Search Results for

First Title value, for Searching Somerville, Philip Graham (1920 - 2010)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

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

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

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)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

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

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

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)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

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 Williams, Edward John (1928 - 2007)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Christopher Russell
Publication Date 2010-11-11
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001000-E001099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373242373242
Occupation General surgeon Vascular surgeon
Details Edward John Williams was a consultant vascular and general surgeon at St Mary's Hospital, London, and Wexham Park Hospital, Slough. He was born in Towyn, a small village in Clwyd, north Wales, on 3 February 1928, the son of D C Williams. He was educated locally and did his undergraduate studies at the London Hospital Medical School. After qualifying, he was house physician to Lloyd Rusby and the children's department, and house surgeon to the cardiothoracic firm of Vernon Thompson and Geoffrey Flavell. He joined the RNVR for his National Service and was a squadron medical officer on HMS *Cossack* in Korea from 1952 to 1953 and on HMS Indefatigable in 1954. On demobilisation, he returned to the London as senior registrar to Hermon Taylor, a pioneer vascular surgeon who was developing techniques for disobliteration and freeze-dried homografts, and then as an assistant on the surgical unit under Victor Dix and W T Irvine, who sent him as the Robertson exchange fellow in 1959 for a year to Chicago, taking with him his ravishingly beautiful bride, Sue. In Chicago he worked with R K Gilchrist, the general surgeon, and the vascular team under Julian, Dye and Geza de Takats. He returned to the London, bringing his new skills and expertise in vascular surgery, and, when in 1961 Irvine moved to St Mary's to be professor of surgery in succession to Charles Rob, John Williams accompanied him as senior lecturer and was later his deputy director of the academic surgical unit. St Mary's was at that time the centre for vascular surgery in London. 'EJ' (as he was known to many) was not a career academic and seized the opportunity in 1968 to move to the new hospital at Wexham Park, which was developed with close links to St Mary's. For the rest of his career he attended the surgical unit on Wednesday, taught the students and discussed cases with the registrars, and by his affability maintained the team spirit within the unit for the remainder of Irvine's tenure, and throughout Dudley's redirection of the unit from a vascular to a gastrointestinal interest. Many were the registrars and subsequent assistant directors who appreciated John's wise advice. His work was directed to establishing vascular surgery in a large modern district general hospital, yet by maintaining close links with the academic surgical unit at St Mary's he was able to ensure that the standard of investigation and treatment of his patients was the same in both units. He did not neglect Wexham: he was chairman of the Oxford Group of Surgeons from 1984 to 1987, president of the consultants' mess at Wexham for many years and, in 1989, was elected president of the Society of Vascular Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland. EJ maintained his links with St Mary's Hospital Medical School and regularly held the final MB examinations at Wexham. The examinations were organised meticulously, with outstanding cases, and followed by superb entertainment at his home on the outskirts of Gerrards Cross, where Sue and their two daughters kept horses. In retirement he continued his interests by being chief medical officer at the National Horse Driving Championships, dividing his time between his cottage in north Wales and fishing on the River Tay, where friends had the rights on a stretch of water. EJ lived life to the full, with an affability and gentlemanliness which made him so popular in company and in his professional life. He was remarkably helpful to many of his staff of all grades and made sure they were all well looked after. Towards the end of his life his wife Sue developed cancer, which spoilt his retirement, for she organised his life. She died a year before he did, leaving two daughters.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001059
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Buchanan, Thomas Cox (1804 - 1975)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

First Title value, for Searching Buckley, Samuel (1847 - 1910)

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First Title value, for Searching Bucknall, Thomas Rupert Hampden (1874 - 1913)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

First Title value, for Searching Bucknill, Samuel (1785 - 1863)

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First Title value, for Searching Buck, William Elgar (1848 - 1887)

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First Title value, for Searching Budd, Herbert Walker (1813 - 1876)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2010-11-11 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/373248373248
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born at Seringapatam, the son of Major G Hayward Budd, of the 43rd Regiment of the Madras Native Infantry. He was brought to England at the age of 6 years, and began his medical training at the Worcester General Infirmary under his uncle, Herbert Cole, son of Pennel Cole, who was Senior Surgeon of the institution for fifty years. In 1833 Herbert Walker Budd became a student at St Bartholomew's Hospital, and after qualifying began to practise at Worcester about the year 1835, continuing there to his death. In 1853 he was elected Surgeon of the Infirmary, and at the time of his death was Senior Surgeon. He had also held various appointments in and around Worcester, such as the Surgeoncy of the City Gaol. He died at his residence, College Gates, Worcester, on February 4th, 1876.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001065
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Bullar, John Follett (1854 - 1929)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

First Title value, for Searching Bullen, George (1791 - 1871)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

First Title value, for Searching Bulley, Francis Arthur (1808 - 1883)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
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/373251373251
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born on May 18th, 1808, the son of J Bulley, who came of an old Berkshire family long connected with Reading. His mother was a Blagrave, another ancient Reading family, which produced a regicide, distinguished mathematicians, and for three centuries the Reading Members of Parliament. Bulley's father and grandfather were well-known Reading medical men. His father, who was in practice there for fifty-five years, was Surgeon to the Gaol and to the Dispensary. After the usual classical school education, Francis Arthur Bulley began the study of the profession under his father, and was then apprenticed for five years to James Stocker, Resident Medical Officer of Guy's Hospital. He was soon elected Assistant Surgeon to the County Prison, Reading, where he succeeded his father as Surgeon in 1850. In 1839 he was elected a Surgeon of the Royal Berkshire Hospital, an institution which he had early promoted and for which he had raised a penny fund amounting to one hundred guineas. In conjunction with Dr Richard Thomas Woodhouse and others he was also the organizer of a Convalescent and a Samaritan Fund for the hospital, which rose to fame, both on account of its staff and of its internal arrangements, design, management, and of the fact that none but the poorest were allowed to benefit by it. Bulley was an inventor, and in Weiss's cabinet which obtained the Gold Medal at the Great Exhibition were many of his instruments. Perhaps the most useful of his additions to practical surgery were: (1) A splint for broken thighs, by which graduated extension is applied both by the foot and by a band around the thigh, just above the knee, the special advantages of which are the easy prevention of deformity and the absence of the looseness of the knee-joint which so frequently follows extension effected by the foot alone; (2) An apparatus for the application of pressure to the femoral artery in cases of popliteal aneurysm, in which, by means of two traversing screw-pads, the instrument may be so applied that there can be a relaxation of the pressure at either of the two points, for the retardation of the arterial stream, without the necessity of having to remove the apparatus when such alteration is desirable; (3) A tourniquet for arresting the flow of blood through the subclavian artery in shoulder-joint operations; (4) A uterine compress for arresting haemorrhage during or after labour, which may be employed either as a simple obstetric bandage or for the purpose of producing firm but at the same time easily regulated pressure upon the walls of the uterus. At the time of his death Bulley was Consulting Surgeon to the Royal Berks Hospital, Surgeon to the Berkshire County Constabulary, and to the Reading District of the Great Western Railway, and had been Surgeon to the Berkshire Dispensary. In appearance he was tall, well over six feet, and stout, but well-proportioned. His biographer notices that he did not neglect exercise as did many of his contemporaries, though he was fond of studying and the pursuit of his professional work. He was popular in Reading, the interests, institutions, and amusements of which he promoted. His death occurred at his residence, 40 London Road, Reading, on April 21st, 1883. There is a good woodcut portrait of him in the *Medical Circular*, 1853. (Bully in the Fellows' *Register*.) Publications: *Account of some Cases of the Epidemic Cholera, Treated by Hot Water Applications*, 8vo, London, 1850. "Cases of Urinary Calculus Dissolved in the Bladder by Means of Alkaline Internal Remedies." - *Med. Times*, 1849. Bulley published many papers in the *Medical Times*, most of which evince research, acuteness of perception, and practical knowledge. Among these may be specified several communications on scrofula; an account of malignant scarlet fever treated by diaphoresis produced by means of hot-water packing, the patient becoming convalescent in four days; papers on the nature and treatment of febrile diseases, in which he advocates the employment of the same means, in imitation of the natural efforts of the system, to produce a crisis of the disease by diaphoresis; the treatment of chronic trismus by mechanical dilatation, the instrument, which is peculiar, having been invented by himself; surgical reports from the Royal Berkshire Hospital; an account of a simple means of diminishing the effects of fire in the human body by the application of treacle and water to the burned part.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001068
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Bullock, Henry (1829 - 1893)

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First Title value, for Searching Bullock, Joseph (1797 - 1863)

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First Title value, for Searching Buncombe, Charles Hope (1818 - 1897)

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First Title value, for Searching Burchell, Peter Lodwick (1818 - 1892)

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First Title value, for Searching Burgess, Frederick Josiah (1812 - 1893)

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First Title value, for Searching Burgess, John Hay (1880 - 1914)

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First Title value, for Searching Burke, John Page ( - 1870)

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First Title value, for Searching Burleigh, Richard Clarke ( - 1901)

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First Title value, for Searching Burlton, Thomas ( - 1892)

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First Title value, for Searching Burrows, Sir John Cordy (1813 - 1876)

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First Title value, for Searching Bush, John Dearden ( - 1929)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

First Title value, for Searching Buszard, Frank (1839 - 1913)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
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/373275373275
Occupation General surgeon
Details The second son of Dr Marston Buszard, of Lutterworth, who there enjoyed a large practice and was himself the son of a medical man. Frank Buszard entered Rugby School on April 1st, 1854, and received his professional training at Guy's Hospital, where his career was brilliant. It was probably owing to the fact that Buszard entered Guy's in the same year as Hilton Fagge that he missed a chance of getting on to the Staff. At the London University he ran close behind Fagge, who had a phenomenal record. At the 1st MB he was placed third in three of the subjects out of four in honours; at the 2nd MB he was placed third in honours in surgery, and besides gained honours in the three other subjects-medicine, physiology, and midwifery. Buszard became House Surgeon at Guy's Hospital and was regarded by Sir William Gull as one of his most distinguished pupils. From Gull, Buszard probably learnt much of that tact and judgement in treating patients which stood him in such good stead throughout his career. After leaving Guy's, Buszard was elected House Surgeon to the Northampton Infirmary, as it was then named. During the seven years of his tenure of office he enjoyed a reputation for sound work and was almost worshipped by his pupils (of whom there were generally two or more) for the thorough methods of his coaching. He became endeared not only to these practitioners of the future, but also to his patients, and built up a great local reputation. He began to practise in the town as soon as he resigned the House Surgeoncy, but it was eight years before a vacancy occurred on the Hospital Staff and he was elected Surgeon in succession to James Mash (qv). In two years' time he gave up surgery, to the surprise of his friends, and was appointed Physician in succession to Dayrell J T Francis, MD. The latter had been very successful, and it was at first doubted whether a surgeon could fitly take his place, but in the end Buszard was even more sought after than his predecessor had been. His fame locally was great, and in his time he must have been called into consultation to almost every county family, whilst he always kept himself well abreast of all fresh ideas in diagnosis and treatment. His professional brethren for years recognized him as their leader, and called him in for all cases of doubt or difficulty. In the sphere of medical politics Buszard took up a bold position in defence of the just rights and interests of the profession. He was President of the South Midland Branch of the British Medical Association, first Chairman of the Northants Division, and was elected Chairman of the Northampton Medical Committee formed in connection with the Insurance Act. He was Consulting Surgeon to the Market Harborough Dispensary and Physician to the Northampton General Hospital at the time of his death. On his retirement in March, 1912, after fifty years' service to this institution, some two hundred admirers, headed by the Marquis of Northampton, presented him with two portraits of himself by Mr Harris Brown, of which one was retained by the hospital while the other went to his family. Buszard delivered an eloquent speech of thanks in which he reviewed the great progress made in hospital management during his career. Characteristically he did not mention his share-an important one-in the improvement of the Northampton Infirmary. He touched life at many points. A fluent speaker and capable debater, he would have shone in Parliament or at the Bar. He was anxious that medical men should take their share in public life, and always encouraged his younger colleagues in their efforts to do so. From 1881 onwards, for nearly twenty years, he was an Alderman of the Borough, and for the greater part of that period rendered valuable service as Chairman of the Public Health Committee in eradicating the Northampton slums and improving the health of the people. When he left the Town Council his colleague, Dr R A Milligan, declared it lost its most distinguished member. He was an ardent Conservative leader of the Unionists in his own town, a strong partisan, whose keen verbal thrusts were appreciated by his opponents at many meetings. For years he read the Sunday evening lessons at Dallington Church, of which he was Churchwarden. Tall and commanding of presence as well as kindly in manner, he inspired his patients with confidence. He was devoted to outdoor sport and was a fine cricketer and lawn-tennis player, till compelled by the onset of rheumatoid arthritis to become a mere onlooker. He retired finally from medical work in June, 1913, and died at Dallington, Northampton, on Sunday, October 14th, 1913, survived by his widow, two daughters, and one son. Buszard's elder brother, Marston Clarke Buszard, KC, was Recorder of Leicester and leader of the Midland Circuit.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001092
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Byerley, Isaac ( - 1896)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

First Title value, for Searching Bynoe, Benjamin (1803 - 1865)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2010-11-11 2018-07-04
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/373282373282
Occupation Botanist General surgeon Naturalist Naval surgeon
Details Entered the Royal Navy and retired with the rank of Staff Surgeon. He died at Old Kent Road, SE, on November 15th, 1865. See below for an expanded version of the published obituary uploaded 4 July 2018: Benjamin Bynoe was a Royal Navy surgeon, botanist and naturalist who served aboard the *Beagle* during Charles Darwin's epic five-year voyage. He was born in Barbados on 25 July 1803, the son of Samuel and Elizabeth Bynoe, and was baptised on 26 December 1803 at Christ Church, Barbados. There are no records of his medical education, but on 20 May 1825 he became a member of the Royal College of Surgeons and on 26 September 1825 joined the Royal Navy as an assistant surgeon. He joined the maiden voyage of HMS *Beagle*, tasked with surveying the coasts of South America south of the Rio Plata. In July 1828, the ship's surgeon Evan Brown was invalided home and Bynoe was made acting surgeon in his place. The *Beagle* surveyed Patagonia, Tierra del Fuego and the channels adjoining the Straits of Magellan and the island of Chiloe. During the voyage, Bynoe collected geological and other specimens, and two landmarks were named after him - Cape Bynoe and Bynoe Island. By October 1830 the *Beagle* had returned to England and Bynoe was living on half-pay in the New Kent Road area, London. He studied through the winter and on 5 July 1831 passed his examination as a surgeon in the Royal Navy, but promotion was slow, and two days later he rejoined the *Beagle* with the rank of assistant surgeon, serving under the surgeon Robert McCormick. Also on board was Charles Darwin, then just 22, a guest of the captain, Robert FitzRoy. The rest of the year 1831 was spent preparing the ship for the voyage; Bynoe made sure the medical supplies included foods to prevent scurvy, including 'pickles, dried apples, and lemon juice - of the best quality'. On 27 December 1831, the *Beagle* set sail and passed via the Canaries to the Cape Verde Islands. Towards the end of April 1832, McCormick invalided himself home, disgruntled that Darwin had in effect been made the ship's naturalist, a role he assumed, as surgeon, was his own. Bynoe was made acting surgeon, in which role he continued for the rest of the long voyage. The ship sailed across the Atlantic and then coasted South America, visiting Bahia, Rio, Monte Video, Buenos Aires, Bahia Blanca and Teirra del Feugo. Bynoe found himself dealing with unknown fevers among the crew (probably yellow fever), together with the more familiar pulmonary tuberculosis. In the autumn of 1834, the *Beagle* had reached Valparaiso, Chile. After visiting Santiago and the Andes, Darwin became ill at the end of September; Bynoe attended him ashore for a month while the ship was being repaired and restocked with supplies. After further cruises off the Chilean coast, they reached Callao, the port of Lima, Peru, then headed to the Galapagos Islands, where Darwin made the observations which led to his theory of natural selection. For nine days Bynoe and Darwin were ashore with just three seamen with them, studying the rocks, lizards, tortoises and vegetation. The *Beagle* then sailed west to Polynesia, Tahiti and New Zealand, before heading home via Sydney, Keeling Island, Mauritius, the Cape, St Helena, Brazil and then the Azores and home, setting anchor at Falmouth on 2 October 1836. Once again, Bynoe returned to London on half-pay. In December 1836, he married Charlotte Ollard and in the same month, after many years as an acting surgeon he was, on the recommendation of FitzRoy, officially confirmed in his post as surgeon. He rejoined the *Beagle*, this time commissioned to survey Australian waters. The ship left Plymouth in July 1837. After investigating western Australia, the *Beagle* continued eastwards, visiting Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania), Sydney and the Great Barrier Reef. They then turned south, to the Adelaide River and then north to the Timor Sea, where a bay in what is now the Northern Territory was named Bynoe Harbour. In August 1841, the ship was in the Gulf of Carpentaria in northern Australia, when one of the officers, Fitzmaurice, who was surveying onshore, was accidentally shot in the foot by a musket. Bynoe attended the injured man and saved his foot; the river Fitzmaurice had been investigating was named Bynoe River in his honour. During the voyage, Bynoe collected numerous specimens and wrote several papers, including one on marsupial gestation and on geological formations in Queensland. The ship eventually sailed back to England via Mauritius and Cape Verde, arriving back in 1843. In February 1844, he was appointed surgeon superintendent of the convict ship *Blundell*, which was sailing to Norfolk Island with prisoners from Millbank prison. The journal he wrote during the first part of the journey has survived, listing the case he treated, including patients with diarrhoea, rheumatism, an injured finger (which required amputation) and a case of pulmonary tuberculosis. On 26 August 1844, Bynoe was made a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons. Bynoe left the *Blundell* in April 1845. His next appointment was on the *Lord Auckland*, another convict ship, this time bound for Hobart, which left England in March 1846. With him was his long-suffering wife; the couple may have been planning to emigrate to New South Wales. But in July, the ship landed in Simon's Bay, in southern Africa, so Bynoe, who was ill with pneumonia, could be transferred to Cape Town Hospital. Once he recovered, the Bynoes boarded the *Maria Soames* and returned back to England in October 1846. His next appointment was to Ireland, then facing serious famine after the failure of successive potato crops. At the end of February 1847, he was directed to go to Cork 'to aid in carrying out measures for the relief of the Distressed Irish'. A relief centre was set up at Belmullet, which Bynoe joined in April, to help with outbreaks of typhus and dysentery. But the promised medical supplies were slow to arrive and Bynoe himself became sick with dysentery. By September his appointment had ended and in October he was back in London and on half-pay. He then had two short appointments, to the *Ocean* and the *Ganges*, and then in February 1848, joined the *Wellington*, where he remained for nearly three years. He was subsequently appointed to the *Monarch*, on which he served until March 1851. In November 1851, he was appointed to the *Aboukir*, another prison vessel taking convicts to Van Diemen's Land. His journal of the voyage survives and describes treating a prisoner for advanced tuberculosis (and carrying out a post mortem), treating catarrh, constipation and diarrhoea, and directing that the woodwork of the living quarters be washed down with the antiseptic chloride of zinc. On 22 March 1852 Bynoe arrived in Hobart, and a few weeks later sailed homeward. After almost a year on half-pay in London, in the autumn of 1853 he was appointed to the *Madagascar*, a receiving ship at Rio, where he spent almost six gruelling years, returning on the *Industry* in the spring of 1859. In the autumn of 1860, Bynoe was promoted to staff surgeon, but was not appointed to any further voyages and on 23 January 1863 was placed on the retired list by the Admiralty. Benjamin Bynoe died in the Old Kent Road, London on 13 November 1865 and was buried at Norwood Cemetery, Lambeth. Despite taking part in several important surveying voyages, aiding Darwin with his ground-breaking work and collecting a large number of specimens in his own right, his name had been largely forgotten. Even during his lifetime, he arguably failed to get the credit he was due; only one species (of acacia) was named after him - *Acacia bynoeana*. But, perhaps just as importantly, he was remembered as a kind and caring surgeon by his colleagues and crew: Robert FitzRoy, his long-standing captain on board the *Beagle*, noted movingly of the 'affectionate kindness of Mr Bynoe…which…will never be forgotten by any of his shipmates'. Sarah Gillam
Resource Identifier RCS: E001099
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Cass, Henry ( - 1899)

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

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

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 Ceely, James Henry (1809 - 1905)

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First Title value, for Searching Ceely, Robert (1797 - 1880)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2010-11-24 2013-08-07
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/373293373293
Occupation General surgeon
Details Robert Ceely, the elder brother of James Henry Ceely (qv), was born in 1797, and received his medical education at Guy's, at the London Hospital, and at Edinburgh. After qualifying he at once settled in practice at Aylesbury. Some years later he had contemplated entering the East India Company's service when, in 1882, Aylesbury became involved in the cholera epidemic, and Ceely displayed notable qualities in contending with the outbreak. It is reported that Lord Hardinge, then Commander-in-Chief, in admiration of Ceely's conduct, gave his nephew a commission in the 42nd Regiment. In 1833 he interested himself in the establishment of the Buckinghamshire County Infirmary at Aylesbury, and served on the staff until his death. Soon afterwards he began his "Observations on the Variolae Vaccinae", which was published in 1840. John Simon said of him that he "has done more to advance the natural history of vaccination than any other individual since the days of Jenner". He thus became the chief authority, and was involved in the various controversies for the rest of his life. Three months before his death, at the Cambridge Meeting of the British Medical Association, in the course of the discussion on August 13th, 1880, on the different methods of collecting, preserving, and employing animal vaccines, Ceely, aged 83, exhibited drawings of: (1) (a) Casual vaccinia on the cow; (b) In the same animal, the pock declining and the secondary after-pock; (c) The secondary or after-pock on the dog and on children. (2) Casual vaccinia on the hands of milkers in various stages. (3) False cow-pox in the cow. (4) Casual transference of false cow-pox to the hands of milkers. (5) Its inoculation on man. (6) Variolation of the cow, then vaccination of the same animal on the 10th day. (7) Variolation only of the cow in all stages. (8) Lymph from the variolated cow, transfer to children exhibiting identity with vaccinia developed in the cow .casually or after vaccination. (9 and 10) Drawings of sheep-pox. Taking into consideration the undeveloped stage of inoculation experiments and the complexities of the vaccination question, Ceely's observations were of extraordinary accuracy. In 1865 he was a member of the Royal Commission on the Cattle Plague, and made contributions to the Royal College of Surgeons Museum. In the College Library are the author's copy both of the 1840 and the 1842 publications with MS notes. He died at Aylesbury on November 28th, 1880, and his funeral took place on December 3rd amid evidences of sincere respect and affection. Publications:- Ceely's authoritative works on vaccination, etc., include the following: "Observations on the Variolae Vaccine as they occasionally appear in the Vale of Aylesbury, with an Account of some Recent Experiments in the Vaccination, Retrovaccination and Variolation of Cows: interspersed with incidental remarks," 8vo, 35 plates, Worcester, 1840; reprinted from *Trans. Prov. Med. and Surg. Assoc.*, viii. (The Library possesses the author's copy with his corrections in MS.) Translated into German, "Beobachtungen uber die Kuhpocken," etc., Stuttgart, 1841. "Further Observations," 8vo, 6 plates, Worcester, 1842 (author's copy). *Account of Contagious Epidemic Puerperal Fever*, 1835. "Health Officers, their Appointment, Duties, and Qualifications: being a Reprint of Official Documents long out of print": with Prefatory Remarks by R C, 8vo, London, 1873.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001110
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Chadwick, Samuel Taylor (1810 - 1876)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

First Title value, for Searching Challinor, Henry (1814 - 1882)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2010-11-24 2016-04-22
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/373296373296
Occupation General surgeon
Details Was in general practice at Bolton-le-Moors and at Accrington. He emigrated to Queensland about 1861-1862 [1], and practised for some years at Ipswich in that Colony. From 1869-1872 he was Surgeon Superintendent of the Lunatic Asylum, Woogaroo, and was also Medical Officer of St Helena Gaol and the Dunwich Benevolent Asylum. For the last few years of his life Challinor was Health Officer of Brisbane. In honorary capacities Challinor filled important and responsible positions. He was for years a member of the Medical Board, Principal Medical Officer of the Queensland Volunteer Forces, and Visiting Inspector of the Diamantina Orphan Schools. He died of apoplexy at Brisbane on Sept 9th, 1882. [[1] He emigrated to Brisbane, then part of New South Wales, in September 1848 and arrived at Moreton Bay on the ship *Fortitude* from Gravesend on 20 January 1849. Information supplied by Stephen C Due by email, 9 April 2016]
Resource Identifier RCS: E001113
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Chalmers, Albert John (1870 - 1920)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

First Title value, for Searching Chapman, Henry Thomas (1806 - 1876)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2010-11-25
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/373301373301
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born at Ampthill, the eldest son of Thomas Chapman, surgeon, who lived to be 94, and nephew of Sir John Chapman, FRCS (qv), of Windsor. He was a student at St Bartholomew's Hospital under Abernethy from 1825-1827, and spent the winter session of 1828-9 in Paris. In 1830 he was House Surgeon to Earle at St Bartholomew's, and later assisted him in private practice. In 1832 he published *A Brief Description of Surgical Apparatus, together with an Atlas of Surgical Apparatus*, concerning which Sir James Paget, speaking from personal acquaintance, said: "It was a creditable work for the time of its publication, but it was far inferior in execution to the illustrated catalogues with which instrument makers have since been enabled to advertise". Inspection of the original suggests a depreciation and an exaggeration on the part of Paget. In 1848 he published a book *On the Treatment of Ulcers of the Leg without Confinement, with an Enquiry into the best mode of effecting the Permanent Cure of Varicose Veins*. There was a second edition in 1853 and a third in 1859. He advocated long strips of linen or calico, wet with water, and so laid on as not to constrict as did strapping and plaster. By this means he urged that elevation of the limb entailing confinement might be dispensed with. He noted improvement in cases of varicosities, even when surgical treatment by transfixing with a pin and applying a figure-of-8 ligature had failed. The method, indeed, was on the lines adopted later by Unna. He proceeded to apply wetted strips of bandage to varicose veins where there was as yet no ulceration, and he published *Varicose Veins, their Nature, Consequences and Treatment, Palliative and Curative* (8vo, London, 1856). This obtained rather better consideration from Paget: "He again describes his method, and how for clustered and saccular varices, he ingeniously adjusted various forms of pads under the straps. I do not doubt his success, but the plan requires skill and patience, more than busy men can give. The book is clearly that of a gentleman and a fair observer, and this Mr Chapman was known to be by all who, as I did, knew him well." Chapman visited Stromeyer's establishment at Hanover for the cure of deformities, was elected a Corresponding Member of the Hamburg Medical Society, operated for the cure of club-foot, and wrote in the Lancet (1838-9, ii, 329) on the etiology and pathology of the condition. He was amongst the first in England to test the value of cod-liver oil, and he published a memoir on its utility in scrofula (*Pharmaceutical Jour.*, 1841). He died at Cheltenham in 1876.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001118
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Philipp, Elliot Elias (1915 - 2010)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Alan Philipp
Publication Date 2010-12-09
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001100-E001199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373305373305
Occupation Gynaecologist Obstetrician
Details Elliot Philipp was an eminent gynaecologist and obstetrician, author of numerous popular and technical medical works, and a committed religious and charitable Jew. He was born on 20 July 1915 to Oscar Isaac and Clarisse Philipp (née Weil) in Stoke Newington, London. He was educated at Warwick House and St Paul's School. His father, a metal dealer from Hamburg, had come to England in 1908 to open an office, which in due course became the hub of a large and internationally successful operation. Elliot settled on a different career, deciding by the age of seven he would be a doctor, and went on to study at Cambridge University. After graduation he spent a year in Lausanne, due to ill-health, and it was here that he delivered his first baby. At the start of the Second World War, only a month after qualifying, Elliot left his first appointment at Middlesex Hospital to join the RAF. He joined Bomber Command in East Anglia, where he was responsible for the medical centres at Feltwell and Mildenhall, and by the end of hostilities held the rank of squadron leader. He was offered a long term commission in the RAF to stay as a doctor and medical researcher, but declined, returning to Middlesex Hospital and Addenbroke's, where he had been a clinical student. Subsequent appointments included St Thomas', Royal Free and University College hospitals. During this time, Elliot was writing books and newspaper articles. His first, for which he had help from his distant relative, Sigmund Freud, was *The techniques of sex* (London, Wales Publishing Company), first published in 1939 under the pseudonym 'Anthony Havil'. At a time when such guides were few and far between, it became a bestseller, with numerous editions over the next 40 years. In 1950, he became medical correspondent of *The News Chronicle*. The following year, he gained his fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons and started working privately in Harley Street. He also joined the staff of Oldchurch Hospital, Romford, as a junior consultant in obstetrics and gynaecology, a demanding job in a small department that covered a large area dominated by the Ford Motor Company. The position gave him the opportunity to undertake research in relation to blood groups and Rhesus factor. His private practice was growing too, particularly among the French community, since he spoke fluent French and German. He became the official gynaecologist to the French and several other embassies, worked part-time at the French Hospital in Shaftesbury Avenue, and was responsible for the opening of the French Dispensary. As a result of this and similar work, he was awarded the French Legion d'Honneur in 1971. In 1964, Elliot moved to the Royal Northern Hospital, which incorporated the City of London Maternity Hospital. His responsibilities included the inmates of Holloway prison, and the mental and physical challenges they presented. During this time, as well as developing skills in keyhole surgery, he was closely involved in treatments for infertility and the work with Patrick Steptoe and Robert Edwards that resulted in the births of the first test-tube babies. He retired from the National Health Service in 1980, but continued in private practice, seeing patients in Harley Street and operating until the age of 77. He continued writing books and articles, as well as lecturing, until the age of 82. He was always involved in medical ethics and had regular discussions with the Chief Rabbi, Lord Jakobovits, and other religious leaders. He served as president of both the Medical Society of London and the Hunterian Society, and chaired the historical division of the Royal Society of Medicine, during which time he co-wrote, with Michael J O'Dowd, *The history of obstetrics and gynaecology* (New York/London, Parthenon, c.1994). He also jointly edited *Scientific foundations of obstetrics and gynaecology* (London, Heinemann Medical, 1970). Retirement also allowed him to spend more time at the beloved Elizabethan cottage near the Essex coast which he had bought in 1937 and where he wrote many of his books and built up an extensive collection of antiquarian gynaecological books. Elliot's commitment to Judaism and Jewish charities followed that of his father, one of the founders of the Technion University in Haifa and Kibbutz Lavi. Elliot was an associate governor at Hebrew University of Jerusalem and was in particular keen to help Jewish educational charities, including Jews' College and the Jewish Widows and Students Aid Trust, of which he was a trustee for over 50 years. He was a mohel, performing circumcisions, as well as on the board of the Initiation Society, the oldest Anglo-Jewish organisation, which ensures standards for circumcision. He regularly attended shiurim and other study groups. He married Lucie Ruth Hackenbroch in 1939, five weeks after meeting her. They remained happily married for nearly 50 years, until her death in 1988. They had two children, Ann, who died in 1997, and Alan, who survived him. In 1990, Elliot found a new companion, Lady Zdenka Bean, who pre-deceased him in January 2010. His greatest pleasure, however, was being with his grandchildren and great grandchildren. Elliot Philipp died on 27 September 2010, at the age of 95.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001122
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Busby, Eileen Rosemary (1930 - )

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2011-02-10
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/373311373311
Occupation General surgeon
Details Eileen Busby was an associate specialist at the Royal Marsden Hospital, London. Born in Clapton, London, on 5 December 1930, she was the daughter of William Francis Busby, a house painter and decorator, and Rose Harriet née Stephenson, a dressmaker. Eileen was educated at various schools during the Second World War, before entering Tiffin Girls' School, Kingston-upon-Thames, where she excelled, ending as head girl. She then went on to Bedford College, London, to read zoology and botany, and did her medical education at Charing Cross Hospital. There she gained prizes in anatomy, physiology, pathology, surgery, orthopaedics and applied pharmacology and therapeutics. She qualified with the Llewellyn certificate of merit. After serving as a house physician, house surgeon and casualty officer, she became an anatomy demonstrator and a research assistant in physiology at Charing Cross. In 1957 she went to the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital as a senior house officer for a year. For the next three years she held posts at Ealing, Bromley, East Ham Memorial and St George's hospitals. In 1964 she began her training in radiotherapy as a registrar at the Royal Marsden Hospital, becoming a senior registrar in 1967 and finally a medical assistant and associate specialist in 1969, a post which she retained until 1994. She published extensively on experimental carcinogenesis in the mouse bladder, and on tumours of the head and neck. Eileen never married. Her many outside interests included knitting, needlework, music and gardening.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001128
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Burton-Brown, Jean Rosemary Campbell (1908 - 2009)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2011-02-10
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001100-E001199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373312373312
Occupation Gynaecologist, Obstetrician
Details Jean Burton-Brown was a consultant gynaecologist to the east Kent group of hospitals. She was born in Rothsay on the Isle of Bute, Scotland, on 13 July 1908, the only daughter of Alexander Burton-Brown, a colonel in the Royal Horse Artillery and a fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society, and Ethel Augusta Burton-Brown née Dixon, the daughter of a major general in the Old India Company. She was educated at Hastings and St Leonard’s Ladies College and St Margaret’s School, Westgate-on-Sea. She later studied medicine at the London School of Medicine, Royal Free Hospital and qualified in 1940 at the age of 32. She held a number of posts in and around London during the Second World War – as a house surgeon at the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Base Hospital at St Albans, a house physician and blood transfusion officer at the National Temperance Hospital, a resident medical officer at the Mothers’ Hospital, an obstetric officer at the West Middlesex County Hospital, a house surgeon and then resident registrar at the Samaritan Hospital, a clinical assistant to the gynaecological outpatient department, Royal Free Hospital, and as an assistant surgical officer back at the West Middlesex. From 1944 to 1946 she was a surgical and gynaecological registrar at the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Hospital and a part-time demonstrator in anatomy at the London School of Medicine. In 1946 she was temporarily in charge of the gynaecology department at Mildmay Hospital. She gained an MD with a gold medal in the same year for her work on placental function. She was subsequently an assistant in the Nuffield department of obstetrics and gynaecology at Oxford, where she worked with John Chassar Moir. In 1950 she described her duties in this post: ‘Since 1947 I have conducted my own ante-natal and post-natal clinics, and have taken part in conducting the gynaecological clinics. I have taken full share of the obstetric admissions either from my own clinic or as emergency admissions, and also in performing obstetrical and gynaecological operations. In addition I have also taken part in the Emergency Obstetric Service, when summoned by general practitioners to outlying districts.’ She also taught pupil midwives, nurses, medical students and postgraduates. In 1950 she was appointed as a consultant gynaecologist to the east Kent group, remaining there until she retired in 1973. She was an early pioneer in the production of medical films for the public, including *My first baby* (1955) and *Toxaemia of pregnancy* (1958). She wrote papers on, among other topics, rupture of the liver associated with parturition, the physiology of the third stage of labour and abnormalities of the foetus and mother. She was active as secretary to the scientific section of obstetrics and gynaecology of the British Medical Association, an examiner for the Central Midwives Board and the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, and as a member of the medical advisory committee of the South East Metropolitan Hospital Board. She enjoyed gardening, golf, painting and collecting antiques. She celebrated her 100th birthday in 2008 by taking a flight in a glider. Burton-Brown died on 17 September 2009 at the age of 101. She was unmarried. Sarah Gillam
Resource Identifier RCS: E001129
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Cahill, Christopher Joseph (1952 - 2009)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

