple myeloma.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000624
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Osborne, David Robert (1943 - 2008)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2009-07-10 2015-09-14
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/372808372808
Occupation General surgeon Urological surgeon Urologist
Details David Osborne was a consultant surgeon who established the first urological department in Basildon. He was born in Weston-super-Mare on 12 December 1943, the son of Alan John Osborne, a leading aircraftman, and his wife, Tilly Fleming née Straiton. He was educated at Hazelcroft Primary School and then Weston-super-Mare Grammar School. He studied medicine at the Royal Free Hospital Medical School from 1963 to 1968, winning the Ruth Bowden anatomy prize and the George Quist surgery prize, and playing in the first XV rugby team. After qualifying, he was a house officer at Hampstead General Hospital and then at St Andrew's Hospital. In 1970 he was a casualty officer at the Royal Free. He then held senior house officer posts at Luton and Dunstable, and at Frenchay and Southmeads hospitals, Bristol. He was then a registrar in general surgery at Cheltenham and Gloucester. From 1976 to 1983 he was a lecturer in surgery at the Royal Free Hospital. In 1983 he was appointed as a consultant general surgeon with an interest in urology to Basildon and Thurrock hospitals. In 1985 he became a consultant surgeon to South Ockendon Hospital and in 1991 became head of the department of urology with full-time responsibility for urology services. He established a specialist urology department with three surgeons, each with a subspecialty interest. He was interested in reading, gardening, walking and painting, and loved fine wines. In 1969 he married Brenda Mary Cornforth, a general practitioner and a fellow student at the Royal Free, who was the daughter of Sir J W Cornforth FRS KBE. They had one son, Andrew John (a GP in New Zealand), and a daughter, Catherine Jane (a marketing manager). He died on 17 October 2008. His love of surgery was so great that he continued seeing patients and operating until three weeks before he died.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000625
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Shuttleworth, Kenneth Ernest Dawson (1922 - 2006)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Sir Barry Jackson
Publication Date 2009-07-10 2010-12-09
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/372809372809
Occupation Urological surgeon Urologist
Details Ken Shuttleworth helped establish the urology department at St Thomas' Hospital, London. He was born on 30 April 1922 in Bradford to Frederick and Edith Shuttleworth. His father won a scholarship to Oxford from Bradford Grammar School to read mathematics: his mother was at Girton College, Cambridge. His father won the Military Cross in 1918 for successfully evacuating his gun crew despite a severe wound to his leg. After the war, he became a chartered accountant at Deloitte's, despite his disability, but for a long time it was Ken's mother who kept the family afloat by teaching mathematics at Queen's College in Harley Street. Ken was educated at Watford Grammar School. Despite some early experience in hospital, where he had fainted at the sight of blood every day for a fortnight, he entered St Thomas' Hospital to study medicine in 1939. He qualified in 1944 and at once joined the RAMC, serving in Italy, Egypt and Palestine, an experience which included taking out the appendix of the son of a sheikh, who rewarded him with a feast including the traditional sheep's eyes. On demobilisation, he returned to St Thomas', at first at Midhurst, where he married Phillippa Hartley, and then as a surgical registrar in Lambeth. He was put in charge of an audit of the results of hernia repairs in a large number of policemen, mostly using the nylon darn method, which he published in 1962. He was an exchange fellow at McGill University at the Royal Victoria Hospital, Montreal, where he carried out research into intravenous fat therapy and the metabolism of glyceride clearance under Gavin Miller, and took the opportunity to tour America and visit Johns Hopkins and the Mayo Clinic. On his return he was appointed to the staff of St Thomas' and awarded a Hunterian Professorship in the College in 1962. From the days of Cheselden, the urological tradition at St Thomas' had always been a strong one, and at this time was being upheld by R H O B Robinson and Walter 'Gaffer' Mimpriss, who had taken the trouble to visit the United States to learn the technique of transurethral resection with the cold punch from Gershom Thompson at the Mayo Clinic. Both Robinson and Mimpriss continued with general surgery until they retired in 1962 and 1970 respectively. Shuttleworth replaced Mimpriss as a general surgeon, but at once realised the necessity of setting up a specialist department of urology, entirely separate from that of general surgery. Such specialisation in London was at that time exceptional, and he faced opposition from some colleagues who were keen for the overlap between urology and general surgery to continue. But Shuttleworth stuck to his guns and eventually won the day. He realised too that a specialist department must be seen to be carrying out research if it was to be credible, and if its trainees were to gain higher degrees in surgery. At this time at St Thomas' Brian Creamer was breaking new ground with his measurements of the pressure changes in the oesophagus, and this stimulated Shuttleworth to do the same thing in the urinary tract, long before urodynamics had been dreamed of. He sent several of his brighter protégés to San Francisco to learn the latest techniques from Frank Hinman Jr. He extended these studies to the upper urinary tract in the physiology of the ureter and hydronephrosis. The theoretical advantage of combining of hyperbaric oxygen with external beam irradiation was then being developed at St Thomas', and Shuttleworth was keen to offer its advantages to men with carcinoma of the prostate, among whom were some very distinguished people. He was president of the British Association of Urological Surgeons (BAUS) from 1982 to 1984, at a time when many in the surgical subspecialties were urging the surgical Royal Colleges to set up a higher surgical qualification which would indicate when a candidate had been fully trained in his or her specialty. The Edinburgh College had led the way by setting up specialist assessments in neurosurgery and orthopaedics, and approached Ken on the feasibility of a similar examination in urology. Representatives from BAUS visited Edinburgh to observe the assessment in orthopaedics, which impressed and persuaded them of the need for a comparable assessment in urology. BAUS were persuaded to support this concept, but not without some difficulty and only on condition that it would be set up jointly by all four surgical Royal Colleges. The invention by Dornier of the method of extracorporeal shock wave destruction of urinary stones came at a time when the NHS budget was under unusual strain and the Department of Health asked for bids from different London hospitals. The competition was intense, but Shuttleworth put forward a scheme which won the prize, and for the next decade large numbers of renal calculi were referred to St Thomas' for the new treatment. The results of the first thousand cases were published in the *British Journal of Urology* [1986 Dec; 58(6):573-7]. His publications included his Hunterian Lecture [*Ann Roy Coll Surg Eng* 1963; 32:164-179] and a chapter on urological surgery for De Wardener's textbook, *The Kidney*. In committee he was often dogmatic and, as a consequence, nearly always got his way, although not when he was outvoted in the appointment of the first female surgical registrar! (In his view a surgical career was for men.) Because of his strong personality and strong views he had many detractors in the hospital, and strained relationships were also apparent in relation to his somewhat turbulent private life. He was a lover of sunshine and of Italy, owning a villa in Tuscany, where he retreated each summer and produced his own wine. He had three marriages, all of which failed, and from each of which there were children. This was unusual in the then conformist establishment of St Thomas' and some of his more puritanical colleagues were distinctly disconcerted. He also attracted a circle of devoted supporters. In retirement he moved permanently to his Tuscan farmhouse, where he was happy growing his own vegetables, harvesting his hay field, picking his own grapes and making wine, and entertaining friends who visited him from England. Left alone after the death of his partner Pamela, he continued to be a generous host and kept in touch with several of his family. A hip replacement in London did not slow him up and it was only when he suffered progressive amnesia that his family brought him back to England to a nursing home. He was then diagnosed with prostate cancer from which he eventually died on 8 March 2006. His supporters felt that it was sad there was no memorial service for him at St Thomas', as was customary for a departed senior member of the consultant staff.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000626
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Guest, Edmund (1817 - 1866)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2012-03-14
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E002000-E002999/E002000-E002099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/374255374255
Occupation General surgeon
Details Studied at St George's Hospital, and practised at 30 College Street, Chelsea, then at 20 Halsey Street, where he died on January 4th, 1866.
Resource Identifier RCS: E002072
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Eccles, William McAdam (1867 - 1946)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

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/376191376191
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born 3 August 1867 in Bombay, India, eldest son of William Soltau Eccles (1843-1919), MRCS, LSA, who later practised at Norwood, and his wife Annie Selina Campbell McAdam, a descendant of John Loudon McAdam, the road builder. The Eccles family had a long medical tradition and a close connexion with St Bartholomew's Hospital. One member, Alfred Eccles, FRCS, practised in New Zealand during the sixties and did much to promote the development of medical education and practice there. McAdam Eccles was educated at University College School and University College, London. He entered St Bartholomew's as a student in 1885 and was connected with it for the rest of his long life. He took honours in medicine, obstetrics, and surgery at the London MB and BS examination, and won the University gold medal at the MS examination in 1894. He served as house surgeon to John Langton in 1891, and resident obstetric assistant to Sir Francis Champneys, Bt, MD, FRCP, in 1892. He was appointed demonstrator of anatomy in 1894, and demonstrator of surgery in 1897; and was elected an assistant surgeon, with charge of the orthopaedic department, in 1903. Previous holders of this office were Bruce Clark, W J Walsham, and Howard Marsh; Eccles held it until the appointment of R C Elmslie as the first orthopaedic surgeon. He was appointed surgeon in 1912, and elected a consulting surgeon and a governor on his retirement in 1927; in 1942 he became senior consulting surgeon. Eccles took an active part in all hospital activities, for he was an excellent and popular teacher and a most conscientious man of business. He lectured in the Hospital's medical college on anatomy, surgery, and orthopaedics. He was a member of many special committees and honorary secretary to the Medical Council of the Hospital 1905 to 1910, edited the *Reports*, and was president of the Paget Club. Eccles served as house surgeon at the West London Hospital in 1890 and became assistant surgeon in 1892, resigning in 1903. Here he was a colleague of Stephen Paget and C B Keetley. He took a part in founding the West London Postgraduate School in 1896, and maintained a lifelong interest in the West London Medico-chirurgical Society, of which he was president in 1911-12, as his uncle, Arthur Symons Eccles (1855-1900), had been in 1895-96. He was also surgeon to the Marylebone General Dispensary, the Mildmay Mission Hospital, the City of London Truss Society, and for a time to the National Temperance Hospital. He was chairman and a trustee of St Columba's Hospital, Hampstead. At the Royal College of Surgeons Eccles won the Jacksonian prize of 1900 with his essay on *Imperfect descent of the testicle*, and was a Hunterian Professor 1902-03, lecturing on the same subject. He was a member of Council from 1924 to 1932, and Arris and Gale lecturer 1930. He examined in anatomy for the Fellowship in 1904, and was later an examiner in surgery at Cambridge and Glasgow universities and for the Society of Apothecaries. Eccles took an active part in many medical societies. He promoted the foundation of the University of London Medical Graduates Society in 1928 (see also the life of Sir StClair Thomson), and was its president in 1935. At the British Medical Association he was annually elected a member of the Council by the Representative Meeting 1919-43, and was appointed a vice-president in 1944. He was president of the Metropolitan Counties branch, and vice-president of the section of surgery at the Centenary meeting in London 1932, and went to Australia for the Melbourne meeting 1935. He represented the British Medical Association on the International Hospitals Association from 1937, and became chairman of its British section. He was largely responsible for drafting the report of the British Medical Association's committee on fractures 1933-35. Eccles held a commission as lieutenant-colonel in the RAMC(T) and served throughout the war of 1914-18 as surgeon to the 1st London (City of London) General Hospital. In the second world war he organized and was medical officer in charge of the Borough of Marylebone's No 2 Aid Post at the National Heart Hospital, Westmoreland Street, and did much to promote public interest in the running and use of such aid-posts before the beginning of the severe air-raids of 1940-41. Eccles shared in the work of King Edward's Hospital Fund for London, the Hospital Saving Association, and the British Provident Association. He was chief medical officer for many years to the Eagle Star and the Employers' Liability Assurance Companies, and was surgical consultant to the London Passenger Transport Board. He took a close interest in social and temperance work, for he was himself an ardent teetotaller. He was president of the Society for the Study of Inebriety and of the Medical Abstainers Association, and an active member of the British Social Hygiene Council. Eccles was a devout christian, a pillar of the Presbyterian Church in London, with a special interest in medical missions. He worshipped at the Marylebone Presbyterian Church, of which he became an Elder. He was president of the London Medical Mission for several years, and as president of the Medical Prayer Union organized missionary breakfasts for medical students in London and for practitioners at the annual meetings of the British Medical Association. He was president of the Society for the Visitation of the Sick in Hospitals. He was much interested in the application of photography to medical work, and at the end of his life promoted the production of medical-teaching moving-picture films. He was chairman of the medical section of the Scientific Film Association. Eccles was a voluminous writer in the professional journals, and wrote a useful manual on hernia; he was an excellent talker, ready to speak his mind and give the benefit of his wide knowledge on any occasion; and was in request as an expert witness. He married Coralie, second daughter of E B Anstie, JP, of Devizes; Mrs Eccles died in 1930. Their daughter and two of their four sons died before them; one son being killed in the first world war and another dying as the result of it. McAdam Eccles died in St Bartholomew's Hospital on 30 May 1946, aged 79. The funeral service was at Marylebone Presbyterian Church, George Street, W1 on 4 June. He had lived latterly at 104 Bryanston Court, W1, but had decided to retire to the country and live with his sister at Glebelands, Bidborough, Tunbridge Wells, a change which his last illness prevented. He was survived by two sons, Philip Campbell Eccles and David McAdam Eccles. Mr David Eccles married in 1928 Sybil Frances, eldest daughter of Bertrand, Lord Dawson of Penn, MD; he was elected conservative MP for the Chippenham division of Wiltshire at the bye-election caused by the death in an air accident of Captain Victor Cazalet during the war of 1939-45, and held the seat at the conservative "land-slide" in the general election of 1945. He subsequently became a Cabinet Minister. McAdam Eccles bequeathed his instruments to the Regions Beyond Missionary Union and his books to the West London Medico-chirurgical Society. He was a characteristic Londoner of the best type, efficient, approachable, conservative and, in spite of his puritanical convictions, sociable and popular. Fairly tall and of solid build, his stern features relaxed with a whimsical smile as he talked. He bore the tragedies of his middle-age stoically and worked hard through the last two decades of his life, when he had retired from active surgery. Select bibliography:- An analysis of twenty-eight cases of intussusception. *St Bart's Hosp Rep*. 1892, 28, 97. On some important facts concerning head injuries. *Practitioner*, 1894, 52, 417. The diagnosis of strangulated hernia. *St Bart's Hosp J*. 1895-6, 3, 116, 133, 151. *Elementary anatomy and surgery for nurses*. Lectures at West London Hospital, London, 1896. On hernia of the vermiform appendix. *St Bart's Hosp Rep*. 1896, 32, 93. The treatment of scrotal hydroceles. *Treatment*, 1900, 3, 697. The treatment of enlarged glands in the neck. *Ibid*. 1900, 4, 385. *Hernia: etiology, symptoms and treatment*. London, 1900; 2nd edition, 1902; 3rd edition, 1908. On the anatomy, physiology, and pathology of the imperfectly descended testis. (Hunterian lectures, RCS) *Lancet*, 1902, 1, 569 and 722; *Brit med J*. 1902, 1, 503 and 570. *The imperfectly descended testis; its anatomy, physiology and pathology*. (Jacksonian prize, RCS, 1900.) London, 1903. Alcohol as a factor in the causation of deterioration in the individual and the race. *Brit J Inebriety*, 1904-05, 2, 146. *Clinical applied anatomy*, with C R Box. London, 1906. A case of primary carcinoma of the vermiform appendix. *Amer J med Sci*. 1906, 131, 966. The relationship of the National Insurance Act to the voluntary hospitals, especially those with attached medical schools. *St Bart's Hosp J*. 1912, 19, 144. The operative treatment of fractures of long bones. *Clin J*. 1912, 40, 241. A clinical lecture on aneurysms of war wounds. *St Bart's Hosp J*. 1915-6, 23, 41; *J roy Army med Cps*. 1916, 26, 405; *Amer J Surg*. 1916, 30, 33. War and alcohol. (7th Norman Kerr Memorial lecture.) *Brit J Inebriety*, 1917-18, 15, 89. Scheme to finance the voluntary hospitals of London. *Lancet*, 1921, 1, 1057. Anatomy, orthodox and heterodox, in relation to surgery. Arris and Gale lecture, RCS, 19 February 1930. *Brit med J*. 1930, 1, 373. Surgery of the blood vessels; Injuries and diseases of the mammary gland; Imperfect migration of the testicle; in Gask and Wilson: *Surgery*, 1920.
Resource Identifier RCS: E004008
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Gaskell, Samuel (1807 - 1886)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