First Title value, for Searching Fison, Lorimer George (1920 - 2004)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-09-23
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000000-E000099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372244372244
Occupation Ophthalmic surgeon
Details Lorimer Fison was an innovative ophthalmic surgeon who introduced a revolutionary new procedure for the repair of retinal detachment from the United States. He was born on 14 July 1920 in Harrogate, the third son of William James Fison, a well-known ophthalmic surgeon, and Janet Sybil née Dutton, the daughter of a priest. He was educated at Parkfield School, Haywards Heath, and then Marlborough College. He then studied natural sciences at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, and then went on to St Bartholomew’s Hospital. After qualifying, he joined the Navy during the war as a Surgeon Lieutenant. Following demobilisation, he became a resident surgical officer at Moorfield’s, despite having caught tuberculosis. He then became a senior registrar at St Thomas’s Hospital and later at Bart’s. In 1957 Fison went to the Schepens unit in Boston in the United States, after Sir Stuart Duke-Elder, the then doyen of British ophthalmology, suggested that fellows be despatched to learn the new techniques of retinal detachment surgery. There Fison learnt the procedure of scleral explantation, and was also impressed by the ophthalmic instruments then available in the US. Back in England, Fison faced some opposition when he attempted to introduce the new procedures he had been taught in the States, but was finally given beds at Moorfield’s annexe in Highgate. With the help of Charles Keeler, he modified the Schepens indirect ophthalmoscope, which was put into production and sold around the world. Fison was also the first to introduce the photocoagulator, the forerunner of the modern ophthalmic laser, which was developed by Meyer-Schwickerath in Germany. In 1962, after a brief appointment at the Royal Free Hospital, he was appointed as a consultant at Moorfield’s. He was held in great affection by his colleagues and juniors, who remember his warmth and generosity. Fison was President of the Faculty of Ophthalmologists from 1980 to 1983 and of the Ophthalmological Society of the United Kingdom from 1985 to 1987. He was an ardent supporter of the merging of these two organisations – they became the Royal College of Ophthalmologists in 1988. At the Royal College of Surgeons he was an examiner for the FRCS in ophthalmology, Chairman of the Court of Examiners in 1978 and a member of Council. He married Isabel née Perry in 1947 and they had one daughter, Sally, who qualified in medicine. On his retirement he moved to Sidmouth, where he continued his hobbies of woodworking and sailing. He died on 12 February 2004.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000057
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Gatehouse, David (1944 - 2003)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

First Title value, for Searching Gayton, William Robertson (1912 - 2004)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

First Title value, for Searching Brennan, Thomas Gabriel (1937 - 2005)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

First Title value, for Searching Lessington-Smith, Caroline Mathilda (1918 - )

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Neil Weir
Publication Date 2006-06-21 2009-05-07
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000200-E000299
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372430372430
Occupation ENT surgeon
Details Caroline Lessington-Smith was an ENT surgeon at King’s College Hospital, London. Born Caroline van Dorp on 25 May 1918, she was the daughter of a Dutch pastor based in London. She qualified at the London School of Medicine for Women in 1941 and, choosing ENT as a career, she became senior registrar to the ENT departments at the Royal Hospital, Sheffield, and the Royal Infirmary, Leicester, and senior registrar to the department of surgery of the General Hospital, Leicester. She was subsequently appointed as surgeon in charge of the ENT department of St Giles Hospital, Camberwell, and the Dulwich Hospital. She was interested in paediatric ENT and later worked at the Belgrave Hospital for Children. All three of these hospitals became part of the King's College Hospital group in the early 1960s. A highly intelligent and amiable colleague, she brought her extensive experience to the foreign body endoscopy unit at Camberwell and published a paper in the *Journal of Laryngology & Otology* (1954) entitled ‘Unusual foreign body in the maxillary antrum’, which turned out to be a flat metal ring measuring 7.7cms in diameter which had penetrated the antrum. A year earlier she wrote ‘Tonsillectomy for carcinoma of the tonsil in a dog – with survival’ in the *Veterinary Record*. Whilst at Camberwell in 1963 she met and married Hugh Sim, who had been injured at the Battle of Arnhem and was at the time a hospital administrator. They had two sons. Hugh died whilst Caroline was still working and, shortly after her retirement in the mid 1970s, she remarried and lived in her delightful cottage in Mayfield, East Sussex. She is believed to have died in late 2001 or early 2002, as noted in the *Medical Directory* 2002.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000243
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Porter, Richard William (1935 - 2005)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-06-21 2012-03-13
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000200-E000299
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372431372431
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon
Details Richard William Porter was a distinguished orthopaedic surgeon in Aberdeen. He was born on 16 February 1935 in Doncaster, the son of J Luther Porter, a china merchant and Methodist minister, and Mary Field. He was educated at Oundle and Edinburgh University, and completed his surgical training at Edinburgh. Following house appointments he became a ships' surgeon for three months before returning to Edinburgh as a senior house officer and passing the FRCS Edinburgh and the DObstRCOG. He began his surgical training as a registrar in Sheffield and after obtaining the FRCS England in 1966 he became a senior registrar on the orthopaedic training programme at King's College Hospital, where he was much influenced by Hubert Wood and Christopher Attenborough. He returned to Doncaster as consultant orthopaedic surgeon to the Royal Infirmary and soon took an interest in low back pain, a common problem among the coal miners. He set up a research programme and established a department of bioengineering which attracted postgraduate students from home and abroad. He became an authority on the use of ultrasound in the investigation of back pain published papers and a book on the subject and was awarded an MD in 1981 for this work. His reputation resulted in the presidency of the Society for Back Pain Research and a founder membership of the European Spine Society. He was also on the council of the British Orthopaedic Association and the Society of Clinical Anatomists. In 1990 he was appointed to the Sir Harry Platt chair of orthopaedic surgery in Aberdeen and developed links with China and Romania, and later became the first Syme professor of orthopaedics in the University of Edinburgh and director of education and training at the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. Following his retirement he returned to Doncaster and, as a devout Christian, played a very full part in the local Evangelical Methodist Church. He published extensively and was the author of three textbooks. In 1964 he married Christine Brown, whom he had known since his schooldays. They had four sons, one of whom is an orthopaedic surgeon, two are Anglican ministers and one a Methodist minister. He died on 20 July 2005.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000244
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Booth, John Barton (1937 - 2005)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-06-21 2012-03-22
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000200-E000299
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372432372432
Occupation ENT surgeon
Details John Barton Booth was a consultant ENT surgeon at St Bartholomew's and the Royal London Hospitals. He was born on 19 November 1937, the son of Percy Leonard Booth and Mildred Amy née Wilson. He was educated at Canford School and at King's College, London, where he became an Associate (a diploma award given by the theology department), flirted with politics (the Conservative Party) and law, but in the end qualified in medicine. After house appointments at the Birmingham Accident Hospital and the Hospital for Sick Children, Great Ormond Street, he started ENT training at the Royal National Throat, Nose and Ear Hospital. He subsequently became a senior registrar at the Royal Free Hospital, working with John Ballantyne and John Groves, and for one day a week he was seconded to the National Hospital for Nervous Diseases as clinical assistant to Margaret Dix, who was famous as an audiological physician with a particular interest in balance problems. The influence of these mentors very much guided John into a career in otology and he later confirmed his position in that field by being elected a Hunterian Professor at the Royal College of Surgeons. His lecture was based on his work on Ménière's disease. He was appointed consultant surgeon to the Royal National Throat, Nose and Ear Hospital and consultant ENT surgeon to the London (later Royal London) Hospital and subsequently to the Royal Hospital of St Bartholomew's. John was never happy with the fusion of the Royal London and Bart's, particularly as the ENT department was relocated at Bart's. He was appointed as a civilian consultant (otology) to the RAF, which gave him the opportunity to practise otology in Cyprus for two weeks in June every year. John Booth had a strong Christian belief and moral code, which underpinned his life. He was always immaculately dressed, precise in his manner, thoughtful in his approach to problems and determined in his belief that a job should be well done and with no half measures. He was always a person who could be relied upon, which explains the succession of responsible positions he held. He edited the *Journal of Laryngology & Otology* from 1987 to 1992, as well as the volume on diseases of the ear in two editions of *Scott-Brown's Otolaryngology*. For the Royal Society of Medicine he was president of the section of otology and council member, honorary secretary and subsequently vice-president of the Society. For the British Academic Conference in Otolarynoglogy he was honorary secretary of the general committee for the eighth conference, becoming chairman of the same committee for the ninth. John inherited the significant voice practice of his father-in-law, Ivor Griffiths, and continued his association with the Royal Opera House, the Royal Society of Musicians of Great Britain, the Concert Artists Association and the Musicians Benevolent Fund, until his retirement in 2000. In addition, he was honorary consultant to St Luke's Hospital for the Clergy. John had a great interest in the history of his specialty and in art. He was able, with Sir Alan Bowness, to combine these two interests in a publication on Barbara Hepworth's drawings of ear surgery, which appeared as a supplement in the *Journal of Laryngology & Otology* (April 2000). He married Carroll Griffiths in 1966. They both enjoyed playing golf, either at the RAC Club or on the Isle of Man, where they retired. John took great pride in his membership of the MCC and the R and A at St Andrew's. On retirement he switched from ENT and became a physician at St Bridget's Hospice in Douglas. He managed to combine part-time work at the hospice with the care of Carroll, who had been ill for eight years. She died on 3 July 2004 and John died of a massive coronary thrombosis on 22 July 2005. He left their son, James. Neil Weir
Resource Identifier RCS: E000245
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Byrne, Henry (1932 - 2003)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

First Title value, for Searching Levy, Ivor Saul (1941 - 2005)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-06-21 2012-03-14
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000200-E000299
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372434372434
Occupation Ophthalmologist
Details Ivor Levy was a consultant ophthalmologist at the Royal London Hospital, Whitechapel. He was born in Manchester on 29 June 1941 and educated in Manchester, at Pembroke College, Oxford, and at the London Hospital. After junior appointments, he held a research fellowship at the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute in Miami, USA, which led to his special interest in neuro-ophthalmology. He was appointed to the Royal London Hospital in 1973. He had a particular interest in collecting books, especially those of Sir Frederick Treves. In 2000 he developed a tremor, which was found to be caused by a communicating hydrocephalus, for which he underwent shunt surgery. He died at Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge, on 21 March 2005.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000247
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Glashan, Robin Wattie (1933 - 2003)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-09-23 2012-03-22
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000000-E000099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372249372249
Occupation Urologist
Details Robin Wattie Glashan was a consultant urologist at Huddersfield Royal Infirmary. He was born in Aberdeen on 8 September 1933, the son of Gordon Mitchell Glashan, a bank manager, and Alexandra née Wattie, an art teacher. He was educated at Aberdeen Grammar School, where he excelled at his academic work and at athletics. He went on to study medicine at Aberdeen University, graduating in 1958. He then held house jobs at Aberdeen City Hospital and at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary. He initially moved to Shaftesbury in Dorset, where he worked as a general practitioner, but then resumed his hospital career. He was a senior house officer for a year at Stracathro Hospital near Brechin and then, from 1961 to 1962, taught anatomy and physiology at Queen's College, Dundee. He was then a senior house officer at Bristol Royal Infirmary. From 1963 to 1968 he was a registrar in surgery and then a senior registrar at Glasgow Royal Infirmary. In 1968 he was appointed to the Huddersfield Royal Infirmary as the first consultant in urological surgery, where he faced an enormous workload. He later organised a service for workers in the chemical and dyeing industries who were at risk of developing bladder cancer, working with experts in the field of occupational medicine. He was a founder member of the Yorkshire Urological Cancer Research Group in 1974, and of the urological group of the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC). He wrote many publications, including contributions on the use of cytotoxic chemotherapy for the use of invasive bladder cancer and on the epidemiology and management of occupational bladder cancer in west Yorkshire. He was an examiner for the final FRCS for the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh from 1980 to 1986, and was on the council of the British Association of Urological Surgeons (BAUS) from 1982 to 1985. He met his wife Wilma, a nurse, while he was at university and they married in 1959. They had two sons and two daughters - Robert, Susan, Moira and Angus. He retired due to poor health in 1991 when he was 57 and returned to Scotland, where he fished for salmon on the Dee. He died shortly before Christmas 2003.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000062
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Gourevitch, Arnold (1914 - 2004)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-09-23 2012-03-22
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000000-E000099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372250372250
Occupation General surgeon
Details Arnold Gourevitch was a consultant surgeon in Birmingham. He was born in Paris on 24 February 1914, the son of Russian Jewish émigrés. At the outbreak of the first world war his parents fled to England, eventually settling in Birmingham. His father, Mendel, later qualified as a doctor and became a general practitioner in Aston. Gourevitch was educated at King Edward VI School, Birmingham, and then went on to Birmingham University, where he qualified in medicine. Gourevitch joined the Territorial Army in 1938 and was commissioned into the Royal Army Medical Corps. He served with the TA Field Ambulance, part of the 145 Brigade, 48th South Midland Division, and accompanied them to France with the British Expeditionary Force. He was evacuated from La Baule, Brittany, where he had been manning a hospital with the help of a single orderly. He was posted to Leeds as RMO of the 10th West Yorkshire Regiment, before joining the surgical division of No 7 General Hospital. In April 1941 he disembarked at Suda bay in Crete, and established a hospital, near Galatas, west of Canea. The Germans advanced through the island, and Gourevitch was captured and held at a prisoner of war camp at Galatas. Here he organised a hospital for the many wounded. As the prisoners were being transferred to more secure accommodation, Gourevitch and an Australian surgeon decided to escape. They lived in caves and huts as fugitives, and were later picked up by Special Operations Executive and taken to Libya. Gourevitch was awarded the Military Cross for his actions. He was subsequently posted to the 8th Field Surgical Unit, part of the 2nd New Zealand division, and served with the unit at El Alamein. He later took part in the invasion of Sicily and the Italian campaign. He was mentioned in despatches at Monte Cassino and was in Trieste at the end of the war. Following his demobilisation in 1946, he was appointed as a consultant in general surgery at the Queen Elizabeth and Birmingham Children's Hospital. In 1969 he was elected to the Court of Examiners of the College. He presented two Hunterian lectures. In the early 1960s he spent time in Ethiopia, teaching and operating, and helping to support the development of a medical school. In 1973 he took time off to help Israeli surgeons during the Yom Kippur war. Gourevitch was an enthusiastic after-dinner speaker. He enjoyed squash, playing golf and hill walking. A natural linguist, he knew French, Russian, Hebrew and Greek. He also enjoyed painting. He married Corrine Natkiel in 1951. They had three sons (David, Daniel and Samuel) and two daughters (Gillian and Naomi). There are nine grandchildren. He died from pneumonia on 5 February 2004.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000063
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Wright, Peter (1932 - 2003)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-10-26
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000100-E000199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372331372331
Occupation Ophthalmologist
Details Peter Wright was a consultant ophthalmologist at Moorfields Hospital and a former President of the Royal College of Ophthalmologists. He was born in London on 7 September 1932, the son of William Victor Wright and Ada Amelie (née Craze). He was educated at St Clement Danes, and then went on to study medicine at King’s, London. After house jobs at King’s and Guy’s Maudsley neurosurgical unit, he joined the RAF for his National Service and became an ophthalmic specialist. He returned to Guy’s as a lecturer in anatomy and physiology, and then went to Moorfields to train in ophthalmology. He was appointed as a senior registrar at King’s and made a consultant in 1964. In 1973, he was appointed to Moorfields as a consultant, and in 1978 became full-time there. In 1980, he was appointed clinical sub-dean at the Institute of Ophthalmology. At Moorfields he was responsible for the external disease service, dealing with infection and inflammation in the anterior part of the eye. His research included collaborative studies on skin and eye diseases, and ocular immunity. These led to the identification of the Practolol oculocutaneous reaction, work that gave him an ongoing interest in adverse drug reactions. He was invited to lecture all over the world, and was a visiting professor at universities in India and Brazil. In 1991, he became the second President of the College of Ophthalmologists, and it was under his presidency that the College was granted a royal licence. He was the last President of the Ophthalmological Society of the United Kingdom, President of the ophthalmic section of the Royal Society of Medicine, ophthalmic adviser to the chief medical officer and consultant adviser to the Royal Society of Musicians of Great Britain. He received many honorary awards. In 1960, he married Elaine Catherine Donoghue, a consultant psychiatrist, by whom he had two daughters, Fiona and Candice, and one son Andrew, who sadly died in the Lockerbie air disaster. There are two granddaughters. His marriage was dissolved in 1992 and in the following year Peter retired from Moorfields and moved with his partner John Morris to Bovey Tracey, where he had time to renovate his Devon house and enjoy his major interest, classical music. He was an excellent pianist, superb cook, and fine host. He was a keen gardener and a founder member of the Nerine and Amaryllid Society of the Royal Horticultural Society. He died on 26 May 2003 from the complications of myeloid leukaemia.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000144
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Smellie, William Alastair Buchanan (1933 - 2010)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by N Alan Green
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/373229373229
Occupation General surgeon
Details Alastair Smellie was a much respected consultant general surgeon to Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge, with breast and endocrine specialist interests, a lecturer at the university and for many years a senior examiner for final MB BChir examinations. He was born on 17 May 1933 in Woking, Surrey, into a family with a long medical tradition. His father, William Buchanan Smellie, was a general practitioner-surgeon. His mother, Marie Louise Stephens, was the daughter of William Edgar Stephens, a solicitor. The medical ‘genes’ can be traced back to William Smellie (1697-1763), the well-known master of midwifery who flourished in London in the heyday of the Hunters, became a leading teacher and obstetrician, and whose name is associated with wooden forceps, later covered with leather. The continuous line of medical practitioners in the family is continued today by William James Buchanan Smellie, a consultant surgeon at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital. Alastair was educated first at Allen House preparatory school in Woking and then at Wellington College, where he boxed for the school and became house captain. He then went to Pembroke College, Cambridge, and on to St Thomas’ Hospital for his clinical studies. There he met Anne Fraser-Stephen, a medical student whom he married five years later. They were devoted to each other for the whole of their 50 years of marriage. Anne was the daughter of Lindley Fraser and granddaughter of Ridley MacKenzie, a doctor. Alastair qualified in 1957 and, after house appointments, entered the RAMC for National Service with the Grenadier Guards from 1960 to 1962, as a captain and surgical specialist. He was posted to the Cameroons, where he found goitre to be endemic. In his spare time he perfected what was to become one of his trademark operations, thyroidectomy. A staff sergeant administered ether for anaesthesia, a fact that Alastair frequently pointed out to anaesthetists in future years. He maintained his interest in the military, becoming an honorary colonel in the Territorial Army from 1985 to 1990. He returned to St Thomas’ as an anatomy demonstrator, and was then appointed to the busy post of resident assistant surgeon, remaining at St Thomas’, apart from a senior house officer post at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School and Hammersmith Hospital, and a year in research into organ transplantation at the Medical College of Virginia, which became the subject of his MChir thesis. During his year in America he became friendly with Tommy Johns, an American surgeon, who adopted the Smellie family. Alastair was able to show at a later date a similar generous friendship to young doctors in training under his supervision. He was then appointed as a senior lecturer in surgery to the University of Cambridge under Sir Roy Calne. From this post he moved to his definitive appointment as general surgeon to Addenbrooke’s Hospital, a position he held for 30 years, endocrine and breast surgery being his preferred specialties. During this period, Cambridge medicine saw huge changes with the building of the large new hospital, the foundation of the clinical medical school and an explosion in research. Alastair Smellie played a key role in Cambridge surgical education from medical students to senior trainees, and was responsible for guiding the paths of many present day UK consultants. He was made a member of the Travelling Surgical Club of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in 1974 and after two years of membership became honorary secretary and treasurer. Alastair was the fifth St Thomas’ graduate to occupy this onerous post, in the steps of William Wagstaffe of Oxford – the guiding force when Lord Moynihan was its’ first president – Philip Mitchiner, Sir Clement Price Thomas, Bob Nevin and Adrian Marston, who handed the baton to Alastair. With Anne at his side, Alastair proved to be very efficient and over the next six years organised many successful meetings at home and abroad. In our College, he was on the Court of Examiners and a regional adviser from 1971 to 1979. At Cambridge he served on the examination committee of the master of surgery and for many years organised the surgical component of the MB BChir. Invited examiners were able to enjoy the ‘Smellie’ hospitality the night before the vivas. On one occasion the snow fell heavily, and during the evening meal complimented with wines from Alastair’s cellar, frequent calls came from students who said they would never make the examination the next day. Alistair’s answer was brief: “Start walking now!” Above all, Alastair is remembered for his clinical work. He was a superb diagnostician and operator. He was very supportive of all hospital activities and will be remembered by those who knew him well for his unstinting support when they found themselves in difficulty. He published widely in general, vascular and the transplantation fields, was on the editorial board of the *British Journal of Surgery* and edited *Cambridge lectures in surgery* (Chapman and Hall, 1981). He had many interests outside medicine. He loved the Barbizon school of art and collected it wisely, just as he did fine porcelain and wine. His love of people and conversation, coupled with a marvellous sense of humour, made him an ideal companion at any scientific meeting or social event. A natural tennis player, he played against colleagues in Oxford most years. Taught to shoot by his father, Alastair loved the countryside, shooting pheasant in the Fens and grouse in Scotland. He was a keen fisherman who loved the serenity of the river banks in Norfolk and Scotland. For 28 years, he took a house on the Boreland estate in Scotland, where friends and their children enjoyed his hospitality and shot their first grouse and deer or caught their first salmon under his guidance. He served as chief medical officer at point-to-points in East Anglia, supported the hunts and withstood the cold weather when treating injured riders, although he was not a horseman himself. After the inaugural university tobogganing race, Alastair tried the sport himself at the age of 51, became addicted and for the next 15 years Alastair led parties of family and friends to St Moritz. He was on the board of governors of Radley and Uppingham schools. Alastair Smellie died suddenly but peacefully on 24 March 2010, and was survived by Anne, their daughter Claire (a teacher), James (a general surgeon) and Thomas (a financial consultant), and eight grandchildren.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001046
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Story, Harold Frederick Rowe (1924 - 2009)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

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/373231373231
Occupation Urologist
Details Harold Story was a urologist at the Royal Melbourne Hospital and at the Austin Hospital, Heidelberg, Victoria. He was born in Melbourne on 8 November 1924 and was educated at Melbourne University High School and Melbourne University, where he was awarded a prosectorship and Dwight’s anatomy prize. On qualifying, he was a resident medical officer at the Royal Melbourne Hospital (from 1947 to 1948) and then became a demonstrator in anatomy while studying for the primary, at which he won the Gordon Taylor prize in 1949. He did junior posts at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, as a demonstrator in clinical surgery, in anatomy and in pathological histology. He then went to England to study for the final FRCS. Having passed the fellowship, he became a urological registrar at the Whittington Hospital and was later a clinical registrar and then a senior surgical registrar (resident surgical officer) at St Peter’s Hospital for Stone (from 1955 to 1956), where he worked under Alec Badenoch, John Sandrey and David Wallace. He then returned to the Royal Melbourne Hospital, at first as an associate assistant to J B Somerset and later as an honorary surgeon. He was the first urologist at the Austin Hospital, where he set up a urological department and remained its head for more than 40 years, becoming an expert in the treatment of urological tuberculosis and spinal injuries, and in particular the treatment of the large staghorn stones, which occurred in these patients. He was also the first urologist at the Peter MacCallum Clinic (Cancer Institute). He was a wing commander in the Specialist Reserve for the Royal Australian Air Force He married Jean Lesley McKenzie and they had two sons, Rowan (an oral and maxillofacial surgeon) and Ian. His many interests included the history of surgery and of surgical instruments, and he was the honorary curator of the collection at the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons. In 2005, a Harold Story Memorial annual lecture was inaugurated. He died on 12 July 2009.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001048
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Tainsh, John McNeill ( - 2007)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2010-10-14 2012-03-09
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/373232373232
Occupation General surgeon
Details John Tainsh passed the FRCS in 1946 and returned to Vancouver, where his death on 3 January 2007 was notified to the College by his daughter.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001049
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Tooms, Douglas ( - 2007)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

First Title value, for Searching Graves, Frederick Thomas (1919 - 2003)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

First Title value, for Searching Green, James Patrick (1930 - 2004)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-09-28
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000000-E000099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372252372252
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon
Details Jim Green was a consultant orthopaedic surgeon at Pilgrim Hospital, Boston, Lincolnshire. He was born on 17 March 1930 in Sheffield and attended High Storrs Grammar School, before going to Sheffield University in 1947. He had a great interest in anything to do with science, particularly physics and mathematics, often wondering whether he should have followed that particular path. Neither of his parents were medical. His father, Leonard Green, was a sergeant in the police force, and his mother, Edna Winifred Maxfield, was a teacher. His sister, Valerie White, also trained in medicine and entered general practice. After qualifying and following house appointments, he joined the RAMC for National Service in 1954 and reached the rank of major. A degree of boredom led him to study German, passing O-level in that subject. This stimulated a love of languages, particularly Russian, and he attended classes virtually up until the time of his death. Returning to Sheffield for two years as a demonstrator of anatomy from 1956, he was a general surgical registrar at the Royal Infirmary, Sheffield, from 1961 to 1963. He decided to specialise in orthopaedics, first as a registrar from 1963 to 1964, and then as a senior registrar at Harlow Wood Orthopaedic Hospital, Mansfield, until 1968. On obtaining the Alan Malkin travelling fellowship in 1967, he spent six weeks gaining further experience in western Europe. He was appointed consultant orthopaedic surgeon to Pilgrim Hospital, Boston, in 1968 and remained there until he retired in 1996. Never one to take centre stage, he preferred to work away quietly in his own surroundings in the company of local colleagues, friends and family. After retirement he continued with medico-legal work. A quiet, modest man who was devoted to the care of his patients, he was recognised for a meticulous approach in all his work. He was a ‘direct’ Yorkshire man, whose love for patients was only matched by a greater one for his family. He had many hobbies. He loved astronomy, sailing and maritime navigation, and he gained qualifications in radio-communication. A member of the Witham Sailing Club, he loved to escape to the Wash in his 27-foot yacht. He was prominent in masonic lodges in Sheffield and Boston, a keen gardener, and a member of the Boston Preservation Society. He had played the violin in his school orchestra, and his love of music never failed. He married Pamela née Scott (known as ‘Frankie’) in 1968. She had been a district midwife and then did a full-time secretarial course, which proved a great asset to Jim in his work. They had four children, the eldest, Deborah, trained at Sheffield and is a part-time general practitioner in Leeds. In January 2001 Jim developed non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, and over the next three years underwent repeated courses of chemotherapy, ultimately requiring dialysis for renal failure. He died from multiple organ failure in St James’s Hospital, Leeds, on 29 January 2004.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000065
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Griffiths, Donald Barry (1921 - 2004)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-09-28 2012-03-22
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000000-E000099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372253372253
Occupation General surgeon
Details Donald Griffiths was a consultant general surgeon in Aberystwyth. He was born in Colwyn Bay on 12 March 1921, the son of Thomas Owen Griffiths, a science master, and Alice Adelaide, the daughter of a tailor. He was educated at Penmaenrhoe Council School and Colwyn Bay County School, and was Denbighshire county scholar. He studied medicine at University College Hospital, with a physiology scholarship, qualifying in 1943. He held house appointments at New End Hospital and at Queen Mary's, Carshalton, and was a registrar at Bethnal Green Hospital and Epsom District Hospital. During the war he served with the RAMC in West Africa and Greece. After the war, he returned to the professorial surgical unit at UCH, where he held the John Marshall fellowship. He was appointed as a consultant general surgeon at Aberystwyth in 1960 and later at the newly built Bronglais Hospital. He was President of the Aberystwyth division of the BMA in 1972 and was awarded the BMA certificate of commendation in 1994. A member of the Welsh Surgical Society, he travelled widely to their meetings. Late in his career he developed a severe illness of the hands, caused by surgical gloves, but recovered and resumed his duties. A delightful, gregarious person, he knew everyone in the little village of Llanon in Cardiganshire where he retired. A keen football supporter, he was a former chairman of Aberystwyth Town Football Club. Recovering for surgery for aortic stenosis, he remained active until shortly before his death from heart failure on 12 April 2004. He leaves a widow, Mary, and five children.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000066
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Hall, Hedley Walter (1907 - 2003)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

First Title value, for Searching Hall, Rodney John (1928 - 2003)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-09-28 2012-03-22
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000000-E000099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372255372255
Occupation General surgeon
Details Rodney John Hall was a surgeon in Adelaide, South Australia. He was born on 7 April 1928 at Waikerie, South Australia, and studied medicine at the University of Melbourne, graduating in 1957. He was a resident medical officer at the Bendigo and Northern District Bone Hospital from 1957 to 1958. He then spent almost as year as a locum in suburban practices in Melbourne. From March 1959 to December 1960 he was a full-time demonstrator in anatomy at the University of Melbourne. He was then appointed as a surgical registrar at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Woodville, South Australia, a post he held until February 1963. He then travelled to the UK, where he was a registrar at Oldchurch Hospital, Essex. He returned to Australia, where he was a registrar at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Adelaide, from 1966 to 1970. He was a visiting medical officer at the hospital between 1972 and 1977. From 1979 to 1998 he was on the staff of the University of Adelaide. He was a medical officer to the Adelaide Community Health Service from 1981 to 1991. He died on 24 November 2003.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000068
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Harrison, Sir Donald Frederick Norris (1925 - 2003)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-09-28
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000000-E000099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372256372256
Occupation ENT surgeon
Details Donald Harrison was a leading ear, nose and throat surgeon who campaigned against chewing tobacco. He was born in Portsmouth on 9 March 1925, the son of Frederick William Rees Harrison OBE JP, the principal of the College of Technology for Monmouthshire, and Florence Norris. He was educated at Newport High School and then went on to study medicine at Guy’s. After junior posts at Guy’s and the Royal Gwent Hospital, Newport, he did his National Service in the Royal Air Force, during which time he developed an interest in ear, nose and throat surgery. As a registrar at Shrewsbury Eye and Ear Hospital he saw a five-year-old child who had just had a tonsillectomy bleed to death because there was no blood bank at the hospital. This led Harrison to campaign against unnecessary tonsillectomy. In 1962, he was appointed to the Royal National Ear, Nose and Throat Hospital as a consultant surgeon and a year later, in 1963, became a professor at the Institute of Laryngology and Otology. Early in his career he became interested in malignant disease of the upper respiratory tract, especially of the larynx and upper jaw, and gained an international reputation in this area, publishing more than 200 articles and several books. He warned the public about the hazards of chewing tobacco and campaigned for the Government to ban the sale of Skoals Bandits. A brilliant speaker who used no notes, he was widely sought after as a lecturer. In 1972, he gave the Wilde oration, given in memory of Oscar’s father, Sir William Wilde, and in 1974 the Semon lecture, named after Sir Felix Semon, a Victorian laryngologist whose biography he had written. He also gave talks on Richard III and the princes in the Tower and was convinced that while one of the princes’ jaws was not authentic, the other was, since it showed traces of hereditary disease. He retired in 1990, was knighted for his services to ear, nose and throat surgery, and was made an emeritus consultant to Moorfields Eye Hospital. In 1993, he was made a fellow of the Royal College of Ophthalmologists. A keen supporter of the Royal Society of Medicine, he became its President in 1994. In 1995 he published *The anatomy and physiology of the mammalian larynx* (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press), based on his personal collection of more than a thousand mammalian larynges, many of which came from the London Zoo, including that of Guy the gorilla. He married Audrey Clubb, who predeceased him. They had two daughters. He had many leisure interests, notably radio-controlled model boats and heraldry, and, after the death of his wife, gourmet cooking. He died on 12 April 2003 of bowel cancer.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000069
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Harvey, Ronald Marsden (1918 - 2004)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

First Title value, for Searching Hashemian, Hassan Agha (1915 - 2003)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-09-28 2012-03-22
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000000-E000099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372258372258
Occupation General surgeon
Details Hassan Agha Hashemian was a professor of surgery and head of the department of surgery at the Cancer Institute, Tehran. He was born in Kashan, Iran, on 14 April 1915, the son of Hossein Hashemian, a velvet merchant, and Nagar, a housewife. He was educated at Tehran Boys School, and then received a scholarship from the Shah to study in Europe. He attended the Lycée Francais in Paris and went on to University College London Medical School. He was a house surgeon at St Antony's Hospital, Cheam, and then a resident surgical officer at West Herts. He then moved on to Central Middlesex Hospital, where he was a senior casualty officer, then a surgical registrar in the department of urology and subsequently in the department of neurosurgery. He became a senior surgical registrar in 1948 and was appointed to the senior staff as an assistant surgeon in 1953. In 1956 he was invited to open up a large cancer institute in Tehran, Iran. The institute received many visitors, including Sir Stanford Cade, Sir Brian Windeyer and Sir Francis Avery-Jones. He was a past President of the Iranian National Surgical Society and of the International College of Surgeons. He was a fellow of the Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland and of the British Oncological Society. He retired in 2001. He married Marjorie Bell, also a doctor, in 1947 and they had two children - Michael Parviz and Moneer Susan. He died on 3 September 2003.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000071
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Hayes, Brian Robert (1929 - 2004)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

First Title value, for Searching Hayes, George ( - 2004)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

First Title value, for Searching Hendry, William Garden (1914 - 2003)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

First Title value, for Searching Hooton, Norman Stanwell (1921 - 2004)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-09-28 2012-03-22
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000000-E000099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372262372262
Occupation Thoracic surgeon
Details Norman Stanwell Hooton was a consultant thoracic surgeon in the south east Thames region. He was born in Warwick on 8 November 1921, the only child of Leonard Stanwell Hooton, a land commissioner, and Marion Shaw Brown née Sanderson. He was educated at Oundle School and then went on to Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, and King's College Hospital, where he won the Jelf medal in 1944 and the Legg prize in surgery in 1949. He was house physician to Terence East at the Horton Emergency Medical Service Hospital, Epsom, in 1945, and subsequently a registrar in the thoracic surgical unit. In 1950 he was a resident surgical officer at the Dreadnought Seaman's Hospital and from 1951 to 1955 a senior surgical registrar at Brook Hospital in south London. He was subsequently appointed as a consultant thoracic surgeon to the South East Metropolitan Regional Hospital Board, working at Brook Hospital, Grove Park Hospital, at Hastings, and at Kent and Sussex Hospital, Tunbridge Wells. He married Katherine Frances Mary née Pendered, the daughter of J H Pendered, a Fellow of the College, in 1951. They had two sons and five grandchildren. Norman Hooton died on 6 September 2004 after a long illness.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000075
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Horton, Robert Elmer (1917 - 2003)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-09-28 2007-08-23
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000000-E000099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372263372263
Occupation General surgeon
Details Bob Horton was a consultant surgeon at the United Bristol Hospitals. He was born in south London on 5 July 1917, the son of Arthur John Budd Horton, a schoolteacher, and Isabel Horton née Cotton, the daughter of a master mariner. He was educated at the Haberdashers’ Aske’s School, and studied medicine at Guy’s Hospital. He volunteered for the RAMC after completing his house posts. During the London Blitz he showed outstanding courage in rescuing casualties from a bombed building, which earned him the MBE. He was sent to India and Burma, to the Arakan campaign, where he initially commanded a frontline surgical unit, subsequently leading a surgical division at the General Hospital, Rangoon. He served for six years and was raised to the rank of colonel. He returned to Guy’s to complete his surgical training under Sir Russell Brock, and was then appointed senior lecturer and consultant at Bristol Royal Infirmary under Robert Milnes Walker. At Bristol he pioneered vascular surgery at a time when it was an uncertain specialty to pursue. He had a special interest in post-traumatic vascular injuries resulting from industrial and motorcycle accidents, publishing surgical articles and a textbook on the subject. On Milnes Walker’s retirement he joined Bill Capper to create a very popular firm. He also worked at the Bristol Homeopathic surgical unit. A pioneer of day case surgery, he was for a time clinical dean. His writings brought him international recognition. In 1977 he held a one-year appointment as foundation professor of surgery at King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah. He found the post challenging (the hospital building was not even completed when he arrived), but he did establish undergraduate teaching, regular conferences and a Primary FRCS course. In January 1980 he was asked by the Minister of Health in Libya to carry out a cholecystectomy on the wife of Colonel Gaddafi. He was encouraged to go by the British ambassador in Tripoli, who was concerned that the colonel would call in a surgeon from Eastern Europe if he declined. Horton carried out the operation in Benghazi and returned home in five days. Horton was a loyal member of the Surgical Travellers and travelled widely with them. He was an examiner for the Primary and Final FRCS and became chairman of the Court of Examiners in 1972. He was a Hunterian Professor in 1974, and was a valuable member of the Annals editorial team, in association with the then editors, his longstanding friend Tony Rains and R M (Jerry) Kirk. Apart from his surgical career, he studied painting in oils and frequently exhibited at the Royal West of England Academy. He was a member of the Bristol Shakespeare Club, the Hawk and Owl Trust, and was a member of council and later president of the Bristol Zoo. He married Pip Naylor in 1945 and they had two sons, John and Tim. His wife predeceased him in 1985. He died on 2 January 2003.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000076
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching House, Howard Payne (1907 - 2003)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-09-28 2013-10-11
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000000-E000099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372264372264
Occupation Otolaryngologist ENT surgeon
Details Howard Payne House was a pioneering ear specialist. During his long career he treated thousands of patients, including Howard Hughes, Bob Hope and the former President, Ronald Reagan. A graduate of the University of Southern California's Keck School of Medicine, House perfected the wire loop technique to replace the stapes bone of the middle ear and developed procedures to reconstruct middle ear parts. In 1946 he established the House Ear Institute as a research facility dedicated to the advancement of hearing research and education. A year later, he was appointed Chairman of the subcommittee on noise and directed the national study on industrial noise that set the Occupational Safety and Health Administration hearing conservation standards in use today. House was head of the department of otolaryngology at University of Southern California School of Medicine from 1952 to 1961 and served on the faculty as clinical professor of otology. House received numerous awards and honorary degrees. He served as President of many professional associations in the US, including the American Academy of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery and the American Otological Society. He was awarded the University of Southern California's outstanding career service award, and was named a physician of the year by the California Governor's committee for employment of the handicapped. House died from heart failure on 1 August 2003 at St Vincent Medical Center, Los Angeles. He is survived by his sons, Kenneth and John, and his daughter Carolyn, and nine grandchildren.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000077
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Howkins, John (1907 - 2003)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-09-28 2007-08-09
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000000-E000099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372265372265
Occupation Gynaecologist
Details John Howkins was a gynaecological surgeon at St Bartholomew’s Hospital, London. He was born in Hartlepool, County Durham, on 17 December 1907, the son of John Drysdale Howkins, a civil engineer, and Helen Louise née Greenwood, the daughter of a bank manager. He was educated at Cargilfield Preparatory School and was then a scholar at Shrewsbury, where he was a prefect, and developed a lifelong interest in fast cars. This led to a temporary set-back: he was spotted driving a girl in his Frazer-Nash, reported to the headmaster, and expelled. This did not prevent him winning an arts entrance scholarship to the Middlesex Hospital, where he fell under the spell of Victor Bonney. After qualifying, he did junior jobs at the Middlesex and the Chelsea Hospital for Women, and then became resident assistant physician-accoucheur at Bart’s. He also gained his masters in surgery, his MD (with a gold medal) and his FRCS. At the outbreak of war he joined the RAF, rising to Wing-Commander and senior surgical specialist, eventually becoming deputy chief consultant to the WAAF. At the end of the war he returned to Bart’s, where a post was created for him. He was subsequently appointed to the Hampstead General and the Royal Masonic Hospitals. He was a prolific writer, talking over *Bonney’s Textbook of gynaecology* as well as Shaw’s textbooks of *Gynaecology* and *Operative gynaecology*. He was Hunterian Professor of the College in 1947 and was awarded the Meredith Fletcher Shaw memorial lectureship of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists in 1975. Small in stature, he was an accomplished skier, and chairman of the Ski Club of Great Britain, and had a memorable sense of humour. He enjoyed salmon fishing and renovating old houses. In retirement he took up sheep farming in Wales. He married Lena Brown in 1940. They had one son and two daughters. He died on 6 May 2003.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000078
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Hudson, James Ralph (1916 - 2003)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-09-28
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000000-E000099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372266372266
Occupation Ophthalmic surgeon
Details James Hudson was an ophthalmic surgeon at Moorfields in London. He was born on 15 February 1916 in New Britain, Connecticut, USA. His father, William Shand, was a mechanical engineer and farmer. His mother was Ethel Summerskill. He was educated in Massachusetts, at Winchester County Day School and then Belmont High School, before he went to England, where he attended the King’s School, Canterbury, and then Middlesex Hospital, where he was Edmund Davis exhibitioner. After qualifying, he joined the RAFVR, where he rose to the rank of Squadron Leader. In 1947, he went to Moorfields as a clinical assistant, trained in ophthalmology, and was appointed consultant in 1956 to Moorfields and to Guy’s Hospital. He also held posts at the King Edward VII Hospital for Officers, the Hospital of St John and St Elizabeth, London, and ran a private practice in Wimpole Street. He retired in 1981. He was a most competent general eye surgeon. An expert in surgical technique rather than an innovator, he devoted much of his time to the diagnosis and management of retinal detachment in an era when subspecialisation within ophthalmology was still new. In this field he made his reputation. For 25 years he presided over the retinal unit at the High Holborn branch of Moorfields, setting new standards by his unique and thorough methods of retinal examination and his meticulous records. His patients included the Duke of Windsor. He taught by example, and juniors soon learned that the soft cough at the end of a case presentation meant that something was not to his liking. He wrote chapters in Matthew’s *Recent advances in the surgery of trauma* and contributed to Rob and Rodney Smith’s *Operative surgery.* He was President of the Ophthalmological Society of the United Kingdom and the Faculty of Ophthalmologists, representing that faculty on the Council of the College. He was an examiner in ophthalmology to the Court of Examiners of the College. He was consultant adviser in ophthalmology to the DHSS and a civilian ophthalmic consultant to the RAF. His services were recognised by the award of the CBE in 1976. Abroad he was a respected member of the Société Française d’Ophtalmologie and represented the United Kingdom on several European committees. He was a member of the International Council of Ophthalmology and helped found the Jules Gonin Club, an worldwide association of retinal experts. He was interested in motoring, travel and cine-photography. He married Margaret May Oulpe, the daughter of a translator, in 1946. They had four children (Ann, Jamie, Sarah and Andrew) and five grandchildren (Matthew, Timothy, Mark, Jessica and Olivia). He died after a long illness on 30 December 2003.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000079
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Hulbert, Kenneth Frederick (1912 - 2003)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

First Title value, for Searching Jayasekera, Kodituwakku Gnanapala ( - 2001)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

First Title value, for Searching Johnson-Gilbert, Ronald Stuart (1925 - 2003)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-10-12 2012-03-22
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000000-E000099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372269372269
Occupation Administrator College secretary
Details Ronald Stuart Johnson-Gilbert, or 'J-G' as he was known with affection throughout the College, was our secretary from 1962 to 1988. He was born on 14 July 1925, the son of Sir Ian A Johnson-Gilbert CBE and Rosalind Bell-Hughes, and was proud to be a descendant of Samuel Johnson. He was educated at the Edinburgh Academy and Rugby, from which he won an exhibition in classics and an open scholarship to Brasenose College, Oxford. During the second world war he served in the Intelligence Corps from 1943 to 1946 and learnt Japanese. On demobilisation he became a trainee with the John Lewis partnership for a year and then joined the College on the administrative staff in 1951, becoming the sixth secretary in 1962, having previously been secretary of the Faculties of Dental Surgery and Anaesthetists. He worked under 13 presidents, from Lord Porritt to Sir Ian Todd, bringing to everything he did an exceptional administrative skill, an ability to write succinct and lucid prose, an unrivalled knowledge of the most arcane by-laws of the College and above all an unruffable charm. He served as secretary to the board of trustees of the Hunterian Collection, the Joint Conference of Surgical Colleges and the International Federation of Surgical Colleges. He was the recipient of the John Tomes medal of the British Dental Association, the McNeill Love medal of our College and the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons medal. He served the Hunterian Collection as a trustee for 10 years. A skilled golfer, his other interests included music, painting, literature and writing humorous verse. He married Anne Weir Drummond in 1951 and they had three daughters, Clare, Emma and Lydia. He died on 23 April 2003.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000082
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Jonas, Ernest George Gustav (1924 - 2003)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

First Title value, for Searching Jones, Bruce Victor (1919 - 2005)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-10-12
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000000-E000099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372271372271
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon
Details Surgeon captain Bruce Jones RN was born on 26 June 1919 at Ringwood, Hants, the first son of Ernest Victor Jones, a dental surgeon, and Gladys Maud Jones née Sloper. He was educated at Great Ballard School near Hilton, Hants. He then moved on the Sherborne School. Initially, he started dental training at the Royal Dental Hospital in 1938 and was awarded certificates of honour, but did not qualify as a dental surgeon. In 1939, because of the war, he transferred to Charing Cross Medical School which had been evacuated to Glasgow. After qualifying MRCS in 1943 and MB in 1944 he joined the Royal Navy, serving as a surgeon lieutenant at sea, on HMS Aberdeen. In 1947, after demobilisation, he did a good surgical rotation at Poole and Hertford General Hospitals and the old Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, passing his FRCS in 1949. Orthopaedics fascinated him: he had appointments at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital in London and Heatherwood Orthopaedic Hospital in Ascot. The Royal Navy called, so in 1954 he rejoined on a permanent commission as surgeon lieutenant commander, specialist in orthopaedics. There followed the normal service rotation of orthopaedic jobs in RN hospitals in Chatham, Kent, Hong Kong and HMS Ganges, the RN boys training establishment in Shotley, Suffolk. The Armed Services Consultant Approval Board at the RCS appointed him as a consultant in orthopaedic surgery in 1959. Bruce was then posted to Mauritius to establish joint services medical facilities. He returned to the UK in 1961, to the RN Hospital Stonehouse, Plymouth, Devon, then to RN Hospital Haslar as senior consultant in orthopaedics and later adviser to the medical director general of the Royal Navy. During this time he was delighted to be seconded on an operational posting to the aircraft carrier HMS Albion, the task to cover HM forces’ withdrawal from Aden. He was promoted to surgeon captain during this voyage whilst en route to Singapore. From 1968 to 1976 he was an honorary surgeon to HM the Queen. Later he was a brother of the Knights of Malta. He was a fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine for over 50 years and a fellow of the British Orthopaedic Association. Bruce was very keen on inter-service cooperation and initiated the Joint Services Orthopaedic Club. He was a keen and stimulating chairman who encouraged surgeons from the Army and RAF to take a full part in its activities. After retiring in 1976, he became a civil consultant to the RAF Hospital Wroughton, finally retiring in 1984. He was a keen sailor and photographer, and developed a productive interest in beekeeping. Fly fishing and entomology were other interests. Bruce married Sheila Ray Hogarth – a descendent of the painter – in May 1954 and they had two sons. James Victor Hogarth Jones was born in 1955 and is now head of farm business management at the Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester. Bruce Jonathon Hogarth Jones, born in 1959, is now a lawyer with Citibank London. Bruce was an excellent orthopaedic surgeon with a keen interest in the correction of recurrent shoulder dislocation, a common service problem, and hand surgery. When asked how he would like to be remembered, he stated: “conscientious and thorough and unsparing attention to patients’ needs”. That summed up his life as a naval surgeon. He died on 28 February 2005 after many years of infirmity, patiently borne.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000084
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Jones, Rhys Tudor Brackley (1925 - 2003)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-10-12
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000000-E000099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372272372272
Occupation General surgeon
Details Air Vice Marshal Rhys Tudor Brackley Jones was born on 16 November 1925 in Middlesex, the son of the late Sir Edgar and Lady Jones. He studied medicine at St Mary’s Hospital, where he qualified MRCS LRCP in April 1950 and became a house surgeon there. His surgical training rotation continued at Harold Wood Hospital, becoming a junior surgical registrar, before call up for National Service by the Royal Air Force in September 1952. He married Irene Lilian Henderson in August 1953. He was rapidly promoted to squadron leader in 1954 whilst serving at the RAF Hospital Wroughton. Typical service annual moves to RAF Hospitals Nocton Hall, Weeton, Uxbridge, Ely and Wegberg happened until 1960, when he passed his FRCS and was posted on active service to the RAF Hospital in Aden. This was a period of terrorist activity and he rapidly gained extensive experience in battle surgery. After returning to the UK, he continued as a general surgeon, gaining the wide experience the service required, before being promoted to wing commander in 1963. He had a sabbatical year and was appointed as a consultant by the Armed Services Consultant Approval Board at the College in 1967. An overseas posting to RAF Hospital Changi soon followed, where a wide range of general surgery was undertaken. After returning to the UK he had a further period of external study before being promoted to group captain. He was soon posted to the RAF Hospital Wegberg as the senior consultant. This hospital was at the western end of British Forces Germany and he was responsible for the surgical treatment of the Army as well as the RAF. He was a very capable surgeon and this was soon recognised by the Army surgeons, with whom he established an excellent working relationship. In 1978 he went to the senior RAF Hospital the Princess Mary’s and was in charge of the Stanford Cade unit, where all the RAF cases of malignant disease were treated. In 1982 he was appointed as a consultant adviser in surgery and was soon promoted to air commodore. This was a busy and difficult period following the Falklands war, and included the dissolution of all military hospitals. In 1987 he was promoted to air vice marshal, with responsibility for all postgraduate training of RAF medical officers. He rapidly became the senior consultant of the RAF and honorary surgeon to the Queen. He retired in 1990 and died suddenly on 8 December 2003.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000085
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Kell, Robert Anthony (1939 - 2003)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-10-12 2006-12-07
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000000-E000099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372273372273
Occupation ENT surgeon
Details Robert Anthony Kell, known as ‘Robin’, was a consultant ear, nose and throat surgeon at the Victoria Infirmary and Southern General Hospital, Glasgow. He was born in Bishop Auckland, County Durham, in 1939, the son of William Kell, a colliery manager and Lilian. His mother died from leukaemia when Robin was only seven, and he was brought up by his father and stepmother, Ann, in Acomb. He was educated at the Friends’ School, Brookfield, Wigton, a co-educational boarding school, where his report reads: “he will develop not only into a first class scientist but also a man of wide sympathies and a strong social conscience”. He had hoped to follow in his father’s footsteps, but failed the coal board medical due to his eyesight. After graduating from St Andrews in 1963, he trained at Dundee Royal and the department of anatomy, Dundee. He began his ENT training in Dundee, but then moved to the Liverpool ENT Hospital to develop this interest further. He was appointed to his consultant posts in Glasgow in 1972. He was the clinical director for ENT at the Victoria Infirmary and Southern General Hospital for many years. His main interests were in audiology, the middle ear, and head and neck oncology. Robin served on the council for the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow, was President of the Scottish ENT Society and was an examiner for the intercollegiate board. He married Babs Scorgie, whom he met while working in Dundee. An expert pianist, he enjoyed music, playing the fiddle, and played with the Strathspey and Reel Society. He was also a keen traveller, particularly enjoying visiting Italy, the Lake District and west Cork. He died from metastatic prostate cancer on 17 December 2003, leaving a daughter, Valerie, and two sons, Alistair and Malcolm Kell, a general surgeon and a Fellow of our College. There are two grandchildren, Ruby and Genevieve.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000086
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Kenyon, John Richard (1919 - 2004)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

First Title value, for Searching Stephens, John Pendered (1919 - 2004)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-11-02 2012-03-09
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000100-E000199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372342372342
Occupation General surgeon
Details John Stephens was a general surgeon at Norfolk and Norwich Hospital. He was born on 29 March 1919 in Northamptonshire, where his father was an engineer with farming interests. Educated at Stowe School, his scholastic achievements were complimented by a flair for sport, particularly rugby. At Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, he read natural sciences, played for the University XV (winning a wartime blue) and represented the University at tennis. Clinical training followed at St Bartholomew's Hospital during the Blitz, where he captained a strong Bart's rugby XV. He held house appointments with J Basil Hume at Friern Barnet, one of the hospitals used by Bart's during its evacuation from London. On joining the RAMC in 1943, he served as regimental medical officer to the 1st Battalion Sierra Leone African Regiment in Sierra Leone, Burma and India. His release testimonial described him as "…a first class officer who fully understands the African soldier and as a result exerts an excellent influence over the whole battalion". Returning to civilian life in 1947, he passed the Cambridge qualifying examination, followed by the FRCS a year later. Further surgical experience was gained as a supernumerary registrar with J Basil Hume and Alan Hunt at Bart's, during which time he continued to play rugby for Bart's, Blackheath, Northampton and Kent. In 1952, John went to Norwich as a surgical registrar to the Norfolk and Norwich and allied hospitals, including the Jenny Lind Hospital for Children and the West Norwich Hospital. This widened an already good general surgical base, to which he added thoracic and cardiac procedures. He gained his masters in surgery in 1953 and in 1955 he was appointed as a consultant general surgeon in Norwich. He developed an interest in breast diseases and, as an enthusiastic protagonist of immunology and the use of BCG therapy for breast cancer, was ahead of his times. Sadly, he never published his results. He was a modest, charming man, with an excellent sense of humour. Despite having large hands, he was a gifted surgeon - those working with him admired his all round ability and remarkable clinical judgement. Norfolk suited his balanced life, combining medical practice with his outside pursuits. Ever a countryman at heart, he loved his thatched house at Bergh Apton, with its large garden, greenhouses and trees. He was a golfer, fly fisherman, ornithologist, skier and an excellent shot, rearing pheasants for his own shoot. Sailing was an abiding interest. In retirement he kept his boat on the west coast of Scotland. Retiring in 1984, his last few years were dogged by immobility due to spinal stenosis. John died on 11 April 2004 at the age of 85, and is survived by his wife, Barbara, two daughters and a son.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000155
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-11-02 2007-02-09
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000100-E000199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372343372343
Occupation General surgeon Vascular surgeon
Details Clive Stephenson was born in Wellington, New Zealand, on 12 November 1933 and was educated at Scots College. He studied medicine at Wellington, where he qualified in 1957, held house posts and was a surgical registrar. After a year demonstrating anatomy in Otago, he went to London in 1962 to specialise in surgery and completed SHO jobs at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital for a year, and registrar posts at Bristol Royal Infirmary and Hackney General Hospital. In 1965 he was a lecturer in surgery at St Mary’s Hospital, London, where he became particularly interested in vascular surgery. He went on to be a senior registrar at Chelmsford for two further years. In 1969 he returned to Wellington as a full-time vascular and general surgeon, becoming surgical tutor in 1970, and finally visiting vascular and general surgeon at Wellington Hospital in 1971, a post he combined with that of visiting general surgeon at Hutt Hospital. He died in Lower Hutt on 3 July 2003.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000156
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Thackray, Alan Christopher (1914 - 2004)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

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

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

First Title value, for Searching King, Philip Austin (1918 - 2004)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

First Title value, for Searching Kirklin, John Webster (1917 - 2004)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-10-12
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000000-E000099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372277372277
Occupation Cardiovascular surgeon
Details John Kirklin, former chairman of the department of surgery at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, revolutionised cardiovascular surgery through his development and refinement of the heart-lung machine. Throughout his life, he sought new methods and techniques to improve the care of patients. Born in Muncie, Indiana, on 5 August 1917, his father was director of radiology at the Mayo Clinic. John earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Minnesota in 1938. He then went on to Harvard, where he gained his medical degree in 1942. He completed an internship at the University of Pennsylvania Hospital in Philadelphia and then served as a fellow in surgery at the Mayo Clinic. From 1944 to 1946 he served in the US Army, with the rank of Captain. He then spent six months at the Boston Children’s Hospital. In 1950, he joined the staff of the Mayo Clinic, pioneering the development of cardiovascular surgery and performing the first operations for a range of congenital heart malformations. He also modified the Gibbon machine, improving the original pumping and oxygenator system, and performed the world’s first series of open-heart operations using a heart-lung machine. At Mayo he became chairman of the department of surgery, and trained the next generation of cardiovascular surgeons from all over the world. In 1966, Kirklin joined the faculty of the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) as chairman of the department of surgery and the surgeon in chief for UAB Hospital. He held these positions until 1982, during which time he built one of the most prestigious cardiovascular surgical programmes in the world. He retired from surgery in 1989. He wrote more than more than 700 publications, but he often stated that his greatest contribution was his textbook, *Cardiac surgery: morphology, diagnostic criteria, natural history, techniques, results, and indications* (Churchill Livingstone, 1956), which remains an important reference text in the field. He also served on multiple editorial boards and served as editor of *The Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery.* He received many awards, including the American Heart Association research achievement award (in 1976), the Rudolph Matas award in vascular surgery, the Rene Leriche prize of the International Society of Surgery and the American Surgical Association medallion for scientific achievement. In 1972 he was awarded the Lister medal by the College. Many universities awarded him honorary degrees, including the Hamline University, St Paul, Minnesota, Indiana University, Georgetown University, the University of Munich, Germany, and Bordeau and Marseille Universities, France. He was a member of more than 60 local, state, national and international associations and scientific societies, including the American Association for Thoracic Surgery (serving as President from 1978 to 1979), the American College of Cardiology, the American Heart Association, the American College of Surgeons and the National Academy of Sciences Institute of Medicine. His wife Margaret Katherine was a physician. They had two sons and a daughter. The Kirklins have continued the medical tradition: his son is a cardiac surgeon and director of cardiothoracic transplantation at UAB, and his grandson is a medical student at UAB. John died on 21 April 2004 from complications from a head injury that occurred in January. The new clinic at Birmingham Alabama, designed by the world-famous architect I M Pei, is named in his honour.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000090
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Leacock, Sir Aubrey Gordon (1918 - 2003)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-10-12 2012-03-14
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000000-E000099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372278372278
Occupation General surgeon
Details Sir Aubrey Gordon Leacock, known as 'Jack', was a leading consultant surgeon in Barbados. He was born on 27 October 1918 in Barbados, into an established Bridgetown family. His father, Sir Stephen Leacock, was a leading merchant. He received his early education in Barbados, at Harrison College. In 1928, he won a scholarship to Rugby, from which he went on to Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, where he took first class honours. He went on to St Bartholomew's for his clinical training. He was a senior registrar at St George's, Tooting, and was on blood transfusion duty at the Channel ports when the British Expeditionary Force came back from Dunkirk, a heart condition having prevented him from active service. His interest was always in surgery and he became a senior registrar at St Bartholomew's when many of the consultant staff had both a national and international reputation. Jack Leacock's particular interest was in anorectal surgery. He might well have obtained a consultancy in the United Kingdom, but, when on a short trip home in 1948, he was offered an appointment at the General Hospital in Barbados. At this time general practitioners carried out the general surgery and gynaecology, the only specialists being in ENT and ophthalmology. His London training, surgical skill and imagination completely revolutionised the care of the people of Barbados. He was the first to introduce oesophagectomy for carcinoma of the oesophagus, replacing it with large bowel. His range of surgery was enormous, and done with a high degree of skill. Each year he would visit the USA or UK to keep up to date, particularly in the management of scoliosis, where he used Harrington's rods to correct the deformity. At the time of independence the British, as a goodwill gesture, built the Queen Elizabeth II Hospital in Barbados. Jack Leacock was involved in its design, and in setting up a blood bank, for which he had to overcome some local beliefs. Early on, he recognised the need for birth control in a small island with a burgeoning population and was one of the founders of the Barbados Family Planning Association in 1950, which effectively halved the birth rate. He was a keen sportsman, enjoying sailing, snow skiing, hang-gliding, wind surfing and polo. He rode until he was nearly 80, and began playing squash in his early seventies. He enjoyed travelling and was a talented pianist. He was equally keen on reading, and after he retired in 1977 he wrote a weekly column in the Barbados *Advocate*, in which he commented on a wide range of topics. He was knighted in 2002 for his many services to Barbados. He died in Barbados on 24 August 2003. He is survived by his wife, Margaret-Ann, whom he married in 1962, and two daughters from his first marriage and one from his second. He had two grandchildren. He gave instructions that there should be no funeral, just a simple cremation, to be followed a week later by a jazz party.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000091
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Leighton, Susanna Elizabeth Jane (1959 - 2004)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-10-12 2011-07-20
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000000-E000099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372279372279
Occupation Paediatric otolaryngologist
Details Susanna Elizabeth Jane Leighton née Hurley was a consultant paediatric otolaryngologist at Great Ormond Street Hospital, London. She was born in Kobe, Japan, on 20 January 1959. She qualified at St Thomas's Hospital, London, where she completed an intercalated BSc in anatomy, and was vice-president of the Amalgamated Clubs and secretary of the Medical and Physical Society. After house jobs, she decided to train as a surgeon, and became the lead surgeon on the cochlear implant team at Great Ormond Street. She also developed an interest in airway management in craniosynostosis and wrote extensively on the subject, producing guidelines. She married Barry and had a daughter (Claudia) and two sons (John and Finn). She died from metastatic breast cancer on 6 August 2004.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000092
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Lewis, Thomas Loftus Townshend (1918 - 2004)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-10-12
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000000-E000099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372280372280
Occupation Obstetric and gynaecological surgeon Obstetrician and gynaecologist
Details Tom Lewis was a respected London obstetrician and gynaecologist. He was born in Hampstead on 27 May 1918, but regarded himself as a South African of Welsh origin. His great-grandfather, Charles Lewis, had run away to sea from Milford Haven and settled in Cape Town in about 1850, where he established a sail-making business that was profitable until the coming of steam. His son, A J S Lewis, was a civil servant who became mayor of Cape Town and was ordained into the Anglican Church on retirement. In turn, A J S’s son, Tom’s father, Neville went to London to study art at the Slade School, where he met and married a fellow art student from Dublin, Theodosia Townshend. When the marriage broke up, Neville was left with three children under five, including Tom. They were sent to Cape Town, where they were brought up by their grandparents, A J S and Annie Solomon. Tom was educated at the Diocesan College, Rondebosch, where he had a good education, boxed and played rugby. Every two or three years their father would arrive unannounced from England, and they would go off by car all over South Africa to paint portraits. On one occasion a spear was thrown through a painting, which was feared to be taking part of the soul of its subject. In 1933, Neville and his second wife, Vera Player, bought a house in Chelsea and sent for them. Tom then went to St Paul’s School, from which he went to Jesus College, Cambridge, and Guy’s Hospital. As a student he won the gold medal in obstetrics. In 1943, he travelled by ship to Cape Town and enlisted in the South African Air Force as a doctor, but was then seconded to the RAMC, with whom he served in Egypt, Italy and Greece. After the war, he returned to Guy’s to take the FRCS and specialised in obstetrics and gynaecology. He captained the Guy’s rugby XV from 1946 to 1948, and was only prevented from playing for England against France by hepatitis. He played his last game for the first XV when he was aged 46. He was appointed as a consultant at Guy’s just before his 30th birthday, and to Queen Charlotte’s Maternity Hospital and the Chelsea Hospital for Women two years later. A meticulous surgeon, he was a very distinguished teacher. He wrote three textbooks of obstetrics and gynaecology and his book *Progress in clinical obstetrics and gynaecology* (London, Joe A Churchill, 1956) became a classic. He served three times on the council of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, was its honorary secretary from 1961 to 1968, senior vice-president from 1975 to 1978 and Sims Black travelling professor in 1970. He was President of the obstetric section of the Royal Society of Medicine. He was a consultant gynaecologist to the Army and an examiner to the Universities of Cambridge, London and St Andrews, the Society of Apothecaries and the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. As a student, Tom had fallen in love with a Guy’s student nurse, Alexandra (‘Bunty’) Moore. They married in 1946 and had five sons. The eldest, John, became a doctor. In retirement, they built a holiday home on the island of Elba. A superb host, Tom was an authority on wine, fungi and astronomy. He died after a difficult last illness on 9 April 2004.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000093
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Lister, James (1923 - 2004)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-10-12
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000000-E000099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372281372281
Occupation Paediatric surgeon
Details Jimmy Lister was an emeritus professor of paediatric surgery at the University of Liverpool and a former vice-president of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. Born in London on 1 March 1923, the son of Thomas Lister, a chartered accountant, and Anna Rebecca Lister, two of his siblings – John and Ruth – also entered medicine. He was educated at St Paul’s School as a foundation scholar, and then went on to Edinburgh University, qualifying in 1945. He then served in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve for three years. His training in Edinburgh and Dundee was followed by a year as Halstead research fellow at the University of Colorado, where he decided on a career in paediatric surgery. On returning to the UK, he went first to Great Ormond Street Hospital, as senior lecturer and honorary consultant. In 1963 he became a consultant to the Children’s Hospital, Sheffield. In 1974 he was appointed to the newly established chair at the University of Liverpool, taking charge of the regional neonatal surgical unit at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital, establishing an international reputation in neonatal surgery. Here his observations provided new insights into the pathogenesis and management of many life-threatening congenital disorders. Certainly his years in Liverpool were rewarded by a drop in mortality, from 30-40 per cent in the sixties, to less than 10 per cent. His unit soon attracted many young surgeons from many parts of the world: his ‘boys and girls’, as they were called, became distinguished paediatric surgeons all over the world. He inspired bonds of friendship and loyalty, which he maintained for his lifetime. For all his pre-eminence, Jimmy Lister remained a gentle, modest and self-effacing man who had a ready smile for all those he met. Many honours came his way. He was a council member and then vice-president of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh and, as convenor of examinations, he was largely responsible for making major changes in the curriculum. He was President of the British Association of Paediatric Surgeons, who awarded him the Denis Browne gold medal. He chaired the Specialist Advisory Committee on Paediatric Surgery in the UK, and was vice-president of the World Federation of Associations of Paediatric Surgeons. He was recognised for his many contributions, gaining some 18 honorary fellowships of medical and surgical bodies worldwide. His publications were many and included a major textbook *Complications of paediatric surgery* (London, Bailliere Tindall, 1986). He was also editor of *Neonatal Surgery* and associate editor of the *Journal of Paediatric Surgery. * He was married to Greta née Redpath, whom he had met while he was in the Navy, and they had three daughters. His wife and one daughter, Diana, predeceased him. He retired to the Borders, where he found it easier to fulfil his commitments to the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. He died on 9 May 2004.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000094
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Longmire, William Polk (1913 - 2003)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

First Title value, for Searching Lumb, Geoffrey Norman (1925 - 2005)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