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/374155374155
Occupation General surgeon
Details Educated at Manchester and Edinburgh. He early directed his attention to the treatment of the insane, and in 1840 was appointed Medical Superintendent of the large Asylum for the County of Lancaster, at a time when the treatment of the insane in England was only just beginning to emerge from a long-established system of ignorance, and various barbarous modes of restraint were in general use. At the time when Conolly was carrying out the non-restraint system at Harwell, Gaskell was doing the same at Lancaster, and with equally beneficial results. His good work soon became known to Lord Shaftesbury, who appointed him a Medical Commissioner in Lunacy in 1849, a post which he held till his resignation in 1866. This was the first time that an expert had been appointed Commissioner. Gaskell was a remarkably well-informed and painstaking official. He was not popular at the institutions which it was his duty to visit, on account of the thoroughness of his inspections. Proprietors and superintendents who did not look too minutely into details for themselves were greatly surprised, and not at all pleased, to find the dignified Commissioner looking into beds and cupboards, and all manner of uninvestigated places. Both at the Lancaster Asylum and at Whitehall Place he helped forward the great and general movement in the treatment of the insane, which succeeded the new Lunacy Law of 1845. At the Lancaster Asylum, where John D Cleaton was his assistant, Gaskell adopted the then novel system of non-restraint, and he did much in his attempts to develop in his patients those faculties, or parts of faculties, of the mind which were not involved in the destructive processes of disease. The Earl of Shaftesbury has left on record the surprise and admiration with which he observed, under Gaskell's care, a number of female lunatics, each of whom had a young child to look after, with such beneficial results that Lord Shaftesbury declared to his audience that he then and there resolved that Gaskell should be the next medical colleague whom he would receive at the Board of the Commissioners. After his appointment as Commissioner, Gaskell carried out, by his strenuous advice and support, a practical reform in the management of the insane. He caused each patient who was liable to be wet or dirty to be aroused, and placed in a condition to attend to the calls of nature at stated intervals, with the result that wet and dirty beds were reduced to units where they had been counted by scores, or even by hundreds. This alone was a vast step in asylum management, but it does not quite stand by itself, seeing that it led, too gradually perhaps, to a revolution in the system of night-nursing in asylums, which was put on quite a different footing from the perfunctory pretence of night-watching and nursing with which superintendents were more or less satisfied, with the general result of decrease of suicides, decrease of noise and violence at night, and a very general increase in the comfort and well-being of the inmates of all well-managed public asylums and hospitals for the insane. It should never be forgotten that what is designated the non-restraint system is not alone the abolition of mechanical restraint, but that it connotes a revolution in the treatment of the insane in a great number of particulars. After a retirement of twenty years, Gaskell died at his residence in Walton, Surrey, at the end of March, 1886. Publication: *On the Want of Better Provision for the Labouring and Middle Classes when Attacked or Threatened with Insanity*, 8vo, np, nd.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001972
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Gasquet, Raymond (1789 - 1856)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Gaussen, John Laird (1811 - 1891)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Gay, John (1812 - 1885)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2012-02-08
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001900-E001999
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/374158374158
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born on September 26th, 1812, the eldest of the seven children of John Gay, currier, of Wellington, Somerset, by his wife Mary Timewell, whom he had married on Nov 25th, 1811. John Gay was apprenticed to Stephen Franklin Bridge (qv), a general practitioner in Wellington, whom he afterwards proposed for election to the Fellowship. He entered St Bartholomew's Hospital at the end of his apprenticeship and came under the observation of Dr P M Latham and Sir William Lawrence (qv). The teachers in the Medical School had just established a prize of books for the best student in surgery, and Gay won it in May, 1834. He settled at South Street, Finsbury Square, and, although without interest, determined to practise as a surgeon. On May 17th, 1836, he was elected Surgeon to the Free (now Royal Free) Hospital, which was then a small and struggling charity in Greville Street, Hatton Garden. The contest was severe. There were three other candidates - John Foote, junr, Alexander Ure, and P J Heatley - and of these Ure was the favourite. Gay held the post until December 30th, 1853, when he was dismissed by an arbitrary act of the Governors, the voting in a crowded meeting being two to one against him. The assigned reason was that he had published or allowed to be published a laudatory biography giving him credit for the rapid progress of the hospital whilst he had been one of the Surgeons. His removal gave a step to T Wakley, the son of the editor of the *Lancet*. Gay's place was filled by the election of C Weeden Cooke, the Assistant Surgeon, who never took his Fellowship. The affair was the cause of much excitement at the time. It was felt that Gay had been badly treated and he was given a public banquet. He was elected Surgeon to the Great (now the Royal) Northern Hospital in 1856, where he was Senior Surgeon at the time of his death, twenty-nine years later. He served as a Member of the Council at the Royal College of Surgeons from 1869-1877, was Lettsomian Lecturer at the Medical Society of London in 1867, and President of the Society in 1870. He married on October 12th, 1860, Elizabeth Elworthy, of Wellington, Somerset, and by her had two sons - John Gay, MD, and Major-General Sir Arthur William Gay, KCMG, CB, DSO - and one daughter who remained unmarried. He died at 81 Belsize Park, Hampstead, on Sept 15th, 1885, after being paralysed for two years, and was buried at Fortune Green Cemetery, West Hampstead. Gay was best known as a surgeon by his operation for femoral hernia, which was modified from that recommended by James Luke. It consisted in cutting along the inner side of the swelling and dividing Gimbernat's ligament without opening the sac. Sir William Fergusson (*Practical Surgery*, 4th ed., 1857, 717) speaks of it in terms of high praise, saying, "During the last nine years I have rarely performed any other operation for crural hernia than that which has been recommended by Mr Gay." In the existing state of surgery it was perhaps wise not to open the sac of any hernia. Gay is described as being short of stature, active, enthusiastic, somewhat impetuous, but high-spirited and socially popular. Publications: *On Femoral Rupture, its Anatomy, Physiology, and Surgery*, London, 1848. "Indolent Ulcers and their Surgical Treatment." - *Med Times and Gaz*, 1858, xs vi, 398, and vii, 112; published in book form, London, 1855. *On Varicose Disease of the Lower Extremity and its Allied Disorders: Skin, Discoloration, Induration and Ulcer: being the Lettsomian Lectures*, 8vo, 4 plates, London, 1868. *On Haemorrhoidal Disorder*, 8vo, London, 1882.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001975
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Bhansali, Shirish Kanchanlal (1929 - 2009)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by John Blandy
Publication Date 2009-07-10 2009-08-14
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/372813372813
Occupation General surgeon
Details Shirish Bhansali was a consultant surgeon in Bombay, India. He was born on 21 September 1929 in Bombay into a medical family. His father was Kanchanlal Bhansali, a general practitioner, and his uncle was a gynaecologist. His mother was Kumud Vakil. He was educated at the Modern School and Elphinstone College, Bombay, from which he won a merit scholarship to the Royal Institute of Science, Bombay, in 1947. His medical education was at the King Edward VII Memorial Hospital and the Seth Gordhandas Sunderdas Medical College, where he won several distinctions and prizes, culminating in the K N Bahadurji scholarship for surgery in 1952 and the G W Kane gold medal in surgery the following year. He completed house posts in general surgery, orthopaedics and ENT at the King Edward VII Memorial Hospital and held house surgeon and registrar appointments at the Tata Memorial Hospital, gaining his MS in 1957. He then went to England, where he passed the FRCS and became a registrar at the Royal Marsden Hospital, where he was much influenced by Michael Harmer and David Wallace. In 1960, he returned to Bombay as an assistant surgeon at the Tata Memorial Hospital and two years later was appointed honorary surgeon at the Bhatia General Hospital. He was also an honorary assistant professor of surgery at the Topiwala National Medical College, the B Y L Nair Charitable Hospital and the Sir Hurkisondas Nurrottumdas Hospital from 1966 to 1977. In 1980 he became director of the department of general and gastrointestinal surgery at Jaslok Hospital and research centre and consultant surgeon at Breach Candy Hospital. He was a truly general surgeon. Although his special interests were in hepato-pancreo-biliary surgery, he included oncology, critical care and endocrine surgery and wrote a monograph on the surgery of the thyroid. His extensive publications included text books for students on surgery and medicine, minimal access surgery and acute pancreatitis. His early publications were on cancer of the buccal cavity, and he went on to write on the feasibility of resecting primary tumours of the liver and the treatment of cancer of the oesophagus and bladder. His interest was not confined to malignant disease: he published a very large series of cases of tuberculosis of the colon and the surgical complications of typhoid fever, based on his remarkable experience of these conditions, now so rare in the West. He contributed a number of chapters to Vakil’s *Medicine for postgraduate students* and the *Indian year book of medical science*. Bhansali was in demand as a visiting professor and as a moderator in international symposia on oncology and colorectal surgery. In 1970 the Danish government awarded him a fellowship to attend the World Congress of Gastroenterology in Copenhagen. A popular teacher, his students voted him best teacher in 2006 and his colleagues awarded him the Shushrut award in 2008 for excellence in surgery. He was a member of many prestigious surgical associations, both in India and overseas. His outside interests included the Rotary Club of Bombay, of which he was charter president, the Bombay Presidency Radio Club and the Willingdon Sports Club. In 1957 Bhansali married Shanta Borkar, also a doctor, who came from a longstanding medical family. He died on 27 April 2009, leaving his wife and two sons, Uday and Ameet. Uday is a chartered accountant and Ameet an engineer, working in California.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000630
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Fleming, Leslie Brian (1927 - 2006)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2009-07-24
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/372814372814
Occupation General surgeon
Details Leslie Brian Fleming was a reader in surgery at the University of Newcastle and a consultant surgeon at the Royal Victoria Infirmary. He studied medicine in Newcastle and, after qualifying, specialised in surgery, becoming a senior registrar at the Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle. He spent a year carrying out research at the Memorial Sloane Kettering Cancer Institute in New York, before returning to Newcastle as a senior lecturer and then a reader in surgery. He was clinical sub-dean of the medical school from 1976 until his retirement in January 1991. He was not married. He died after a series of illnesses on 27 January 2006.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000631
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Gunn, Theophilus Miller ( - 1875)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2012-03-22 2012-04-04
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E002000-E002999/E002000-E002099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/374258374258
Occupation General surgeon
Details Studied at St Thomas's Hospital, and practised, first at Bridport, Dorset, then moved before 1863 to London, to 40 York Place, Portman Square, and was Surgeon to the Western Annuity Society. His name was lost to the *Directory* after 1875.
Resource Identifier RCS: E002075
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Gilson, Benjamin ( - 1856)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Gilson, John Thomas (1803 - 1879)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