First Title value, for Searching Mackie, David Bonar (1936 - 2005)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-10-19 2006-11-30
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000000-E000099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372284372284
Occupation General surgeon
Details David Bonar Mackie was a consultant general surgeon in Salisbury, Wiltshire. His parents David Taylor Mackie and Mary Gray née Chittick were Scottish. His father was a GP in Aberdour, Fife, and then moved to a general practice in Exeter, where Bonar was born in 1936. Bonar was educated at Sherborne School and Pembroke College, Cambridge, going on to the Middlesex Hospital for his clinical studies. After house appointments he completed surgical registrar jobs at the Middlesex and Central Middlesex Hospitals, working for, among others, Cecil Murray, Leslie LeQuesne and Peter Riddle. In 1969 he won a Fulbright scholarship to the University of Mississippi. He was appointed as a consultant to the Salisbury District Hospitals in 1972. There he developed a short stay ward, and breast surgery and specialised urology services. In 1964 he married Jennifer Bland. They had three children, one of whom is a dental surgeon. A keen sportsman, Bonar particularly enjoyed golf and racing. He was medical officer to the Salisbury race course and owned, with friends, several more or less successful horses. He died on 25 January 2005, after a prolonged and slowly deteriorating Pick’s disease.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000097
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Marchant, Mary Kathleen (1924 - 2003)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-10-19
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000000-E000099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372285372285
Occupation Plastic surgeon Plastic and reconstructive surgeon
Details Mary Marchant was a former plastic surgeon in Liverpool. Born in 1924, she qualified in medicine at Liverpool and began her career as a house officer at Smithdown Road Hospital. She trained in surgery and practised in and around Liverpool, before specialising in plastic surgery. She helped set up the first plastic surgery unit in Liverpool at Whiston Hospital. In 1965, she joined a missionary surgery in Uganda, spending four years there, returning to England in 1969 because of ill health. She joined a general medical practice in Penny Lane, Liverpool, and retired in 1983. She died on 18 August 2003.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000098
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Marsh, John David (1925 - 2004)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-10-19 2007-03-08
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000000-E000099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372286372286
Occupation General surgeon
Details John Marsh was a consultant surgeon to the South Warwickshire NHS Trust. His father, Alfred Marsh, was a general practitioner in Chorley, Lancashire, where John was born on 8 April 1925. His mother was Dorothea Maud née Saywell. From the Terra Nova Preparatory School in Southport he won a scholarship to Clifton College, and from Clifton a minor scholarship to Clare College, Cambridge. He went on to St Thomas’s Hospital for his clinical studies, where he won the London prize for medicine. After house jobs under R H Boggon and R W Nevin, he entered the RAMC and spent his two years National Service at Tidworth. From there he returned to be senior house officer at the Henry Gauvain Hospital at Alton under Nevin, did a casualty post in Salisbury and was resident surgical officer at the Hallam Hospital, West Bromwich. Having passed his FRCS, he returned to be assistant lecturer on John Kinmonth’s surgical unit at St Thomas’s. He spent the next three years on rotation to the Royal Waterloo Hospital and Hydestyle, before becoming senior registrar at King’s College Hospital under Harold Edwards and Sir Edward Muir. He was appointed as a consultant surgeon to the South Warwickshire NHS in 1963. He said of his time there: “Warwick was a happy time. I like to think that my main contribution was those RSOs who we taught. We identified a gap in the market for people with the Primary who needed experience to get the Final. Basically, I did all the things that had not been done to me (with a few exceptions). I came in to help with emergencies and did not allow them to be loaded with things beyond their then experience. Then we tutored them through their exams. Most of them went on to do very well. When I retired after my coronary what I missed most was the stimulus of good juniors and the teaching.” He developed a particular interest in paediatric surgery, was the College surgical tutor for the West Midlands, and served as examiner and Chairman of the Court. In 1952 he married Elizabeth Catherwood, an artist. They had a son (Simon), two daughters (Alison and Catherine) and six grandsons. Among his many interests were walking, reading and history, but above all he was a dedicated Christian and editor of the Christian Graduate and Chairman of the council of the Universities and Colleges Christian Fellowship (from 1970 to 1980). He had his first heart attack in 1980, miraculously surviving a cardiac arrest and, wisely, took early retirement in 1983. He died on 25 January 2004 at Warwick Hospital, where he had worked for 20 years.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000099
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Matheson, John Mackenzie (1912 - 2003)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-10-19
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000100-E000199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372287372287
Occupation General surgeon
Details John Matheson was a former professor of military surgery at the Royal Army Medical College, Millbank, London. He was born in Gibraltar on 6 August 1912, the son of John Matheson, the then manager of the Eastern Telegraph station, and Nina. The family later moved on to Malta and then to Port Said. John was educated at the Lycée Francaise and then at George Watson’s College in Scotland, where he had some problems using English, being more fluent in Arabic and French. He had an outstanding academic career, and managed to finance much of his education through bursaries and scholarships. He studied medicine at Edinburgh University, where he was captain of athletics, and qualified in 1936. He then did research into the treatment of tuberculosis. He had joined the Territorial Army at university, so that, at the beginning of the second world war, he was quickly mobilised into the 23 Scottish General Hospital. On the first day at the new hospital, at the newly requisitioned Peebles Hydro, he met Agnes, known as ‘Nan’, the nursing sister who became his wife three years later. He saw service in Palestine, the Middle East and North Africa, where he was largely responsible for the organisation of medical services in the Tunisian campaign, before and after El Alamein, for which he was mentioned in despatches. He stayed with the 8th Army as they advanced into Italy. After the war, he remained in the RAMC and gained his FRCS as a clinical tutor in the surgical professorial unit in Edinburgh. For the next 36 years he served as a surgical consultant all over the world. From 1948 to 1950, he was medical liaison officer to the surgeon general of the US Army and chief of the surgical section at the Walter Reed Hospital, Washington. For this work he was awarded an OBE. From 1952 to 1953, he was in Canada and Austria. He then spent three years in Egypt in the Suez Canal zone. From 1961 to 1964, he was in Cyprus, and then spent a year, from 1967 to 1968, in Singapore, Hong Kong and Nepal. He also consulted in hospitals throughout the UK. His final posting in the Army was as commandant of the Army Medical College at Millbank and professor of military surgery. He was an honorary surgeon to the Queen from 1969 to 1971. During his time in the Army he was largely responsible for introducing central sterile supply into medical services, and made important contributions to the surgical management of gunshot wounds. On his retirement, he became postgraduate dean of medicine at Edinburgh University, a job he enjoyed for nearly 10 years. He was President of the Military Surgeons’ Society, the RAMC Association, honorary colonel of 205 Scottish General Hospital, and Chairman of the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary Samaritans’ committee and Scottish committee member of the Ex-Services Mental Welfare Society. He was a senior elder of the kirk of Greyfriars. His wife, Nan, predeceased him in 1995, but he continued to be active, taking classes in cookery, computing and Gaelic. He had an infectious sense of humour, and his genuine compassion and unfailing optimism made him a much-admired colleague. He died on 9 November 2003. One daughter survives him.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000100
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Mawdsley, Alfred Roger (1932 - 2003)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

First Title value, for Searching McConnachie, James Stewart (1913 - 2003)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-10-19 2007-08-09
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000100-E000199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372289372289
Occupation General surgeon
Details James Stewart McConnachie, known as ‘Monty’, was a consultant surgeon at Tredegar and Nevill Hall hospitals. He was born in Fraserburgh, Aberdeenshire, Scotland on 8 October 1913 into a medical family. His father was James Stewart McConnachie, his mother, Mary Watson Reiach. He studied medicine in Aberdeen, where he captained the rugby team and the athletics association, and gained five gold medals and one scholarship. He completed house jobs in the professorial units under Sir Stanley Davidson and Sir James Learmonth. At the outbreak of the second world war, he joined the RAMC and was with the 51st Highland Division in the British Expeditionary Force, being evacuated from St Valéry. He was later posted to the Far East, where he was a prisoner of war in the infamous Changi jail and was made to work on the railways, operating alongside the celebrated Sir ‘Weary’ Dunlop. After the war, Monty was a surgical registrar at Inverness and then a senior registrar in Aberdeen. In 1949, he was appointed to Tredegar and Nevill Hall hospitals, where he was at first the only surgeon. His wife Dot, along with Alun Evans, gave the anaesthetics. He was a founder member of the Welsh Surgical Society in 1953 and played an important role in developing surgical services in south Wales, culminating with the opening of a new district hospital in Abergavenny, to which he moved with two other surgeons in 1969. Predeceased by his first wife, Dorothy Isabel Mortimer, and son, he married a second time, to Megan. He died on 29 April 2003.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000102
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Shawcross, Lord Hartley William (1902 - 2003)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-06-21 2006-10-11
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000200-E000299
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372435372435
Occupation Politician
Details Hartley Shawcross, a barrister, Labour politician and an honorary fellow of the College, will be perhaps best remembered as the leading British prosecutor at the Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal. He was born on 4 February 1902, the son of John and Hilda Shawcross. He was educated at Dulwich College, the London School of Economics and the University of Geneva. He was called to the bar in 1925. He successfully stood for Parliament as a Labour candidate in 1945 and immediately became Attorney General. From 1945 to 1949 he was Britain’s principal UN delegate, as well as Chief Prosecutor at Nuremberg. He later served as President of the Board of Trade before leaving politics and resigning from Parliament in 1958. He went on to help found the University of Sussex and served as chancellor there from 1965 to 1985. He a board member of several major companies. He married three times. His first wife, Alberta Rosita Shyvers, died in 1944. He then married Joan Winifred Mather, by whom he had two sons and a daughter (who became a doctor). In 1997, at the age of 95, he married Susanne Monique Huiskamp. Tall, handsome and with a commanding presence, Shawcross was a most distinguished member of his party, and a good friend to the College.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000248
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Siegler, Gerald Joseph (1921 - 2005)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-06-21 2009-05-07
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000200-E000299
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372436372436
Occupation ENT surgeon
Details Gerald Joseph Siegler, or ‘Jo’ as he known to colleagues, was an ENT consultant in Liverpool. He was born in London on 3 January 1921, and studied medicine at St Bartholomew’s Hospital. He held junior posts in Huddersfield, Lancaster, Nuneaton and Birkenhead, before completing his National Service with the RAF. After passing his FRCS he specialised in ENT, becoming a registrar at the Royal National Throat, Nose and Ear Hospital and then a senior registrar at Liverpool, where he was appointed consultant in 1958. He was past president of the North of England ENT Society and an honorary member of the Liverpool Medical Institute. After he retired in 1986 he continued to be busy, working for Walton jail until 1995. He died from the complications of myeloma on 4 October 2005, leaving a wife, Brenda, two daughters, Sarah and Pauline, and three grandchildren.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000249
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Morrah, Dermot Dubrelle (1943 - 2003)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-10-19 2018-03-07
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000100-E000199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372292372292
Occupation General surgeon
Details Dermot Dubrelle Morrah was born in Invercargill, New Zealand, on 26 October 1943, the second child and only son of Francis Dubrelle Morrah, a farmer, and Sheila Catherine née Douglas, the daughter of a banker. He attended primary and middle school in Invercargill and then, after winning a junior Somes scholarship, was educated at Christ's College in Christchurch. He studied science at Canterbury University and then went on to Otago University. He was a final year student at Christchurch Hospital and then held house surgeon and then registrar posts with the North Canterbury Hospital Board. In 1971 he travelled to the UK, as the ship's captain on the SS Imperial Star. From 1972 to 1973 he was a surgical registrar at Peterborough, where he carried out general, genito-urinary and vascular work. From March 1973 he attended the St Thomas's Hospital fellowship course, and subsequently passed the FRCS. He returned to New Zealand, as a senior registrar to the North Canterbury Hospital Board. In 1974 he gained his fellowship of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons. He was employed as an acting lecturer and research fellow in the department of surgery, Otago Medical School until October 1977, when he moved north to join the staff of the Whangarei Hospital, North Island, as a full-time general surgeon. In 1978 he took up the post of supervisor for the surgical training of registrars and subsequently established a successful private practice with particular interests in endoscopy, breast surgery and cutaneaous malignancy. He was a talented organist and pianist, interested in travel and New Zealand philately. He died on 25 May 2003 and is survived by his wife Diana, whom he married in 1976, and sons David and Michael.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000105
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Murray, Richard William Cordiner (1907 - 2003)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

First Title value, for Searching Ogg, Archibald John (1921 - 2005)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

First Title value, for Searching Johnston, James Herbert (1920 - 2003)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-09-22
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000200-E000299
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372440372440
Occupation Urological surgeon Urologist
Details Herbert Johnston was a pioneer of paediatric urology, determined to make what had been a peripheral interest a specialty in its own right. Appointed first as a general surgeon to a leading children’s hospital, Alder Hey in Liverpool, he soon saw that the urogenital problems required a much closer attention than had been accorded them, and by years of dedicated practice and research he built for himself an international reputation and inspired a succession of young disciples. James Herbert Johnston, known to his intimates as ‘Herbie’, was born on 26 February 1920 in Belfast. His father, Robert Johnston, was in the linen business, his mother, Mary née McCormack, a science teacher. He was always destined for a career in medicine and distinguished himself as an undergraduate by gaining several surgical prizes. He graduated from Queens University, Belfast, in 1943, and after a house job became assistant to the professor of surgery at the Royal Victoria Hospital and at the Children’s Hospital. After military service, from 1946 to 1948, he returned to Belfast, taking the FRCS Ireland in 1949 and the English Fellowship in the following year. He then crossed the Irish Sea, theoretically for a short spell, but actually for the rest of his life, taking up senior registrar posts in Liverpool. There he came under the powerful influence of Charles Wells, who not only trained his registrars but directed them to their consultant posts. Thus it was that in 1956 Herbert was appointed surgeon to the Alder Hey Children’s Hospital. Although Charles Wells was much concerned with urology, Herbert had had no specialist training and, curiously, he was at first given responsibility for the management of burns. With this in mind he went to a famous burn unit in Baghdad, but this venture was abruptly ended by the Suez War. At Alder Hey Isabella Forshall and Peter Rickham were making great strides in neonatal surgery, but had no particular interest in urology and Herbert saw both the need and the opportunity to make that field his own. As Hunterian Professor in 1962 he lectured on vesico-ureteric reflux, the topic then exciting all paediatric urologists, and went on to produce a long series of papers illuminating important, or neglected, aspects of children’s disorders. He joined with Innes Williams in writing the standard British textbook on this subject and his published work soon brought him an international reputation, with invitations to deliver eponymous lectures in the USA and elsewhere. In 1980 he was awarded the St Peters medal of the British Association of Urological Surgeons in recognition of his many contributions. In spite of all this evidence of enthusiasm Herbert did not at first acquaintance give an impression of liveliness. Deliberate in speech, he could at times look positively lugubrious. However, he became a popular lecturer, making his points with logic and a clarity laced with dry wit and self deprecating humour. To those who knew him well he was a delightful companion who could make fun of all life’s problems. His hobbies were few, though he was a keen golfer if not an outstanding performer in this field. In 1945 he married Dorothy Dowling, who made a happy home for him and their son and daughter, who are now in the teaching profession. His retirement was marred by a stroke which left him with considerable disability, but he was lucky to have Dorothy to look after him so well. He died on 4 February 2003.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000253
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Park, William Douglas (1912 - 2004)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

First Title value, for Searching Pearce, Roger Malcolm (1943 - 2003)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

First Title value, for Searching Cronin, Kevin (1925 - 2005)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-09-22 2007-02-01
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000200-E000299
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372443372443
Occupation General surgeon
Details Kevin Cronin was born on 24 July 1925, the son of M J Cronin, a general practitioner. He was educated at the Beaumont School, Berkshire, and entered the London Hospital Medical College in 1942. After qualifying, he completed house jobs in neurosurgery under Douglas Northfield, chest medicine under Lloyd Rusby, and ear, nose and throat surgery. His later training in surgery was at the Radcliffe Infirmary. During this time he spent a research year at the University of Oregon, as a result of which he obtained his masters degree in surgery. He was appointed as consultant surgeon to Northampton General Hospital. He was an Arris and Gale lecturer of the College. He married Madeleine and they had a son (Philip) and daughter (Caroline). They had four grandchildren - Sam, Chloe, Christian and Rory. He died on 20 May 2005.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000256
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Galloway, James Brown Wallace (1930 - 2005)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-09-22
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000200-E000299
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372444372444
Occupation General surgeon
Details James Galloway was a consultant general surgeon in Stranraer, Scotland. He was born on 26 March 1930 in Lanark, the son of William Galloway, a farmer, and Anne née Wallace, a secretary. He received his early education at Lanark Grammar, followed by McLaren High in Callendar when the family moved there after his father’s death. At an early stage he showed the academic bent that was to remain with him throughout his life. School was followed by Glasgow University, where he graduated MA before embarking on a medical degree. After gaining his MB Ch in 1956 he undertook his National Service as a captain in the RAMC, spending a large part of his time in Hong Kong. Returning to civilian life, he opted for surgery as a career, and received his training in Glasgow. In 1966 he moved to Ballochmyle Hospital in Ayrshire. Here he made an indelible impression. He was an outstanding doctor whose interest in his subject seemed insatiable, his knowledge of it being encyclopaedic. His practical skills were also of a very high order, and he gave of himself unstintingly. He could truly be said to be dedicated to his work, and he was held in the highest regard by his medical colleagues and nursing staff alike. Though a quiet man, even self-deprecating, he had a remarkable ability to get what he wanted; where his patient’s interests were concerned he could be tenacious, to say the least, and he provided a service second to none. His interest in new developments, and his enthusiasm for new devices, were infectious. He was a most likeable colleague and he was held in considerable affection by all. His time in Hong Kong had given him a taste for travel and during the 1970s, while working in Ayrshire, he answered an advertisement placed by the Kuwait Oil Company and spent three months there as a general surgeon. His work so impressed that he was invited back for two further tours of duty. In 1981 he was appointed consultant general surgeon at the Garrick Hospital in Stranraer. Ayrshire’s loss was Stranraer’s gain, and he quickly established himself there as he had at Ballochmyle, becoming a most valued member of the community. He believed firmly that medical services should be provided locally whenever possible, and fought hard to prevent the surgical service being transferred to Dumfries. James’s other great love was sailing, and he had a succession of boats, starting with a 14-foot dinghy and culminating in *Eliane*, a very capable traditional yacht which was his pride and joy. He happily related that all his boats had one thing in common – they were so full of his beloved gadgets and equipment that they all had to have their waterlines redrawn. He was a very relaxed skipper who, though a lifelong teetotaller himself, was not in the least put out by the occasional excesses of his crew members. There can be no part of the Clyde, and few parts of the Western Isles, that he had not sailed to, and he never ceased to be glad of his origins. After retirement in 1991 he remained as active as ever, embracing the computer age with typical enthusiasm. He was a very kindly, widely read and thoughtful man who made a most interesting companion. He took up scuba diving and continued to be a very active sailor, crossing the Minch to Eriskay in his last summer. Sadly this was to be his last cruise, and thereafter he became increasingly weak. Typically he preferred to discuss the differential diagnosis rather than to complain. He died in the Ayr Hospital on 11 December 2005. He was predeceased by Janet and Anne, his two older sisters. He is greatly missed by his many friends.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000257
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Grimshaw, Clement (1915 - 2005)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

First Title value, for Searching Rees, Neville Clark (1922 - 2003)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

First Title value, for Searching Raffle, Philip Andrew Banks (1918 - 2004)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-10-19 2012-03-09
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000100-E000199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372302372302
Occupation Occupational physician
Details Andrew Raffle, former chief medical officer of London Transport Executive, was an expert on medical standards for driving. He was born on 3 September 1918 in Newcastle upon Tyne, where his father, Andrew Banks Raffle, a barrister and a doctor, was medical officer for health for South Shields (he was later divisional medical officer to the London County Council). His mother was Daisy née Jarvis, the daughter of a farmer. His two uncles were both doctors. He studied medicine at Middlesex Hospital, qualifying in 1941, and was subsequently a house surgeon at Cheltenham. He then spent five years with the RAMC, becoming a specialist in venereology in Egypt during the North African campaign with the rank of Major. After demobilisation, he was a medical registrar in Bristol and then took the diploma in public health at the London School of Hygiene. In 1948 he joined London Transport under the aegis of Leslie Norman, whom he succeeded in 1969 as chief medical officer. There he carried out research to find evidence of the relationship between exercise and heart disease, by comparing the health of drivers and conductors. He also worked on the medical aspects of fitness to drive, becoming an acknowledged expert in this field. He advised the Department of Transport and other organisations on safe levels of alcohol in the blood, and the effects of diabetes and various medications on the ability to drive. He edited *Medical aspects of fitness to drive: a guide for medical practitioners* (London, Medical Commission on Accident Prevention, 1976), which became a key text for doctors to use when assessing patients. He was a member of the Blennerhasset committee on drinking and driving legislation. He continued to write papers on health standards for drivers up to 1992. He gave the BMA McKenzie industrial health lecture in 1974 and the Joseph Henry lecture at the College in 1988. He wrote many chapters in textbooks and was co-editor of *Hunter's diseases of occupations* (London, Hodder and Stoughton, 1987). He taught occupational medicine to postgraduates and was an examiner, and later convenor, for the diploma in industrial health at the Society of Apothecaries. He became chief medical officer of the St John Association and masterminded the Save-a-Life campaign, to teach resuscitation to a wider public. He was a fellow of the BMA and deputy Chairman of the occupational health committee. He was President of the Society of Occupational Medicine in 1967, and treasurer and subsequently vice-president of the Royal Society of Medicine. He was a member of the standing committee which led to the establishment of the new Faculty of Occupational Medicine in 1978. He was a founder fellow and served on the first board of the new faculty. He married Jill, the daughter of Major V H Sharp of the Royal Horse Artillery, in 1941. They had no children. In 1982 they retired to an isolated Oxfordshire village, where he took up gardening. He died of heart failure on 23 January 2004 and is survived by his widow.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000115
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Logan, William Archibald (1874 - 1907)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

First Title value, for Searching Richards, Brian (1934 - 2003)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

First Title value, for Searching Rickham, Peter Paul (1917 - 2003)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-10-19
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000100-E000199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372305372305
Occupation Paediatric surgeon
Details Peter Rickham was one of a small group of pioneering surgeons who helped to establish the specialty of paediatric surgery in the UK. He was born in Berlin on 21 June 1917, where his father, Otto Louis Reichenheim, was professor of physics at Berlin University. His mother was Susanne née Huldschinsky. Peter was educated at the Kanton School and the Institute Rosenberg, St Galen, Switzerland. He then went to Queen’s College, Cambridge, and on to St Bartholomew’s for his clinical training, where he won the Butterworth prize for surgery. After junior posts, he joined the RAMC, where he had a distinguished career, taking part in the Normandy invasion and the war in the Far East, reaching the rank of Major. On demobilisation, he trained in paediatric surgery under Sir Denis Browne at Great Ormond Street and Isobella Forshall at the Alder Hey Children’s Hospital, Liverpool. After a year as Harkness travelling fellow, spent in Boston and Philadelphia, he was appointed consultant paediatric surgeon at Alder Hey in 1952. He became director of paediatric surgical studies in 1965 and in 1971 was appointed professor of paediatric surgery at the University Children’s Hospital in Zurich, Switzerland, where he remained until his retirement in 1983. He was intensely involved with research. His MS thesis concerned the metabolic response of the newborn to surgery. Later he devised the Rickham reservoir, an integral part of the Holter ventricular drainage system for hydrocephalus. His textbook, *Neonatal surgery* (London, Butterworths, 1969), remained the standard text for many years. At Alder Hey, he set up the first neonatal surgical unit in the world. It became a benchmark for similar units around the world, and resulted in an improvement in the survival of newborn infants undergoing surgery from 22 per cent to 74 per cent. He was Hunterian Professor at the College in 1964 and 1967, was honoured with the Denis Browne gold medal of the British Asosciation of Paediatic Surgeons, the medal of the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Chevalier Legion d’Honneur in 1979 and the Commander’s Cross (Germany) in 1988. Peter was a founder member of the Association of Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus, the European Union of Paediatric Surgeons and of the British Association of Paediatric Surgeons, serving as its President from 1967 to 1968. He was a cofounder and editor for Europe of the *Journal of Pediatric Surgery*. Innovative, forceful and outspoken, he was passionately involved with his specialty. Shortly after his appointment in Liverpool he became so exasperated by the local paediatricians’ use of barium to diagnose oesophageal atresia that at Christmas 1954 he sent each one a card enclosing a radio-opaque catheter with which to make the diagnosis safely. He took great pride in the achievements of his many pupils who went on to become leaders in their specialty. He married Elizabeth Hartley in 1938 and they had a son, David, and two daughters, Susan and Mary-Anne. Elizabeth died in 1998 and he married for a second time, to Lynn, who nursed him through his final long illness. He had five grandchildren. He died on 17 November 2003.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000118
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Roddie, Robert Kenneth (1923 - 2004)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

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

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-10-19 2007-09-13
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000100-E000199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372307372307
Occupation Cardiac surgeon
Details James Keith Ross was a leading cardiac surgeon, and one of the team that performed the first cardiac transplant in Britain. He was born in London on 9 May 1927. His father, Sir James Paterson Ross, was later to become professor of surgery at St Bartholomew’s Hospital, Surgeon to the Royal Household and President of the College. His mother, Marjorie Burton Townsend, had been a surgical ward sister at Bart’s. Keith was profoundly influenced by his maternal grandfather, Frederick William Townsend, who taught him to work in wood, a practical education in hand-eye coordination, which laid the foundation of his exceptional surgical skill. Another influence was his godfather, Sir Thomas Dunhill, who, whilst recuperating from a hernia repair, gave Keith a trout rod and insisted on demonstrating it whilst in his pyjamas in the middle of Harley Street. Keith attended the Hall School, Hampstead, and then St Paul’s, where he was the senior scholar. He went on to Middlesex Hospital medical school, where he won the Asher scholarship in anatomy and the Lyell medal in surgery. Qualifying in 1950, he became house surgeon to Thomas Holmes Sellors, won the Hallet prize in the primary FRCS and then did his National Service in the Royal Naval Reserve, mostly at sea. On returning to the Middlesex, he passed the FRCS in 1956 and began a training in cardiothoracic surgery at the Brompton Hospital and as a Fulbright scholar with Frank Gerbode in San Francisco, where his research into the fate of grafts in the heart led to a thesis for his masters in surgery and a Hunterian professorship. He was promoted to senior registrar in 1961 at the Middlesex and Harefield hospitals, and to part-time consultant at Harefield in 1964, and later at the Central Middlesex and Middlesex hospitals. In 1967, he gave up these posts, which involved a good deal of stressful travelling, to join Donald Ross at the National Heart Hospital. He was by now at the top of the tree, recognised both in Britain and abroad. His personal series of 100 consecutive homograft aortic valve replacements with only two hospital deaths was, at the time, unrivalled. It was with surprise that his contemporaries learned that he had moved to Southampton, though those who knew him better understood that he felt he was needed there, and it was his duty to go. Arriving in Southampton in 1972, he was joined the following year by James Monro, who had just returned from a year with Barrett-Boyes in New Zealand, and brought expertise in paediatric cardiac surgery. Together they built up a first rate team, accepting only the highest standards and insisting on a strict audit, both of the short-term results and of quality of life after cardiac surgery. The reputation of the department attracted young surgeons from abroad, in particular from Boston, to work in his unit and to support this he organised a cardiac surgical fellowship. Once the unit was well established, he started a second open heart programme at King Edward VII Hospital, Midhurst. He was postgraduate dean and then President of the Society of Cardiothoracic Surgeons. He was elected to the Council of the College in 1986. He was awarded a fellowship in 1989 and the Bruce medal of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. He succeeded his father to the baronetcy in 1980. Keith was a man of great personal charm, with a high sense of duty, fortified by a solid faith. He was perhaps at his happiest whilst fishing, be it on a Highland salmon river or on the Test. He was also a keen sailor and woodworker, and a talented artist – painting took up much of his time once he had retired. Twice he had pictures accepted for the Royal Academy summer exhibition and, to his glee, sold them both. In 1956, he married Jacqueline Annella Clarke, a Middlesex Hospital nurse. They had four children – a son, Andrew Charles Paterson, an officer in the Royal Marines who succeeds him as third baronet, and three daughters (Susan Wendy, Janet Mary and Anne Townsend). There are eight grandchildren. In 2000, he underwent an operation by his old team to replace his aortic valve. Ironically, it was a procedure he had pioneered. He made an excellent recovery, but nearly a year later developed a dissecting aneursym of the aortic arch: this too was treated with initial success, but he died suddenly on 18 February 2003 in his old hospital.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000120
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Roy, Arthur Douglas (1925 - 2003)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-10-19
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000100-E000199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372308372308
Occupation General surgeon
Details In the course of his career, Douglas Roy held appointments as a professor of surgery on three continents. He was born on 10 April 1925, the son of Arthur Roy and Edith Mary (née Brown). Educated at Paisley Grammar School, he went to Glasgow University to study medicine. After house appointments, he was joined the RAMC in 1948 for his National Service. From 1950 to 1954 he distinguished himself in registrar posts in Glasgow and Inverness. He then went south of the border, to become senior surgical registrar in Oxford and Aylesbury. Returning to Scotland in 1957, he became consultant surgeon, honorary lecturer and first assistant to Sir Charles Illingworth and subsequently to Sir Andrew Watt Kay in the department of surgery at the Western Infirmary, Glasgow. In 1968, he was appointed foundation professor at the newly opened faculty of medicine at the University of Nairobi. As well as running a busy department, promoting both undergraduate and postgraduate education, he flew with the flying doctor service, visiting remote areas of the country. In 1973, he became head of Queen’s University department of surgery in Belfast, where he remained for 12 years. Here he stimulated, encouraged and wisely delegated responsibilities in administrative, clinical and research fields. A fine technical surgeon and a dedicated trainer, he was widely respected for his work in gastro-intestinal, breast and endocrine surgery, as well as the management of trauma. He was Chairman of the surgical training committee of the Northern Ireland Council for Postgraduate Medical Education for 11 years. He was on the council of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh from 1979 to 1985, as well as serving on many other committees and advisory bodies. In 1985, he moved to the Sultanate of Oman, where he was chief of surgical services to the Ministry of Health and professor of surgery at the Sultan Qaboos University for three years. In Oman Roy was instrumental in planning a surgical training programme in the newly opened university medical school. Roy published papers on gastro-enterology, endocrine surgery and also wrote a supplement on tropical medicine in *Lecture notes in surgery*. He retired to Honiton, Devon, where he was a non-executive director of a community health trust and President of the Devon and Exeter Medical Society from 1994 to 1995. He was able to enjoy sailing and gardening. He also took up gliding, sharing a glider with a local general practitioner. He went solo on his 65th birthday. He was married twice, first in 1954 to Monica Cecilia Mary Bowley, by whom he had three daughters, and secondly, in 1973, to Patricia Irene McColl. There are three grandchildren. He died from Parkinson’s disease on 21 July 2003.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000121
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Ruddick, Donald William Hugh (1916 - 1997)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

First Title value, for Searching Rue, Dame Elsie Rosemary (1928 - 2004)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-10-19 2012-03-09
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000100-E000199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372310372310
Occupation Civil servant Physician
Details As regional medical officer for Oxford Regional Health Authority Rosemary Rue pioneered part-time specialist medical training for women doctors. She was born in Essex on 14 June 1928, the daughter of Harry and Daisy Laurence. The family moved to London when she was five, and during the Blitz she was sent for safety to stay with relatives in Devon, where she contracted tuberculosis and peritonitis, an experience which determined her to be a doctor. She was educated at Sydenham High School and entered the all-women Royal Free Hospital. In 1950 she married Roger Rue, an instructor in the RAF and was told by the dean that she could not stay on at the medical school if she were married. She was however accepted at Oxford, but took the examinations of London University. Her first job was at a long-stay hospital on the outskirts of Oxford, but was sacked when it was revealed that she was married and had a newborn son. She moved into general practice in 1952, and there contracted poliomyelitis from a patient in 1954, the last person in Oxford to catch the illness. This left her with one useless leg, which made it impossible to carry a medical bag. For a time she taught in a girls' school. By 1955 she and her husband had separated and she went to live in Hertfordshire with her parents, whose GP needed a partner. This was a success, and she combined the practice with being medical officer to the RAF, Bovingdon. In 1960 she became assistant county medical officer for Hertfordshire and five years later assistant senior medical officer for the Oxford region, proceeding to become regional medical officer in 1973 and regional general manager in 1984. She oversaw the building of new hospitals in Swindon, Reading and Milton Keynes, designing basic modules that could be incorporated into every hospital, so obviating architects' fees. Her most important contribution however was to set up a part-time training scheme for women doctors who wanted to become specialists. She discovered 150 women doctors in the Oxford region who were insufficiently employed. She sought them out, interviewed them and found jobs for 50 within a few months, and went on to set up a scheme for training part-time married women. This was a great success and spread from Oxford all over the country, and it was with Rosemary's active help that our College set up the Women in Surgical Training scheme. In 1972 she became one of the founders of the Faculty of Community Health (now the Faculty of Public Health). She was a founding fellow of Green College, Oxford, a President of the BMA and was awarded the Jenner medal of the Royal Society of Health. Small, birdlike, with an intense interest in everything and everybody, she had great charm as well as a formidable intellect. She died of bowel cancer on 24 December 2004, leaving two sons.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000123
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Ryan, Peter John (1925 - 2002)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-10-19 2016-05-12
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000100-E000199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372311372311
Occupation Colorectal surgeon
Details Peter John Ryan was a pioneer in colorectal surgery. He was born, the eldest of four boys, on 25 November 1925 in Dookie, Victoria, Australia, to farming parents. He was dux of Assumption College, Kilmore, and then went on to study medicine at Melbourne University. He graduated in 1948 and was a resident medical officer at St Vincent's Hospital. From 1953 to 1954 he served as a Major in the Royal Australian Army Medical Corps in Japan and Korea, and then worked for a number of years in England. After obtaining his Fellowship of the College, he spent three years at Leicester General Hospital. Following his return to Australia in 1960, he joined the surgical staff at St Vincent's Hospital, Melbourne. In 1972, the Ryan unit was established, with Ryan as the inpatient surgeon. It later became the department of colon and rectal surgery, with Ryan as its first director. He retired from St Vincent's in 1990. His laboratory work included studies of the effects of a proximal colostomy on bowel anastomoses. In 1986, his Hunterian address to the College was on diverticular disease. He was the first to advocate immediate resection (with anastomosis) in selected cases of diverticular perforation. He was keen to share Australian surgical expertise with medical colleagues in Asia. From 1965 to 1966 he led a St Vincent's surgical team to Long Xuyen, in Vietnam. He also established a programme of visiting fellows from Japan and Indonesia, and lectured in Kuala Lumpur and Jakarta. He was the first honorary fellow of the Indonesian Surgical Association. Ryan was President of the International Society of University Colon and Rectal Surgeons from 1986 to 1988, and an original member of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons' road trauma committee, which was responsible for the introduction of compulsory car seatbelts. His knowledge of anatomy and ability to sketch clearly made him a popular teacher. He was proud of his small red book entitled *A very short textbook of surgery* (third edition, London, Chapman & Hall Medical, 1994), which ran to several editions and was translated and widely used in China. He was an author of over 50 journal articles. In 1950 he married Margery Manly. They had 10 children, three of whom - Rowena, Jeremy and Roderick - followed him into medicine. He was awarded the medal of the Order of Australia in 2002, shortly before his death on 3 June 2002. The following is an amended version of this obituary, based on updated information. Peter Ryan was a consultant surgeon in Melbourne. He was born on 25 November 1925, in Shepparton, Victoria, the eldest of a farming family: his father was also Peter Ryan, his mother was Mona née McGuinness, a secretary and aspiring actress. From the Dookie State School, Peter went on to Assumption College in Kilmore, where he was *dux* in 1941. He studied medicine at Melbourne University, where he met Margery Manly, an arts student, whom he married in 1950. He was involved in theatre, writing, and the Newman and Campion societies, at one stage considering joining the Catholic commune, Whitlands. During his studies he contracted tuberculosis from a patient and took a year to recover. After qualifying, he did resident posts at St Vincent's Hospital. He passed the MS in 1953 and, partly to fund his future studies, joined the RAAMC and served in a field ambulance unit in Korea, where he averaged six operations a day, seven days a week. At the end of the Korean war he moved to London in 1954, passed the FRCS, and became registrar at Leicester General Hospital. On returning to Melbourne in 1957, he was appointed to St Vincent's, where he was a general surgeon, but gradually became more interested in colorectal surgery, receiving the Sir Alan Newton essay prize for a paper on diverticular disease. In 1965 St Vincent's asked Peter to organise civilian surgical teams to work in Vietnam. He led the first of these to Long Xuyen. He later learned that the cook and several of the other staff were Viet Cong. From then on he pioneered a programme for trainee surgeons from Indonesia and Japan, many of whom became firm friends. For this work he was honoured by being made the first honorary Fellow of the Indonesian Surgeons Association. In 1978 he set up a colorectal unit at St Vincent's and a few years later his own successful private service. He was one of the first to learn laparoscopic techniques, and to advocate resection and anastomosis in selected cases of perforation, for which he was awarded an Hunterian Professorship in 1986. He was President of the International Society of University Colon and Rectal Surgeons from 1987 to 1988. A prolific author of more than 50 research papers, Peter was a gifted teacher and produced a popular work *A very small textbook of surgery* (London, Chapman & Hall Medical, 1988) which was translated into Mandarin and Indonesian. In 1996, the Peter Ryan prize in surgery for final year students was established in his honour. He and his wife had 10 children, 3 of whom - Rowena, Jeremy and Roderick - followed him into medicine. He was awarded the medal of the Order of Australia in 2002, shortly before his death on 3 June 2002.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000124
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Scales, John Tracey (1920 - 2004)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-10-19
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000100-E000199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372312372312
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon
Details John Tracey Scales was a distinguished professor of biomechanical engineering at the Institute of Orthopaedics, University of London, who pioneered the use of biologically inert plastic materials in orthopaedic surgery. He was born an only child, in Colchester, on 2 July 1920. His family later moved to Stanmore, and he was educated a Haberdasher’s Aske’s School. He then went on to King’s College, London, before proceeding to Charing Cross Hospital for his clinical studies. He held junior appointments at Charing Cross Hospital and the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital, before spending two years in the National Service as a captain in the RAMC. He then held further junior posts in London. He managed to convince H J Seddon, director of the Institute of Orthopaedics, of the need to develop biologically inert plastic for use in orthopaedic surgery, and a department of plastics was established under his direction. In November 1954 a knee prothesis made of stainless steel and acrylic polymer was successfully used to replace the diseased joint of a 20-year-old woman, the first operation of its kind in the world. Scales went on to develop the first Stanmore total hip replacement, made in collaboration with J N Wilson. With Alan Lettin he developed replacements for the knee, elbow and shoulder. In 1974 the department became the first university department of biomedical engineering in Britain, with Scales as its first professor. He also developed porous wound dressings, and created a low air loss mattress for use in the treatment of severe burns and severe pressure sores. This work led to his appointment as honorary director of research at the RAFT Institute for Plastic Surgery at Mount Vernon Hospital, Northwood. He continued his research work at the RAFT Institute after his retirement. From 1997 to 1998 he was a visiting professor at Cranfield University. Scales contributed 175 articles to professional journals and books. He was a member of various committees and professional bodies, including the European Society of Biomechanics and the Society for Tissue Viability. In 1986 he was awarded the OBE for his work, and was made a freeman of the City of London in 1995. He died in a nursing home on 30 January 2004. His wife died in 1992. They had two daughters. He is survived by his daughters and his partner, Phyllis Hampson.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000125
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Shaw, Hugh Michael (1919 - 2003)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-10-19 2007-08-02
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000100-E000199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372313372313
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon
Details Hugh Michael Shaw was a consultant orthopaedic surgeon at Prince Henry Hospital, Melbourne. He was born on 18 January 1919, in London, the son of Charles Gordon Shaw, a consultant surgeon who had commanded the First Australian Field Ambulance in the First World War, was mentioned in despatches and had won the DSO. His mother was Rachel née Champion. Michael was educated at Geelong Grammar School, and then at Melbourne University, where he graduated with first class honours in surgery in 1943. He was a junior resident and then a registrar at Royal Melbourne Hospital, Victoria, from 1943 to 1945. He then enlisted, becoming a Captain in the Australian Army Medical Corps 23rd Training Battalion, based in Greta, New South Wales, and then in the 111th Australian General Hospital, Tasmania, and the 115th Australian General Hospital, based at Heidelberg, Victoria. He left the Army in January 1947. From 1947 to 1950 he was a surgical resident at Heidelberg Repatriation Hospital. He was then appointed as an associate surgeon at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, a post he held for two years. In 1953 he travelled to the UK, where he was a surgical registrar at Essex County Hospital, Colchester. On his return to Australia in 1954 he was appointed to the staff of Prince Henry Hospital, Melbourne, as a consultant orthopaedic surgeon. He retired in 1978. From 1954 to 1957 he was also a consultant for the Australian Department of Veteran’s Affairs. He enjoyed golf, carpentry, photography and music. He married Joan Fraser née Craigie. They had two children, Jennifer Joan and David Michael (who predeceased him). Hugh Michael Shaw died on 6 January 2003.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000126
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Silva, Joseph Francis (1915 - 2004)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

First Title value, for Searching Smiddy, Francis Geoffrey (1922 - 2003)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-10-19
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000100-E000199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372315372315
Occupation General surgeon
Details Geoff Smiddy was a senior surgeon at Leeds General Infirmary and a prolific author. He was born in Kendal on 4 January 1922. His father was a hotelier and his mother looked after a haberdashery shop. His was not an easy childhood – his father left the family home shortly after he was born and his mother had difficulties making ends meet. He entered Leeds Medical School in 1939, where he won the Brotherton senior award, was President of the union, and served on the medical school council. He was a house surgeon to George Armitage, whom he regarded as his surgical mentor. He spent three years in the RAMC, mostly in India. During this time he developed rheumatic endocarditis, which damaged his aortic valve. On his return from India, he became a surgical registrar, then a senior registrar and later a tutor at Leeds Infirmary. In 1957, he won a research fellowship to Harvard Medical School, where he worked under Jacob Fine, a pioneer in the care of the critically ill, carrying out research into the significance of enteric bacteria as a cause of mortality in haemorrhagic shock, which led to his ChM. On his return from America, he was senior lecturer to J C Goligher, and in 1961 was appointed consultant surgeon at Leeds General Infirmary, as well as to Seacroft and Clayton Hospitals. He was deeply committed to teaching and training. He was a true general surgeon and an excellent and enthusiastic clinical teacher, preferring the bedside to the lecture theatre. He was elected to the Court of Examiners in 1967 and became a fine ambassador for the College. He was the first regional adviser for surgery in Yorkshire and in 1978 became an examiner in pathology for the primary. He was the author of several surgical textbooks, including *The medical management of the surgical patient*t (London, Edward Arnold, 1976) and a series of books entitled Tutorials in surgery. He retired in 1987, but remained active in local surgical circles, regularly attended weekly surgical meetings and was a staunch supporter of the Leeds Regional Surgical Club. He was a keen golfer, bridge player, and a student of needlework, silver-smithing and computing. He married Thelma (‘Penny’) Penfold, a radiographer at Leeds Infirmary, in 1951. They had a son (Paul) and a daughter (Clare), and four grandchildren. He underwent an aortic valve replacement in 1975. He died on 8 March 2003.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000128
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

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

First Title value, for Searching Radley Smith, Eric John (1910 - 2003)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-10-26
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000100-E000199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372317372317
Occupation General surgeon
Details Eric John Smith was a consultant surgeon at the Royal Free Hospital, London. He was born on 31 March 1910 in Norwood, Surrey, the second son of Robert Percy and Edith Smith. His early life was overshadowed by the death from Hodgkin’s disease of his elder brother who had been a child prodigy, and Eric spent his schooldays trying to fulfill the promise of his brother. In this he was far from unsuccessful, winning prizes and commendations at all his schools – Paston’s in Norfolk, Haverford West Grammar and Sutton County Grammar (the moves being occasioned by his father’s work as a construction engineer). He went up to King’s College Hospital at the age of 17 and again distinguished himself, being rewarded with the Jelf medal and Huxley prize, as well as gaining four distinctions in his finals. A keen sportsman, he represented the college at cricket and rugby. He was proud of being the last house surgeon of Lord Lister’s last house surgeon (Arthur Edmunds) and was appointed as a surgical registrar at King’s, and later house surgeon at the National Hospital for Nervous Diseases. At the age of 29 he was appointed to consultant sessions at Brentford Hospital, thereby beginning an association with Brentford Football Club, one that lasted for the rest of his life, as he became in turn medical adviser, director and President. At the outbreak of the second world war he was appointed consultant general surgeon in the Emergency Medical Service at Horton Hospital, Epsom, in which over 60,000 patients were treated during the war. His special contribution was to act as triage officer at Epsom station when trainloads of casualties arrived, and with his quick assessment and remarkable memory he directed each one to the appropriate ward in the hospital. At the same time he was working at Hurstwood Park Neurological Hospital. When in 1946 he joined the Royal Air Force as a surgical specialist, he undertook further neurosurgical specialist duties. In 1948 he spent a year with Olivecrona in his neurosurgical unit in Sweden, one of the world’s pre-eminent centres. He was appointed as a consultant general surgeon at the Royal Free Hospital, continuing his interest in neurosurgery by undertaking some of the earliest prefrontal leucotomies in the UK. He also pioneered hypophysectomy in the treatment of breast cancer. It is curious that this most conservative of men should have made his special contribution in two of its most radical fields. He was also surgeon to the Royal Ear Nose and Throat Hospital, and much valued the work he was called upon to undertake in close association with his colleagues there, especially in the area of intracranial sepsis. During his active years, and indeed long into retirement, his expert opinion was much sought in legal cases, due to his clarity of thought and expression. In 1937 he married a King’s sister, Eileen Radley, not only incorporating her name with his as ‘Radley Smith’, but being called ‘Radley’ thereafter by all his colleagues and acquaintances. They had a son, Nigel, and three daughters, of whom the eldest, Rosemary, qualified in medicine and had a distinguished career as a paediatric cardiologist. Sadly his son predeceased him as a result of lung cancer. Despite the time he gave to football, almost never missing a Brentford match, Radley took a great interest in farming, specialising in raising dairy cattle. He died on 19 January 2003.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000130
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Starr, Philip Alan John (1933 - 2003)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

First Title value, for Searching Lange, Meyer John (1912 - 2005)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

First Title value, for Searching MacFarlane, Campbell (1941 - 2006)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2007-05-10 2008-12-12
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000300-E000399
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372533372533
Occupation Trauma surgeon
Details Campbell MacFarlane was a trauma surgeon who served with distinction in the Royal Army Medical Corps, before emigrating to South Africa, where he became the foundation professor of emergency medicine at the University of Witwatersrand, South Africa. He was born on 16 October 1941 in Kirriemuir, Angus, Scotland, the son of George MacFarlane and Anne Christessen Gove Lowe, and was educated at Webster’s High School, Kirriemuir. He gained a Kitchener scholarship and attended the University of St Andrews, graduating with commendation in 1965. While at university he gained several distinctions and medals, including a student scholarship to Yale University for the summer term of 1964. After house jobs he joined the RAMC, where he won medals for military studies, military surgery, tropical medicine, army health and military psychiatry from the Royal Army Medical College. He was then posted to Singapore, where, in 1971, he was the first westerner to obtain the MMed in surgery from the University of Singapore. He passed the FRCS Edinburgh in the same year. Over the next decade he worked in civilian and military hospitals in Catterick, Eastern General Hospital (Edinburgh), Musgrave Park Hospital (Belfast), Cambridge Military Hospital (Aldershot), Birmingham Accident Hospital, Guy’s Hospital (London), Queen Alexandra Military Hospital (Millbank), Queen Elizabeth Military Hospital (Woolwich), Westminster Hospital, St Mark’s Hospital (London), as well as the British military hospitals in Rinteln, Berlin, Hannover and Iserlohn in Germany. He saw active service in Oman, Belize and Belfast while commanding a parachute field surgical team. In Northern Ireland he performed life-saving surgery not only on soldiers but also on members of the Irish Republican Army (IRA). The parachute unit was also deployed on NATO exercises in the UK, Germany, Norway, Denmark and Turkey. Finally, he was appointed senior lecturer in military surgery at the Royal Army Medical College, Millbank, where his lectures were avidly attended. He was a contributor to the *Field surgery pocket book* (London, HMSO, 1981) and carried out research at the Porton Down Research Establishment, which benefitted from his extensive battle surgery experience. He retired as a lieutenant colonel after 16 years active service. He was appointed chief of surgery at the Al Zahra Hospital in the United Arab Emirates in 1981 and there proceeded to set up its first private hospital. In 1984 he accepted the position of chief of surgery and director of emergency room services at the Royal Commission Hospital in Saudi Arabia. Two years later, in 1986, he moved to Johannesburg to become senior specialist in the trauma unit at Johannesburg Hospital and senior lecturer at the University of the Witwatersrand, as well as principal of the Transvaal Provincial Administration Ambulance Training College. A decade later he became head of emergency medical services training for the Gauteng Provincial Government, South Africa, and in 2004 he was appointed to the founding Netcare chair of emergency medicine at the University of the Witwatersrand. Campbell maintained his international contacts and visited the UK regularly. After gaining the diploma with distinction in the medical care of catastrophes from the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries of London, he lectured on their course and became an examiner. Campbell was a member of the editorial boards of *Trauma*, *Emergency Medicine* and the *Journal of the Royal Army Medical Corps*. In 1999 he was the Mitchiner lecturer to the Royal Army Medical Corps and in 2000 gave the Hunterian lecture at the College on the management of gunshot wounds. He was a founder member and chairman of the Emergency Medicine Society of South Africa. He was elected as a fellow of the Australasian College of Emergency Medicine, a fellow of the Faculty of Emergency Medicine (UK) and a founding fellow of the Faculty of Pre-hospital Care at the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. His many outside interests included scuba diving, military history, languages (Afrikaans, French and Spanish), martial arts and sailing. He married Jane Fretwell in 1966, by whom he had two daughters (Catriona and Alexina) and a son (Robert). They were divorced in 1986. He died unexpectedly at JFK Airport in New York on 7 June 2006 while returning from representing South Africa at a meeting of the International Federation for Emergency Medicine in Halifax, Canada.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000347
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching McNeill, John Fletcher (1926 - 2006)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2007-05-10
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000300-E000399
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372534372534
Occupation General surgeon
Details John Fletcher McNeill, always known as ‘Ian’, was a surgeon at the Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle. He was born on 15 March 1926 in Yoker, near Glasgow, the youngest of the five children of John Henry Fletcher McNeill, a teacher, and Annie McLachlan, a housewife. The family moved from Glasgow to Newcastle when he was a baby and there he attended Lemington Grammar School. He entered King’s College Medical School, Durham University, a year younger than he should in 1943. There, in addition to serving in the Home Guard, he won the Tulloch scholarship for preclinical studies, the Outterson Wood prize for psychological medicine and the Philipson scholarship in surgery. He qualified in 1949 with honours. After house posts at the Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, he did his National Service in the RAF with Fighter Command. In 1952 he returned to the professorial unit at the Royal Victoria Infirmary as a senior house officer. A year later he was demonstrator of anatomy and then completed a series of registrar posts at the Royal Victoria Infirmary and Shotley Bridge, before returning to the surgical unit as a senior registrar. From this position he was seconded as Harvey Cushing fellow to the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, Boston, from 1961 to 1962, where he carried out research on the effects of haemorrhage and cortical suprarenal hormones on the partition of body water, which led to his MS thesis. He returned to Newcastle as first assistant, until he was appointed lecturer (with consultant status) at the Royal Victoria Infirmary in 1963, as well as honorary consultant in vascular surgery, consultant in charge of the casualty department and honorary consultant to the Princess Mary Maternity Hospital. He was one of the first to restore a severed arm, and he developed a g-suit to control bleeding from a ruptured aorta. He wrote extensively, mainly on vascular and metabolic disorders. In 1957 he married Alma Mary Robson, a theatre sister at the Royal Victoria Hospital. He had many interests, including Egyptology, art, swimming, cricket, woodwork and travel. He died on 8 March 2006 from cancer of the lung, and is survived by his daughter Jane.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000348
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Nixon, John Moylett Gerrard (1913 - 2005)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

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

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

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

First Title value, for Searching Temple, Leslie Joseph (1915 - 2004)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

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

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

First Title value, for Searching Lovell, Arthur Gordon Haynes ( - 1919)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

First Title value, for Searching Lowdell, George (1813 - 1871)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

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

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

First Title value, for Searching Lowes, Frederick John ( - )

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

First Title value, for Searching Lowe, William Thomas (1809 - 1871)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

First Title value, for Searching Lowne, Benjamin Thompson (1839 - 1925)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

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/374756374756
Occupation Botanist Ophthalmic surgeon Physiologist
Details The son of Benjamin Thompson Lowne, who practised at 17 Bartlett's Buildings, BC. He was educated at St Bartholomew's Hospital, assisted his father for some years after qualifying, and then entered the Navy as Assistant Surgeon, but resigned before 1867. In January, 1864, he received a grant from the Royal Society, travelled in Palestine with the Rev H B Tristram, and published a paper on the Flora of the South of the Dead Sea. He had already published in 1861 a paper on "The Natural History of Great Yarmouth". In 1867 he was living in Hatton House, Hatton Gardens, was Surgeon to the Foresters' Club, and was working upon the anatomy of the blow-fly, issuing a monograph on the subject in 1870. He was living in Colville Gardens in 1873 when he gained an Actonian Prize awarded by the Royal Institution with an essay on "The Philosophy of Evolution". He was appointed Lecturer on Physiology and General Anatomy at the Middlesex Hospital Medical School in 1871 in succession to Sir David Ferrier, and resigned in 1895. In October, 1874, he was elected Junior Surgeon to the Great Northern Hospital, a post he exchanged in 1876 for that of Ophthalmic Surgeon. About this time, too, he had become President of the Quekett Microscopical Society and had published a *Student's Guide to Physiology*. At the Royal Veterinary College in Camden Town, Lowne was appointed Lecturer on Botany in 1885 in succession to E S Shave, and he also lectured on helminthology in succession to Dr Spencer Cobbold until February, 1888. He had applied to be appointed Lecturer on Physiology in 1881 when Henry Power (qv) was invited to take the post. At the Royal College of Surgeons he edited the *Teratological Catalogue* of the Museum in 1872. He was Arris and Gale Lecturer on Anatomy and Physiology from 1876-1880, taking as his subjects "Teratology", "The Physiology of Nerve Stimulation", "The Physiology of Sensation", and "The Development of Sensory Organs". He gave the Hunterian Lectures from 1890-1893 on "The Embryology and After-development of Insects"; "The Structure and Development of the Skeleton of the Head, the Nervous System and Sensory Organs of Insects in Relation to Recent Views on the Origin of Vertebrates, and Some Recent Views on the Development of the Embryo"; and "The Relation of the Parablast to the Blastoderm as exemplified in the Development of Insects in the Egg and Pupa"; and finally "Respiration and Circulation in some Invertebrates". He was a Member of the Board of Examiners in Anatomy and Physiology, 1879-1883, of the Board of Examiners for the Fellowship 1886-1896, and of the Examining Board in England from 1887-1892. About 1896 he left London and was appointed Medical Officer of the Crondall District of the Hartley Wintney Union, but shortly afterwards moved to 7, Modena Road, Hove, and finally to 34 Portland Road, Hove, where he died in obscurity on February 8th, 1925, the news of his death not being received at the College until four years later. His wife died many years before him. Lowne was wholly unsuited for the position allotted to him in life, but would have done admirable work as a student and life-long investigator in a biological or physiological institute. Mean-looking, with a shaggy beard, a raucous voice, and an inability to pronounce the letter 'r', he could not maintain order in his lecture-room, or hold his own against a class of medical or veterinary students. As an examiner he was just and painstaking, but often failed to make the examinee understand the question he was asking. In general practice he was equally lacking in the qualities which make for success, as he often appeared unsympathetic and was inclined to argue. He had a vast fund of general knowledge, indomitable patience, and was a master in minute dissection, as is shown in his classic work on the blow-fly. He was, too, a skilful draughtsman and drew his illustrations directly on the copper plate. He was a loyal friend and was ever ready to acknowledge his debt to fellow-workers. Publications: *Natural History of Great Yarmouth*, 1861. "On the Vegetation of the Western and Southern Shores of the Dead Sea." - *Jour Linnean Soc* (Botany), 1867, NS ix, 201 *The Anatomy and Physiology of the Blow Fly*, 8vo, illustrated, 10 plates, London, 1870, John van Voorst, of Paternoster Row. This was elaborated and appeared as *The Anatomy, Physiology, Morphology and Development of the Blow Fly*, 2 vols, London, 1890-2 and 1893-5, published for the author by R H Porter, 15 Princes Street, Cavendish Square, W. *The Philosophy of Evolution: An Actonian Prize Essay*, 8vo, 1873. *A Sketch of Scientific Medicine, being the introductory lecture delivered at the Middlesex Hospital Medical School*, Oct 1st, 1875, 8vo, London, 1875. *A Manual of Ophthalmic Surgery*, 12mo, plates, London, 1876. "Some Phenomena of Vision." - *Proc Roy Soc*, 1876, xxv, 487. "On the Relation of Light to Sensation." - *Jour Anat and Physiol*, 1877, xi, 706. "Modifications of the Simple and Compound Eyes of Insects." - *Phil Trans*, 1878, clxix, 577; *Proc Roy Soc*, 1878, xxvii, 261. "Physiology of Arthropod Vision." - *Trans Linnean Soc*, 1884, 2nd ser. (Zoology), 389. *Teratological Catalogue of the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons of England*, 1872 and 1893. *Aids to Physiology*, 1884. A full bibliography of Lowne's works appears in the *Catalogue of Scientific Papers* published by the Royal Society, 1879, viii; 1894, x; and 1918, xvi.
Resource Identifier RCS: E002573
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

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First Title value, for Searching Lucas-Championnière, Just Marie Marcellin (1843 - 1913)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

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/374758374758
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born at St Léonard (Oise) on August 15th, 1843, the son of Just Lucas-Championnière, a distinguished Parisian physician and medical writer, whose father was a leader in the war in La Vendée. He was educated at the Collège Rollin, and studied medicine at the University of Paris, becoming Interne of the Hospitals in 1865, gaining the Silver Medal of the interneship in 1869, and graduating MD in 1870. He was appointed Surgeon to the Hospitals in 1874. His first service was at the 'maternity' of the Hôpital Cochin, where he was appointed Surgeon-in-Chief. Later he directed the surgical services of the hospitals Tenon, Saint-Louis, Beaujon, and finally the Hôtel-Dieu. He retired in 1906. After he had served his term of office as Interne, he went abroad and was attracted from London to Glasgow by the growing fame of Lister. He saw, understood, and returned to France in 1868 to proclaim that a new era in surgery had dawned. He met with indifference, with ridicule, with opposition, and finally with the retort that others had used carbolic acid as a surgical dressing. But he had the root of the matter in him, had grasped the principles for which Lister fought, and lived on through the antiseptic period into that of asepsis, with which he never brought himself to be in full sympathy. His fame rests on his advocacy of antisepsis on the Continent, and his treatment of simple fractures. The history of his study of the treatment of fractures of the long bones may perhaps be related in his own words. In the address he delivered before the Cardiff Medical Society in 1909 he recalled the spirit of the method which served as a clue to guide him:- "It is, in fact, true that each successive step can be traced in the history of my various trials and investigations, and in the order in which my various applications of the method succeeded one another. I began by lessening the degree of immobility; next I did away with it altogether; next I began to use movements at an early stage; then I began to use them immediately after the injury; finally, I made use of massage - that is to say, of a method of mobilizing the muscles, joints, and even the bony fragments. It was necessary to define the indications and the limits of this special form of movement. Thus it was that years of observation and experiment led me to establish the bold practice of methodical therapeutic mobilization." He embodied his final views on the treatment of fractures by massage and mobilization in a volume published in 1910. Exaggeration of this method of treatment gave bad results and led to fixation of fractures through an open operation. As Surgeon to the Paris hospitals he was actively engaged in teaching for a great part of his life, but he also found time for much important literary work and edited the *Journal de Médecine et de Chirurgie Pratiques*, which his father had founded. In 1875 he again visited Lister, who was in Edinburgh, and published his admirable work on the principles and application of antiseptic surgery. He traced the history of Lister's work in the Lister Jubilee Number of the *British Medical Journal* (1902, ii, 1819) in an article headed, "An Essay in Scientific Surgery. The Antiseptic Method of Lister in the Present and in the Future." His health gave way some years before his death, and at the Sheffield Meeting of the British Medical Association in 1908 he appeared frail and subdued. But he soon regained his old buoyancy and vigour, and was a remarkable instance of health at the age of 70, when he came to London in August, 1913, as President of the Fifth Congress of the Medical Press. He had long been interested in the subject of prehistoric trephining, having written a Prize Essay on trephining and cerebral localization in 1876, and he had been invited to give an address on the subject on Oct 25th at the annual public meeting of the five Academies which form the Institut de France. On October 22nd, 1913, he was reading an essay on "Prehistoric Trephining" to a Committee of the Institut de France when he suddenly collapsed and died. The portrait of this faithful friend of English Surgery is in the College Collection, and another accompanies his *Lancet* biography (1913, ii, 1285). His bibliography is contained in the *Index-Catalogue of the Library of the Surgeon-General's Office* (series i and ii).
Resource Identifier RCS: E002575
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Lucas, Philip Bennett (1804 - 1856)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

First Title value, for Searching Hickey, Brian Brendan (1912 - 2006)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

First Title value, for Searching Ludlow, Ebenezer (1840 - 1900)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2012-07-04 2012-07-06
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E002000-E002999/E002500-E002599
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/374761374761
Occupation General surgeon
Details Educated at St Bartholomew's Hospital, where he was House Surgeon in 1862-1863. He was elected Assistant House Surgeon out of twelve candidates at the Bristol Royal Infirmary on Jan 4th, 1865, and held office until January 22nd, 1870, when he became House Surgeon again after a contest. He was elected the first Assistant Physician to the Infirmary on January 28th, 1871, and resigned the post on the grounds of ill health on May 14th, 1872. He was also Demonstrator of Anatomy at the Bristol Medical School. Before 1881 he moved to Hertford, where he practised in Ware Road, and then removed to Grave Hill, Brinscombe, Stroud, Gloucestershire, whence he returned to Hertford. His death occurred at Hertford on January 7th, 1900.
Resource Identifier RCS: E002578
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Ludlow, Harvey (1827 - 1855)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

First Title value, for Searching Lukis, Sir Charles Pardey (1857 - 1917)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2012-07-06
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E002000-E002999/E002500-E002599
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/374763374763
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born on September 9th, 1857, the son of William Henry Lukis, of Southampton. Educated at St Bartholomew's Hospital, he won the Open Entrance Scholarship in Science in October, 1875, and gained the Brackenbury Medical Scholarship in 1878. He entered the Bengal Army as Surgeon on March 31st, 1880, being promoted Surgeon Major on March 31st, 1892, and Lieutenant-Colonel on March 31st, 1900. He never held the rank of Colonel, being selected for promotion to Surgeon General and appointment as Director-General while still a Lieutenant-Colonel on January 1st, 1910. He was raised to the rank of Lieutenant-General on September 22nd, 1916, being the only Director-General of the Indian Medical Service on whom this rank had been conferred. He saw service with the field forces in Waziristan in 1881 and in the Zhob Valley in 1885. He was then transferred to the civil branch and held appointments in the United Provinces, becoming Civil Surgeon of Simla in 1899 and Hon Surgeon to the Viceroy in 1905. He was appointed Professor of Materia Medica at the Calcutta Medical College, and in 1905 Professor of Medicine and Principal of the College, as well as first Physician of the Hospital attached to the College. Early in 1910 he was selected for the post of Director-General of the Indian Medical Service, and held it by successive extensions until his death in 1917, probably a longer period than any of his predecessors. He was gazetted Hon Surgeon to the King in 1913, and rose to a high position in Freemasonry in India, having been admitted a member of the Rahere Lodge at St Bartholomew's Hospital in June, 1903. Lukis took the MD of the University of London in Pathology and the Fellowship as vacation exercises during leave from India. From the beginning of his time in India he gave himself up to the clinical side of his duties with all the remarkable ability and energy with which he was endowed, and continued to keep himself abreast of the progress of medicine and surgery. When he was advanced to the highest administrative medical post in India he was able to show that he had not failed fully to appreciate the importance which laboratory and field research had attained. He used the influence his position gave him to promote the formation of the Indian Research Fund Association, which has already done a great deal for research in India. The war of 1914-1918 enormously increased the ordinary problems of efficient administration in India and threw much additional work upon the Director-General, which he still further increased by accepting the post of Chairman of the Executive Committee of the St John Ambulance Association in India. He was not involved in the early breakdown of the medical arrangements for the campaign in Mesopotamia, since the responsibility rested with the Government who had placed it upon an officer of the Royal Army Medical Corps and not of the Indian Medical Service. Lukis, however, acted for a few months in this position in 1916 in the interval between the resignation of one Director and the arrival of his successor. The Report of the Commission bears testimony to the energy and vigour with which during this time many defects and shortcomings were remedied. Sir Pardey Lukis died in India on October 22nd, 1917, owing to the recurrence of a serious malady from which he had suffered two years previously. He was survived by his widow, a daughter of Colonel John Stewart, RA, and by a son and three daughters. His eldest son, T S Lukis, who showed every promise of following his father's successful medical career, accepted a commission in the London Regiment in August, 1914, and was killed in March, 1915. Publications:- *Tropical Hygiene for Anglo-Indians and Indians* (with MAJOR R J BLACKHAM), 8vo, illustrated, 2nd ed, Calcutta, 1914; 3rd ed, 1915. Edited Ghosh's *Materia Medica*; Waring's *Bazaar Medicines of India*, 6th ed, 1901; and was the first editor of the *Indian Jour of Med Research*.
Resource Identifier RCS: E002580
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Rihan, Robert Stanley (1927 - 2006)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2007-06-08
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000300-E000399
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372547372547
Occupation General surgeon
Details Robert Rihan was a consultant surgeon at Good Hope Hospital, Sutton Coldfield. He was born on 22 October 1927 in Birmingham, the son of Alexander Rihan, a general practitioner, and Ruby Lillian Floyd. He attended Edgbaston preparatory school and, during the war years, Rydal School, Colwyn Bay. In 1945 he gained a place at Birmingham Medical School and qualified in 1951. He was house surgeon to A L d’Abreu and then joined the RAMC, becoming an acting major and deputy assistant director of medical services to the 7th Armoured Division and, more importantly, also their cricket secretary. On demobilisation he returned to Birmingham to complete his surgical training, including a spell as a registrar at the Birmingham Children’s Hospital. He was appointed consultant surgeon at Good Hope Hospital, one of a team of three general surgeons. His particular interests were in vascular and paediatric surgery. Robert was a gifted technical surgeon, blessed with considerable insight and good judgement, and thus confident about when to operate and when to treat conservatively. He was extremely thorough and conscientious, always available to his junior staff, and he insisted on reviewing emergency and elective cases himself before management decisions were taken. He always liked to be involved, and sometimes found it difficult to suffer fools gladly, but he was greatly liked and respected by senior colleagues, as well as the juniors he trained, the nursing staff, and his patients. Robert was active in various aspects of hospital life, becoming chairman of the surgical division, where his tenure was marked by quiet, thoughtful and mature decisions. He retired from the NHS in 1990. Robert married Barbara Potts, a physiotherapist, in September 1957, and they had four daughters. There are eight grandchildren. Following his retirement he moved with Barbara to the Cotswolds. There he threw himself into the local social life, demonstrating his surgical skills by carving the Christmas turkey at the local history society dinner. Sadly his last years were marred by all the problems of cardiac and renal failure, although he bore his ill health with great fortitude. He died at home with his family on 19 February 2006.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000361
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Travers, Eric Horsley (1910 - 2006)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2007-06-08
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000300-E000399
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372548372548
Occupation General surgeon
Details Eric Travers was a consultant surgeon to Sedgefield and Stockton and Thornaby hospitals. He was born on 7 June 1910 in Brantingham, Yorkshire, where his father John (‘Jack’) Francis Travers was a solicitor. His mother was Beatrice Mary Horsley. The eldest of three, he and his two younger sisters (Mary and Rachael) grew up to enjoy riding and shooting. He was educated at Repton, where he was found to be a talented mathematician and woodworker, enjoying carpentry for the rest of his life. On leaving school he spent a few months in his father’s office, but found the work uncongenial. He told his father: ‘I never want to look at another damned deed again’. So he went to Edinburgh to study medicine, and qualified in 1936. He was house surgeon at Derby Royal Infirmary. He had joined the Territorial Army as a gunner, but found his medical work interfered with his training sessions and transferred to the RAMC. In 1939 he married Beryl Newby, and was about to take up the position of demonstrator in anatomy in Cambridge when the war broke out and he was posted to France, from which he was safely evacuated. He took the opportunity to sit and pass the FRCS. He was then posted to Singapore when news came of its surrender, and his ship was re-routed to the Middle East. There he found himself in a field hospital in Basra, where he practised his small arms skills by going wild fowling, and in the evenings became a fine bridge player. He ended the war as commanding officer of his field hospital. While at this posting a single dose of penicillin was received and he was asked which patient should be given it. He answered, the patient most in need. His staff remonstrated – this patient was an Italian prisoner of war. Travers repeated his orders. He was demobilised in 1945 and then worked as a registrar at the Westminster Hospital under Sir Stanford Cade until 1948, when he was appointed consultant surgeon to Sedgefield, and Stockton and Thornaby hospitals, their first non-GP specialist, retaining this appointment when the National Health Service was set up. He was particularly interested in abdominal surgery. From time to time he acted as medical officer to Sedgefield and Stockton racecourses. Outwardly shy, mild and well-mannered, in hospital he demanded the highest standards for his patients. Outside medicine, he learned to sail dinghies with his eldest daughter Jane and son John, and helped his other daughter, Mary, with her pony. He also bought a small farm. He retired at the age of 60 to a neglected Elizabethan cottage in Surrey, where he and Beryl transformed the interior and recreated the garden. He died after a prolonged illness on 2 September 2006.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000362
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