First Title value, for Searching James, James Thomas (1857 - 1911)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2012-05-16
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E002000-E002999/E002300-E002399
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/374530374530
Occupation Ophthalmic surgeon
Details Studied at the Middlesex Hospital, where he was Broderip Scholar, Governor's Prizeman, and gained distinction in nearly all subjects. He was then successively House Surgeon, House Physician, and Resident Obstetric Officer. After that he acted as Clinical Assistant at the Royal London Ophthalmic Hospital, and later was appointed Surgeon to the Central London Ophthalmic Hospital, a post he held until a few years before his death. He practised in Harley Street, was consulted by a large number of patients, and worked with but brief holidays. Ill health followed, marked by insomnia and depression, and ended by a death, which necessitated the holding of an inquest, by the Coroner, on January 10th, 1911.
Resource Identifier RCS: E002347
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Hodgson, Charles Frederick ( - 1904)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2012-04-18
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E002000-E002999/E002200-E002299
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/374440374440
Occupation General surgeon
Details Studied at St Bartholomew's Hospital, and practised for many years as a surgeon at Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire, being joined after a time by Henry Cribb as partner. He lived at The Chantry, and was Medical Officer to the Hockeril Training College and Certifying Factory Surgeon. He retired to Brookleigh, Surrey Road, Bournemouth, where he died on November 12th, 1904.
Resource Identifier RCS: E002257
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Holtum, Charles (1818 - 1896)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Hooper, John Harward (1840 - 1918)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2012-04-25
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E002000-E002999/E002200-E002299
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/374443374443
Occupation General surgeon Physician
Details Educated at St Thomas's Hospital, where he was Obstetric Resident. He started practice at Saundersfoot, Pembrokeshire, and was Physician to the Pembroke and Haverfordwest Infirmary, and then at Tenby. In 1870 he moved to London, practised at 67 High Street, Wandsworth, in partnership with Alfred Brown, later alone there, and then at Austincroft, West Hill, Putney, also acting as Surgeon to the V Division of the Police, and Medical Officer to the Wandsworth District Post Office. In 1890 he emigrated to Avondale, Auckland, New Zealand, whence he returned before 1892, practised successively at Pier Road, Erith, 139 Burnt Ash Hill, Lee, and Heatherley, Chislehurst Road, Sidcup, where he died on May 18th, 1918.
Resource Identifier RCS: E002260
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching James, William Wittal (1824 - 1865)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2012-05-16
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E002000-E002999/E002300-E002399
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/374533374533
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born at Exeter, the son of John Haddy James (qv), whom he succeeded in 1858 as Surgeon to the Devon and Exeter Hospital, to the Exeter Dispensary, the Devon County Prisons, St John's Hospital, and the Bramford Wood Reformatory School. He practised at 37 Southernhay, Exeter, and died at Exmouth on March 17th, 1865. He made a bequest of £2000, which, after being applied to certain specified family purposes, was to be paid over to the Governors of the Devon and Exeter Hospital, the interest of the sum to be divided between the four Surgeons of the institution equally each year, for he was of the opinion that there should be some pecuniary payment for the hospital service by the staff. The legacy took effect in 1890. He had a quick incisive manner, was somewhat abrupt, and a 'choleric word' was not unknown to him. He succeeded to a large part of his father's practice, but his health broke down before he reached his zenith.
Resource Identifier RCS: E002350
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Janmahomed, Habilmia Ismail ( - 1913)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2012-05-16
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E002000-E002999/E002300-E002399
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/374534374534
Occupation General surgeon
Details The son of an Indian practitioner in Bombay; he entered Guy's Hospital in 1903. In 1909 he gained the Treasurer's Gold Medal and a certificate at the examination for the Golding Bird Medal in Bacteriology. After acting as Clinical Assistant at Guy's and the Evelina Hospitals, he returned and practised at the Bower, Pedder Road, Bombay. He suffered from diabetes, and, coming again to England, died at the National Liberal Club on June 7th, 1913. At Guy's his brilliant career gained him general respect, and his charming personality and modesty, sincere regard. Publication: "Frequent Failure of Urine to Decompose in Cases of Pulmonary Tuberculosis" (with Sir WILLIAM HALE WHITE) - *Quart Jour Med*, 1908-9, ii, 396.
Resource Identifier RCS: E002351
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Godfrey, Horace Percy (1870 - 1912)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Matheson, Thomas Swan (1920 - 2009)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by N Alan Green
Publication Date 2011-11-03 2013-12-16
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001400-E001499
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373669373669
Occupation General surgeon
Details Thomas Swan Matheson ('Tom') was a consultant general surgeon with gastrointestinal interests in York from 1964 to 1985, having previously worked at Otley, where he built up the surgical service. He was born in Edinburgh on 8 February 1920, the son of Thomas Pearson Matheson, a civil servant, and his wife, Mabel Keiller Matheson née Swan. Tom was educated at George Watson's College, Edinburgh, from 1926 to 1938, and then entered Edinburgh University for his medical training, distinguishing himself in the preclinical years by winning both the Cunningham memorial medal in anatomy and the Vans Dunlop bursary in anatomy and physiology in 1940. He was greatly influenced by his anatomy teacher, E B Jamieson, and retained a good knowledge of clinical anatomy throughout his professional life. Qualifying during the Second World War, he held a house surgeon post at the Royal Infirmary, Edinburgh, before entering the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve in 1944 as a surgeon lieutenant. He served in HMS *Warspite* for a year and then in 3rd submarine flotilla, until 1946. Returning to civilian life, he went to the Leicester Royal Infirmary for a year as a house surgeon, but continued in the RNVR after war service, becoming a surgeon lieutenant commander in 1952. He was awarded the Volunteer Reserve Decoration (VRD) in 1961. He continued his nautical interests, and was later on the management committee of York Sea Cadets, of which he became vice chairman and later chairman. For his higher surgical training he returned in 1947 for two years as a registrar to the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh and passed his fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. During this period he married Agnes Marjory MacLaren ('Nan'), in March 1948. They met at the Royal Infirmary, Leicester, when they were both residents. Nan and Tom had two children, Jane and Ian. Tom then proceeded to a further year of training as a registrar at Hull Royal Infirmary and continued as a senior registrar there for two years until 1952, rotating with Bradford Royal Infirmary. He trained in urology with Hamilton Stewart during these years. All this training took place in the years when more than 30 well-trained senior registrar surgeons were applying for every one consultant vacancy. So he wisely chose to mark time and went to Leeds General Infirmary as a senior registrar for a further four years, until 1958. Here he worked with, and was greatly influenced by, Michael Oldfield and Digby Chamberlain, the last of the 'Leeds school' to have been trained by Lord Moynihan. In 1958 he became the first surgical specialist in Otley and Ilkley, where he rapidly built up the surgical facilities. He then moved to York, in 1964. He was also an honorary lecturer at the University of Leeds, where he also engaged in private practice. In Otley and in York he was widely regarded as a true gentleman by colleagues, trainees and, more importantly, by patients in both the NHS and private sectors. As a true general surgeon, he felt it was a great privilege to work in hospitals at a time when professionals were able to share in management as well as practise in their chosen field. He set his own targets, pre-dating the current business management model. He enjoyed his time as a surgical tutor for the Royal College of Surgeons, and was wise in his advice to trainees who sought his help. As the family grew up, Nan worked in general practice and then in public health clinics. For the final 10 years of her professional life she was engaged in occupational health, working for Rowntree's (the chocolate makers) and York District General Hospital. Tom's gastrointestinal interests were apparent in his unstinting support of the York division of the Ileostomy Association, of which he was chairman for 25 years from 1968. He and Nan also helped to create and sustain St Leonard's Hospice in York, of which he was vice chairman from 1978. This interest continued long into retirement. As a member of the 1921 Surgical Club of Great Britain, one of the travelling surgical clubs to which Lord Moynihan gave his patronage, he and Nan travelled to many surgical clinics abroad. On these occasions he was able to exercise his photographic skills, one of his many interests. Thomas Matheson enjoyed rounds of golf when he was physically active. He and the family enjoyed dinghy sailing and his abiding interest in the sea continued as he crewed for friends who owned larger boats. He took up angling when he retired and gained much pleasure fishing for trout in the River Rye with the Ryedale Anglers, and at Spring Lakes in North Yorkshire. At the appropriate times of the year he went back to his native Scotland to engage in salmon fishing. He was an active member of the Company of Merchant Taylors in the city of York and was master from 1988 to 1989. The Mathesons lived for 40 years in Holtby and enjoyed a sociable and fulfilled life together. Tom cared for his wife Nan when she became ill. She died in 2006, and he then moved to Wigginton, York, for a further two years. He died on 6 November 2009, aged 89, and was survived by his two children, Ian and Jane, four granddaughters and a great-granddaughter.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001486
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Maguire, Charles James Frederick (1931 - 2009)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Enid Taylor
Publication Date 2010-10-14
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001000-E001099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373224373224
Occupation Ophthalmic surgeon
Details Charles James Frederick Maguire was a consultant ophthalmic surgeon at Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast. He was born in County Wicklow, Ireland, on 10 May 1931 to Charles Maguire, a nonconformist minister, and Gertrude née Armitage. He was at school in Belfast, attending the Methodist College, and continued in Belfast for his medical training at Queen’s University Medical School. After qualifying in 1954, he held house jobs at Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast, before beginning his ophthalmic training in London, initially at University College Hospital and then at Moorfields Eye Hospital. He was appointed as a consultant ophthalmic surgeon to Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast, in 1967, and was subsequently appointed as a senior lecturer at Queen’s University Medical School. At Belfast he developed the subspecialty of vitreoretinal surgery and launched diabetic and neuro-ophthalmic eye clinics. He was recognised as an expert, innovative and meticulous surgeon by his colleagues and introduced new techniques in vitreoretinal surgery and laser photocoagulation. During his working life he helped develop ophthalmic services in India and Libya, and after his retirement from the NHS in 1994 he practised ophthalmology in Bermuda. He married twice. He married Ann in 1962 and they had one son and two daughters. He died on 7 July 2009 and leaves his second wife, Barbara, his three children and a grandson.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001041
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Mawson, Stuart Radcliffe (1918 - 2008)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Norman Kirby
Publication Date 2010-10-14
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/373225373225
Occupation Otolaryngologist ENT surgeon
Details A renowned ear surgeon, Stuart Mawson was a consultant otolaryngologist at King’s College Hospital, London. He was born on 4 March 1918 in London. His father, Alec Robert Mawson, was chief officer of the parks’ department of the London County Council. His mother, Ena Grossmith, was an actress and the granddaughter of George Grossmith, author of *The diary of a nobody*. Stuart’s parents divorced while he was still a boy. He was educated at Stagenhoe Park and Canford schools, and then went up to Trinity College, Cambridge, and then to St Thomas’ Hospital in London to study medicine. Qualifying in 1943, he was a house surgeon at St Thomas’ during the first years of the Second World War and during the London Blitz. He then joined the 11th Battalion of the Parachute Regiment, after being encouraged to join the Airborne Forces by another St Thomas’ graduate, Charles G Robb. His introduction to surgery began on the battlefield of the ill-fated airborne assault on Arnhem, Holland, in September 1944. In Arnhem, Stuart and his RAMC section were separated from their battalion and joined the advanced dressing station located in the very heart of the battle. The brigadier commanding the 4th Brigade, Sir John Hackett, was one of the casualties treated at the station. He survived and later wrote the introduction to Stuart’s book *Arnhem doctor* (London, Orbis publishing, 1981). All doctors, orderlies, dentists and padres stayed with the injured after the remnants of the 1st Airborne Division were evacuated, and all were captured. After being liberated by the American Army in 1945, Stuart returned home. In 1947 he passed the FRCS and became chief assistant to the ENT department at St Thomas’ in 1950. The following year, he was appointed as a consultant to the ear, nose and throat department at King’s College Hospital and the Belgrave Hospital for Children, where he worked until his retirement in 1979. He took a great interest in the diagnosis and management of deafness in children. During the 1960s and 1970s, ear surgery enjoyed a renaissance initiated by the use of the binocular operating microscopes and Stuart was one of the pioneers in the adoption of these new techniques of microsurgery of the ear. He published a textbook of ENT surgery *Diseases of the ear* (London, Edward Arnold) in 1963, which has become the standard British and international work and essential reading for all trainee otologists. His second memoir, Doctor after Arnhem (Staplehurst, Spellmount, 2006), described how the inspiration of his belief sustained him during his worst moments as a prisoner of war when he cared for the sick and wounded in many camps in and around Leipzig. He later wrote *The devil’s doctors*, a history of the Airborne Medical Services: this was not published, but a copy is held in the archive of the Army Medical Services Museum. During his last years at King’s, he was the chairman of the medical committee and the district management team during a difficult time of change in the health service. He enjoyed the full support of his medical colleagues when he fully exercised his well-honed tact and diplomacy. He was a member of the council of the British Association of Otolaryngology. In 1974, he was elected president of the section of otology at the Royal Society of Medicine. Married after the war, in 1948, he and his wife, June Irene née Percival, known to many as ‘Julie’, had a happy family life, which was of paramount importance to Stuart. They had four two daughters (Judith Helen and Deborah Rose), two sons (Robert Stuart and John Percival) and 13 grandchildren. It was a joy to him that so many of them lived close to him in Suffolk. Stuart and Julie spent their retirement years in Knodishall, Suffolk, where he sailed his own boat from the Aldeburgh Yacht Club until he felt it unwise to expect Julie to be able to rescue him should he fall overboard at sea. Ever active in affairs of the Church, he was licensed as a lay reader in 1959, appointed a lay elder in 1990, and served as a church warden at his local church, St Lawrence’s. He played golf regularly in Aldeburgh until very soon before his death. Julie had died in 2006. He died from leukaemia on 20 February 2008, just missing his 90th birthday. His son Jock spoke at his father’s funeral service and summed up his life: “Stuart was a warm, stubborn, courageous perfectionist; forged in war, never offering less than total commitment to his country, his profession, his family, and his God.”
Resource Identifier RCS: E001042
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching MacDonald, William Dawson (1931 - 2011)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Sarah Gillam
Publication Date 2011-11-03 2013-12-09
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/373672373672
Occupation General surgeon
Details William Dawson MacDonald was born in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada, on 27 April 1931, the elder of two sons of William Grant MacDonald, a doctor of medicine, and Edith Christie MacDonald née Dawson. He was educated at Victoria Public School, and then the Kitchener-Waterloo Collegiate Institute and the University of Western Ontario. He held posts at the Royal Victoria Hospital, London, Ontario, and the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto. He then went to the UK, first to Warwick Hospital and then to the Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford. In Warwickshire he was influenced by G R Taylor, C R Savage and J D Marsh. He gained his FRCS in 1966. Outside medicine, he enjoyed hunting and skiing. In 1959 he married Jennifer Radford, who also qualified MB BS, and they had three daughters. He died on 10 March 2011, at the age of 79.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001489
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching MacNamara, Marcelle Alpheda Maria (1958 - 2009)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Sarah Gillam
Publication Date 2011-11-03 2015-07-20
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/373673373673
Occupation ENT surgeon
Details Marcelle Alpheda Maria MacNamara was a consultant ENT surgeon at Birmingham Heartlands Hospital and an honorary senior lecturer at the University of Birmingham. She was a lead clinician in head and neck oncology. She was born on 18 September 1958. Her maiden name was Von Schoenberg. She studied medicine at Somerville College, Oxford University, and went on to University College Hospital Medical School, qualifying in 1985. Prior to her consultant appointment in Birmingham she was an ENT registrar at the Royal Ear Hospital and University College Hospital, London, and then a senior registrar (ENT) on the west Midlands rotation. She was a member of the British Association of Head and Neck Oncology and the Midlands Institute of Otorhinolaryngology. Marcelle Alpheda Maria MacNamara died on 11 April 2009. She was 50.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001490
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Manidas, Sadanandan (1953 - 2010)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Sarah Gillam
Publication Date 2011-11-03 2015-09-17
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/373674373674
Occupation Accident and emergency physician Accident and emergency surgeon
Details Sadanandan Manidas was a senior staff physician/surgeon in accident and emergency medicine at the Whittington Hospital, London. He was born in Njekkad, Kerala, India, and studied medicine at Trivandrum Medical College, Kerala. He qualified MB BS in 1979. He held a house officer post at Trivandrum General Hospital and was then a resident medical officer in general medicine and paediatrics at Kayamkulam, in the Alleppy district of Kerala. In 1983 he went to the UK. Whilst at Mayday Hospital, Croydon, he gained his conjoint and LMSSA examinations. He then held house officer posts at Good Hope District General, Queen Elizabeth District and St Chad's hospitals. He went on to become a senior house officer at Solihull General, the Royal National Orthopaedic and Sutton General hospitals. From 1987 to 1988 he trained in general practice in Croydon. He then returned to hospital medicine, as a senior house officer at Royal East Sussex, Eastbourne District General, Wexham Park and Mount Vernon hospitals. From 1994 he specialised in accident and emergency medicine. He was a clinical assistant at Greenwich District and Brook General hospitals, then a staff physician/surgeon at Stoke Mandeville, Kettering General and Warwick hospitals. From 1999 he was a senior staff physician surgeon at the Whittington Hospital. He listed his outside interests as reading, travelling, photography and pen friends. He was married to Beena Manidas. They had a son, Robin. Manidas died from an intracerebral haemorrhage on 20 October 2009. He was 55. A plaque has been unveiled at the Whittington Hospital in his honour.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001491
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching MacIntyre, Alexander Grant (1930 - 2009)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Sarah Gillam
Publication Date 2011-11-03 2014-10-17
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/373675373675
Occupation General practitioner General surgeon Neurosurgeon
Details Alexander Grant Macintyre was a family medicine specialist and general surgeon in Alliston, Ontario, Canada. He was born in Lucknow, Ontario, in 1930 and grew up on a farm. In 1948 he began studying medicine at the University of Toronto, but moved to England and Oxford University in 1951 on a scholarship. He gained his BA and BM BCh, and was awarded prizes in pathology and surgery. Whilst at Oxford he captained the university hockey team. From 1955 to 1961 he held university postgraduate posts in Oxford, Heidelberg, the Sorbonne in Paris and Harvard, and gained his FRCS from the Edinburgh and English Royal Colleges of Surgeons. From 1961 he was a resident and then consultant neurosurgeon at Walton Hospital, Liverpool, and a postgraduate clinical lecturer at the University of Liverpool. In 1970 he returned to Canada and settled in Alliston, Ontario, where he practised family medicine and general surgery. He retired in 1999. Outside medicine, he enjoyed sports (including skiing, baseball, inline and ice skating), travelling, carpentry and studying history and languages. In 1971 he married Josée van der Schilden in Amsterdam. They had two daughters, Johanna and Ruth-Ann. Alexander Grant Macintyre died on 19 August 2009, aged 79.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001492
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Manson, William Giles (1965 - 2008)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Sarah Gillam
Publication Date 2011-11-03 2014-09-19
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/373676373676
Occupation Paediatric surgeon
Details William Giles Manson was a consultant paediatric surgeon at Ninewells Hospital, Dundee, and the Royal Hospital for Sick Children, Edinburgh. He was born on 16 January 1965. He went to Edinburgh University to study medicine, qualifying MB ChB in 1989. He went on to train in surgery in Sheffield, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Hong Kong, and in 2002 was appointed to a new combined consultant post in Dundee and Edinburgh. He was particularly interested in laparoscopic surgery and urology, and was a pioneer in the use of telemedicine. Outside medicine, he enjoyed skiing, golf, music and DIY. He died from gastric carcinoma on 17 May 2008, aged just 43. He was survived by his wife, Christine, and their two sons, Andrew and Stuart.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001493
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Schofield, Philip Furness (1930 - 2012)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Sir Miles Irving
Publication Date 2012-04-13 2013-10-04
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/374376374376
Occupation Colorectal surgeon
Details Philip Schofield was a colorectal surgeon in Manchester. There is a belief, that has some foundation, that northern surgeons of Schofield's era were a special breed, who were hard working, tough, decisive, technically competent and highly experienced. If so, he was a prime example of such surgeons who, in his case, also commanded affection, respect and admiration for his intellectual honesty, in equal measure. Born in Huddersfield, the only child of an industrial chemist, he attended the local grammar school and, on leaving school, somewhat surprisingly for someone with his undoubted intellectual abilities, became a professional rugby league player. Although his personal and physical qualities would have guaranteed a highly successful sporting career, this was interrupted by National Service in the RAF. At the end of conscription he crossed the Pennines to enter Manchester Medical School and began a career that was to be based entirely in Lancashire. There he met and married Wendy, a fellow doctor, who was to be the rock upon which his successful family life and surgical career was built and sustained. His surgical training in Manchester led him to gain his fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh in 1962 and of the English College in 1963. He then commenced his lifetime interest in colorectal disease, writing his MD on Crohn's disease. It was in the course of this research that he demonstrated the essential role of the terminal ileum in the absorption of vitamin B12 and the requirement for lifetime B12 injections to prevent megaloblastic anaemia in patients who had undergone terminal ileal resection. On the basis of this work he gained a Hunterian professorship in 1964. A year in the United States as the John M Wilson memorial scholar at the Cleveland Clinic allowed him to work with Rupert B Turnbull Jr, one of the international doyens of colorectal surgery. His consultant career in Manchester followed a somewhat unusual path, commencing with an appointment to Ashton-under-Lyne Hospital in 1969. This was followed by a move to Trafford General Hospital, and from there he transferred to the University Hospital of South Manchester in 1976, an appointment which included clinical sessions at the famous Christie Hospital. It was through this latter connection that he was able to pursue his interest in complex pelvic surgery, working in partnership with his urological and gynaecological colleagues. In addition he took advantage of the Paterson laboratories to explore the basic science aspects of his specialty and, with colleagues and research fellows, he produced over 200 original papers and chapters on topics ranging from the flow cytometry characteristics of colorectal cancers, to the management of carcinomas involving the vagina. A notable and treatment-changing randomised trial of preoperative radiotherapy in the management of rectal cancer conducted with Roger James, a radiotherapist, received international acclaim ('Adjuvant preoperative radiotherapy for locally advanced rectal carcinoma. Results of a prospective, randomized trial' *Dis Colon Rectum*. 1994 Dec;37[12]:1205-14). His enthusiasm for innovative practical surgery led to him developing new approaches such as the creation of a myocutaneous flap, which could be used in the one stage management of difficult problems such as complex perineal fistulae. He demonstrated equal passion for teaching, particularly postgraduate trainees, specifically at the operating table. His reputation in both these aspects led to him being invited as a visiting professor and lecturer all over the world. In 1984 he was elected a member of the American Society of Colon and Rectal Surgeons. Notably, he was invited to deliver the prestigious William C Bernstein memorial lecture in Minneapolis in 1994. Similar accolades followed at home, when he was appointed first as honorary reader and then visiting professor of surgery at Manchester University. He was president of the section of surgery of Manchester Medical Society, president of both the section of surgery and the section of coloproctology of the Royal Society of Medicine, and president of the North of England Gastroenterology Society. However, the accolade he most savoured was his appointment in 1992 as president of the Association of Coloproctology of Great Britain and Ireland, a society he and a nucleus of others had campaigned to establish in order to put the sub-specialty on an independent footing. Philip Schofield also recognised the importance of surgeons being involved in administration and policy making, and not just sitting back and blaming management when administrative matters went wrong. He allowed himself to be put forward for leadership roles in this aspect of health services management, and as a result successively chaired medical executive committees, the regional sub-committee for surgery, and the north west regional committee for hospital medical services. He showed similar dedication to the administration of surgical education, being chairman of the board of the primary FRCS examiners, chairman of the north western regional specialist training committee, a member of the presidential board of surgical specialties of the Royal College of Surgeons, and a member of the specialist advisory committee in general surgery. Learning from his experiences in the United States, he set up with others the acclaimed M62 training course in coloproctology. When retirement eventually came in 1995 he turned his talents to the taxing task of providing medico-legal reports, at which he excelled. He built up a huge national practice as an expert witness. Just as he forged high standards of care in clinical coloproctology, so he campaigned for high standards of report writing in medico-legal practice. In 1997 he set up, with the Royal Society of Medicine, a report writing training day at the Law Society. This was the first step in the now accepted principle that doctors needed training if they were to become expert witnesses in medico-legal cases. It was whilst writing the opinion section of such a report on 12 February 2010 that he suffered a massive stroke. His formidable constitution and the devoted and tender care of Wendy and his three children meant that he lived for a further two years, before dying peacefully on 18 March 2012, aged 82.
Resource Identifier RCS: E002193
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Wahed, Mohammad Abdul ( - 2004)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Sarah Gillam
Publication Date 2012-04-13 2014-03-28
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/374377374377
Occupation General surgeon
Details Mohammed Abdul Wahed was a surgeon in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Resource Identifier RCS: E002194
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Wakeley, Sir John Cecil Nicholson (1926 - 2012)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Linda de Cossart
Publication Date 2012-04-13 2013-05-23
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E002000-E002999/E002100-E002199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/374378374378
Occupation General surgeon
Details Sir John Cecil Nicholson Wakeley was a consultant general surgeon in Cheshire. He was born in London on 27 August 1926, the first of three boys of Cecil Pembrey Grey Wakeley and Elizabeth Muriel Wakeley née Nicholson-Smith. At the time of John's birth, his father was a surgeon and on the staff at King's College, and was at the beginning of a highly influential career, which would see him become president of the Royal College of Surgeons of England and made a baronet in 1952. From the start John was therefore immersed in the surgical life, and he himself summed up his childhood as 'life with father'. The influence of his father never left him throughout his clinical career. Following school at Canford, John followed in his father's footsteps and became a medical student at King's College Hospital, qualifying in 1950. His medical school report records a keen student who was easy to teach. He won the Legg prize in surgical pathology and the Blair Bell prize in obstetrics and gynaecology. His postgraduate career began as a pre-registration house officer to his father and then as a lecturer in anatomy, both at King's College. He won the Hallet prize in the primary examination of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1952. He then spent a year (between 1953 and 1954) as a squadron leader in the Royal Air Force, returning to the Postgraduate Medical School in Hammersmith, as a registrar and senior registrar. In 1961 John was appointed as a general surgeon to the Royal Infirmary Chester. Here he developed a successful practice with a specific interest in breast and urological surgery. His neatness and attention to administrative detail would have delighted a modern manager. His careful note-keeping, beautiful handwriting in distinctive green ink and his same-day GP letters are an example to current medical administration. During his surgical career he held many offices, including chief inspector for the City of London Special Constabulary, membership of the Liverpool Regional Hospital Board, honorary consultant adviser (civilian) to the RAF, and liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Barbers and the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries. He was awarded the Cross of St John in 1958. He particularly cherished his election to the council of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1971. His main interests outside surgery were wildlife and photography. His electric train collection was legendary. John met June, a physiotherapist and daughter of Donald Leney, whilst working in London. They were married in 1954. They had three children, of whom he was immensely proud. Nicholas, the eldest, is a missionary in Albania. Charles is a consultant radiologist, but qualified in surgery and became a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England and of Edinburgh before taking up radiology, meaning three successive generations of Wakeleys have qualified in surgery. Amanda is an internationally renowned fashion designer. John will be particularly missed for his wicked sense of humour and compassion. He died on 10 March 2012, aged 85.
Resource Identifier RCS: E002195
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching McVey, Ian Lumsden (1927 - 2008)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

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 Milling, Peter Francis (1916 - 2004)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Neil Weir
Publication Date 2011-11-03 2013-10-04
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/373682373682
Occupation ENT surgeon
Details Peter Milling was senior surgeon at the Royal Ear Hospital, Huntley Street, then part of University College, London, and a hidden treasure of ENT wisdom. He was born in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad on 1 April 1916, the elder son of Frederick William Milling, a Yorkshireman, who, after gaining a degree in greats at Oxford, went straight into business, and Audrey Franca Myra (neé Messerby), whose father had been a bank manager. Peter Milling was educated at Wimbledon College and Stonyhurst, and then read medicine at Trinity College, Cambridge, and St Thomas's Hospital Medical School. Shortly after qualifying he was offered a clinical assistantship by D F A ('Fred') Neilson, consultant ENT surgeon at St Thomas'. He then joined the RAMC, with the rank of lieutenant, and was seconded to a field ambulance unit in England. After nine months of service he was invalided out on the grounds of deafness and sinusitis. The deafness was to be a burden to him for the rest of his life (he wore bilateral hearing aids). He resumed his training in ENT, first as a surgical registrar to the ENT department at the Royal Cancer (later Marsden) Hospital and then, with the help of R I ('Bobby') Cann, as a chief clinical assistant and registrar at Guy's Hospital. He later returned to St Thomas' as chief assistant (senior registrar) to W A ('Bill') Mill and Geoffrey Bateman. In addition to his consultant post at the Royal Ear Hospital, Peter Milling was also appointed to sessions at the Brompton Hospital, Epsom District Hospital, Oxsed and Limpsfield hospitals, and to the Civil Service Chest Hospital at Benenden. Peter Milling was somewhat old fashioned in his manner. He was a shrewd diagnostician and contributed chapters to the first edition of *Diseases of the ear, nose and throat* (London, Butterworth & Co, 1952) edited by Bill Scott-Brown. As a young man he played rugby, cricket, squash and bridge, which he used to play before breakfast at Cambridge. Peter Milling's main passion, though, was for trout fishing. This started in 1961 and continued well into his retirement at the age of 60, when he moved to the Isle of Man. He described himself as being a 'crazy trout fisherman who would prefer to fish than to work, but who seldom managed to exercise the preference'. In 1941 Peter Milling married Peggy Todd, who was a childhood friend and a Guy's nurse. She was the sister of T F Todd, a gynaecologist. They shared their Catholic faith and a long marriage. Despite falling down the stairs at his home and breaking his neck, Peter Milling nevertheless lived on to the grand age of 88. He died on 31 October 2004.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001499
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Magee, Patrick Gabriel (1947 - 2011)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Sarah Gillam
Publication Date 2011-11-03 2018-12-6
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/373684373684
Occupation Cardiothoracic surgeon
Details Patrick Magee was a consultant cardiothoracic surgeon at the London Chest Hospital, St Bartholomew's and the London Hospital. He was born on 25 February 1947 and qualified MB BCh BAO from University College, Dublin, in 1971. Two years later, he obtained a first class BSc degree in anatomy and physical anthropology. He trained at the Brompton Hospital, National Heart Hospital and the London Hospital and also spent a year as a fellow at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, USA. He was appointed to his consultant post in 1982 and was an honorary senior lecturer at the University of London, also from 1982. In 2005 he was a David Chan visiting professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He contributed to many national and international journals, and wrote on all aspects of cardiothoracic disease, in particular on coronary artery disease and myocardial protection. He was a council member of the British Heart Foundation, president of the Society for Cardiothoracic Surgery in Great Britain and Ireland (2004 to 2006), of the cardiothoracic section of the Royal Society of Medicine and of the section of cardiothoracic surgery in the Union of European Medical Specialists (2004 to 2010). He was also chairman of the Specialist Advisory Committee for Cardiothoracic Surgery, and was greatly involved in training and education. An examiner since 1995, he was a member of the Intercollegiate Exam Board in Cardiothoracic Surgery and was latterly responsible for quality assessment of the examiners during examinations. He was lead examiner for the tri-collegiate examination in cardiothoracic surgery of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, the Academy of Medicine of Singapore and the College of Surgeons of Hong Kong. He gained his FRCS from the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland in 1971 and from the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh in 1976. In 1996 he was awarded an FRCS (ad eundem) from the English College. He was a council member of the Royal College of Surgeons of England from 2004 to 2006. Patrick Magee died on 30 May 2011, aged 64. He was survived by his widow Patricia and their three sons, Hugh, Cormac and Ronan.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001501
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Edwards, Arthur Tudor (1890 - 1946)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

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/376198376198
Occupation Thoracic surgeon
Details Born 7 March 1890, the elder son of William Edwards of Langlands, Glamorgan, Chairman of Edwards Limited, and his wife Mary Griffith Thomas. He was educated at Mill Hill School and St John's College, Cambridge. He took his clinical training at the Middlesex Hospital, when Sir John Bland-Sutton was senior surgeon, and served as dresser and house surgeon to Sir Gordon Gordon-Taylor; he was awarded a University scholarship in the Middlesex Hospital Medical School. After serving as surgical registrar at the hospital he was commissioned in the RAMC on the outbreak of the war in 1914. He worked in France, at No 6 casualty clearing station at Barlin under Sir Cuthbert Wallace, and at Wimereux under Meurice Sinclair; he attained the rank of major. On returning to London practice he became assistant surgeon to Westminster Hospital, and to the Brompton Hospital. At Brompton he played a pioneer part in applying to civilian illnesses the surgical intervention into the thorax which Pierre Delbet, G E Gask and others had successfully demonstrated in the treatment of war injuries. He explored successively the surgery of pulmonary tuberculosis, bronchiectasis, tumours of the mediastinum, tumours of the lung both malignant and simple. In all this work he was ably supported by his physician-colleague: R A Young and his anaesthetist Ivan Magill. In ten years he established thoracic surgery as a necessary specialty and himself as its recognized leader. In 1936 he gave up his general surgical work at the Westminster Hospital on appointment as first Director of the Department of Thoracic Surgery at the London Hospital. He was a consulting surgeon to King Edward VII's Sanatorium at Midhurst and to Queen Alexandra's Hospital, Millbank. As surgeon under the Ministry of Pensions to Queen Mary's Hospital at Roehampton he did valuable work in the repair of the aftermath of war-time gastric operations. He also supervised the London County Council's Thoracic Clinic at St Mary Abbott's Hospital, Kensington. During the war of 1939-45 Tudor Edwards, who had already undergone two severe illnesses in 1938 and 1939, was a civilian consultant with the Royal Air Force, adviser for thoracic casualties to the Ministry of Health, and civilian adviser to the War Office. He organized the reception centres for thoracic casualties under the Emergency Medical Service. He was an excellent teacher and did much to establish a school of thoracic surgeons in Great Britain. During the years of war he provided intensive courses of instruction for service thoracic units, and was assiduous in visiting these units all over the country. He was elected to the Council of the College in 1943, but died before he had completed three years as a councillor. Tudor Edwards was an operator of supreme skill and beautiful technique. He achieved an international reputation while still in his early forties. He was an Honorary Fellow of the American Society of Thoracic Surgeons, and president of the Society of Thoracic Surgeons at home. In the last years of his life he was elected first president of the new Association for the Study of Diseases of the Chest, and contributed a survey of one thousand operations for bronchial carcinoma to the first number of its journal *Thorax*. Edwards married on 13 April 1920 Evelyn Imelda Chichester Hoskin, daughter of Theophilus Hoskin, MRCS, of London and Cornwall. He practised at 139 Harley Street, but died suddenly while taking his holiday at St Enodoc, Cornwall, on 25 August 1946, aged 56. He was buried at St Enodoc Church. At a memorial service in London Lord Horder delivered an obituary oration. Mrs Tudor Edwards survived him, but without children; she died on 13 May 1951, and left £5,000 to the College for the promotion of surgical science. Tudor Edwards was of medium height, handsome and youthful in appearance with thick dark hair. Publications:- The following bibliography was prepared by Dr W R Bett for the National Association for the Prevention of Tuberculosis, and is printed by their generous permission. A case of carcinoma of transverse colon and intussusception. *Lancet*, 1919, 2, 1028. *Surgery*, with Ivor Back. London, Churchill (Students' synopsis series), 1920; 2nd edition, 1921. Thoracoscopy in surgery of chest. *Brit J Surg*. 1924, 12, 49. Intrathoracic new growths; account of seven operable cases. *Brit J Surg*. 1927, 14, 607. Present position of surgery in treatment of pulmonary tuberculosis. *Brit J Tuberc*. 1927, 21, 145. Surgery of new growths of chest. *Tubercle*, 1927, 8, 267. Surgical treatment of phthisis and bronchiectasis. *Brit med J*. 1927, 1, 9. Discussion on treatment of chronic non-tuberculous infection of lungs, with G E Martin and L S T Burrell. *Proc Roy Soc Med*. 1927, 20, 35. After-effects of surgical procedures in cases of pulmonary tuberculosis; surgeon's point of view. *Brit med J*. 1928, 2, 602. The diagnosis and treatment of empyema. *Clin J*. 1928, 57, 613. Surgical technique of pulmonary abscess. *Brit J Surg*. 1929, 17, 102. Present state of surgical treatment of pulmonary tuberculosis. *J State Med*. 1930, 38, 603. Discussion of intrathoracic tumours. *Proc Roy Soc Med*. 1930, 23, 25. Malignant disease of lung. *Brit med J*. 1931, 1, 129. Empyema thoracis; method of maintaining negative pressure drainage. *Lancet*, 1931, 2, 1126. Tuberculosis, pulmonary; surgical treatment. *Med Annu*. 1931, p 481, and revised contribution in subsequent annual issues. Surgical treatment of intrathoracic new growths. *Brit med J*. 1932, 1, 827. Bronchiectasis; surgical treatment. *Med Annu*. 1933, p 85, and revised contribution in subsequent annual issues. One-stage lobectomy for bronchiectasis; account of forty-eight cases, with C P Thomas. *Brit J Surg*. 1934, 22, 310. Malignant disease of lung. *J thorac Surg*. 1934, 4, 107. Bronchiectasis. *Postgrad med J*. 1935, 11, 44. Place of surgery in chest disease. *Practitioner*, 1935, 134, 14. Two cases of total pneumonectomy for bronchiectasis. *Proc Roy Soc Med*. 1936, 29, 221. Extirpation of oesophagus for carcinoma, with E S Lee. *J Laryng*. 1936, 51, 281. Diagnosis of malignant disease of the lung and mediastinum, in M Donaldson and others, *The early diagnosis of malignant disease*. Oxford, 1936. Heart and pericardium, surgery. *Med Annu*. 1937, p 198, and revised contribution in subsequent annual issues. Device for nasal administration of oxygen. *Lancet*, 1938, 2, 680. Treatment of injuries of chest. *Brit med J*. 1938, 2, 1096. Tumours of lung. *Brit J Surg*. 1938, 26, 166. Vascular endothelioma of lung, with A B Taylor. *Brit J Surg*. 1938, 25, 487. Cancer of lungs and pleurae. *Practitioner*, 1939, 143, 29. Modem principles of treatment in bronchiectasis based upon 199 cases treated by Iobectomy or total pneumonectomy. (Harveian lecture.) *Brit med J*. 1939, 1, 809. Traumatic haemothorax. *Lancet*, 1943, 1, 97. War wounds and injuries of chest. *Brit J Surg*. 1943, 31, 74. Early treatment of wounds and injuries to the chest, in British Medical Students Association *War surgery, lectures by various authors*, 1944. Penicillin in chest surgery. *Med Annu*. 1946, p 254.
Resource Identifier RCS: E004015
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Mendis, Balapuwaduge Jayasiri Susantha ( - 2009)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Sarah Gillam
Publication Date 2011-11-03 2015-04-24
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/373687373687
Occupation General surgeon
Details Balapuwaduge Jayasiri Susantha Mendis gained his FRCS in 1970. His death was reported to the Royal College of Surgeons in October 2009.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001504
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Hussein, Mohamed Kamel (1901 - 1977)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Sarah Gillam
Publication Date 2011-12-21 2014-11-25
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001800-E001899
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373991373991
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon Writer
Details Mohamed Kamel Hussein was professor of orthopaedic surgery at Kasr El Ainy Medical School, Cairo, and was known in Egypt as the 'father of orthopaedics'. He was born in Cairo on 20 March 1901, the third child of Mohamed Aly Hussein, a school teacher. After his parents died, Hussein was brought up by his older brother. He studied medicine in Cairo, where he was always top of his class, and qualified MB BS in 1923. He was then picked to travel to England for postgraduate studies and gained his FRCS in 1928. Back in Cairo, he was appointed to the teaching staff of Kasr El Ainy Medical School. He was then once again chosen to study in the UK: he studied orthopaedics in Liverpool and obtained his MCh. On returning to Cairo, he began an orthopaedic training programme at the Kasr El Ainy Hospital, Fouad I University, now known as Cairo University. He also founded the Egyptian Red Crescent Hospital and began an accident and emergency service, the first of its kind in Egypt and the Middle East. He was the founder of the Egyptian Orthopaedic Association and was elected as its first president. He served in this role from 1948 to 1967. He was also chief editor of its scientific journal. He was also an accomplished and prolific writer. He studied Arabic in depth and published many poems and short stories, along with studies of linguistics and grammar. His best-known book *City of wrong -a Friday in Jerusalem* (Geoffrey Bles, 1959), translated into English and six other languages, won a prestigious national prize in literature. He was also interested in medical history, particularly the history of Arabic medicine, and wrote about the great Arabic polymath Al-Razi. He also published a translation of the Edwin Smith Papyrus on ancient Egyptian traumatology. He was unmarried, but he shared a home with his sister, whose husband had died young, and her children. Mohamed Kamel Hussain died in 1977.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001808
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Kenning, Brian Richard (1944 - 2005)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2012-01-05 2012-12-21
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001800-E001899
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373992373992
Occupation General surgeon
Details Brian Richard Kenning was born in 1944 or 1945. He was educated at St Mary's College, Southampton, St Mary's Teacher-Training College, Strawberry Hill and Guy's Hospital Medical School, London. He was appointed a captain in the TA Reserve on 4 January 1973. He died on 11 August 2005, aged 61 years.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001809
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Butler, Michael Frank (1924 - 2013)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