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

First Title value, for Searching Lund, Edward (1823 - 1898)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2012-07-06
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E002000-E002999/E002500-E002599
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/374764374764
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born on May 23rd, 1823, the ninth son of Thomas Lund, of Peckham, Surrey. He was apprenticed to Dr William Parker Hoare, of Faversham, Kent, and in 1842 entered as a student at Guy's Hospital. In 1848 he went to Manchester, where his talents as a surgeon soon brought him to the front. In 1850 he was appointed Anatomical Demonstrator in the Pine Street Medical School. Not only was he a fine teacher, but his personality was such that the students became warmly attached to him and testified their feeling by making him a presentation in February, 1854, at the Queen's Hotel, Piccadilly, Manchester. In 1855 he was elected Dispensary Surgeon to the Manchester Royal Infirmary with care of a district. He attended to his new duties most assiduously, treating out-patients and instructing students in minor surgery. In 1857 the Dispensary Surgeons were relieved of the obligation to visit patients in their homes. On the amalgamation of the Pine Street and Chatham Street Schools in Manchester, Lund became a member of the teaching staff of the Manchester Royal School of Medicine, where he had as his colleagues R C Smith, Thomas Turner, and George Southam (qv). In 1868, on the retirement of J A Ransome, he became full Surgeon to the Royal Infirmary, and was active in effecting the union of the Medical School and Owens College, which gave a great impetus to medical education in Manchester. Southam and he became joint Professors of Surgery in the new Victoria University, and in 1874 Lund was admitted to the Senate of the University and succeeded Southam as sole Professor in 1877, the date of Southam's death. He held office as Professor till 1888. His lectures were notable. Lund had the great merit of having been one of the first to recognize the immense practical importance of Lister's employment of antiseptics in operative surgery, and his reputation and influence were very valuable in bringing about the acceptance of antiseptic surgery in Manchester. Lund's skill as an operator and his ingenuity in devising methods of treatment contributed largely to his success both as a teacher and practitioner. A humble but most useful invention, credibly attributed to him, is 'Lund's corkscrew lever', the uses of which are not necessarily connected with medicine bottles. He was a Member of Council of the Surgical Section of the International Medical Congress in 1881, in which year he was also chosen President of the Lancashire and Cheshire Branch of the British Medical Association. He served as a Member of the Council of the Royal College of Surgeons 1878-1894, an evidence of the esteem in which he was held as a surgeon throughout the North of England. In 1883 he was elected a Member of the Court of Examiners, and was appointed Hunterian Professor of Surgery and Pathology together with John Wood in 1884, delivering three lectures on "Injuries and Diseases of the Head and Neck, the Genito-urinary Organs, and the Rectum". He resigned from the Council and the Examinership in 1887, as he was then in a weak state of health. He had also resigned his post at the Manchester Royal Infirmary in 1882, and had been appointed Consulting Surgeon. In 1883 he gave an address before the Medical Society of London on "The Present Aspect of the Antiseptic Question". He married in 1849 Charlotte, youngest daughter of D H Webster, of Kirby, Northants. He died at his residence, Whalley Range, Manchester, on February 4th, 1898, was buried in the Southern Cemetery, and was survived by a daughter and three sons. He had practised at 22 John Street, Manchester. Lund's portrait is in Jamyn Brookes's portrait group of the Council which now hangs in the Royal College of Surgeons, and there is a good photogravure of him in the College Collection and another photograph in the Council Album. Publications:- *The Art of Medicine; its Objects and its Duties: an Address*, 8vo, London and Manchester, 1860. "Observations on Some of the More Recent Methods of Treating Wounds, and on Excision of the Knee-joint," 8vo, Manchester, 1870; reprinted from *Manchester Med Rep*, 1870, i, 260. *Case of a Foreign Body in the Bladder, with Stricture of the Urethra*, 8vo, plate, London, 1871. *The Present Aspect of the Antiseptic Question*, 8vo, Manchester, 1883. *Hunterian Lectures* (1885) *on Some of the Injuries and Diseases of the Neck and Head, the Genito-urinary Organs, and the Rectum*, 8vo, with photographs, London, 1886.
Resource Identifier RCS: E002581
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Lunn, William ( - 1866)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2012-07-06 2013-08-09
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/374765374765
Occupation General surgeon
Details Was in general practice at Dock Street, Hull, prior to the Act of 1815. He was Surgeon to the Borough Gaol and to the Charter House. His son was William Joseph Lunn (qv). He died in 1866 or 1867.
Resource Identifier RCS: E002582
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Lunn, William Joseph (1815 - 1894)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2012-07-06 2014-01-31
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/374766374766
Occupation General surgeon
Details Educated at the Kingston-upon-Hull College and at Bishopston, Ripon. After having served as apprentice to his father, William Lunn (qv), he entered the University of Edinburgh in 1835 and completed his professional training at University College, London, and Munich. He practised at 7 Charlotte Street, Hull, and at the time of his death was Consulting Surgeon to the Hull General Infirmary, Hon Local Secretary to the Royal Medical Benevolent College, Admiralty Surgeon and Agent. At a previous period he was Surgeon to the Hull Borough Gaol, the Lying-in Charity, and the Charter House. He died on October 5th, 1894.
Resource Identifier RCS: E002583
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Lush, William George Vawdrey (1834 - 1904)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

First Title value, for Searching Vaughan-Jackson, Oliver James (1907 - 2003)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-11-02
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000100-E000199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372346372346
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon
Details Oliver Vaughan-Jackson was a consultant orthopaedic surgeon at the London Hospital and a specialist in hand surgery. He was born in Berkhamstead on 6 July 1907, the eldest son of Surgeon-Captain P Vaughan-Jackson RN. He was educated at Berkhamstead and Balliol College, Oxford, where he played for the winning rugby XV, before going on to the London Hospital for his clinical studies. After completing his house jobs he specialised in surgery and passed the FRCS in 1936. Realising war was on the horizon, he joined the RNVR in 1938 and by 1939 found himself a surgeon in the Royal Naval Hospital at Chatham, where he remained for the next four years, until in 1944 he was posted to the RN Hospital, Sydney. At the end of the war, he returned to the London Hospital as consultant orthopaedic surgeon, joining the energetic new team led by Sir Reginald Watson-Jones and Sir Henry Osmond-Clarke. He was also on the consultant staff of St Bartholomew’s Hospital, Rochester. At the London his particular interest was in the surgery of the hand, and especially the treatment of the complications of rheumatoid arthritis. In 1948 he published an account of a hitherto undescribed syndrome whereby extensor tendons, frayed by underlying arthritic osteophytes, rupture – a syndrome to which his name is eponymously attached. A gentle and genial man, Oliver was a popular teacher and much admired by his juniors for his patient and painstaking surgical technique. Towards the end of his career he spent a good deal of his spare time in Newfoundland, Canada, at the Memorial Hospital, where a new multidisciplinary department for rheumatology had been set up. He was appointed professor of orthopaedic surgery there. After retirement he went to live in Newfoundland, but returned towards the evening of his life to live in Cerne Abbas, Dorset, where he died on 7 November 2003. He married Joan Madeline née Bowring in 1939. They had two sons.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000159
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Witte, Jens (1941 - 2003)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-11-02 2012-03-08
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000100-E000199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372347372347
Occupation Colorectal surgeon Oesophageal surgeon Upper gastrointestinaI surgeon
Details Jens Witte, doyen of German surgery, was born on 4 February 1941 in Perleberg, Mark/Brandenburg, the eldest of three sons of a surgeon father. He studied medicine at the Universities of Homburg/Saar, Hamburg and Berlin. After qualifying, he became a medizinalassistent in Bielefeld and Hamburg, spent some time in a mission hospital in Tanzania, and returned to work under Egerhard Weisschedel in Konstantz. There followed a series of brilliant appointments under Georg Heberer, first in Cologne and then in Munich, becoming professor in 1982 and head of viszeralchirugie in 1984. His special interests were in oesophageal and colorectal surgery. He was a prominent member of the professional surgical organisation, becoming its President in 1998. Active in the European Union of Medical Specialists, he was President of the section of surgery in 2002 and devoted himself to the integration and training of surgeons in the former East Germany. He was the recipient of many honours, including that of our College. He died unexpectedly on 12 June 2003 in Augsburg.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000160
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Allan, Walter Ramsay (1927 - 2003)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-11-15 2006-07-17
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000100-E000199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372348372348
Occupation General surgeon
Details Walter Ramsay Allan, known as ‘Peter’, was a consultant surgeon at Bolton Royal Infirmary. Born on 26 October 1927, he was the second of four sons of Walter Ramsay Allan, a general practitioner based in Edinburgh who had fought in the first world war before completing his medical studies at Glasgow University. His mother was Elizabeth Brownlee née Moffat, a classical scholar who studied at Oxford. Peter went to Lincoln College, Oxford, to read medicine, along with his two younger brothers, all of whom represented the university at sport. Peter also won a Scottish cap for cricket in 1950. He went on to Edinburgh for his clinical studies, qualifying in 1951. After house physician and house surgeon posts at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary and Stornaway, he spent two years in the RAMC from 1952 to 1954. He returned to continue his surgical training at Bangor Hospital and Manchester, becoming a senior registrar at Preston and Manchester Royal Infirmaries and finally being appointed consultant surgeon at Bolton. Following his retirement he developed an interest in the Scottish writers of the 18th century and enjoyed walking in the Borders and Pennines. He also enjoyed music and made annual trips to Glyndebourne. He married Anne Evans, a senior house officer in anaesthetics, while he was a surgical registrar. They had two daughters (Ann Ellen Elizabeth and Victoria Jane Moffat) and two sons (Walter Janus Thomas and James Dillwyn Douglas). James became a consultant urologist. Peter died on 12 May 2003.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000161
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Hounsfield, Sir Godfrey Newbold (1919 - 2004)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-09-22 2008-09-11
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000200-E000299
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372446372446
Occupation Research engineer
Details Godfrey Hounsfield, the inventor of the CT scanner, was the epitome of the brilliant boffin – modest, retiring and shunning the limelight. He was born on 28 August 1919, the youngest of the five children of Thomas Hounsfield, a steel engineer who took up farming in Newark-on-Trent, Nottinghamshire. There Godfrey grew up surrounded by farm machinery, with which he became fascinated. ‘In a village there are few distractions and no pressures to join in at a ball game or go to the cinema and I was free to follow the trail of any interesting idea that came my way. I constructed electrical recording machines; I made hazardous investigations of the principles of flight, launching myself from the tops of haystacks with a home-made glider; I almost blew myself up during exciting experiments using water-filled tar barrels and acetylene to see how high they could be waterjet propelled.’ At Magnus Grammar School he was interested only in physics and mathematics. At the outbreak of the Second World War he joined the RAF as a volunteer reservist and was taken on as a radar mechanic instructor, occupying himself in building a large-screen oscilloscope. His work was noticed by Air Vice Marshall Cassidy, who got him a grant after the war to attend Faraday House Electrical Engineering College, where he received a diploma. He then joined the staff of EMI working on radar and guided weapons, working with primitive computers. In 1958 he led a team building the first all-transistor computer, speeding up the transistors by providing them with a magnetic core. In 1967 he began to study aspects of pattern recognition and worked in the Central Research Laboratories of EMI. Contrary to the public relations story, which has been repeated so often that it has come to be accepted as true, his idea did not occur to him when out walking, and it was not supported by the full resources of EMI. His colleague, W E Ingham, pointed out that EMI were not interested: they were not in the medical business, and it was only covertly that a deal was done with the Department of Health and Society Security to fund the development of what became the first CT scanner. The first brain to be scanned was that of a bullock. The prototype was soon shown to be successful in 1971, when it was used to diagnose a brain cyst at Atkinson Morley’s Hospital and before long Hounsfield’s work had been plagiarised and developed all over the world, mostly overseas. Hounsfield was unaware that Cormack, of Tufts, had published theoretical studies on the mathematics for such a device. A whole-body scanner was introduced in 1975. Honours came thick and fast: CBE, FRS, the Nobel prize (shared with Cormack), a knighthood and an honorary FRCS. He remained a modest, retiring bachelor. His advice to the young was: ‘Don’t worry if you can’t pass exams, so long as you feel you have understood the subject.’ In retirement he did voluntary work at the Royal Brompton and Heart Hospitals. He died from a chronic and progressive lung disease on 12 August 2004. He was unmarried.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000259
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Hopper, Ian (1938 - 2005)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Neil Weir
Publication Date 2006-09-22 2009-05-07
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/372447372447
Occupation ENT surgeon
Details Ian Hopper was an ENT consultant in Sunderland. He was born in Newcastle upon Tyne on 19 May 1938, the son of John Frederick Hopper, an insurance manager, and Dora née Lambert. He was educated at Dame Allans School, Newcastle upon Tyne, and High Storrs Grammar School, Sheffield, where he played rugby in the first XV. At Sheffield University, although he boxed for a short while, he turned away from contact sports and played table tennis for the university and the United Sheffield Hospitals. He was much influenced by the skills of the professor of surgery, Sir Andrew Kay. He held house physician and house surgeon posts at Sheffield Royal Infirmary and Wharncliffe Hospitals. Having obtained his primary fellowship, he chose to specialise in ENT surgery. He became registrar and later senior registrar in ENT at the Sheffield Royal Infirmary. In 1969 he was appointed ENT consultant at Sunderland Royal Infirmary and General Hospital, where he stayed until his retirement in 1997. Ian Hopper was regional adviser in otolaryngology, a member of the Overseas Doctors Training Committee and the College Hospital Recognition Committee. He was on the council of the British Association of Otolaryngologists (from 1983 to 1997), honorary ENT consultant at the Duchess of Kent Military Hospital, president of the North of England Otolaryngological Society, a council member of the Section of Otology at the Royal Society of Medicine and chairman of the Regional Specialist Subcommittee in Otolaryngology. He married Christine Wadsworth, a schoolteacher, in 1961. Their son, Andrew James, was bursar at Collingwood College, Durham University, before entering the private student accommodation market and their daughter, Penelope Anne, teaches art at Poynton High School, Cheshire. In retirement Ian Hopper made bowls his main sport and subsequently became vice-chairman of Sunderland Bowls Club. He was also a keen snooker player. He died peacefully in hospital after a long illness on 4 March 2005.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000260
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Herdman, John Phipps (1921 - 2005)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-09-22 2012-03-22
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000200-E000299
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372448372448
Occupation General surgeon
Details John Herdman was born on 15 December 1921. He studied medicine at Oxford, qualifying in 1945. He completed house jobs at the United Oxford Hospitals and at Ancoats, Manchester, from which he passed the FRCS. He then returned to the Nuffield Institute for Medical Research for two years, before undergoing further registrar posts in Oxford. In 1953 he went to Canada and worked as a general surgeon at the St Joseph's Hospitals, Sarnia, Ontario, until 1973. He then studied health services planning under D O Anderson in the University of British Columbia, where he wrote a graduate thesis on patterns in surgical performance in the Province of British Columbia, and revealed a natural aptitude for epidemiological research. In 1976 he joined the staff of Riverview Hospital, Port Coquitlam, British Columbia, becoming surgical consultant in June 1976, where his duties were administrative. By 1978 he was the chief physician of North Lawn in charge of the entire medical and surgical service. By 1985 he was involved in a successful application for re-accreditation of Riverview Hospital and its mental health services. He was also involved with the care of patients who developed megacolon as a side effect of their medication. He retired in 1991. He died on 4 April 2005.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000261
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Halvorsen, Jan Frederik (1935 - 2003)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-09-22 2007-08-09
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000200-E000299
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372449372449
Occupation General surgeon
Details Jan Frederik Halvorsen was director of the department of surgery and professor of surgery at the University of Bergen, Norway. He graduated from the University of Bergen Medical School in 1960, becoming a general surgical specialist in 1968 with a special interest in intestinal surgery. He gained a PhD for his work on blood pressure within the liver. His first appointment was at Stavanger Hospital, followed by the Rikshopitalet in Oslo. He also worked at the United Nations Hospital in Gaza. In 1964 he was appointed to Haukeland University Hospital in Bergen, where he remained until illness forced his retirement in 2001. He moved through the department of pathology and the gynaecology clinic, but his main focus was surgery. He initially specialised in endocrine surgery, but eventually developed his interest in GI surgery, particularly the diagnosis and treatment of bowel disorders. He published over 100 papers on diseases of the GI tract. He took a sabbatical, spending time at St Mark’s Hospital, London. He became professor of surgery at Bergen University and, as a result of his involvement with the Norwegian Medical Association, he was responsible for the coordination of postgraduate studies. His door was always open to students and colleagues. The organisation of training and the decentralising of courses were a demanding project. He organised the coordination of 1,100 courses involving 25,000 participants. In 1992 he was chosen to coordinate university exchanges between the Hanseatic towns of Lubeck in Germany and Bergen. His enormous experience, knowledge, friendly amiability and dynamism helped him to establish important international contacts and successful exchanges. He was a generous man and established great and permanent friendships with both the students and the specialists in both these cities. He also organised many visits of groups of surgeons from other countries, including the UK. He was a great communicator and spoke impeccable English. He was extremely interested in English literature. He belonged to a British surgical travelling club and was one of its most enthusiastic members. Even when he was suffering from serious cardiac problems he determinedly joined the group on a visit to Spain. In 1988 he was made an honorary Fellow of the College. This particular honour he cherished more than the other many honours he received. Jan Frederik Halvorsen was an extremely skilled surgeon, with vast theoretical knowledge and practical experience. In addition to the qualities he showed as a surgeon, his organisational skills in health management were used to great effect in improving postgraduate education in Norway. Patients and doctors benefited from these attributes. He left a great legacy. He was a strong family man. He leaves his wife Sissel and four children.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000262
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Addison, Norman Victor (1925 - 2003)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

First Title value, for Searching Blaiklock, Christopher Thomas (1936 - 2018)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by David Currie
Publication Date 2006-09-22 2018-05-01
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000200-E000299
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372451372451
Occupation Neurosurgeon
Details Christopher Thomas Blaiklock was a consultant neurosurgeon at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary. He was born on 27 July 1936 in Newcastle upon Tyne and raised in Northumbria. His parents, Thomas Snowdon Blaiklock and Constance Rebecca Blaiklock, were both doctors. He attended Oundle School, Northampton, and then carried out his National Service (from 1954 to 1956) in the Royal Navy. He went on to study medicine at Durham, qualifying in 1961. Chris was influenced by his medical house officer post with the Newcastle neurologist, Sir John Walton. His original intention was to pursue a career as a physician, but, having passed the MRCP in 1966, he came to the view that, with the resources available at the time, he could achieve more for patients as a surgeon and he did his basic surgical training in Cardiff. He decided on a career in neurosurgery which, at the time, could not be said to be the most successful of surgical specialties, but he was fortunate to be regularly in the right place at the right time. He was a neurosurgical registrar at Atkinson Morley Hospital in London, which was famous (or notorious) for giving a rigorous training. While he was there the first CT (computed tomography) scanner in the world was installed and Chris was among the first neurosurgeons to experience the revolutionary transformation of neurological imaging and the huge improvement that brought to patients' experience of neurological diagnosis. In 1972, he was appointed as a senior registrar in neurosurgery in Glasgow with Bryan Jennett at a time when Glasgow was being recognised as a centre of excellence in neurosurgical research. The first CT scanner in Scotland was installed in Glasgow during his training there. In 1974, he was appointed as a consultant neurosurgeon at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary. He was only the third neurosurgeon in Aberdeen after Martin Nichols and Bob Fraser. The department covered the whole of the North of Scotland, including the Northern and Western isles. In addition to providing a comprehensive neurosurgery service, the department housed, prior to the advent of intensive care units, the only ventilation unit in the region and the two neurosurgeons were responsible for its management along with a single trainee. Chris brought his experience of CT imaging and saw the installation of the first CT scanner in Aberdeen. He introduced the operating microscope and effectively brought neurosurgery in Aberdeen into the modern era. When the world's first MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) scanner was built and became available for clinical use, Chris was the first neurosurgeon in the world to employ it and gain experience in its use in neurosurgery. Chris was unusual in being a neurosurgeon who was also a member (and subsequently a fellow) of the Royal College of Physicians, and his diagnostic skills were evidence of his broad general knowledge. For many years, the neurosurgeons in Aberdeen also offered the out-of-hours neurology service, handing patients over to the well-rested neurologists in the morning. Chris often remarked that he could just as easily have enjoyed being an engineer. He had a fascination with how things worked. He carried a skill with tools and his manual dexterity into his operative surgery. He was a true craftsman. His operative surgery was calm, precise and quick, and an inspiration to his trainees. He was an NHS partisan. Despite a heavy workload, his waiting times were negligible and he was offended on occasions when it was suggested to him that he might see a patient 'privately'. He was intensely proud of the local service and of the beautiful territory he served. He enjoyed demonstrating the extent of the territory he covered by placing a pair of compasses on Aberdeen and passing it through his most distant centre of habitation - one of the North Sea oil platforms. The circle also passed through Watford. He contributed extensively to NHS administration, both locally and nationally. With the introduction of clinical management, he became director of surgery for Grampian - a post that he accepted without dropping any clinical sessions. He lacked self-importance or pomposity, and was genuinely interested in people and their occupations and he was always available. For a year, while the other consultant post was unfilled, he provided the service single-handedly. Chris Blaiklock died at home on 8 February 2018 at the age of 81 and was survived by his wife Judith, an anaesthetist, and by his son, Ian, and daughter, Fiona. He will be remembered with great affection by former patients, colleagues in all health professions and by his trainees who have occupied consultant posts in Scotland and in other countries.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000264
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Bond, Kenneth Edgar (1908 - 2003)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

First Title value, for Searching Bonham, Dennis Geoffrey (1924 - 2005)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

First Title value, for Searching Keane, Brendan (1926 - 2005)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-10-26
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000200-E000299
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372454372454
Occupation General surgeon
Details Brendan Keane was a surgeon at the Whakatane Hospital, Bay of Plenty, New Zealand. He was born in Dublin on 9 May 1926, one of six children. His father rose to become private secretary to Eamon de Valera and head of the Irish Civil Service. His mother was a teacher from the Aran Islands, where the family spent their summers in thatched stone cottages. His early schooling was at Roscrea, a Cistercian monastic boarding school where the examinations were all in Gaelic. From there he went to University College, Dublin, to study veterinary surgery, but changed to medicine after a year. After a period as house surgeon at Coombe Hospital, Dublin, he went to England, to work at Sefton General Hospital, Liverpool, as a casualty officer. He then joined the RAMC, spending two years in Malaya, rising to the rank of major, treating British and Gurkha soldiers and their families. He returned to Halifax General Hospital, Yorkshire, to complete a series of training posts in surgery, obstetrics and gynaecology. In 1965 he moved to Gibraltar, where he remained for six years. During this time he became a passionate lover of the Spanish language. He then sailed for New Zealand, working as a consultant surgeon at Whakatane Hospital in the Bay of Plenty. On retirement he continued his study of Spanish, enrolling on a short course at the University of Zaragoza, and began to learn French from scratch. His other hobbies included golf, snooker, Irish history and jazz. He married Christine in 1957 and they had four children. He died on 22 October 2005.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000267
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Macdonnell, George Bean (1797 - 1850)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

First Title value, for Searching Macdougal, Alexander Mason (1835 - 1888)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

First Title value, for Searching McCabe, William Alexander Bowes (1862 - 1887)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

First Title value, for Searching McCarthy, Jeremiah (1836 - 1924)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

First Title value, for Searching McCheane, William (1820 - 1889)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

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

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

First Title value, for Searching McCraith, James (1810 - 1901)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

First Title value, for Searching McDermott, William ( - 1861)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2012-07-06 2012-09-28
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/374780374780
Occupation General surgeon
Details Surgeon in the Royal Navy, attained seniority in 1851. He passed his FRCS examination on March 11th, 1857, but his name was retained on the Members' List, probably owing to non-payment of fees. He died at Longwood Avenue, Dublin, on September 11th, 1861.
Resource Identifier RCS: E002597
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching McDonagh, James Armstrong (1820 - 1899)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

First Title value, for Searching McDougall, The Rev Francis Thomas (1817 - 1886)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2012-07-06
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E002000-E002999/E002500-E002599
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/374782374782
Occupation General surgeon Priest
Details Born at Sydenham, Kent, the only son of William Adair McDougall, Captain in the 88th Regiment. His mother, whose maiden name was Gell, had strong evangelical principles. McDougall was educated at Malta, where his father's regiment was quartered, and attended the hospitals at Valetta. He entered as a medical student at King's College, London, in 1835, and matriculated in the University of Oxford from Magdalen Hall on February 28th, 1839, graduating BA in 1844, MA in 1845, and being created DCL on June 28th, 1854. Whilst he was at Oxford McDougall, weighing 9 stone 8 lb, rowed bow in the Oxford and Cambridge boat-race on July 11th, 1842, F N Menzies being stroke and the course from Westminster to Putney. The Oxford crew won, and the race is memorable as being the first in which the short digging 'Waterman's stroke' was abandoned for what afterwards became known as the 'Oxford stroke'. On leaving Oxford he became Medical Officer to some ironworks in South Wales, and married Marriette, daughter of Robert John Bunyon, whose elder sister was married to Bishop Colenso. The ironworks failed and McDougall was ordained in 1845 by Dr Stanley, Bishop of Norwich. He became Curate of Farnlingham Pigot, and in 1846 of St Mark's, Lakenham, a populous suburb of Norwich, and afterwards of Christ Church, Woburn Square, London. He was offered a permanent position at the British Museum in 1847, and almost at the same time came the offer of a curacy and of mission work in Borneo. He chose the first, repented, and set out for Borneo in December, 1847. There with the help of Mrs McDougall he did much good work amongst the Chinese and Dyaks, establishing a 'Home School' in which the children were taught from infancy the principles of Christianity. He returned to England in 1853 and arranged for the transfer of the mission to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, as the funds of the Borneo Mission were exhausted. He was in Sarawak again in 1854, and was consecrated at Calcutta on St Luke's Day, 1855, Bishop of Labuan, as this small island was alone under the direct control of the Colonial Office and no precedent existed for a bishopric beyond the dominions of the Crown. He sent a three-column letter to *The Times*, dated from Sarawak, May 27th, 1862. It is a fine pirate story, telling of an encounter with Malay pirates at sea in which quite unostentatiously he shows himself a first-class fighter, a surgeon, and a priest. Some exception was taken to the letter, in which the Bishop says: "My double-barrelled Terry's breech loader, made by Reilly, New Oxford Street, proved itself a most deadly weapon from its true shooting, and certainty and rapidity of fire. It never missed fire once in 80 rounds, and was then so little fouled that I believe it would have fired 80 more with like effect without wanting to be cleaned." Dr Tait, then Bishop of London, told him dryly that when next there was occasion for such a letter he had best let his wife write it for him. In 1857 he wrote a *Malay Prayer Book*, and in 1868 published a *Catechism for the Use of the Missions of the Church in Borneo*. Bishop McDougall's health failed in 1867; he returned to England, resigned his Bishopric in the spring of 1868, and was presented by Dean Stanley to the vicarage of Godmanchester, Huntingdonshire, which he held until 1874. Here he formed a close friendship with Harold Browne, Bishop of Ely, who appointed him Archdeacon of the Diocese in 1870 and Canon of Ely in the following year. When Dr Browne was translated from Ely to Winchester he made McDougall a Canon of Winchester in 1873 and Archdeacon of the Isle of Wight in 1874, adding the small Vicarage of Milford-on-Sea, Hants, in 1881. This cure he held until 1885, when he became Rector of Mottistone with Shorwell, Isle of Wight. He died on November 16th, 1886, his wife having died on May 7th preceding. One of his daughters married F Charlewood Turner, MD, Physician to St Thomas's Hospital, the second married Charles Henry Turner, DD, Bishop of Islington, whose fourth son, George Charlewood Turner, MC, was Master of Marlborough College.
Resource Identifier RCS: E002599
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Gilbert, Barton (1908 - 2006)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-10-26 2017-03-24
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000200-E000299
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372457372457
Occupation Obstetric and gynaecological surgeon Obstetrician and gynaecologist
Details Barton Gilbert was a consultant in gynaecology and obstetrics. He was born in Wembley, London, on 28 October 1908. His father, Ernest Jesse Gilbert, was an accountant. His mother, Amy Louise (whose maiden name was also Gilbert), was the daughter of a leather-merchant. His family was descended from William Gilbert, president of the College of Physicians during the time of Queen Elizabeth I. During the First World War Barton went to school in Bordeaux, and later went to Middlesex County School, Isleworth, before going to study medicine at St Thomas's Hospital. At St Thomas's he was awarded the university entrance science scholarship in 1928. He also gained a BSc in physiology, the William Tite and Musgrove scholarships in anatomy and physiology, and the Haddon prize for pathology. After qualifying he completed junior posts at St Thomas's, working for Nitch and Mitchiner. He then went as RMO to the City of London Maternity Hospital and then the Chelsea Hospital for Women, where he was influenced by Victor Bonney and Sir Comyns Berkeley. In 1936 he returned to St Thomas's as registrar in obstetrics and gynaecology. He was subsequently appointed to the consultant staff of the Chelsea Hospital for Woman. During the Second World War he worked in the Emergency Medical Service, and later in the RAMC, serving mainly in Africa. At the end of the war he settled in Salisbury, Southern Rhodesia, in gynaecological practice, the first gynaecological surgeon in that country. He helped to set up its medical school and taught gynaecology and obstetrics there. He was consultant in gynaecology and obstetrics to the government and its armed forces. He retired in 1972. He published many papers and was co-author, with R Christie Brown, of the textbook *Midwifery: principles and practice for pupil midwives, teacher midwives and obstetric dressers* (London, Edward Arnold, 1940), which passed through many editions. Following his retirement he went to live in Orange County, California, where he died on 3 February 2006. He married Rosamund Marjorie Luff in 1941, by whom he had twin sons, Brian and Keith, who became scientific instrument makers. He married for a second time, to Anne.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000270
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Evans, Ieuan Lynn (1927 - 2006)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-10-26 2014-06-18
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000200-E000299
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372458372458
Occupation General surgeon
Details Lynn Evans was a consultant surgeon to the Lewisham groups of hospitals in London. He was born in Ammanford, Carmarthenshire, Wales, on 15 July 1927, the son of the Rev. Thomas John Evans and Jenny Lloyd Williams, daughter of a newspaper editor and publisher. His brother, Thomas Arwyn Evans, is also a surgeon and a Fellow of the College. Lynn was educated at Bradford Grammar School on a Nuttall scholarship, and then went on to Haverfordwest Grammar School. He studied medicine at St Mary's Hospital, where he won a prize for pathology, and, on qualifying, became house surgeon to Dickson Wright and John Goligher. He was then house surgeon to Seddon, Jackson Burrows and David Trevor at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital. Lynn Evans did his National Service in the RAMC, where he was new growth registrar at Millbank, a post which brought him into contact with Sir Stanford Cade. After National Service he returned to St Mary's as a senior registrar, spending a Fulbright year as a research fellow at Baylor University, Texas, under Michael De Bakey. On his return he was appointed consultant surgeon to the Lewisham group of hospitals and honorary tutor in surgery to Guy's Hospital. He practised as a general surgeon with a special interest in vascular surgery, at a time when this specialty was beginning to develop. He married in 1956 and had a son and daughter. His hobbies included skiing, book collecting and music. He died on 27 June 2006.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000271
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Green, Sydney Isaac (1915 - 2005)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Sarah Green
Publication Date 2006-01-13 2015-09-23
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000100-E000199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372362372362
Occupation Neurosurgeon
Details Sydney Green was a neurosurgeon based in Washington DC and Bethesda. He was born in Glasgow on 10 June 1915 and lived in a one bedroom apartment with his parents and four older siblings, Lionel, Fagah, Mae and Lillah. He often spoke lovingly about his parents Hymen Harry and Sarah Sayetta Green, and told many stories of life at Springhill Gardens. As he played in the courtyard, he would yell up to his mother, 'Ma, throw me a piece!' and his mother would fix him a bread, butter and sugar sandwich and lower it down to him on a pulley which she rigged up on the fourth floor. The family moved to London when Syd was 10. He decided to become a doctor like his brother Lionel and went on to study medicine at Guy's Hospital. He qualified in 1938. During the Second World War, he served as a captain in the RAMC and was aboard the *Dinard* when it was sunk after hitting a mine on D-Day. Later, he crossed the Rhine as surgeon in charge of the Glider Ambulance Unit, 6th Airborne Division, and was one of the first to liberate the concentration camp at Bergen-Belsen, an experience which profoundly shaped his feeling toward religion and his Jewish heritage. After the war he returned to specialise in neurosurgery under Hugh Cairns and Murray Falconer and in 1958 went to the United States, where he was in practice in Washington and then Bethesda, working mainly at the Sibley Memorial Hospital. He was much appreciated by his patients and admired by his peers, and was meticulous and incredibly thorough. Intensely devoted to each and every patient, he told how, during the war, he insisted on using more and more blood in an attempt to save one soldier. He was disciplined for his commitment to his patient. Throughout his career, his waiting room was often crowded. He simply wouldn't take shortcuts with any person, much less his patients - but he was well worth waiting for. In 1961 he met a widow, Phyllis Leon Brown. The story goes that she took him on a walk on their second date, and before he knew it they were in a jewellery store choosing rings. They married in 1962 and Syd instantly became a father to three boys, Stuart, Myles and Ken. A daughter, Sarah, was born in 1964. His pride in his family was transparent: family defined his life. He always tried to be home for dinner every night, even if it meant he would have to go back to work late into the evening. He didn't have many hobbies that would take him away from home, but he was passionate about his garden. He would drive up the driveway and, before going inside, he would take off his jacket and lie down in a patch of grass, painstakingly picking out the crabgrass. He would sometimes lose his glasses in the garden, only to find them crunched by the lawnmower weeks later or would come in the house frantically looking for them, only to realise that they were still on the top of his head. He loved to sing off key and tell jokes, good and bad, and to play games. He was intensely alive at every moment and took incredible pleasure in food, whether marmite on burnt toast, over ripe bananas and really crusty bread. Syd had the eccentric habit of grading every meal he ate. While his wife learned to accept a solid B with some satisfaction, other hostesses weren't so thrilled to accept that their meal was anything less than an A+. With Syd, there was no such thing as grade inflation. He was thrilled to see each of his children find his or her life partner, and was passionate about his grandchildren. As Sydney's family tree grew, so did his life force, it seemed. He was famous for travelling to new cities, finding phone books in hotel rooms and looking up anyone who had a name that vaguely resembled his mother's maiden name 'Sayetta'. If he found someone, he would call them and invite them for tea. Whether or not they were related, it was a new person to meet with the potential of connecting with them on some intellectual or emotional level: Syd was a people person to the very end. He saw a great deal during his long life, including two world wars and the horrors of the Holocaust. He was also around to see some of the most fantastic advances in technology and he made sure he kept up with the latest medical breakthroughs, even into his eighties. In 1996 he underwent a pneumonectomy and, after a prolonged battle with chest disease, he died on 14 September 2005. He was 90.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000175
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Harris, Walter Graham (1928 - 2005)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-01-13
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000100-E000199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372363372363
Occupation General surgeon
Details Graham Harris was a consultant surgeon at Huddersfield Royal Infirmary with a particular interest and expertise in surgery of the breast. He was born in Swindon village, Gloucestershire, on 5 June 1928, the son of Walter Albert Harris and Sarah Anne née Pitman. He was educated at Wycliffe College before joining the RAF in 1946, where he served with the radar section. In 1948 he entered St Bartholomew’s Hospital Medical School, where he completed the early part of his surgical training, becoming junior registrar. He was an assistant lecturer in anatomy at University College, where he published on degeneration in the cerebral cortex following experimental craniotomy. He went on to be senior registrar at Leeds, from which he obtained his consultant post in Huddersfield. There he led one of the then four breast screening units in the UK. An active member of the Moynihan Travelling Surgical Club, he was President of the Yorkshire Regional Cancer Research Group in the 1970s and 1980s. Outside medicine, he was President of the Honley Male Voice Choir. He took early retirement after a myocardial infarction, but continued with his music and his hobby as a caterer. He married Patricia Mary Tippet and they had five children. He died on 29 April 2005.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000176
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Lowden, Thomas Geoffrey (1910 - 2005)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-01-13
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000100-E000199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372364372364
Occupation Casualty surgeon Accident and emergency surgeon
Details Thomas Lowden was a casualty surgeon in Sunderland. He was born in Leeds on 25 March 1910, where his father, Harold Lowden, was an engineer and his mother, Ethel Annie Lamb, a schoolteacher. From Leeds Grammar School he won a Holroyd scholarship to Keble College, Oxford, and went back to Leeds for his clinical training, qualifying in 1934. After junior posts in Leeds General Infirmary and the Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle upon Tyne (from which he passed the FRCS), he joined the RAMC as a surgical specialist in 1941. He served in India, Iraq, Jordan, Palestine, North Africa and Egypt, before taking part in the Sicily landings and the invasion of Italy, rising to the rank of acting lieutenant colonel. He remained for a time in Germany, before returning to specialise in accident and emergency surgery, becoming consultant in that specialty in Sunderland in 1946 and establishing its casualty department. He published The casualty department (Edinburgh and London, E & S Livingstone, 1956), and developed a subspecialty of hand surgery and was an early member of the Hand Club (later the British Society for Surgeon of the Hand). After he retired in 1970 he continued to do locums at Hexham General Hospital. He married Margaret Purdie, a doctor, in 1945. They had a daughter, Catherine, who became a teacher, and a son, Richard, a lawyer. Among his hobbies were mountain walking, especially in Norway, 16 mm photography and the history of the Crusades. He died on 9 October 2005.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000177
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Reid, Douglas Andrew Campbell (1921 - 2005)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-01-13
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000100-E000199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372365372365
Occupation Plastic surgeon Plastic and reconstructive surgeon
Details Campbell Reid was a leading hand surgeon. He was born on 25 February 1921 in Cardiff, the son of David William Reid, a general practitioner, and Edith Mary née Smith, a nurse. His grandfather, David Spence Clark Reid, had also been a GP. He was educated at Christ’s College, Finchley, where he played in the first XI in football and cricket, and won prizes for shooting. After premedical studies at Queen Mary College he entered the London Hospital Medical College, which at that time was evacuated to Cambridge. After qualifying he was a house surgeon at Chase Farm Hospital and then at Hackney Hospital, where he worked through the V1 air raids. He was then a casualty officer, assistant anaesthetist and house physician at the London Hospital. From 1945 to 1946 he was a casualty officer at Chase Farm Hospital, and then went on to be an anatomy demonstrator at the London Hospital, passing his primary in April 1946. He then passed the final from a registrar post at Haslemere. He decided to specialise in plastic surgery, first as senior registrar to Sir Harold Gillies at Park Prewett, Basingstoke, and later as senior registrar to R G Pulvertaft at Derbyshire Royal Infirmary and at the Royal Hospital, Sheffield. During this time he was awarded a research prize for an essay on reconstruction of the thumb and was later the first to undertake pollicisation in the UK using the Littler neurovascular pedicle. In 1962 he was appointed consultant plastic surgeon to the United Sheffield Hospitals, the Sheffield Children’s Hospital and Chesterfield Royal Hospital. He won the Frank Robinson silver medal from the United Hospitals of South Manchester in 1980, and was the Sir Harold Gillies lecturer and gold medallist of the British Association of Plastic Surgeons in 1981. He served on the council of the British Association of Plastic Surgeons from 1952 and was on the editorial board of the British Journal of Hand Surgery. He published widely on all aspects of hand surgery, including *Surgery of the thumb* (London, Butterworths, 1986) and *Mutilating injuries of the hand* (Edinburgh, Churchill Livingstone, 1979). Outside surgery he was a keen ornithologist and photographer. In 1946 he married Margaret Joyce née Pedler, who was an archivist and head of her division at the Foreign Office. They had a son and two daughters. In 1969 he underwent an emergency replacement of the aortic valve and in 1982 he retired to Eastbourne. He died on 16 August 2005.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000178
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-01-13
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000100-E000199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372366372366
Occupation General surgeon
Details Ron Rhind was a general surgeon with an interest in urology based in Hartlepool. He was born in Calcutta on 7 July 1943, where his father, James Albert Rhind, was a general surgeon. His mother was Dorothy Cornelia née Jones. From Sedbergh School Ron went to Leeds to study medicine and did house jobs there after qualifying in 1965. He remained on the surgical rotation, working in Yorkshire hospitals and developing a special interest in urology thanks to the influence of Philip Clarke, R E Williams and Philip Smith, to whom he became senior registrar before going to the Institute of Urology as an RSO. He became a consultant surgeon at Hartlepool General Hospital, where he continued to practice general surgery but concentrated increasingly on urological work. Small, dapper and bustling, Ron was full of energy and self-confidence which was sadly dented in 2001 when, already ill with cancer, he was accused of making errors in the treatment of patients with carcinoma of the bladder and faced with a GMC enquiry. He married Valerie Ross, a nurse, in 1968. They had a son and daughter. He died on 12 March 2005.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000179
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Fisk, Geoffrey Raymond (1916 - 2007)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2008-02-21 2009-02-10
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/372634372634
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon
Details Geoffrey Fisk was a senior orthopaedic surgeon at Princess Alexandra Hospital, Harlow. He was born in Goodmayes, Essex, on 26 May 1916. His father, Harry Marcus Fisk, company director of Meredith and Drew, the biscuit manufacturers, was a descendent of an ancient Suffolk family. One of his ancestors, Nicholas Ffyske (1602-1680), was a physician and a prominent Parliamentarian. Geoffrey’s mother was Jane Gerdes. He was a scholar at Ilford County High School, from which he went on to study medicine at St Bartholomew’s Hospital. After qualifying in 1939, he was house surgeon to Harold Wilson, and then casualty officer and senior orthopaedic house surgeon to Sidney Higgs. In 1941 he went to the Emergency Medical Service (EMS) unit at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge, as a junior surgeon, registrar and chief assistant, before joining the RAF medical branch in 1945. He was in charge of the orthopaedic division at Northallerton, then went to Wroughton Hospital, before becoming senior orthopaedic specialist at the Central Medical Establishment in London. Leaving the RAF as a wing commander in 1948, he returned to Bart’s as an orthopaedic registrar, was senior registrar at Black Notley and the Seamen’s Hospital, Greenwich, and was appointed as a consultant orthopaedic surgeon at Albert Dock Orthopaedic and Accident Hospital, Bishop’s Stortford Hospital and St Margaret’s Hospital, Epping, in 1950. In 1965 he moved to the new Princess Alexandra Hospital in Harlow, remaining there until he retired in 1981. Geoffrey Fisk was awarded a Fulbright scholarship in 1952 and spent a year in St Louis, Missouri. Geoffrey was an active member of the management committee of the West Essex Group of Hospitals for 12 years and secretary, then chairman, of the North East Thames Orthopaedic Advisory Committee from 1975 to 1981. He was a Hunterian Professor in our College three times, in 1951, 1968 and 1978, presenting different aspects of his wide experience in hand surgery, on which he published extensively. He was a founder member and later president of the British Society for Surgery of the Hand and received the ‘Pioneer’ award of the International Federation of Societies for Surgery of the Hand in 1998. Inevitably, he was a fellow of the British Orthopaedic Association. When the Bart’s Orthopaedic Rotational Training Programme was devised in 1969 it included segments at Harlow, where the trainees greatly benefited from his excellent teaching and he regularly attended their meetings until the year of his death. His many interests outside surgery included gardening and classical music. He was a Freeman of the City of London and a Liveryman of two Livery Companies, the Makers of Playing Cards and the Apothecaries, and he was a member of the Royal Institution. Following his retirement, he became a student at Darwin College, the postgraduate Cambridge college, which had been founded in 1964. There he took an MPhil in anthropology, and in 1995 bequeathed first editions of Andreas Vesalius’ *Fabrica* (1543) and Adrian Spigelius’ *Opera* (1645), which includes an early reprint of Harvey’s description of the circulation of the blood. He died on 10 November 2007 at the age of 91 and was survived by his wife of 63 years, Susan Airey (MB ChB Leeds) and by a daughter (Susan Clare) and two sons (Simon James and Jonathan, who is a consultant psychiatrist).
Resource Identifier RCS: E000450
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Henson, Philip (1914 - 2005)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