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

First Title value, for Searching Kingdon, William (1789 - 1863)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2012-06-13
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E002000-E002999/E002400-E002499
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/374632374632
Occupation General surgeon
Details Educated at St Bartholomew's Hospital. He practised at 2 New Bank Buildings, and at the time of his death he was Consulting Surgeon to the Stamford Hill and Stoke Newington Dispensary. He died at his country residence, Abbey Wood, Kent, on January 8th, 1863. A lithograph portrait of him, dated 1847, by Bangrist, is in the College Collection. He was the father of John Abernethy Kingdon (qv).
Resource Identifier RCS: E002449
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Owen, Edwin Nicholas (1914 - 2005)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Sarah Gillam
Publication Date 2012-01-09 2015-07-20
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001800-E001899
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/374013374013
Occupation ENT surgeon
Details Edwin Nicholas Owen (known as 'Tim') was a consultant ENT surgeon for the Shrewsbury Group of Hospitals. He studied medicine at Liverpool University, qualifying in 1938 with the conjoint diploma and the MB BS. Prior to his consultant appointment, he was a registrar in the ENT department, Charing Cross Hospital, and at the Pigott-Wernher Deafness Research Unit, London, and first assistant in the deafness aid clinic at the Royal National Throat, Nose and Ear Hospital. He was a member of the British Association of Otolaryngologists. He was co-founder and president of the Shropshire Deaf Children's Society and was awarded an MBE in 2001 for his work for the charity. Predeceased by his wife Jean (née Rennie), Owen died on 29 March 2005. He was 90.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001830
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Dyson, Malcolm Goodworth (1868 - 1913)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Earle, Edward Septimus ( - 1885)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Eastes, George (1841 - 1909)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2011-11-09
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/373717373717
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born on May 16th, 1841, in Old Folkestone close to the harbour. He was the eldest child of Sylvester Eastes, MRCS, JP, the Mayor of Folkestone, at that time a small place with fields covering the West Cliff up to the Parish Church. Eastes went to school at St Margare's Bay, then to Tonbridge Grammar School, where the boys got up at 5 am in the summer for preparation, lasting to 8 am. In 1854 he was transferred to Maidstone, where at the end of the Crimean War he won a prize for a school poem on 'Peace'. At the age of 15 he was apprenticed to his father, after which in 1860 he entered Guy's Hospital, where he proceeded to the London Degree and to the Fellowship of the College of Surgeons. He was House Surgeon, and then for two years Surgical Registrar and Tutor. After six months' study in Paris he settled in general practice at 5 Albion Place, W, in succession to Dr Egbert W Charlton. In 1863 he was one of the founders of the Guyite Club, composed of forty-three original members with a motto 'Dum licet nobis', and was its Secretary to the end of his life, when the little society had dwindled to fifteen. With the aid of the Guy's surgeons he was able to develop a special practice in the administration of anaesthetics; he was for fourteen years Anaesthetist to the Great Northern Hospital, and was one of the founders of the Society of Anaesthetists. He acted as Secretary to the first British Medical Association Committee of Inquiry, and devoted much time to a tabulation of the results of the inquiry into anaesthetic administrations. From about 1874 he acted with Alban Doran and Fancourt Barnes on the editorial staff of the *British Medical Journal*, under the Editor, Ernest Hart, and he continued throughout his life to contribute to it. At the Metropolitan Counties Branch he was Secretary (1886-1888), Treasurer (1892-1899 and 1901-1903), President (1900), and Secretary of the Investigation Committee (1885-1887). Up to 1908 he was the Branch Representative on the Council, and a member of the Finance and Journal Committee. At the Leeds Meeting in 1889 he was Secretary of the Section of Public Medicine, and at the Newcastle Meeting in 1893, Vice-President of the same section. He was President of the Harveian Society in 1895. Further, he was instrumental in erecting on the Leas at Folkestone the memorial statue to Harvey at his birthplace. He published a short account of Harvey in 1871. In later life he practised at 35 Gloucester Terrace. He was fond of riding, shooting, the sea, and travel. After a short illness, from which he seemed to be recovering, he died with an attack of thoracic pain on January 23rd, 1909, and was buried in Folkestone Cemetery. He had married in 1869 Miss Fanny Elizabeth Friend, of Hambledon, who survived him with two daughters and one son, Dr George Leslie Eastes, pathologist. His younger brother was Thomas Eastes (qv).
Resource Identifier RCS: E001534
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Eastes, Thomas (1850 - 1928)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2011-11-09
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/373718373718
Occupation General surgeon
Details The second son of Sylvester Eastes, who practised at Folkestone in Kent for about forty-five years. He was born on December 27th, 1850, was educated at Epsom College and then went to Guy's Hospital, where he filled the offices of House Surgeon, House Physician, and Resident Obstetric Assistant. He graduated at London University with first-class honours in medicine and obstetrics at the MB in 1874, and gained the Gold Medal at the MD examination in 1875. He then settled at Folkestone, where he obtained the leading practice, was Surgeon to the Victoria Hospital, becoming the first Consulting Surgeon; President of the South-Eastern branch of the British Medical Association; President (1892-1905) of the Folkestone Natural History and Microscopical Society, and a member of the Society of Medical Phonographers. In conjunction with his elder brother, Dr George Eastes (qv), of London, he was active in perpetuating the connection with Folkestone of the memory of Dr William Harvey, the discoverer of the circulation of the blood. The memorial took the form of a statue by Mr A B Joy which was unveiled and presented to the town by Professor Richard Owen (qv) on August 6th, 1871. He married Alice Elizabeth, second daughter of the Rev A H Rumboll, Vicar of Thorpe-le-Soken, Essex, but there were no children of the marriage. He died at Manor Road, Folkestone, on August 8th, 1928, and was buried in the Folkestone Cemetery. Eastes had more than a local reputation and might have been appointed Obstetric Physician to Guy's Hospital had he not preferred to carry on his father's practice at Folkestone. For many years he found time for wide reading, and being of regular habits he devoted one hour daily to general literature and a second hour to recent advances in medicine, surgery, and midwifery. His devotion to his church was extraordinary, and he seldom allowed his medical work to interfere with his attendance at both the Sunday services at Christ Church, where he read the Lessons regularly for forty years. He was correct and precise to a fault and was intolerant of slang. So long as he was in practice he retained his carriage - though a motor-car would have saved him much time - not because he preferred it, but because he was unwilling to discharge the faithful coachman who had been in his service for many years. His recreations were travel, natural history, and cricket.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001535
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Ebbage, Thomas ( - 1874)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Ebsworth, Alfred (1821 - 1882)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Lonsdale, Edward F ( - 1857)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2012-07-04
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/374750374750
Occupation General surgeon
Details Was Surgeon to the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital, Bloomsbury Square, and to the Artists' Benevolent Fund. He was a thoroughly good surgeon, a most sincere and warm-hearted friend, and a strictly honourable and upright man, of high independent spirit. To the patients of the hospital he was extremely kind and attentive. He died suddenly of a ruptured aneurysm on the afternoon of September 11th, 1857, at his home in Montague Street, Russell Square. Publications:- Lonsdale published lectures in the *Lond Med Gaz* and papers in other medical journals, which evinced his ardent interest in his work. He also published:- *A Practical Treatise on Fractures*, 8vo, 60 woodcuts, London, 1838. *A Description of Three Instruments for the Treatment of Fractures of the Lower Jaw, Fractures of the Patella, and for Tying Uterine Polypi*, 4to, 8 plates, London, 1840. *Observations on the Treatment of Lateral Curvature of the Spine*, pointing out the advantages to be gained by placing the body in a position to produce lateral flexion of the vertebral column, combined with the after-application of firm mechanical support, 8vo, illustrated, London, 1847; 2nd ed, 1852.
Resource Identifier RCS: E002567
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Howse, Percy William McDowall ( - 1922)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Hoyland, Charles William (1807 - 1889)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Goold, Hugh ( - 1857)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Gore, Henry John (1797 - 1882)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Gore, Richard Thomas (1799 - 1881)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2012-02-15
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E002000-E002999/E002000-E002099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/374204374204
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born in Dublin, the son of Richard Gore, of Lumville, King's County, and great-nephew of Major William Gore, of the famous 33rd Regiment. On his father's removing to Chester, Richard Thomas Gore was placed under a clergyman and received a good general education, including a knowledge of French, to which, apart from his tutor, he quickly added a knowledge of German, sufficient to allow him to become a translator of scientific works. He received his professional training at St Bartholomew's Hospital, and after qualifying settled in practice at Bath in partnership with Mr Kitson, who was Mayor in 1831. In 1844 he was appointed Surgeon to the United Hospital, Bath, a position retained by him until about two months before his death. Gore was known locally as a skilful surgeon, whose opinion was valued. He was not well adapted to the exigencies of general practice and seems never to have done himself justice, for, in view of his great abilities, the quickness, clearness, and accuracy of his perceptions, his faculty as a scientific stylist, his diligence as a student, and devotion to his calling, he should have adorned a wider sphere. He was a Common Councilman from 1838-1853, and was for many years an Alderman of the City of Bath, and in this capacity was able to do admirable service to the municipality in questions connected with water-supply and sanitation. He was active in politics as a Conservative in early life, but gradually joined the Liberal Party. He died on November 14th, 1881, at his residence in Queen's Square, Bath. Gore was "ever a quiet, diligent reader and an enthusiast in science", who thought and spoke clearly, and possessed the rare faculty of formulating his thoughts in the simplest and most direct language. The Chair of Comparative Anatomy in University College, London, is said to have been offered to him and declined. Publications: Translation into English from the 10th edition of Blumenbach's *Handbuch der Naturgeschichte*, 8vo, 2 plates, London, 1825. Translation of Carl G Carus's *Comparative Anatomy of Animals*, 2 vols, 8vo and 4to, 20 plates, London, 1827. "Abstract of the History of a Case of Strangulated Exomphalos Successfully Operated on Fifty Hours after Parturition." - *Med-Chir Trans*, 1823, xii, 570. "Notice of a Case of Microcephaly." - *Anthropolog Rev*, 1863, I, 168.
Resource Identifier RCS: E002021
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Lowe, George (1813 - 1892)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2012-07-04
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/374753374753
Occupation General surgeon
Details Educated in Dublin, at St Bartholomew's Hospital, and in Paris. He practised at Burton-on-Trent in partnership with Robert Sherratt Tomlinson, and was at one period Surgeon to the Dispensary, to the Union, and to the Infirmary, of which latter institution he was Consulting Surgeon at the time of his death. He was a Fellow, and latterly Local Secretary, of the Obstetrical Society. His death occurred on October 30th, 1892. His address was then 5 Horninlow Street. Publications:- "Fungus Cerebri." - *Lond Med Gaz*, 1850, xlv, 1084. "Case of Quadruple External Aneurysm." - *Med Times and Gaz*, 1862, ii, 382. "Two Cases of Complete Dislocation of the Knee Forwards with Rupture of the Popliteal Vessels, requiring Amputation." - *St Bart's Hosp Rep*, 1869, v, 80.
Resource Identifier RCS: E002570
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Jones, William (1812 - 1885)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2012-05-23
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E002000-E002999/E002300-E002399
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/374579374579
Occupation General surgeon
Details Educated at the University of London and at Bristol. He practised at Lichfield House, Weston-super-Mare, and was at one time Admiralty Surgeon and Agent. He died at Weston-super-Mare on August 25th, 1885.
Resource Identifier RCS: E002396
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Jones, William ( - 1882)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2012-05-23
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E002000-E002999/E002300-E002399
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/374580374580
Occupation General surgeon
Details Educated in Dublin, Glasgow, London, Paris, and Berlin. He practised at various places in Anglesey, being at one time Surgeon to the Holyhead Harbour Works. He died at his residence, Plas Hen, Llanddaniel, on August 6th, 1882.
Resource Identifier RCS: E002397
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Eden, Thomas Edward ( - 1870)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Edis, Frederic Pooley (1843 - 1881)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Edmonds, Frederic ( - 1885)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2011-11-09
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/373728373728
Occupation General surgeon
Details First practised in Richmond, Surrey, and immediately after marrying Elizabeth Mary, second daughter of the Rev John Curnow Millett, of Penpol House, Hayle, Cornwall, on October 21st, 1846, went with his wife to Mexico, where he remained until 1855. In 1856, after a severe illness, he went to Spain and returned in June, 1860, to reside at 6 Tamworth Villas, Croydon. During his absence there had been five deaths in his wife's family at Penpol House, and at the end of December, 1863, his brother-in-law, Jacob Curnow Millett, also died after a short illness, whilst residing with his younger brother, Dr Richard Oke Millett, at Penpol House. Thereupon Edmonds obtained an order for exhumation, and meanwhile RO Millett, to whom Jacob Millett had left his property, was held in prison under suspicion of having murdered his brother, until, as declared by Dr Alfred Swaine Taylor, there was no evidence of poisoning; consequently odium recoiled on Edmonds, both socially in Cornwall and professionally in the columns of the *Lancet*. An action, Millett v Edmonds, was heard at Bodmin before Baron Bramwell on March 16th-17th, 1864; Edmonds was cast in £400 damages and three times that amount in costs. Coleridge, QC, had referred to Edmonds as actuated by 'inveterate and deliberate malice', which the *Lancet* referred to in scathing terms. Thereupon Edmonds wrote to the Editor of the *Lancet* and published the letter as a pamphlet - *A Letter to the Editor of the Lancet with the Explanatory Statement of Defendant in Millett v Edmonds*, 8vo, London, 1866. In it Edmonds said: "It is with regret that I have now felt myself compelled to allude even to these suspicions which I believe to have been entirely unfounded, and the results simply of exaggerated family feeling, arising from disagreements which took place whilst my wife and I were absent from England." The Lancet commented:- "Dr Edmonds' object in the pamphlet is to show that the suspicions originated with others, and that in so far as he acquiesced in them, he was not actuated by malice, and was not unreasonable. We freely admit all this." The *Lancet* went on to advocate a Public Prosecutor instead of "the present law, which entrusts private individuals with the power of bringing Crime to punishment" (*Lancet*, 1866, I, 182). A Public Prosecutor was not appointed for many years afterwards. Edmonds suffered in health from long residence in the Tropics and died at Addiscombe in April, 1885.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001545
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Crosby, Sir Thomas Boor (1830 - 1916)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2011-09-06 2014-06-19
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/373524373524
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born at Gosberton, near Spalding, Lincolnshire, the son of a farmer. Educated at University College School and University College, London, and received his professional training at St. Thomas's Hospital, where he was House Surgeon and Demonstrator of Anatomy in the Medical School. He started practice in Fenchurch Street, EC, where his partner was Charles Brodie Sewell. The City was at that time still somewhat of a residential quarter, and Messrs Sewell and Crosby enjoyed a busy practice among City families. Later he moved to Finsbury, where he enjoyed a large practice in a recognized medical district less than fifty years ago. His connection with municipal affairs dated from 1877, when he was elected a Common Councillor of the City for the Langbourn Ward. In 1898 he became Alderman for the same Ward. In 1906-1907 he was one of the Sheriffs, and during his year of office he paid, with other representatives of the Corporation, a visit to Berlin as the guest of the Municipality of that City. He was knighted the same year (1906). Being the senior Alderman below the Chair in 1911, he was elected Lord Mayor of the City of London. He was then 82 years of age, and the choice of the City gave him the double distinction of being the first medical man to occupy the civic chair in the metropolis, and of being the oldest citizen who had ever undertaken the responsibilities of Lord Mayor of London. He was conscientious and untiring in carrying out his official duties, his daughter assisting him as Lady Mayoress. On a notable occasion he dined at the Royal College of Surgeons, and his Lord Mayoralty is marked by two important events - the tragedy of the sinking of the White Star passenger steamship Titanic, and a coal strike, which at that time was regarded as threatening a national disaster. A Mansion House Fund for the sufferers by the foundering of the great ship was immediately opened, and £450,000 was raised. In a critical stage of the coal strike he convened at a few hours' notice a meeting of Lord Mayors, Mayors, and Provosts from all parts of the country, and the resulting intention on the part of the municipalities to take concerted action against impending danger did much to relieve the stress of a dangerous social situation. On retiring from the position of Lord Mayor the vote of thanks accorded to him in Common Hall was especially cordial, as it was recognized that he had used his civic position with great promptitude in the public cause. In private life Sir Thomas Crosby was a shrewd, witty, kind, homely man, and his success was the outcome of persistent habits of hard work and self-restraint. He had no great learning, but he was an admirable magistrate, whose decisions were informed throughout with that real knowledge of the life of the people which the successful and industrious general practitioner cannot fail to possess. He died after a brief illness on April 7th, 1916. His London addresses were at 19 Gordon Square, WC, and Cullum House, 136 Fenchurch Street, EC. There is a good portrait of him in his Lord Mayoral robes in the *St Thomas's Hospital Gazette* (1911, xxi, 293), and another in the *Lancet* (1916, I, 836, 884).
Resource Identifier RCS: E001341
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Crosse, John Burton St Croix (1815 - 1900)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

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/373525373525
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born on December 7th, 1815, received his professional training at the Royal College of Surgeons, Ireland, and at Guy's and the London Hospitals. He then studied for some time in Paris and entered the Army in 1840, being gazetted Assistant Surgeon on the Staff on October 9th. He first served with the 88th Regiment of Foot (Connaught Rangers), to which he was gazetted on Sept 24th, 1841. With his regiment he passed through an epidemic of yellow fever in the West Indies, he himself suffering from a severe attack. He was gazetted Staff Surgeon (2nd Class) on June 16th, 1848, and joined the 31st Regiment of Foot on July 18th, 1851. On June 3rd, 1853, he became Surgeon to the 11th Dragoons, and served in Bulgaria and through the Crimean Campaign, being present at the affair of Bulganac, the Battles of Alma, Balaclava, Inkerman, Tchernaya, and the Siege and Fall of Sebastopol. For his services he received the Medal with Four Clasps, the Turkish Medal, and the Order of Knight of the Legion of Honour. He became Surgeon Major of his regiment in 1860, was placed on the Staff in April, 1865, and retired on half pay in 1884 or 1886 with the rank of Deputy Inspector-General of Hospitals. "He was an ideal regimental surgeon, well educated, enthusiastic in his profession, beloved and trusted by officers and men, ever watchful and painstaking in all that concerned the health and well-being of his regiment, a military surgeon every inch of him, a high-toned honourable man, a kind and steadfast friend." After his retirement he resided at 58 Chester Square, SW, and was for many years Surgeon to the Duke of York's Royal Military School, where the orphan boys looked on him as their father - so kind, careful, and considerate was he of them. His services never received the acknowledgement they merited. He was nearly related to Sir Richard Francis Burton, the famous traveller and scholar. He died at Leigh House, Surbiton, on August 21st, 1900.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001342
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Crosse, John Green (1790 - 1850)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 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/373526373526
Occupation General surgeon
Details The son of a Suffolk yeoman, born near Stowmarket, in which town he was apprenticed at an early age to Mr Bailey, the surgeon-apothecary, whose daughter he married in 1815. After his apprenticeship he studied at St George's Hospital and at the Windmill Street School of Anatomy, where he soon gained a reputation for skill in dissection. This skill secured for him an appointment as Demonstrator of Anatomy under Professor James Macartney at Trinity College, Dublin, where he proved a successful teacher. At Dublin he failed to obtain the diploma, so he went to Paris where he spent the winter of 1814-1815. Here he wrote his *Sketches of the Medical Schools of Paris*, which gives an interesting and illuminating account of the French medical course, of how Dupuytren lectured on inguinal hernia to twelve hundred students, and of the dullness of Chaussier. In March, 1815, Crosse settled in Norwich, and in 1820 published *A History of the Variolous Epidemic* which occurred in Norwich in the year 1819 - valuable for its account of the progress of vaccination. In 1822 he was elected Assistant Surgeon, more than 500 Governors attending and voting, and in 1826 Surgeon, to the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital. He soon acquired a great reputation as a lithotomist and a large practice as a surgeon. In 1833 he was awarded the Jacksonian Prize of the Royal College of Surgeons for an essay on "The Formation, Constituents, and Extraction of the Urinary Calculus". In the following year he was made a FRS. He had a series of forty apprentices, among whom was G M Humphry (qv), the first Professor of Surgery at Cambridge. Crosse died on June 9th, 1850, and was buried in Norwich Cathedral. His portrait is in the College Collection. He was commonly known as 'Crosse of Norwich'. Publication: *Treatise on the Formation, Constituents, and Extraction of the Urinary Calculus*, 4to, bibliography running from p.108-280, plates, London, 1835.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001343
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Crosse, Thomas William (1826 - 1892)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 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/373527373527
Occupation General surgeon
Details The son of John Green Crosse, FRS (qv), entered as a dresser to his father for three years from 1842, the half of his pupil's fee, viz, £26 5s, being paid to the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital. He received his professional training at St Bartholomew's Hospital and then succeeded to his father's Norwich practice. At first he very naturally suffered by comparison with his famous forerunner, but he won his way in time owing to his own high qualities. In 1857 he became Assistant Surgeon to the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital in succession to William Cadge (qv) and full Surgeon in 1872, when W P Nichols (qv) resigned. Crosse resigned and was elected Consulting Surgeon in 1888. His work in the hospital was good and sound rather than brilliant. As a lithotomist he had no superior, and his operations were accurate, expeditious, and generally successful. He was keenly devoted to the welfare of the hospital and was Curator of its Museum, founded by his father and by William and John Dalrymple (qv). The collection owes its excellence to his fostering care. At the time of his death he was Chairman of the Board of Management of the Hospital, having always taken a large share in its domestic administration and nursing departments. In 1866 he was President of the East Anglian Branch of the British Medical Association and a Member of the Council. Crosse's biographer speaks of his high courage, shown especially in his warfare with gout, which frequently attacked and often for long periods prostrated him. He died at Norwich on October 22nd, 1892, from a slow and distressing form of pleuropneumonia, and he was buried in the village churchyard of Eaton, near Norwich. He married Miss Taylor, daughter of a well-known Norwich solicitor, and left a family of three sons and three daughters. Two of his sons were then in the profession, one being House Surgeon to the Hospital. At the time of his death, besides being Consulting Surgeon to the Hospital, Crosse was Consulting Surgeon to the Norwich Lying-in Charity and to the Jenny Lind Infirmary as well as Medical Officer of Health of Norwich. He was a Fellow of the Royal Medico-Chirurgical Society and practised at 45 St Giles' Street with his sons. Publications: "Urinary Calculi," "Stone in the Female Bladder" in Heath's *System of Surgery*.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001344
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Manifold, Michael Fenton (1822 - 1897)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2012-07-31
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E002000-E002999/E002600-E002699
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/374834374834
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born at Arklow, Ireland, on March 27th, 1822, was gazetted Assistant Surgeon to the 77th Foot on May 22nd, 1846, joined the Staff on August 18th, 1848, and the 67th Foot on March 18th, 1853. He was promoted Staff Surgeon (2nd Class) on December 8th, 1854, joined the 34th Foot on December 31st, 1858, rose to Surgeon Major on May 22nd, 1866, and was transferred to the Staff on April 7th, 1870. He was gazetted Deputy Surgeon General on February 28th, 1876, and Surgeon General on May 21st, 1881. He retired on May 27th, 1882. Manifold was one of the first to advocate women nurses for the Army, and obtained permission for their employment during a severe epidemic of small-pox among the garrison in Ireland in 1847, the great famine year. During the Crimean War he was in charge of the Officers' Hospital at Scutari, and Miss Florence Nightingale found in him a warm supporter of her nursing reforms. His unvarying kindness and unwearying attention made all the sick and wounded his friends. He served through the Indian Mutiny with the 34th Regiment, and was present at the defeat of the rebels near Bootwal on the Nepal Frontier on March 28th, 1859, for which he received the Medal. He died in retirement at Putney on January 6th, 1897. His son became Major-General Sir C C Manifold, KCB, IMS, the Chinese traveller.
Resource Identifier RCS: E002651
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Mann, George Smyth (1816 - 1864)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Manning, Guy Eugene ( - 1920)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Lowther, George (1808 - 1887)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2012-07-04
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/374757374757
Occupation General surgeon
Details Was chiefly educated at Guy's and St Thomas's Hospitals. He practiced throughout his life at 3 Nelson Street, Hull (known latterly as Nelson Avenue), and was at one time Surgeon to the Police and Workhouse, and at a later date District Vaccinator. He died at Hull on September 7th, 1887. Publications: "On an Extraordinary *Lusus Naturœ*, with a Sketch." - *Veterinarian*, 1850. "On the Intestinal Discharges in Malignant Cholera." - *Lancet*, 1850, ii, 357. "On the Pathology, Causes, and Treatment of Cholera." - *Ibid*, 1849, ii, 503. "On a Complicated Injury to the Larynx and (Esophagus caused by the Horn of an Ox - Recovery." - *Ibid*, 1848 ii, 529. "On a Case of Stricture of the Œsophagus, with Disease of the Larynx." - *Assoc Med Jour*, 1853, 149. "On the Pathology of the Brain of an Idiot." - *Lancet*, 1839-40, ii, 269.
Resource Identifier RCS: E002574
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Sreenevasan, Datuk Gopal Ayer (1922 - 2010)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by N Alan Green
Publication Date 2012-01-11 2014-11-07
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001800-E001899
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/374027374027
Occupation Urologist
Details Datuk Gopal Ayer Sreenevasan, or 'Sreeny' as he was affectionately known to his friends and colleagues, was a pioneering Malaysian surgeon and a powerful force in the development of the medical services in the country as a whole. It was largely due to his enthusiasm, hard work and expertise that the specialty of urology separated from general surgery in Malaysia, following the trend in more developed countries. He was responsible for training the first generation of pure urologists in the country and may therefore be regarded as Malaysia's 'father of urology'. Gopal Ayer Sreenevasan was born in what was then Malaya on 21 November 1922, of parents and forebears from southern India. He was the son of Gopal Ayer Ramaswamy, an assistant commissioner for labour in the state of Selangor, and Mangalam Seetharama Ayer. Sreeny's father was awarded the MBE and OBE for his work. Sreeny obtained his primary education at Batu Road School, Kuala Lumpur, and then went on to study at the Victoria Institution. He wrote: 'My schooldays were unimpressive except for participation in inter-school debating competitions and winning several prizes for my school.' Having decided to enter medicine as a career, and financed initially by his father, Sreeny turned to Australia, a country that was already developing undergraduate links with Asian countries, for his further education. In 1947 he sailed to Perth, where he completed the first year of a science degree at the University of Western Australia. He then entered the University of Adelaide in 1948, and was resident at St Mark's College for his clinical studies. Sreeny received tremendous encouragement from the master of the college, Bob Lewis and his wife, Betty. Just prior to sitting the fifth year exams in October 1951, he received the news that his father had died unexpectedly and he was urged to return home to Malaysia without delay. It seemed unlikely that Sreeny would ever return to complete his medical degree. He turned to Bob Lewis for fatherly advice when he noticed advertisements in the local press requesting suitable applicants for the newly introduced Colombo Plan scholarships, which were designed to help students in less developed countries to study in Australia, Canada, USA and the UK. Lewis offered assistance without hesitation, sending the necessary recommendation and appropriate references to Kuala Lumpur. Sreeny was selected for an interview and was awarded one of the first Colombo Plan scholarships. He returned to Adelaide, passed his fifth year at a supplementary examination and then entered the final year. He graduated MB BS in February 1952. After graduation, Sreenevasan took house appointments at the Royal Perth Hospital, Australia, during 1953 and 1954, before returning home to Malaya when he joined the government medical services. He was posted to Seremban General Hospital in the state of Negeri Sembilan, situated to the south of Kuala Lumpur. He worked with a general surgeon who had an interest in urology. After three years in progressive posts, in 1957 he obtained a government scholarship to pursue postgraduate studies in England, specifically to prepare for the FRCS diploma. By this time, the Federation of Malaysian states had gained independence from British rule. In the UK, he attended postgraduate courses and was attached to surgeons in Liverpool who supervised his overall training in the UK. Arrangements were made for him to work in the urology unit at the Manchester Royal Infirmary under the watchful eye of Thomas ('Tommy Tucker') Moore, a general surgeon turned urologist. Sreeny increased his experience in urology, also keeping in touch with general surgery. In 1962 he passed his FRCS England, FRCS Edinburgh and FRCS Ireland, and obtained the ChM Liverpool - an impressive list! When Sreenevasan returned to Malaysia with the ambition of specialising in urology at Kuala Lumpur General Hospital, he found that the majority of general surgeons still regarded urology as well within their own capabilities, and had to overcome a degree of prejudice. During a visit to Kuala Lumpur by the charismatic and well-known Australian surgeon, Sir Edward ('Weary') Dunlop, Sreeny mentioned his dream of the separation of urology from general surgery to the distinguished visitor. With his help and that of the Australian-Asian Association of Victoria, Sreeny went to Melbourne so that he could prepare for the Australasian fellowship in urology. Australia and Canada at the time were the only two countries in the Commonwealth offering this type of specialist training leading towards a recognised diploma. He took unpaid leave and, after studying at St Vincent's and the Royal Melbourne hospitals, he gained the fellowship of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons in urology in 1965. Sreenevasan therefore became the first pure urological surgeon with a specialty-registered diploma in Malaysia, his state work being performed at the Kuala Lumpur General Hospital. He had a vision that urology and nephrology should work together in geographical proximity, and that renal dialysis could benefit hundreds of patients. Perhaps at a later date even renal transplantation would become a reality. He received great encouragement from John Swinney of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, with whom he discussed his plans during a visit by the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh's examining team to Kuala Lumpur. Kuala Lumpur General Hospital, founded in 1870, underwent rapid expansion in four planned stages from 1962 to 1975 under the Malaysian Ministry of Health. The potential for gaining increased facilities for 'his' urological unit was not lost on Sreenevasan. He and a handful of other enthusiastic doctors seized the opportunity to start a urology unit at the hospital in the older buildings as they were vacated. Sreeny was given an allocation of two beds for males and another two for females. By dint of hard work and many long hours, and with the help of S M A Alhady and Ten Yoon Fong, and using a Kolff dialysis machine, haemodialysis was performed in the evening, after a busy day's work. With the help of the Ministry of Health and another colleague, R P Pillay, Sreenevasan started the Institute of Urology and Nephrology in 1968, again in the old hospital. As the surgical units moved into their newer premises, separate male and female urological wards and operating theatres became a reality with the provision of offices and other much-needed areas. Sreeny and his colleagues, based at the Institute of Urology and with modest expectations, started Saturday morning teaching sessions in the form of a 'journal club' and clinico-pathological and radiological conferences, in which pathologists and radiologists willingly participated. In mid-1968, with the help of a Fulbright award, Sreeny went for a year to the USA. Six months were spent in Boston, Massachusetts, USA, mainly at the Massachusetts General Hospital with Wyland F Leadbetter. He then went to the west coast of the USA for a further six months to UCLA, working in Willard E Goodwin's unit. On hearing of the May 1969 race riots in Kuala Lumpur, one of the professors at UCLA offered Sreeny a position in the unit, but such was his commitment to his native Malaysia and the embryonic urology Institute in Kuala Lumpur, that he graciously declined the offer and returned home to continue his pioneering work. He sat and passed the examination for the fellowship of the American College of Surgeons and arrived back in Malaysia in time to help many of the injured who were still in hospital after the riots. He was instrumental in obtaining a fellowship for one of his younger colleagues, Hussein Awang, to go to Sydney, Australia, to be tutored in renal transplantation, thus completing the unit's expertise. Between 1975 and 2010, some 650 patients received new kidneys. The year 1974 represented a major milestone in the development of urology in Malaysia. Apart from the opening of the Institute of Urology and Nephrology at the General hospital, Sreeny also helped establish the Malaysian Urological Association (MUA). At a time when there were only four urologists in the country, Sreenevasan became its first president and continued in office until 1987, and David Chelvanayagam was its secretary. The other two urologists were Hussein Awang, a close associate of Sreenevasan, and E Proehoeman. The MUA now has 100 members and holds meetings similar to those of other urological associations and societies worldwide. Needless to say the repertoire of Malaysian urologists has expanded over the years and embraces modern non-invasive and robotic techniques. At the Royal College of Surgeons of England Gopal Ayer Sreenevasan was awarded a Hunterian professorship in 1973 for his work on 'Bilateral renal calculi'. In his lecture he emphasised the place of renography, which greatly facilitates the decision as to which kidney should be operated on first. This lecture was published in *Annals* of the Royal College of Surgeons (*Ann R Coll Surg Engl*. 1974 Jul;55[1]:3-12), and was later included in the book *Classic papers in urology* (Oxford, Isis Medical Media, 1999). He was the second Asian surgeon to be appointed Moynihan Lecturer: Sreeny gave this prestigious lecture during the RCS visit to Kuala Lumpur in 1989. Once again it was on urinary stones, this time on the future use of extracorporeal shockwave lithotripsy. Sreeny ended his Moynihan lecture by quoting from a specially-taped interview with Leslie Pyrah, the doyen of British urology, who had worked with Moynihan. Pyrah described him as 'a charming man with a magnificent presence, always punctual - a very good teacher - a very good operator - very, very hardworking, very energetic. He once said a surgeon needs to have the wisdom of Aristotle, courage of a lion and gentle hands of a lady.' Sreeny held many prestigious offices, including master of the Academy of Medicine of Malaysia (AMM) (from 1973 to 1976), president of the Malaysian Medical Association (from 1976 to 1977) and president of the Malaysian Urological Association (from 1975 to 1987). He was involved with the National Kidney Foundation of Malaysia since its inception, and became the longest-serving chairman (from 1974 to 2002). Many honours and awards also came his way, including honorary membership of the Singapore Urological Association (1993), the distinguished alumni award of the University of Australia (1994) and the foundation fellowship of the Academy of Sciences in Malaysia (FASM) (1995). From the Malaysian state he received two honours: the Johan Setia Diraja (JSD) (in 1969) and the Darjah Setia Pangkuan Negeri (DSPN or Order of the Defender of the State - Knight Commander) in 1988. Sreeny retired from state medical practice in 1974, but continued in private urological work at the Assunta Hospital, Petaling Jaya, Selanagor, until 2001 and at the Pantai Medical Centre, Kuala Lumpur until 2009. Gopal Ayer Sreenevasan married Visalakshi Subramaniam in April 1954 in Madras. They had been introduced to each other by a very close family friend. Sreeny brought his wife from south India to Malaysia, and so unfolded a '56-year-old love story', as one of their daughters recorded. Visalakshi had obtained a BA degree in Sanskrit in from Benares University and then an economics degree at the Presidency College, Madras. They had two daughters - Swarupini (a university teacher) and Ambiga (a human rights lawyer) - and a son, Gopal (a barrister). Gopal Ayer Sreenevasan died on 3 February 2010 after a short illness. He was 87. His wife Visalakshi died in May of the same year. He was survived by his three children and seven grandchildren (Gayathri, Gowri, Vidhya, Gokal, Sharanya, Anya and Milan). With his death the Malaysian medical fraternity lost its most illustrious man, a professional giant and a deeply religious man, who never looked for rewards in anything he did.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001844
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Pearson, John Roy (1927 - 2007)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Sarah Gillam
Publication Date 2012-01-11 2015-04-24
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001800-E001899
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/374028374028
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon
Details John Roy Pearson was a consultant orthopaedic surgeon at Birmingham General Hospital, the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital and Birmingham Accident Hospital. He studied medicine in Birmingham, qualifying MB ChB in 1950. Prior to his consultant appointments, he was a registrar at the General Hospital, Birmingham, and then a senior registrar at the Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital and at Manchester Royal Infirmary. He was a fellow of the British Orthopaedic Association and held their North America travelling fellowship. He also wrote a textbook *Accident surgery and orthopaedics for students* (London, Lloyd-Luke Medical Books, 1973). John Roy Pearson died on 10 March 2007 aged 80. Predeceased by his wife Beryl, he was survived by their three children, Sara, Ian and Kay, and one grandchild.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001845
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Sharpe, John Leonard ( - 2010)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Sarah Gillam
Publication Date 2012-01-11 2014-06-03
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001800-E001899
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/374029374029
Occupation General surgeon
Details John Leonard Sharpe was a surgeon in Nova Scotia, Canada. He qualified MB BS in 1956 and gained his FRCS in 1964. He died on 7 November 2010.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001846
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Lander, Thomas Eaton ( - 1869)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2012-06-14
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E002000-E002999/E002400-E002499
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/374653374653
Occupation General surgeon
Details Practised at Shifnal, and then at Bromfield, Salop, where he died on November 20th, 1869.
Resource Identifier RCS: E002470
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Lane, James Ernest (1857 - 1926)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2012-06-20
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E002000-E002999/E002400-E002499
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/374654374654
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born on July 24th, 1857, at 1 Grosvenor Place, the son of James R Lane (qv), Surgeon to St Mary's Hospital and to the Lock Hospital, and great-nephew of Samuel Armstrong Lane (qv), one of the founders of St Mary's Hospital and head of the Grosvenor Place School of Anatomy, which was transferred from St George's to St Mary's in 1854. Lane was educated at Lancing College and Magdalen College School, and entered St Mary's Hospital in 1875. He became Resident Medical Officer, and on taking the Fellowship in 1882 was appointed Demonstrator of Anatomy in the Medical School. This post he filled till 1888, when he was elected Lecturer on Anatomy following Edmund Owen (qv) and Assistant Surgeon. He became Surgeon to Out-patients in 1891, full Surgeon to the hospital and Lecturer on Surgery in 1904, and was Consulting Surgeon in 1922. Equally long and close was Lane's connection with the Lock Hospital, which lasted from 1878-1925. In 1913 his experience at the Lock Hospital led to his appointment as a member of the Royal Commission on Venereal Diseases. At the Royal College of Surgeons Lane held a number of positions. He was Examiner in Anatomy for the Conjoint Board and for the Fellowship. From 1907-1917 he was a Member of the Court of Examiners and was a Member of the Dental Board for ten years from 1911. From 1913-1921 he was a Member of the Council. He was also at various times Examiner in Surgery for Commissions in the Royal Naval and Indian Medical Services. During the European War he organized and took charge of, as Major RAMC (T), the American Military Hospital at Paignton, and was then appointed to the 3rd London General Hospital, with which he worked to the end of hostilities. As a teacher Lane was notable. For seventeen years he lectured for four days a week at nine o'clock throughout the winter, and never once during that time was he late. Generations of St Mary's men will remember Lane's nine o'clock lecture as their first introduction to the study of medicine, and many will call to mind the dry sarcasm which rewarded a particularly wild shot at answering the questions which always followed his lecture. One of his prosectors arrived late one Monday morning, and Lane addressed him with, "I presume your late arrival is a mark of contrition for the dissection on which I am to lecture". He never lost touch with his students, being himself a keen and stalwart athlete, a member of the St Mary's Hospital football team, a winner of numbers of events in his own hospital sports and of the United Hospitals hurdles. He was a prominent Freemason and one of the founders of the Sancta Maria Lodge in connection with St Mary's. He was the successful Secretary of this Lodge for close on twenty-five years. At the Newcastle-upon-Tyne Meeting of the British Medical Association in 1893 he was one of the Hon Secretaries of the Section of Surgery. Not long after his retirement from active work at St Mary's Hospital, he was returning home to dinner from the Sports Club when he was knocked down in Regent Street by an omnibus. He sustained a serious fracture of the femur, which refused to unite. Carried first to St Mary's Hospital, he was tended by his former pupils, and was eventually taken to the Star and Garter Home for Disabled Officers at Richmond, where a former pupil still watched over him. He had endured his disabilities with exemplary patience for three years, when he at last found relief, dying peacefully on November 4th, 1926. He was buried at the old Fulham Cemetery on Nov 8th. He married in 1900 Miss Gertrude P Woram, who survived him. His London address was 47 Queen Anne Street, Cavendish Square. A characteristic photograph in khaki is in the College Collection. Publications:- Editor of the 9th and last edition of Heath's *Practical Anatomy*, 1902. Articles on "Impotence", etc, in Hutchison and Sherren's *Index of Treatment*. Articles on "Syphilis" and "Gonorrhoea" in Rendle Short's *Index of Prognosis and End-results of Treatment*, 1915. "Manufacture of Salvarsan Products in England and France." - *Lancet*, 1915, i, 934, etc. "Treatment of Syphilis by Intravenous Injections of Mercury." - *Ibid*, 1921, ii, 796. "Present Position and Treatment of Syphilis." - *Proc Roy Soc Med * (Surg Sect), 1909-10, iii, 209. *The Prophylaxis of Venereal Diseases*, 8vo, London, 1907.
Resource Identifier RCS: E002471
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Lane, John George Ogilby Hugh (1872 - 1907)