First Title value, for Searching Nevill, Gerald Edward (1915 - 2003)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-11-09
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000200-E000299
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372467372467
Occupation General surgeon
Details Gerald Nevill was a consultant surgeon in Kenya. He was born on 22 December 1915 in Nurney, County Carlow, Ireland, the son of Alexander Colles Nevill, Archdeacon of the Church of Ireland, and Rosettah Fitzgerald, a teacher of modern languages and one of the first women to graduate from the University of Dublin. He was educated at Kilkenny College, where he gained a scholarship to Campbell College, Belfast. He subsequently won the McNeil medal for mathematics and played rugby for his school. He won an entrance sizarship to Dublin University, won first class honours in all his examinations, came first in the final examinations, was awarded the Hudson medal and scholarship, and played rugby for the university. After qualifying, he was house surgeon at the Adelaide Hospital, Dublin, Salford Royal Hospital, St Mary’s Hospital, Portsmouth, and the Royal Children’s Hospital, Brighton. From 1940 to 1944 he served with the East African Forces. He went to London to do the Guy’s FRCS course and, having passed the FRCS, returned to Kenya as the successor to Roland Burkitt in Nairobi. He was appointed honorary consultant surgeon to the Native Civil Hospital, later the King George VI Hospital, and subsequently the Kenyatta National Hospital in Nairobi. He held honorary lecturer appointments at the Makerere University Hospital, Kampala, and the University of Nairobi Medical School, and was on the organising committee of the new medical school. He published many articles on general surgical topics in the *East African Medical Journal* and was a foundation member and later president of the Association of Surgeons of East Africa. Gerald Nevill married twice. His first wife was Hilda Francis Lurring, a school teacher, by whom he had three sons, one of whom became a doctor. His second marriage was to Mary Evelyn Furnivall née Brown. He continued on the rugby field for many years as a referee and was chairman of the Kenya Referees Society from 1965 to 1980. He was a keen fisherman and freemason. He died on 23 January 2003.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000280
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Moshakis, Vidianos (1946 - 2005)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

First Title value, for Searching Wright, John Kenneth (1918 - 2003)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-11-09
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000200-E000299
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372469372469
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon
Details Kenneth Wright was a consultant orthopaedic surgeon at Fylde. He was born on 8 May 1918 in Haslingden, Lancashire, the son of Thomas Smethurst Wright, a pharmacist, and Ellen Bleazard, a schoolteacher. He was educated at Haslingden Grammar School, proceeding to Manchester University, where he graduated BSc in 1939 and in 1942 qualified with the conjoint diploma and MB with the clinical surgery prize. After house appointments at Manchester Royal Infirmary he joined the RAF in 1943, serving in India and Burma, and for a time was medical officer to the famous ‘Dam Buster’ squadron. He returned to Manchester in 1946, undertaking orthopaedic training with Sir Harry Platt and Sir John Charnley, becoming a lecturer in orthopaedics before being appointed consultant orthopaedic surgeon at Fylde in 1956. He retired in 1978. He was involved with Sir John Charnley in the early development of the eponymous hip replacement and was himself an innovator of both orthopaedic and non-orthopaedic devices, including a patented ‘fish lure’. He died on 19 March 2003 and is survived by his wife Vicky, whom he married in 1946, and their two children.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000282
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Soden, John Smith (1780 - 1863)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2008-02-21
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000400-E000499
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372638372638
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born at Coventry on March 29th, 1780; was educated at King Edward’s Grammar School. He was then apprenticed to George Freer, of Birmingham, the author of *Aneurysm and some Diseases of the Arterial System* (1807), who evidently inspired his pupils with higher aims that the mere routine of practice, for Soden was Jacksonian Prizeman in 1810 with an essay on “The Bite of Rabid Animal”. Moreover, Joseph Hodgson (q.v.), a fellow pupil with Soden, President of the College in 1864, was the author in the following year (1811) of the Jacksonian Prize Essay on “Wounds and Diseases of the Arteries and Veins” – an elaborate piece of work. Having qualified in 1800, Soden entered the Army as a Hospital Mate on June 13th, 1800, became Assistant Surgeon in the 79th Highlanders three days later, served in Egypt, and resigned before April 16th, 1803. After returning to London he settled in practice at Bath, where he was appointed Surgeon to the United Hospitals, the Eye Infirmary, the Penitentiary, and the Lock Hospital. He thus took up a position as a leading practitioner in Bath, a successful operator and eye surgeon. He was an original member of the British Medical Association. He practised at 101 Sydney Place, Bath, and died in retirement on March 19th, 1863. His son, John Soden (q.v.), succeeded to his practice. He was ambidextrous in operating for cataract, sitting facing the patient, the patient also sitting; he made the lower incision by means of Baer’s triangular knife. Puncturing the cornea almost vertically, he watched for the jet of aqueous humour, then carried the knife across the anterior chamber without touching the iris. Soden made an admirable collection of the Portraits of Medical Men – Ancient and Modern, British and Foreign. It was presented after his death to the Royal Medico-Chirurgical Society by his son John Soden, of Bath. The collection consists of four folio volumes containing 872 mounted medical portraits, with two additional volumes, the one of caricatures and newspaper cuttings, the other of autograph letters and signatures of medical men. The six volumes are preserved at the Royal Society of Medicine, where they are known as ‘The Soden Collection’. Publications:- “On Inguinal Aneurysm, Cured by Tying the External Iliac Artery.” – *Med-Chir. Trans.*, 1816, vii, 536. “Of Poisoning by Arsenic” – *London Med Rev*, 1811. *Address* at the Third Anniversary of the Bath District Branch of the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association, 1839, 8vo, Bath, 1839. *Address* at the Annual Meeting of the Bath and Bristol District Branch of the above, 1854.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000454
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Young, George William ( - 1850)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

First Title value, for Searching Crowfoot, William Henchman (1780 - 1848)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2008-02-21 2011-09-07
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000400-E000499
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372640372640
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born on Sept 9th, 1780, at Kessingland, a village on the Suffolk coast, where his father occupied a large farm. His mother, who was a daughter of the Rev J Henchman, died while he was an infant, and he was placed in charge of his uncle by marriage, the Rev W Clubbe, Vicar of Brandeston. Mr Clubbe, an elegant Latin scholar, taught him to love classical studies. In 1794 he was apprenticed to his uncle, Mr Crowfoot, of Beccles, who was a second father to him, and in 1799 he came to London and entered as a pupil at the Borough hospitals under Cline and Astley Cooper, the latter of whom became his friend in after-life. Sir Astley Cooper in his work on *Dislocations* (1842) refers to Crowfoot as one who, "to high professional skill, adds all the amiable qualities which can become a man." Crowfoot hoped to obtain through his patron's influence a medical appointment in India, but he failed in this and settled at Framlington. In 1803, his practice being limited there, he removed at his uncle's suggestion to Beccles, and in 1805 became his partner, thenceforward obtaining high professional credit and success. It was in the December of 1805 that he accidentally met a party bearing the body of a soldier who had been thrown on the beach at Kessingland and lain for several hours apparently dead. Finding that the precordia still retained some warmth, he caused the body to be carried to a house, and persevering in the means of restoration which his professional skill suggested, he at length revived the sufferer. For this action the Royal Humane Society awarded him a silver medal. He died, after an illness of only four days, on Nov 13th, 1848, of typhus fever, contracting the disease from a post-mortem on a typhus patient. At the time of his death he was Consulting Surgeon to the Beccles Dispensary. Publications:- Crowfoot's publications record the remarkable results of his own experience and are characterized by strong good sense. They include:- "On Carditis." - *Edin Med and Surg Jour*, 1809, v, 298. He stressed the connection between rheumatism and carditis before that connection was so much insisted upon as at present. "Surgical Cases." - *Ibid*, 1825, xxiv, 260. "On the Use of Extension in Fractures of the Spine." - *Jour Prov Med and Surg Assoc*, 1843, xi, 337. In this paper he showed the value and success of the treatment in cases too often regarded as hopeless.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000456
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Bryce, Alexander Graham (1890 - 1968)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

First Title value, for Searching Golding-Bird, Cuthbert Hilton (1848 - 1939)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

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

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

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

First Title value, for Searching Tomes, Sir Charles Sissmore (1846 - 1928)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

First Title value, for Searching Macready, Jonathan Forster Christian Horace (1850 - 1907)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2012-07-11
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/374800374800
Occupation General surgeon
Details The youngest son of William Charles Macready (1793-1873), the actor (*see Dict Nat Biog*), by his first wife, who died in 1852. His christian names included Forster after John Forster, the friend of his father. Many of his brothers and sisters died young, but he lived to grow up under his father's eye after he had retired to Sherborne, Dorset, in 1851. He was educated at St Bartholomew's Hospital, where Paget and Savory were distinguished not only as surgeons but also for graceful eloquence. Macready served in several surgical posts at St Bartholomew's up to that of Surgical Registrar. A finished speaker - for he had been taught elocution by his father - Macready was of a fine figure, manner, and address, with the hands of a surgeon or artist. He missed promotion to the post of Assistant Surgeon on the Staff at St Bartholomew's in 1882, when James Shuter (qv) was elected with 127 votes, Macready obtaining 48 and C B Keetley (qv) 1 vote. He contested the post again in 1883, when W Bruce Clarke gained 81 votes and Macready 49. One reason may be found in his very success in obtaining surgical appointments outside the hospital, so that his performance of duties at St Bartholomew's fell short of what was expected of him. In 1878 he was appointed Surgeon to the Great Northern Hospital, where he was associated with William Adams (qv), the exponent of the orthopaedic surgery of that day. His appointment to the Truss Society when the operative cure of hernia under Listerian precautions had come in gave him opportunities which led to his chief work, *A Treatise on Ruptures*. Besides he was appointed Surgeon to the City of London Hospital for Diseases of the Chest, to the Cheyne Hospital for Children, Chelsea, and to the Merchant Taylors' Company Convalescent Homes at Bognor. He was particularly devoted to the Great Northern Hospital, where he was the Senior Surgeon for fifteen years, and an active Member of the Board of Management. He practised at 42 Devonshire Street, Portland Place, and died at Acton on April 29th, 1907. Publication: *A Treatise on Ruptures*, 8vo, 24 plates, London, 1893.
Resource Identifier RCS: E002617
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Madden, Frank Cole (1873 - 1929)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2012-07-11 2017-05-05
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/374801374801
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born in Melbourne on March 2nd, 1873, the son of D H Madden, of Sydney, New South Wales; educated at the Scotch College, Melbourne, and Melbourne University, where he graduated MB ChB with honours in 1893 and MD in 1904. He served as Senior House Surgeon and Medical Superintendent at the Melbourne Hospital in 1894, and then came to London, entered St Mary's Hospital, and gained an exhibition in surgery and gynaecology, the Beaney Scholarship in Surgery, and was *proxime accessit* for the Beaney Scholarship in Pathology. Between 1895 and 1898 he was House Surgeon and Medical Superintendent at the Great Ormond Street Hospital for Sick Children. He then proceeded to Egypt as Assistant Surgeon to the Kasr-el-Aini Hospital at Cairo. In due course he became full Surgeon; Professor of Surgery at the Royal School of Medicine; Medical Officer to the Victoria Deaconess Hospital, to the Anglo-American Hospital; Medical Officer to HE the High Commissioner for Egypt, and to the British Consulate; Medical Referee to the Egyptian State Railways and the Eastern Telegraph Company. During the European War he was attached to the Egyptian Expeditionary Force from 1915-1918 and was Civil Surgeon in charge of various military hospitals and the Red Cross Hospital, Cairo. At the time of his death Madden was Rector of the State University, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, Director of the Kasr-el-Aini Hospital and Medical School, Consulting Surgeon to the Kasr-el-Aini Hospital, and Emeritus Professor at the University of Cairo. Having previously been decorated OBE for his services during the War he was created a CMG in 1929. During the whole of his professional career Madden was an active member of the British Medical Association, and served as President of the Egyptian Branch from 1924-1925, its representative in 1926, and a member of the Egyptian Branch Council from 1926-1928. He was especially interested in tropical surgery and schistosomiasis. He married in 1900 Madeline, the daughter of Dr William Cox, of Winchcombe, Gloucestershire, a niece of Edmund Owen (qv), and by her had two sons and two daughters. He died at Cairo by his own hand on April 26th, 1929. Madden was a man of boundless energy who did much to raise the standard of practical surgery and medical education in Egypt. He withstood successfully the claim that medicine should be taught in Arabic at a time when text-books in that language were lacking. Conscientious to a fault, his industry and devotion to duty were an example to all with whom he was brought in contact. He took an active part in the public life of Cairo both as a tennis player at the Gezira Club and as a member of the Turf Club. Publications:- *Bilharziosis*, 1904. *The Surgery of Egypt*, 1919. Articles on "Schistosomiasis" in Choyce's *System of Surgery*, 1923, and in Byam and Archibald's *Practice of Medicine in the Tropics*, 1921.
Resource Identifier RCS: E002618
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Madden, Richard Robert (1798 - 1886)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2012-07-11
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/374802374802
Occupation Colonial official General surgeon
Details Born on August 22nd, 1798, the youngest son of Edward Madden, silk manufacturer, by his second wife, Elizabeth, youngest daughter of Thaddeus Forde. He was educated privately in Dublin and studied medicine in Paris, Naples, and St George's Hospital, London. In 1823 he made the acquaintance of Lady Blessington and her circle. Between 1824 and 1827 he travelled in the Levant, and in 1828 he returned to England. He obtained the diploma of MRCS in 1829 and began to practise as a surgeon in Curzon Street, Mayfair. He visited Jamaica in 1833 as one of the special magistrates appointed to administer the statute abolishing slavery, but resigned in November, 1834, having become embroiled with the planters. In 1836 he was a superintendent of liberated slaves and judge arbiter in the mixed court of commission at Havana. There he remained until 1840, when he went with Sir Moses Montefiore on a philanthropic mission to Egypt. In 1841 he was employed on the West Coast of Africa to inquire into the administration of the British Settlements, and from 1843-1846 he lived at Lisbon and acted as Special Correspondent to the *Morning Chronicle*. He was Colonial Secretary of Western Australia in 1847, and did somewhat to protect the rights of the aborigines. He resigned his office in 1850, and became Secretary to the Local Fund Board at Dublin Castle, a post he held until 1880. He died at his house in Vernon Terrace, Booterstown, on February 5th, 1886, and was buried as a devout Roman Catholic in the graveyard at Donnybrook. He married in 1828 Harriet (d 1888), youngest daughter of John Elmslie, of Jamaica, and left his widow, three sons and two daughters. Madden was a member of the Royal Irish Academy and a Corresponding Member of the Society of Medical Science and Gremio Academy, Lisbon. Publications:- Madden was a prolific writer, best known by *The United Irishmen, their Lives and Times*, 7 vols., 8vo, 1848-6, and by *The Literary Life and Correspondence of the Countess of Blessington*, 8vo, London, 1855.
Resource Identifier RCS: E002619
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Magill, Martin ( - 1894)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

First Title value, for Searching Magrath, Andrew Nicholson (1802 - 1860)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

First Title value, for Searching Magrath, Nicholas (1803 - 1860)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

First Title value, for Searching Mahon, Henry Walsh (1809 - 1878)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

First Title value, for Searching Maitland, Gilbert George William (1818 - 1900)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

First Title value, for Searching Major, David Browning (1802 - 1861)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

First Title value, for Searching Major, William ( - 1863)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

First Title value, for Searching Malcolm, John (1814 - 1895)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

First Title value, for Searching Dyer, Samuel (1781 - 1846)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

First Title value, for Searching Bacot, John (1781 - 1879)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2008-03-27
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000400-E000499
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372655372655
Occupation General surgeon
Details Came of Huguenot stock, an ancestor having taken refuge in England after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. Both his father and grandfather were members of the medical profession and practised in John Street, Golden Square, London. Educated at St George’s Hospital, he was a fellow-pupil with Sir Benjamin Brodie (q.v.), whose intimate friend he became. In 1803 entered the Guards as Assistant Surgeon, and with the 1st Battalion of the Grenadiers was present at Corunna, Nive, Nievelles, and the taking of St Sebastian. Leaving the service in 1820, he began to practise in South Audley Street, and was appointed Surgeon to the St George’s and St James’s Dispensary. He early became a member of the Apothecaries’ Company, and served all the offices of that Society, being also a Member of its Examinations Commission. Up to the year 1826, in conjunction with Dr Roderick McLeod, he was Editor of the *Medical and Physical Journal*, and was one of the first Members of the Senate of the University of London. He was an active supporter of the various benevolent medical societies, was Inspector of Anatomy, first for the Provinces and then for London, and in 1854 was appointed a Member of the Board of Health. He retired from the Inspectorship of Anatomy about the year 1856, and was given a small pension. He enjoyed at one time a good private practice, and educated a son, J T W Bacot, to the profession, who after twenty-six years’ service in the Army retired before his father’s death as Hon Deputy Inspector-General of Hospitals. John Bacot died at his residence, 4 Portugal Street, Grosvenor Square, London, on Sept 4th, 1870. At the time of his death he was Senior Fellow of the College. The *Medical Circular* of 1852 published an amusing and extremely impudent life of him up to that date. The article is notable as giving a Dickensian picture of the feelings of a candidate for the LSA entering “the cold dark shadows of that low portal in Water Lane” – in other words, Apothecaries’ Hall. The biography in its closing sentences describes Bacot as “an intelligent, judicious and honest medical politician. He is a small, plain man, of unassuming manners speaks calmly and gravely, and has been the champion of the interests of the Society of Apothecaries in the late discussion on medical reform.” Publications- *Observations on Syphilis*, London, 1821. *A Treatise on Syphilis, in which the History, Symptoms, and Method of Treating every Form of that Disease are fully Considered*. 8vo, London, 1829. *Observations on the Use and Abuse of Friction; with some Remarks on Motion and Rest, as Applicable to the Cure of Various Surgical Diseases*, 8vo, London, 1822. “A Sketch of the Medical History of the First Battalion of the First Regiment of Foot-Guards, during the Winter of 1812-1813.” – *Med.- Chir. Trans.*, 1816, vii, 373. “Case of Steatomatous Tumour under the Tongue.” – Lond. *Med. and Physical Jour*., 1826.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000471
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Wood, Richard (1779 - 1860)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

First Title value, for Searching Malyn, John (1802 - 1850)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

First Title value, for Searching Badley, John (1783 - 1870)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

First Title value, for Searching Vaux, Bowyer (1782 - 1872)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

First Title value, for Searching Chapman, Sir John (1773 - 1849)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2008-04-03
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000400-E000499
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372662372662
Occupation General surgeon
Details Practised at Windsor in partnership with Mr Turrill; attended the Court professionally, became Mayor of Windsor, and was knighted on Nov 12th or 18th, 1823. He retired to Chertsey, where he died in 1849. Publication:- “A Singular Case of Expulsion of a Blighted Fœtus and Placenta at Seven Months, a Living Child still remaining to the Full Period of Uterogestattion.” – *Med.-Chir. Trans.,* 1818, ix, 194.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000478
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching McGill, Arthur Fergusson (1846 - 1890)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2012-07-11
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/374816374816
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born at Cartmel, Lancashire, the youngest son of William McGill, MD; was educated, as were three of his brothers, at Tonbridge School. He entered King's College Hospital with a Warneford Entrance Scholarship in October, 1864, where he was House Surgeon to his godfather, Sir William Fergusson. After qualifying he was appointed Resident Medical Officer to the Leeds Infirmary, at which post he so distinguished himself that on his resigning to go into general practice in 1869 the Board of Management presented him with an honorarium of £50. In 1874 he was appointed to the Leeds Dispensary and also Demonstrator of Anatomy in the Leeds School of Medicine. At the Dispensary, having become FRCS, he undertook a series of important surgical operations in the poor houses of a manufacturing district; amputation of the upper extremity, ligature of the first part of the left subclavian artery, hysterectomy, and other operations by which he gained experience and founded his reputation as a surgeon. Following on the post of Demonstrator of Anatomy, he taught pathology, anatomy, and finally surgery until the time of his death. He was appointed Assistant Surgeon to the Infirmary in 1882, and in 1884 became Surgeon on the retirement of Messrs Wheelhouse and Teale. McGill is best known as the surgeon who established the operation of prostatectomy for prostatic enlargement by the suprapubic operation in which he had been preceded by Bellfield of Chicago (*Med Record*, NY, 1888, xxxiii, 272). From 1886 he had suffered from diabetes complicated by carbuncles, and he died on November 21st, 1890, at 2 Park Square, Leeds. On November 28th the weekly Board of the Infirmary passed a resolution referring to McGill's eminence as a surgeon, to his personal charm, and the courage with which he had continued to work at the Infirmary. Publications:- "On Suprapubic Prostatectomy with Three Cases." - *Clin Soc Trans*, 1887-8, xxi, 52; 1888-9, xxii, 420. "Hypertrophy of Prostate and its Relief by Operation." - *Lancet*, 1888, i, 215. "The Treatment of Retention of Urine from Prostatic Enlargement." - *Illus Med News*, 1889, iv, 280. "Suprapubische Prostatektomie." - *Centratb f Physiol u Pathol d Ham u Sex Org*, 1889-90, i, 247.
Resource Identifier RCS: E002633
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Maclean, Andrew Bruce (1918 - 2006)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2007-09-13
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/372575372575
Occupation General surgeon
Details Andrew Maclean was a consultant surgeon in Cumbria. He was born in Glasgow on 29 April 1918, the son of Andrew Bruce Maclean, a consultant radiologist, and Harriet Thomson, the daughter of a woollen manufacturer. From Merchiston Castle School in Edinburgh he went to Glasgow University, where he won the Hunter medal in clinical surgery. After qualifying in 1942 he completed house jobs in Glasgow Western Infirmary, where he was much influenced by Sir Charles Illingworth. He then joined the Royal Navy, rising to the rank of surgeon lieutenant commander. On demobilisation he continued his surgical training at Cumberland Infirmary, Carlisle, and in Newcastle as lecturer in surgery, before being appointed consultant surgeon in Carlisle. There he was surgical tutor and regional adviser to the College. Andrew married a Miss Lancaster in 1949. They had three sons, a doctor, lawyer and land agent. He counted sailing, shooting and fishing among his hobbies. He died on 28 May 2006.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000391
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Copeland, Thomas (1781 - 1855)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2007-10-18 2013-08-07
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/372576372576
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born in May, 1781, the son of the Rev William Copeland, Curate of Byfield, Northants. He studied under Mr Denham at Chigwell in Essex, and under Edward Ford, his maternal uncle, and he attended medical classes at Great Windmill Street and at St Bartholomew's Hospital. In 1804 he was appointed Assistant Surgeon in the 1st Foot Guards, with which regiment he embarked for Spain under Sir John Moore, and was present at the Battle of Corunna in 1809. He resigned 29th June, 1809, settled in his uncle's resident at 4 Golden Square, and was appointed Surgeon to the Westminster General Dispensary. He attained distinction in his profession, particularly in the field of rectal surgery. He was elected FRS in 1834, Hon Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1843, and Surgeon Extraordinary to Queen Victoria in 1837. He died of an attack of jaundice at Brighton on Nov 19th, 1855, and his wife died on Dec 5th of the same year. He left £180,000, bequeathing £5000 both to the Asylum for Poor Orphans of the Clergy and to the Society for the Relief of Widows and Orphans of Medical Men.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000392
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Briggs, James ( - 1848)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

First Title value, for Searching Magri, Joseph (1926 - 2005)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-11-09
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000200-E000299
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372475372475
Occupation Urological surgeon Urologist
Details Joe Magri was a consultant urologist at Oldchurch Hospital, Romford. He was born in Valletta, Malta, on 2 March 1926, the son of Francesca and Tancred Magri. He was educated at the Jesuit College and Malta University, where he qualified in 1949. He then moved to England to specialise in surgery. He was a house surgeon in orthopaedics and accident surgery at the City Hospital, Sheffield, and then a surgical registrar in Barnsley, where, with the help of only an anaesthetist and a house physician, he dealt with all the emergencies that arose in that busy mining town. He went on to become an anatomy demonstrator in Sheffield, passed the primary and final FRCS, and became a surgical registrar in Leicester. He was RSO (senior registrar) at St Peter’s Hospital in 1959 and was appointed consultant urologist, Oldchurch Hospital, Romford, in 1963. There he published a review of partial cystectomy for bladder cancer and a few years later a ‘no-catheter’ technique for prostatectomy. A genial, friendly man, Joe Magri’s many interests included bridge, sailing, skiing and the opera. He attended Covent Garden regularly. He also built his own Gilbern car from a kit. He met his Swedish wife Margareta Johansson while on holiday in Malta, where she was working as a private secretary in an architect’s office. Together they refurbished a house in Mill Hill. They had no children. He died of metastatic carcinoma on 6 April 2005. He is survived by his widow.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000288
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Sengupta, Dipankar (1936 - 2005)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