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First Title value, for Searching Lane, James Robert (1825 - 1891)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2012-06-20
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E002000-E002999/E002400-E002499
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/374656374656
Occupation General surgeon
Details Educated privately and at the Grosvenor Place School of Medicine, which he entered in 1843 under his uncle, Samuel Armstrong Lane (qv). The reputation of this school was at that time high, and young Lane shone among his fellows by reason of his zeal and diligence. He was also a fine oarsman, and as a member of the St George's Hospital Boat Club was twice in the winning crew of the Ladies' Plate at the Henley Regatta. Rowing was at that time the popular form of athletic pursuit with medical students, and Henley already ranked high among rowing contests. After qualifying he was appointed Demonstrator of Anatomy at the Grosvenor Place School of Medicine, and on obtaining the Fellowship in 1850 was elected to the surgical staff of St Mary's Hospital, then newly opened. Subsequently, in the Medical School of St Mary's, he held successively the posts of Lecturer on Anatomy, Physiology, Operative Surgery, and Surgery. Early in his career he was appointed to the surgical staff of the Lock Hospital, where he became a well-known specialist in venereal diseases. In conjunction with Berkeley Hill (qv) and others, he laboured unremittingly to alleviate the sufferings and condition of the patients at the Lock, and the result of these public-spirited labours, and of his valuable evidence before the Commission, was the passing of the Contagious Diseases Acts in 1864, the repeal of which in 1870 caused him deep regret. Appointed Surgeon to St Mark's Hospital for Fistula, he gained an extensive knowledge of diseases of the rectum, contributed on the subject to medical literature, and on his retirement was presented with a valuable testimonial by over two hundred of his patients. In the full tide of his career he developed symptoms of paralysis, and passed through all the agonies of an aggravated form of the disease to the end. Until the year 1881, however, he continued with great equability of temper his work as Surgeon to St Mary's Hospital. He had then to retire and was appointed Consulting Surgeon. His old pupils marked their esteem and affection by presenting to him a massive piece of plate and an illuminated address. He was also latterly Consulting Surgeon to the Lock Hospital, and in 1876 delivered the Harveian Lectures as President of the Harveian Society, the subject being syphilis. As a lecturer he was clear and simple, an earnest speaker with great grasp of his subject. During his illness he went his rounds at St Mary's on the arm of his house surgeon, with his dressers and a few students. Closely associated both in hospital work and in private practice with his uncle, Samuel Armstrong Lane, he was greatly influenced by the conservative principles which guided his illustrious relative. Thus, though his practice might perhaps be considered by a younger race of surgeons as not sufficiently 'advanced', it had the overwhelming merit of being absolutely free from rash and speculative interference. If Lane advised that such-and-such an operation should not be performed, there might perhaps be some little doubt still lingering in restless minds; but, on the other hand, if he declared in favour of operation, everyone in the theatre or at the bedside felt satisfied that the proceeding was amply justified. There should be on the staff of every hospital such a man, not merely someone who is ready to apply the brake, as it were, to the too rapidly revolving wheels of contemporary surgery, but one whose extensive and ripe experience can command regard. As a surgeon, Lane was not only good, but excellent in every department; it was, however, in connection with operations in the pelvic region that he distinguished himself. Those who watched his long and slender fingers dealing with a difficult case of vesico-vaginal fistula could not fail to be impressed by his manipulative skill. He delighted in these plastic operations, and though possibly his equals in the art might have been found, it is quite unlikely that his superiors would be forthcoming. In rectal surgery too he greatly excelled, and had his health been better he would doubtless have held a leading position in this branch of practice. Lane was at his best in connection with the treatment of vesical calculus. Lateral lithotomy upon a straight staff to which he had added a short rectangular beak was the only cutting operation that he performed, and this he did to perfection. For the removal of large tumours, of joints, or of limbs, he was less suited. Indeed, these operations and others which should be done in the standing position he would often pass on to a junior colleague. Lane died in retirement at his residence, 9 Matheson Road, West Kensington, on June 6th, 1891, from acute pneumonia, and was buried at Fulham Cemetery. His son, James Ernest Lane (qv), succeeded him, both as a Surgeon at St Mary's Hospital and as a syphilologist. His photograph is in the Fellows' Album. Publications: Lane hated quackery, advertisement, and the restlessness and push at that time known as *fin de siècle*. Accordingly he disliked publication and limited his writings, which are as follows: *On the Prevention of Contagious Venereal Disease*, 8vo, London, 1869. *Facts respecting the Contagious Diseases Acts*. Answer to a speech by Duncan McLaren, Esq, MP, published under the above title. 8vo, London, 1870. *Lectures on Syphilis delivered at the Harveian Society*, 12mo, 1878; 2nd ed, 1881. "Lithotomy in the Female." - *Lancet*, 1863, i, 34, etc. "Diseases of the Rectum." - *Ibid*, 1865, i, 444; ii, 87, etc. "Lithotomy with the Straight Staff." - *Ibid*, 1865, i, 142. Revision of articles on "Amputation", "Dislocations", "Fractures", "Diseases of the Anus and Rectum", and "Vesico-vaginal Fistula" in Cooper's *Surgical Dictionary*. In conjunction with EDWARD BALLARD he published *On Vaccino-Syphilis*, containing extracts from his Harveian Lectures, 12mo, Stockton-on-Tees.
Resource Identifier RCS: E002473
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Lane, Samuel Armstrong (1802 - 1892)

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by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2012-06-20
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E002000-E002999/E002400-E002499
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/374657374657
Occupation General surgeon
Details Educated at the Windmill Street School and at St George's Hospital. He very early showed himself to be an accomplished anatomist and a skilful surgeon, but when he applied (1834) for an appointment as Assistant Surgeon at his old hospital he was rejected after a very severe contest, in favour of Edward Cutler (qv), who had the support of Sir Benjamin Brodie. Lane thought himself hardly treated, and severed his connection with the hospital. He founded a rival school in its neighbourhood, and secured the co-operation of a staff of brilliant teachers, including such names as Vesalius Pettigrew, Ballard, Pilcher, Thomas King Chambers, Rogers, Billings, and Marcet, to whom in later years were added Spencer Wells, Spencer Smith, William Adams, his nephew James Robert Lane (qv), Ernest Hart, and the Parisian Deville. The school, which was built out at the back of his house at 1 Grosvenor Place and extended into the once famous Tattersall's Yard, very soon became well known, for Lane excelled as a teacher and was a master in clear exposition, in the application of his deep anatomical knowledge to practical surgical principles and details, and in rousing the enthusiasm of his pupils and enforcing discipline. St Mary's Hospital was founded in 1852, soon after the success of the Grosvenor Place School had become assured. This foundation owed very much to Lane's efforts. He was elected Senior Surgeon to St Mary's Hospital in 1852, and many of his colleagues followed him. Of these, James R Lane, Spencer Smith, and Thomas King Chambers became prominent figures in the new school to which Lane early transferred his valuable museum and collections. He was also at an early date elected on the surgical staff of the Lock Hospital, and was a Member of the Council from 1863-1871 and of the Court of Examiners of the Royal College of Surgeons from 1868-1873. He was a well-known Fellow of the Royal Medico-Chirurgical Society, a Member of the Council in 1849, and Vice-President in 1865. Lane is described as a man of untiring energy and indomitable resolution. As a surgeon he was skilful, wide in his views, and opposed to every form of specialism. An old pupil writes of him that he was one of the first to practise ovariotomy, but he declined to commit himself to a special career as an abdominal surgeon, although he knew that by doing so he might win wealth and distinction. The same writer also tells us that Lane once commenced a series of papers on syphilis. Six of these papers had been published in the Lancet and were attracting great attention, when their author suddenly refused to carry them further, the reason he gave being that they would bring him what he did not wish - a reputation and a fortune as a specialist. Lane was a gentleman of the older school, and in his dress always retained the old-fashioned swallow-tailed coat and black satin stock. He long outlived his contemporaries, but to the last the kindly old gentleman was known as 'honest Sam Lane'. He spent the close of his long life in a quiet and happy country retirement at his residence, St Mary's, Madeley Road, Ealing. Retaining his full mental activity to the last, he died peacefully at Ealing on August 2nd, 1892. His connection with St Mary's Hospital and syphilology was continued by his nephew, James Robert Lane (qv) and his great-nephew, James Ernest Lane (qv). A proof engraving by W Walker, after the portrait by Mrs E Walker, is in the College Collection; it was published by the engraver on Dec 1st, 1848. Publications: Edited Cooper's *Surgical Dictionary*, 8th ed., 1861-72. Article on the "Lymphatic System" in the *Cyclopaedia of Anatomical Physiology*. "Lectures on Syphilis." - *Lancet*, 1841-2, i, ii; 1842-3, i, *passim*. "On the Blood." - *Ibid*, 1839-40, i, 121, and *Guy's Hosp Rep*, 1841, ser 1, vi, 379 .
Resource Identifier RCS: E002474
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Moore, Nathaniel ( - 1865)

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First Title value, for Searching Moore, Thomas (1838 - 1900)

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First Title value, for Searching Mordey, William (1803 - 1863)

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First Title value, for Searching Morton, Andrew Stanford (1848 - 1927)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

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/374933374933
Occupation Ophthalmic surgeon
Details Studied at Edinburgh, at University College Hospital, London, and in Paris. At the Royal Ophthalmic Hospital, Moorfields, he was first House Surgeon in 1876 under Bowman and George Critchett, having as his colleague Marcus Gunn, then for sixteen years Clinical Assistant, when he was appointed Assistant Surgeon on the resignation of George Lawson (qv) in 1886 and full Surgeon in 1891, resigning in 1909. Meanwhile he had become Surgeon to the Royal South London Ophthalmic Hospital, Southwark, and later Ophthalmic Surgeon to the Great Northern Hospital. Morton gained a permanent place in the history of ophthalmology by the production of his ophthalmoscope, based on an invention of John Couper (qv). It consisted of a set of lenses capable of being moved in front of the sight-hole by a geared wheel for the estimation of refraction before the days of retinoscopy. Adapted to an electric installation, its success continued, owing largely to the excellence of its British manufacture. He had remarkably sound judgement based on clinical experience and was a very dexterous operator, yet never seemed to realize the advantages of modern aseptic methods. He operated with much success on conical corneae, excising a small elliptical portion, and he described his methods at the Swansea Meeting of the British Medical Association (*Brit Med Jour*, 1903, ii, 717). Whilst he was working as a clinical assistant retinoscopy for the correction of errors of refraction came into use, and Morton wrote a small book on *Refraction of the Eye* which immediately became popular. The classes in which he was accustomed to demonstrate on pigs' eyes the chief ophthalmic operations were always popular. He was an excellent draughtsman, and his drawings of the fundus of the eye were reproduced in the *Transactions* of the Ophthalmological Society; the originals are preserved in Moorfields. He received the Order of Chevalier of the Crown of Italy for his services as Surgeon to the Italian Hospital. Lieut-Colonel A E J Lister, Professor of Ophthalmology at King George's Medical College, Lucknow, described a cataract operation by Morton in the *British Medical Journal* (1927, ii, 117). Morton practised at 133 Harley Street. He retired in 1920 and went to live among his relatives at Clifton, where he died on April 11th, 1927. Publications: Morton's numerous publications appeared in the Royal London Ophthalmic Hospital *Reports* and in the *Transactions* of the Ophthalmological Society. *An Improved Student's Ophthalmoscope*, 8vo, London, 1884. *Refraction of the Eye: Its Diagnosis and the Correction of its Errors, with a Chapter on Keratoscopy*, 8vo, London, 1881; 7th ed, 8vo, 1906, with a chapter on the use of prisms.
Resource Identifier RCS: E002750
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Lawrence, John Zachariah (1829 - 1870)

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First Title value, for Searching Lawson, George (1831 - 1903)

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First Title value, for Searching Law, Thomas Shepherd ( - 1884)

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First Title value, for Searching Hancock, William Ilbert (1873 - 1910)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2012-03-29
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/374290374290
Occupation Ophthalmic surgeon
Details William Ilbert Hancock ('Bertie Hancock') was born at Wiveliscombe, Somersetshire, the ninth of ten brothers - two of whom became international Rugby football players, and the rest fine athletes - sons of William Hancock. He was educated at Dulwich College and Guy's Hospital, which he entered in 1891. He was a fine athlete, of splendid physique, a first-class cricket, football, and lawn-tennis player, as well as a good shot. He played for his County and represented Guy's in all three sports whilst a student; at cricket having a bowling average of 8.89 and a batting average of 41.22. He was Captain of the Guy's football team in 1893-1894, when the International Cup was won, but missed international honours by tearing a knee cartilage just before the match in two succeeding years. He began the study of ophthalmology in 1899 at Moorfields, and continued at the Royal London Hospital except for six months in 1902 spent in assisting Richardson Cross at Clifton, and as Clinical Assistant at the Westminster Ophthalmic Hospital. In 1903 he was elected Ophthalmic Surgeon to the East London Hospital for Children, Shadwell, and in 1906 Ophthalmic Surgeon to the Bolingbroke Hospital. At the Royal London Ophthalmic Hospital he was successively Pathologist and Clinical Assistant, and after ten years' work was appointed Assistant Surgeon in April, 1909. Concurrently he had developed a successful private practice at 27 Queen Anne Street, and distinguished himself as an operator. Five days before his death he underwent an apparently uncomplicated operation for appendicitis, but pulmonary embolism and thrombosis suddenly caused death on January 26th, 1910. He married Miss Margaret Hay Sweet Escott in 1899, who survived him with four young children. Publications: Hancock published a number of Ophthalmological Papers in the *Roy. Lond. Ophthal. Hosp. Rep.* and other journals.
Resource Identifier RCS: E002107
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Lay, Peter Goodal (1819 - 1892)

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First Title value, for Searching Firth, John Lacey (1866 - 1943)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

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/376229376229
Occupation ENT surgeon General surgeon
Details Born at Blackburn on 21 January 1866, the second child and eldest son of Thomas Firth, cotton spinner and manufacturer, and Betty Fielden Lacy, his wife. He was educated privately and at Owens College, Manchester, before beginning his medical training at King's College and University College Hospital Medical Schools in London. He won an exhibition and the gold medal in physiology and histology at the intermediate MB, and took honours in anatomy, materia medica, and obstetrics at the first MB examination in 1886. He served as house surgeon at the Royal Infirmary, Bradford, at the Royal Berkshire Hospital, Reading, and at the General Hospital, Bristol, where he then settled in practice. He was connected with the General Hospital, a branch of the Royal Hospital, for forty-seven years, being appointed house surgeon 1893, assistant surgeon 1896, surgeon to the throat, ear, and nose department, full surgeon 1902, and consulting surgeon on his retirement in 1926. During the war of 1914-18 he served at the 2nd Southern General Hospital at Bristol, having been commissioned captain *à la suite* at the formation of the RAMC territorial force 30 September 1908. He was a Fellow of the Association of Surgeons, and president of the Bristol Medico-chirurgical Society in 1923-24; he had been a rapporteur of its meetings from 1901 to 1913, and for many years editor of the reviews in the society's *Journal*. Lacy Firth married on 12 March 1908 Winifred Mary, daughter of Lewis Edmund Naish, of Bristol, and widow of Henry Ernest Grace, also of Bristol. He died suddenly at his house, 8 Victoria Square, Clifton, Bristol, on 26 April 1943. Mrs Firth survived him; there were no children. Publications:- Torsion of the spermatic cord. *Bristol med chir J*. 1904, 22, 320. On nephropexy. *Ibid*. 1913, 31, 220. The evolutionary history of renal surgery and of temporal bone (Presidential address). *Ibid*. 1924, 41, 1 and 49.
Resource Identifier RCS: E004046
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Hancorn, Robert ( - 1891)

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First Title value, for Searching Hands, Benjamin (1797 - 1875)

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First Title value, for Searching Harcourt, George ( - 1888)

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First Title value, for Searching Harcourt, Richard Eugene (1858 - 1921)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Hardie, James (1841 - 1909)

2025-08-07T00:10:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2012-03-29 2012-04-04
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/374295374295
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born at Tyninghame, East Lothian; attended the Edinburgh High School, and in 1857 entered the University while Syme was Professor of Surgery - with Lister assisting and commencing his original work. A cousin being in practice in Cheshire may have led Hardie in 1863 to settle in practice at Harpurhey, Manchester. He was soon appointed Surgeon to the small Clinical Hospital for Women and Children which subsequently became the Manchester Northern Hospital. He was next elected Visiting Surgeon, at a salary, to the Manchester Poor Law Township Hospital, and he took an active part in organizing a new hospital for over a thousand patients at Crumpsall. An ardent follower of Lister, he had given much attention to surgery, and in 1876 published a paper on the treatment of club-foot. Although not yet a FRCS, he was elected Assistant Surgeon to the Manchester Royal Infirmary, and soon afterwards Surgeon to the London and North-Western Railway. He was elected Surgeon to the Infirmary on the retirement of Edward Lund (qv) and was actively engaged in the duties of that post until 1901, when he became Consulting Surgeon. He was elected to the Council of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1894 and took a prominent part in the affairs of the College until 1902. Whilst an active member of the Edinburgh University Club his advocacy of an extramural system of teaching such as existed in Edinburgh did not meet with acceptance in Manchester; neither did his proposal to rebuild the Infirmary on the original site, on plans drawn up for a Gothic building by the architect of the Marischal College, Aberdeen, gain the day. Hardie died at 15 St John Street, Manchester, on March 27th, 1909. He married Miss Young, daughter of a well-known surgical instrument maker in Edinburgh, who survived him. Their only son died before him. There is a portrait of Hardie in the *Manchester Students' Gazette*, 1909. Publications: "On the Pathology of Club-foot." - *Brit. And For. Med.-Chir. Rev.*, 1871, xlvii, 477. "On some Cases of Burn Cicatrix treated by the Tagliacotian Operation, which included Transplantation of the Terminal Phalanx of the Little Finger to restore the Bridge of the Nose." - *Liverpool and Manchester Med. And Surg. Rep.*, 1874. "On the Treatment of Dupuytren's Contracture of the Fingers." (He excised the fascia by an open operation.) - *Med. Chron.*, Manchester, 1884-5, I, 6.
Resource Identifier RCS: E002112
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Harding, John Fosse (1808 - 1883)

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First Title value, for Searching Harding, Thomas Massey (1825 - 1910)

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First Title value, for Searching Harding, William (1809 - 1890)

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First Title value, for Searching Harding, William Joshua (1874 - 1904)

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First Title value, for Searching Hardwicke, Junius (1820 - 1895)

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