First Title value, for Searching Morgan, John (1797 - 1847)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2007-10-18
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/372582372582
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born at Stamford Hill on Jan 10th, 1797, the second son of William Morgan, the noted Actuary to the Equitable Life Assurance Office and a native of Glamorganshire, where the family had been landowners for centuries. His father began life as a medical student and is said to have come from Glamorganshire to London “with sixpence in his pocket and a club foot”. After education at home, John Morgan became an articled pupil of Sir Astley Cooper at the School of St Thomas's and Guy's Hospitals, having as a fellow-pupil Aston Key. He showed an intense interest in natural history, and began to stuff birds and small animals almost as soon as he could use a knife and his fingers. After his pupilage he became Demonstrator of Anatomy at the private school near to the Hospital. He was elected Assistant Surgeon to Guy's Hospital in 1821, and in 1824, at the early age of 27, he was elected (together with Aston Key) Surgeon to Guy's Hospital on the retirement of Forster and Lucas. He thus became a colleague of Sir Astley Cooper, who on his retirement was succeeded by his nephew, Bransby Cooper. For many years Morgan was joint Lecturer on Surgery; latterly he only gave a course of ophthalmic lectures in the Eye Infirmary attached to the Hospital. He suffered himself from iritis, and was instrumental in establishing a ward at Guy's Hospital for the treatment of diseases of the eye. On the death of Frederick Tyrell, Morgan was elected a Member of the College Council on June 9th, 1843. Much interested in comparative anatomy, he dissected ‘Chum’ the elephant, whose skeleton is in the College Museum. Many of his anatomical preparations are there, others are in Guy's Hospital Museum. His remarkable collection of stuffed British birds is preserved at Cambridge. As a surgeon Morgan was distinguished by the attention he paid to the medical state of his patient previous to operating, whilst he became one of the best operators in London. On two or three occasions he removed considerable portions of the lower jaw. He tied the external iliac artery successfully on a very stout patient who was suffering from a large inguinal hernia on the same side as the aneurysm. For a highly vascular naevus – an aneurysm by anastomosis – occupying one entire side of the face which had been previously treated by the crucial ligature under crossed pins and by the actual cautery, he followed the similar case operated upon successfully by F Travers, and ligatured the common carotid artery. The patient recovered, but was not benefited. Morgan was one of the first, and certainly one of the most energetic, originators of the Zoological Gardens in Regent's Park. He practised early at Broad Street Buildings, later in Finsbury Square, and for seven or eight years before his death he lived at Tottenham. After suffering with albuminuria, he died at Tottenham on Oct 14th, 1847. He married in 1831 Miss Anne Gosse, of Poole, sister of William Gosse (qv); he left two sons: the eldest succeeded his grandfather and uncle in the Equitable Life Assurance Company, the younger entered the medical profession. In person Morgan was of middle height and a thick-set heavy man, very different from his colleagues Key and Bransby Cooper, the one striding in the hospital with head erect waiting for everyone to do him reverence, the other in a jaunty manner greeting those around him in familiar and pleasant tones; whilst Morgan walked straight in with a white impassive face, went to work without a word of gossip, taking heed of nothing or nobody, gave his opinion of the case in a few words, and then went on to the next bed. His work was done well and in a business-like manner, his colleagues highly respecting his opinion and his pupils being much attached to him. As it was the habit of surgeons to take snuff, so did Morgan to excess; it was often possible to mark his traces in the wards by the snuff he let fall. He practised in Finsbury Square and had a country house at Tottenham. Publications:- *Lectures on Diseases of the Eye*, 8vo, London, 1839; 2nd ed., 1848, by JOHN F. FRANCE; this contains a life of Morgan. *Essay on the Operation of Poisonous Agents upon the Living Body* (with THOMAS ADDISON), London, 1829. Contributions to *Guy's Hosp. Rep.* and *Trans. Linnean Soc*. He communicated to the *Transactions of the Linnean Society* (1833, xvi, 455) an interesting paper on the mammary organs of the kangaroo, and the Museum of Guy's Hospital contains two preparations made by him, one “the pouch of a young and virgin kangaroo showing the teats in an undeveloped state, one of them artificially drawn out: the second, the mammary gland of an adult kangaroo, showing the marsupial teat in an undeveloped state, the ducts filled with mercury.” The specimens were perhaps prepared from animals sent to him by his brother-in-law, William Gosse (qv).
Resource Identifier RCS: E000398
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Barton, Rex Penry Edward (1944 - 2006)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2008-08-21
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/372732372732
Occupation Otolaryngologist ENT surgeon
Details Rex Barton was a former otolaryngologist, head and neck surgeon at the Leicester Royal Infirmary. He was born in Carmarthen, Wales, on 3 May 1944, the eldest son of Lieutenant Colonel Edward Cecil Barton of the Royal Sussex Regiment and Gwendolen Margaret Gladwys née Thomas, who qualified at the Royal Free Hospital and became a pathologist in Salisbury. Her father, David J Thomas, was formerly medical officer of health for Acton. Educated at the Cathedral School, Salisbury, Harrow School (where he received the Exeter prize for biology) and University College, London, Rex Barton qualified from University College Hospital Medical School, where he was both house surgeon and house physician. After senior house officer posts in Bristol, he elected to pursue a career in ENT and was subsequently appointed registrar and later senior registrar (with plastic surgery) to St Mary’s and the Royal Marsden hospitals, London. Here he was much influenced by Ian Robin and Anthony Richards. During this period he spent four months at the Victoria Hospital, Dichpalli, India, sponsored by the Medical Research Council and LEPRA, where he researched into the ENT manifestations of leprosy. This led to a number of landmark papers and a continued interest in the subject. Appointed consultant head and neck oncologist and ENT surgeon to the Leicester Royal Infirmary and Loughborough General hospitals, Rex Barton was instrumental in establishing a multidisciplinary head and neck oncology service. Sadly because of ill health he was obliged to retire early in 1994. Rex Barton had a firm Christian faith and always resolved to live accordingly. In 1969 he married Nicola Margaret St John Allen, a state registered nurse. They had three children, Thomas, Jennifer and Samuel. Rex Barton died on 18 June 2006. Neil Weir
Resource Identifier RCS: E000548
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Manby, Frederic Edward (1845 - 1891)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2012-07-11
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/374820374820
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born at East Rudham, Norfolk, where his father was in practice; educated at Lynn Grammar School and Epsom College. His younger brother was Sir Alan Reeve Manby (qv). He studied at Guy's Hospital and then settled in practice at Wolverhampton, where he was Surgeon to the Wolverhampton and Staffordshire General Hospital, a member of the Town Council and in 1888 Mayor. He interested himself in sanitary improvements, the Artisans' Dwellings Scheme, the Infectious Diseases Hospital, and was Medical Officer of Health of the Cannock Rural District during a severe epidemic of small-pox. He was devoted to the interests of the Free Library. He also became Brigade Surgeon of the Staffordshire Infantry Volunteer Brigade, and later Surgeon Major of the South Staffordshire Regiment and Army Medical Reserve. For his activity in the St John Ambulance Association he was made Hon Associate of the Grand Priory. He founded the Wolverhampton Branch of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, and assisted in the formation of the Wolverhampton Nursing Institution as a Jubilee Memorial. He discussed in the *Lancet* (1890, ii, 640) the subject of Liquor Trade Licensing. At the British Medical Association he represented the Birmingham and Midland Counties Branch from 1874-1883. He practised at 11 King Street, Wolverhampton, and after suffering from influenza went to Guernsey in search of health, and died there on July 1st, 1891. Some four hundred Volunteers followed the military wagon bearing the coffin, and the municipal officials attended his funeral.
Resource Identifier RCS: E002637
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Aikin, Charles Arthur (1821 - 1908)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2009-08-21 2016-01-15
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000600-E000699
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372835372835
Occupation General surgeon
Details Only son of Charles Rochemont Aikin [1] (1775-1847) - "Little Charles" of *Early Lessons*, written by his aunt, Mrs Barbauld - by Anne, daughter of the Rev Gilbert Wakefield, a well-known scholar. Charles Arthur Aikin was the grandson of John Aikin (1747-1822), the Unitarian doctor and friend of Joseph Priestley, who wrote the *Biographical Memoirs of Medicine in Great Britain* and published a general biography in ten volumes. Charles Arthur was educated at University College School and received his professional training at Guy's Hospital. He married early, and lived at 7 Clifton Place, Sussex Square, where he soon formed a large practice and made an extensive circle of friends. He retired about 1891, and after living for a few years longer in London he went to live with a son at Llandrillo, North Wales, where he died on Feb 11th, 1908, leaving a widow, three sons, and a daughter. [Amendment from the annotated edition of *Plarr's Lives* at the Royal College of Surgeons: [1] See TRACTS DY AIK + see New DNB.]
Resource Identifier RCS: E000652
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Brown, Betsy (1923 - 2012)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Isabel F MacDonald
Publication Date 2012-07-12 2013-05-17
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/374822374822
Occupation ENT surgeon
Details Betsy Brown was a consultant ENT surgeon at Bradford Royal Infirmary. She was born on 15 February 1923 in Glasgow, the second daughter of Robert and Isabella Brown. Her father was a master builder, her mother a legal secretary until she married. Together with her sister and brother, Betsy attended Hillhead High School, travelling across the city by tramcar. She left school in 1940 with good qualifications, having been a regular prize winner and showing considerable sporting prowess. Her headmaster wrote of her: 'She has a good brain, is hard working and earnest, and showed herself always of high conduct and ideals.' This description epitomised her character. As a young child, she told her surprised father that she wished to be a doctor: he was more than happy to support her ambition and so, on leaving school, she went to Glasgow University to study medicine, qualifying in 1945. The medical year-book tagged her 'a minx or a sphinx', another apt description! Betsy's early working life was in general practice in Wales. She then transferred to the Children's Hospital in Hull, where working with R R Simpson awakened her interest in ENT. As that interest deepened, she spent two years at the Institute of Otolaryngology in London, before returning to Hull. By 1956 she was working in Manchester, at the Royal Infirmary, where she was to remain for the next 10 years. During her time there she also lectured to undergraduate medical students at the university, to trainee nurses and to student speech therapists. In 1957 she travelled on the *Queen Mary* to America, to complete the first tranche of specialist training as a research fellow at the Lampert Institute in New York. Despite lucrative offers of positions in the USA, she showed her commitment to the NHS by returning to Britain as one of the earliest practitioners of stapedectomy for the cure of conductive hearing loss in otosclerosis. Although in the early years of her career it was difficult for women to progress, by 1966 she had returned once again to Hull, this time as a consultant ENT surgeon at the Royal Infirmary. In 1969 she moved to Bradford Royal Infirmary, where she remained until her retirement. Betsy was professional to her fingertips. Her slight stature was no impediment to her considerable surgical skills. She was a willing and untiring worker, with considerable compassion for her patients, always anxious to help alleviate their conditions, respected by both her colleagues and her patients, and deeply committed to both. In 1974 Betsy married Harry McIntyre, a dental surgeon whom she had met during her time in Manchester. They had no children. Harry commuted on a weekly basis from his practice in Manchester to the marital home in Bradford. When they both retired in the mid-1980s, they made their home in Glasgow, living happily until his death in 1998. Always elegant and immaculately dressed, Betsy enjoyed listening to classical music. She was an excellent cook, enjoying good food and fine wine. She took much pleasure from her garden. She died in Glasgow in June 2012 at the age of 89.
Resource Identifier RCS: E002639
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Jones, Ian Sutherland Midsom (1922 - 2012)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Michael Inman
Publication Date 2012-07-12 2012-09-26
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/374823374823
Occupation General surgeon
Details Ian Sutherland Midsom Jones, or 'S-J' as he was always known in the hospital, served as a consultant surgeon to the Plymouth hospitals from 1959 until 1986, but continued in active surgical practice after retiring from the NHS, working in Singapore for 10 years. Ian was born in 1922, in Bassingbourn, near Royston in Cambridgeshire. His father was in Customs and Excise, and was posted to different locations in the UK. Ian went to Worcester Grammar School, where he did very well, and went on to Emmanuel College, Cambridge. He undertook his clinical studies as a medical student at King's College Hospital in London during the Second World War, and then obtained some hospital experience in medicine and surgery at the Horton Emergency Hospital, Epsom. It was here he met Lyn, a theatre sister, and they married in 1947. He became a demonstrator in anatomy, and also worked with Archie McIndoe at East Grinstead and, after further training at King's, joined the Royal Air force as a surgeon for his deferred National Service, working at RAF Hospital Ely. Other hospital appointments followed at Brighton and King's, before he was appointed as consultant surgeon to Plymouth in 1959. He recalled that most newly appointed consultants arrive with their families in their estate car; he arrived on a motor bike! He started work at the Royal Albert Hospital at Devonport, working with Michael Reilly, who was very hospitable to him and his family. He moved to Freedom Fields Hospital in 1962 when George Larks retired. He had bought 'Gratton', 117 Mannamead Road, as a home and consulting room, and he soon developed a busy surgical practice. In the late 1960s he and others worked hard to raise funds for the Plymouth Nuffield Hospital, which opened in October 1971, and he was the first surgeon to use the operating theatre there. Ian was a surgeon that anaesthetists enjoyed working with. He was decisive, and a speedy, skilful operator. He was a very general, general surgeon, and would tackle anything with great technical skill. He particularly enjoyed urology, and was very innovative, learning and trying new techniques, as they appeared. He would have enjoyed the challenge of key-hole surgery, which came later. He became expert with a cryo-probe for treating benign prostatic hypertrophy. A GP friend relates how Ian was always very kind and reassuring to both patients and GPs during domiciliary visits, when specialists went out to see patients in their own homes, and he was very kind to his junior staff, having them home to supper, making sure they got a good meal! He retired from the NHS in 1986, aged 64, and went out to Singapore, acquired a flat in Orchard Road, and developed a surgical practice, working at Mount Elizabeth Hospital. He clearly wanted to go on with the work he loved, and he also enjoyed the lifestyle of the climate and the club, the golf and the tennis. He had many visitors, Lyn and the family going out to see him from time to time, and others who were passing through, including his brother, who was a veterinary surgeon in Australia. Ian was a man of wide academic interests; he kept up to date with the journals, and enjoyed his classical music. He acquired three shops in the Barbican, selling prints and antiques, and became a friend of the artist Robert Lenkiewicz. He was a keen sportsman, and excelled at squash and tennis, and his golf handicap was down to nine. In the early 1970s he had bought some land at Crapstone, near the golf club, and decided to build his own house. This was a very hands-on approach. He once came into the surgeons' changing room, grinning and saying he had just bought a lorry and a concrete mixer! 'Medlars' became, and still is, a lovely family home. But that was not enough: he then built a house for a daughter in the grounds, and then sometime later helped his neurosurgical colleague, Dev Mohan, build his house. In 1996 Ian returned to UK, having had 10 years in Singapore, saying he had enjoyed it, but had had enough of being away from home. Ian was a loving family man; he had been married to Lyn for 64 years, and had three daughters, Susan, Julia and Jane, four grandchildren, Alex, Christopher, Jonathan and Charlotte, and one great grandchild, Ian. He died on 8 June 2012, aged 90.
Resource Identifier RCS: E002640
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Aldersey, William Hugh ( - 1885)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2009-08-21 2013-08-06
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/372839372839
Occupation General surgeon
Details Educated at Guy's Hospital and, in addition to the other qualifications, he passed the First MB Examination at the University of London in 1856. Served as Medical Officer on the Indiana during the Crimean War, and afterwards practised at Buntingford, Herts, for the South-Eastern District of which he was Medical Officer. Later he moved to Hayling and Havant in Hampshire, acting as Medical Officer of Health for the Urban and Rural Districts. He retired to Surbiton, living at 7 St James' Road, where he died on Sept 7th, 1885. He was a Fellow of the Obstetrical Society.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000656
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Aldersmith, Herbert (1848 - 1918)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2009-08-21 2016-01-22
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/372840372840
Occupation General surgeon
Details Educated at St Bartholomew's Hospital, where he gained the senior scholarship, and during his career as a student won the Gold Medal at the Society of Apothecaries and the Scholarship and Gold Medal at the MB Examination of the University of London. He filled the offices of House Surgeon and House Physician at St Bartholomew's Hospital, and, settling in Giltspur Street, was appointed in 1872 Medical Officer of Christ's Hospital (the Bluecoat School), then in Newgate Street. This post he held until 1913, moving with the school to Horsham. He continued to live at Horsham after his connection with the school ended, died suddenly at Carlton Lodge, Horsham, on March 24th, 1918, and was buried at Itchingfield. [1] Aldersmith lived entirely for the Bluecoat School, and greatly to its advantage. His kindness of heart and his friendly interest endeared him to all the boys brought into contact with him. The declaration made by the Orator at the Speech Day on the occasion of his retirement, that "there is no healthier school in England than Christ's Hospital", was a tribute to his skill and care. He was an influential and respected honorary member of the Medical Officers of Schools Association, who became an authority on ringworm before the recent advances in diagnosis and treatment. He began life as H A Smith, became H Alder-Smith when he began to practice, and finally H Aldersmith, by which name he was generally known in later life. Publications:- Ringworm and Alopecia Areata: their Pathology, Diagnosis and Treatment, 8vo, illustrated, 4th ed., London, 1897. [Amendments from the annotated edition of *Plarr's Lives* at the Royal College of Surgeons: [1] His daughter Dorothy Constance, wife of Charles Ernest Robinson of Hillcote, Storrington died 20 Sept, 1940 (*The Times* 23 Sept 1940)]
Resource Identifier RCS: E000657
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Berkin, Charles Richard (1920 - 1998)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2012-07-12 2015-10-16
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/374825374825
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon
Details Dick Berkin was a consultant orthopaedic surgeon to the Hull and East Riding Group of Hospitals. He was born on 20 March 1920 in Hastings. Both his parents were missionaries of the temperance movement in China, where his father John Berkin was a surveyor, and his mother Catherine (née Coad) was a gymnast. Charles was brought up in China, where he attended the English School in Kuling, the Cathedral School in Shanghai, and the American School in Kuling. After a period in the Aireborough Grammar School in Leeds he studied medicine at Leeds University, qualifying with distinction in 1945, and winning a blue for water-polo. After junior posts under Professor Moir and Leslie Pyrah, he became an anatomy demonstrator, and passed the primary. Heart disease, the legacy of rheumatism, debarred him from military service. He then became a senior house officer, registrar and then senior registrar at the Leeds General Infirmary, followed by a year at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital. He then went to Mount Vernon to gain experience in plastic surgery and to the Middlesex. He later returned to Leeds to be a tutor in orthopaedic surgery. In 1957 he won a scholarship to visit the United States, and was then appointed consultant orthopaedic surgeon to the Hull and East Riding Group of Hospitals. He developed a special interest in scoliosis, conducting the monthly scoliosis clinics in Leeds, and making a special visit to Texas in 1963 to learn spinal procedures from Paul Harrington. In 1963 the orthopaedic unit at De La Pole Hospital was opened, and soon became the centre for the treatment of scoliosis in the north of England. He was a skilled silversmith, and when he became the first President of the British Scoliosis Society in 1981 he made the presidential badge of office. He was an enthusiastic skier, undeterred by fractures of tibia and fibula. He dug his own swimming pool in his garden. In 1949 he married Mary Swanson, a physiotherapist. They had three sons, Robert, Ticker and Philip, and two daughters, Jane and Liz, who became a consultant cardiologist. He died from carcinoma of the prostate on 31 August 1998, survived by his wife, children and seven grandchildren.
Resource Identifier RCS: E002642
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Baird, Robert Hamilton (1915 - 2006)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Enid Taylor
Publication Date 2008-10-24
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000500-E000599
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372752372752
Occupation Ophthalmologist
Details Robert Hamilton Baird was an ophthalmologist in Belfast. He was born in Belfast on 19 September 1915. His father, William Baird, was a district inspector with the Royal Irish Constabulary and his mother was Mary McAdam. He was educated in Belfast, at the Methodist College, from 1929 to 1934, and then went on to study medicine at Queen’s University in the city, qualifying in 1939. He served in the Royal Army Medical Corps from 1939 to 1946, attaining the rank of lieutenant colonel and was mentioned in despatches in May 1945. After leaving the Army, he trained as an ophthalmologist, as a resident surgical officer in Birmingham and Midland Eye Hospital. He was appointed consultant ophthalmic surgeon to the Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast, and North Down Hospital Group. He was a clinical lecturer and an examiner to Queen’s University, Belfast. In 1962 he married a Miss Drayson and they had two sons. He was interested in electronics and enjoyed playing golf. He died on 19 April 2006.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000569
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Marshall Barr
Publication Date 2008-11-14
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000500-E000599
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372753372753
Occupation General surgeon
Details Conrad Latto was a consultant surgeon at the Royal Berkshire Hospital, Reading. He was born on 3 March 1915, the son of David and Christina Latto. His father was the town clerk of Dundee, his mother a frugal Scot who scrupulously saved towards the education of their three sons. Conrad, Gordon and Douglas all went from Dundee High School to study medicine at St Andrews. A younger brother, Kenneth, died in childhood of a Wilms’ tumour, which may have influenced Conrad’s future career. In 1937 he qualified with first class honours and a gold medal from St Andrews University. He held junior hospital appointments at Cornelia & East Dorset Hospital, Poole, the Prince of Wales Hospital, Plymouth, and Rochdale Infirmary. He became a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh in 1940. For 18 months, from 1940 to 1942, he was a resident surgical officer at the Prince of Wales Hospital, Plymouth. It was during the Blitz on Plymouth in 1941 that his surgical reputation was established. Ironically, Latto was a conscientious objector on religious grounds. Eric Holburn, assistant superintendent at the Prince of Wales Hospital, sent this testimonial to his tribunal: “Soon after the devastation of Plymouth by enemy savagery in the early part of 1941, Mr Latto informed me that his views concerning the destruction of life had become so strongly crystallized that he could not honestly serve, even in a medical capacity, with the Armed Forces…This objection is the outcome of his earnest and overruling desire to put into practice his conception of a Christ-like life…I know of no individual who has served his country so magnificently and in such a quietly heroic and unassuming way as Mr Latto…The direction of the hospital emergency service was left entirely in his hands …With bombs falling all round and the hospital services being disrupted he carried on with imperturbable fortitude…” H F Vellacott, honorary surgeon wrote: “During the Plymouth blitzes…It was he who arranged which cases should go to theatre, which cases should have blood transfusions…Throughout these trying times he proved invaluable, and I cannot speak too highly of his conduct and of his administrative qualities. When each actual blitz was on his example of courage and calmness helped to hold the whole hospital organization together. He was outstanding in this respect and a special note of thanks was sent him by the Honorary Staff before he left.” The tribunal excused him from military service, with the condition that he continued to serve as a doctor. In 1943 he went to the Liverpool Royal Infirmary as surgical registrar for 12 months, followed by a year as an accident service officer at King Edward VII Hospital, Windsor. Now in Berkshire, and in his words “liking the look of the Royal Berks”, he became resident surgical officer in 1945. He was to remain closely attached to the Royal Berkshire Hospital for the rest of his life. With glowing testimonials from honorary surgeons Aitken Walker and Gordon Bohn, he became honorary assistant surgeon in December 1947, one of the last appointments to the voluntary hospital staff before the arrival of the NHS. Aitken Walker, the senior surgeon, suggested they all have a specialty. Walker chose thyroid and sympathectomy for himself, Bohn was given gall bladder and stomach, Robert Reid the colon and rectum. Latto had done some urology at Liverpool and therefore got urology. He took up the challenge with characteristic enthusiasm. Now a consultant in the NHS, he visited Terrence Millin and Alec Badenoch at St Bartholomew’s and St Peter’s hospitals to bring Reading up to date with the latest in the specialty. In 1961, sponsored by Badenoch and Sir James Paterson Ross (Sir James’s son Harvey was at that time Latto’s surgical registrar), he undertook a two-month study tour in the USA of the major centres for urology and general surgery. Latto was an excellent general surgeon who became a skilled urologist. He served on the council of the urology section of the Royal Society of Medicine and was an important influence in establishing the specialty in the Oxford region. In 1961 he jointly founded, with Joe Smith, the Oxford Regional Urology Club. His endoscopic and surgical skills, together with the length of his operating lists, were legendary. In the 1970s he assisted the GU Manufacturing Company in testing their prototype rod lens urology instruments. Harold Hopkins of the University of Reading, who had developed the rod lens and fibre-optic systems used in endoscopy, became both a patient and a very good friend. Another close friend was Denis Burkitt, whom he met when they were together at Poole. They were both Christian vegetarians: Latto became a member of the Order of the Cross and was president of VEGA (Vegetarian Economy and Green Agriculture). The two friends’ common interest in the effects of dietary fibre led to combined study and lecture tours in Africa, India, the Persian Gulf and behind the Iron Curtain. In 1971 Latto crusaded successfully for the introduction of dietary bran in Reading hospitals. He was a leading figure in British Association of Urological Surgeons (BAUS), at whose urging the College offered him the FRCS *ad eundem* in 1977. A tall, imposing figure with a shock of silver-grey hair, Conrad Latto had an enormous influence on the Royal Berks and on the medical and nursing staff in training. Although teetotal as well as vegetarian, he was the very opposite of the dour Scot. He never preached his beliefs (other than the importance of fibre). He published few papers, but was a passionate teacher, speaking eloquently and amusingly in a delightful soft Scottish accent. When in 1980 he had to retire from his beloved hospital, he took over the general practice in Caversham of his sister-in-law Monica Latto. He attended refresher courses and out-patient teaching sessions to update his knowledge and for seven years was a highly respected and much loved GP. In final retirement, he remained an active member of the local medical society, the Reading Pathological Society, of which he had been arguably its most effective post-war president. He died at his Caversham home on 6 July 2008, leaving a wife Anne, daughters Rosalind and Sharon, and five grandchildren.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000570
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Cullum, Victor John Leslie (1930 - 2008)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2008-11-14
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/372754372754
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon
Details Victor Cullum was an orthopaedic surgeon in Johannesburg, South Africa. He was born in Cape Town on 25 February 1930, the son of John Richard Leslie Cullum, a businessman, and Olive Mildred née Willmott, who owned a nursery school. He was educated at St George’s Primary School, Cape Town, and St John’s College, Johannesburg, before studying medicine at Witwatersrand University. After qualifying, he completed intern posts in medicine and surgery at Johannesburg Hospital and went to England to specialise in surgery. He did a series of house jobs at Derbyshire Royal Infirmary and the Birmingham Accident Hospital, and passed the FRCS in 1958. He was then a registrar in orthopaedics at the Hammersmith Hospital, working partly in Hammersmith and partly at the Ascot Infirmary. Returning to South Africa, he held registrar appointments in the orthopaedic department of Johannesburg Hospital and was registered as an orthopaedic specialist in 1963. He entered private practice in 1964, while continuing to hold part-time appointments at the Johannesburg and Germiston hospitals, and the Johannesburg branch of the General Mining Hospital Group. He married Joyce Grimes in 1957. They had two girls (Irene Alison and Jennifer Anne) and two boys (John Brian and Robert Victor). Victor Cullum was a keen dinghy sailor and a member of the South African Racing Yacht Association. He and his wife undertook a circumnavigation of Africa during the summer months of 1991, 1992 and 1993. He died on 26 May 2008.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000571
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Sahoy, Ronald Rabindranath (1940 - 2008)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2008-11-14 2009-05-01
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/372755372755
Occupation Cardiothoracic surgeon General surgeon
Details Ronald Sahoy was a pioneering cardiothoracic and general surgeon in the Caribbean. He was born on 3 January 1940, in Essequibo, British Guiana (now Guyana). His father was Kunandan Ramdial Sahoy, a business man who owned a trucking service, and his mother was Baidwattee née Narayan, who had worked as a clerk in the civil service in London in the sixties. Ronald was educated at the Modern Educational Institute, which had been founded by a cousin, Ongkar Narayan, the Central High School, Guyana, and Queen’s College, Guyana, where he won the Guyana Government intercollegiate scholarship. He studied medicine at the University of the West Indies, where he qualified in 1965, winning the Wilson-James surgery prize. He completed internships at the University Hospital of the West Indies in general surgery and general medicine and cardiology, followed by a senior house officer post in general and cardiothoracic surgery and a casualty officer post. He then did a general surgical rotation for two years, from which he won a Commonwealth scholarship in 1969, which took him to London to study for the FRCS. In 1970 he was clinical assistant to Norman Tanner at St James’s Hospital, Balham. Having passed the FRCS, he returned to the University Hospital of the West Indies, where he was a senior registrar in general and cardiothoracic surgery for the next three years. In 1973 he became a consultant surgeon to the National Chest Hospital, formerly the George V Memorial Hospital. There he headed the cardiothoracic team. In 1976 he entered private practice at the Medical Associates Hospital, where he was the senior surgeon and medical director. He married Pauline Rohini Samuels in 1965. Their two sons both became airline pilots. He died suddenly on 6 April 2008.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000572
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Pheils, Murray Theodore (1917 - 2006)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2008-11-21
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/372756372756
Occupation General surgeon
Details Murray Pheils was professor of surgery at the University of Sydney. He was born in Birmingham on 2 December 1917, the younger of the two sons of Elmer Theodore Pheils, an osteopath, and Lilian Mary née Cole. His father Elmer was a colourful character: he was born in Toledo, Ohio, and trained as an osteopath under George Still, the founder of that profession, subsequently qualifying in medicine from Ohio. He went to London in 1907, and soon built up a successful practice, including among his patients George Bernard Shaw and Queen Elizabeth (later the Queen Mother), who he cured of torticollis by massage. Despite early hostility, he was widely accepted by regular members of the profession, and insisted that both his sons went to medical school. Murray was seven when Shaw became his father’s patient and soon got to know the great man well, describing their friendship in ‘Thank you Mr Shaw’ (*Brit med J* 1994 309 1724-1726). Murray Pheils was educated at Leighton Park School and followed his elder brother to Queens’ College, Cambridge, before going on to St Thomas’ Hospital for his clinical training. There he was influenced by B C Maybury, B W Williams, R H O B Robinson and T W Mimpriss. After qualifying, he was house surgeon and casualty officer at St Thomas’ and St Peter’s, Chertsey, before joining the RAMC in 1942. There he served in Africa and in the South East Asia Command and rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel. Whilst still on the house at St Thomas’ he married Unity Louise McCaughey, who came from a family long established in New South Wales. Her grandfather Sir Samuel McCaughey had set up the Murrumbidgee irrigation scheme which transformed agriculture in New South Wales. After the war, Murray obtained an ex-serviceman’s registrar post at St Thomas’ and then held further general surgery and urology posts at St Thomas’ and St Peter’s. In 1951 he was appointed as a consultant at St Peter’s, having obtained his Cambridge MChir. He became a very successful surgeon with a lucrative private practice, particularly after the Nuffield Private Hospital was built and opened. However, as the years passed Murray became restive – he had always wanted a teaching hospital post but, because of his late arrival back from the Far East after the war and, by that stage, having three young mouths to feed and educate, he had to take the post at Chertsey. Following a trip out to Australia in 1965, Murray had renewed his friendship with John Lowenthal, who was chairman of the Sydney University department of surgery. He was informed that there was to be a teaching department established at the Repatriation Hospital at Concord and they were looking for a mature surgeon to run the new teaching department. Murray returned to the UK, saw the post advertised, applied and was appointed to start in mid 1966. He rapidly made his mark not only as a clinician but also as a teacher. Casualties were being received from the Australian Forces in Vietnam. The condition of the evacuees was very poor and the whole process needed urgent attention as preventable deaths were all too common. Murray went to the Army hospital at Ingleburn and triaged the evacuees so they were transferred to an appropriate hospital for treatment. Furthermore, surgical teams of senior registrars and junior consultants were sent to Vietnam to improve the standard of care. With the backing of his colleagues, Murray was instrumental in transforming the management of the Australian Vietnam War casualties. His Second World War experience was invaluable in this respect. He became a full professor in 1973 and chairman of the university department in 1979. As the Concord department grew and evolved (the hospital became an acute hospital), so Murray’s department developed a special interest in bowel cancer. He published extensively on colorectal cancer, as well as writing a landmark paper on ischaemic colitis with Adrian Marston and others. He also published on abdominal actinomycosis, vesicocolic fistula and cholecystitis. He set up the section of colon and rectal surgery at the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons and endowed the Murray and Unity Pheils travel fellowship. Until he was over 80 he had a medico-legal practice in Sydney. He was a consultant to the New South Wales Law Reform Commission on informed decisions about medical procedures. He continued his interest in the Army, as a colonel in the RAAMC and as a consultant surgeon to the Australian Army. Outside surgery, he had a keen interest in his family and that of his wife, and wrote *The Return to Coree: the rise and fall of a pastoral dynasty* (St Leonards, New South Wales, Allen & Unwin, 1998). He died on 19 December 2006, leaving his wife, Unity, two sons (Michael Murray and Peter John) and two daughters (Diana and Johanna). Peter John Pheils is a consultant surgeon in Broadstairs, Kent.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000573
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Auden, Rita Romola (1942 - 2008)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2008-12-05
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/372757372757
Occupation General surgeon
Details Rita Auden was a surgeon at the London Hospital, until mental illness forced her to abandon her career. She was born in Simla, India, on 22 August 1942. Her father, John Bicknell Auden, was a geologist with the Geological Survey of India, and the last European to be appointed to the permanent cadre of the Survey. His brother, Wystan, was the poet W H Auden. Her paternal grandfather was George Augustus Auden, a physician who became the first school medical officer in Birmingham and professor of public health at Birmingham University. He liked to quote an aphorism that a doctor should “care more for the individual patient than for the special features of his disease” and that “healing is not a science but an intuitive art of wooing nature”, ideas which influenced his family, including Rita. Rita’s mother was the painter Sheila Bonnerjee. She trained at the Oriental School of Art in Calcutta and the Central School of Art in London, and had various exhibitions in Calcutta and Bombay. Some of her work was exhibited in Paris. Her father, R C Bonnerjee, had read Greats at Balliol and then practised as a barrister in Calcutta. Sheila’s grandfather was W C Bonnerjee, a leading Indian barrister at the Calcutta High Court and the first president of the Indian National Congress. Calcutta in the 1940s was an interesting and cosmopolitan place, and Rita’s parents had a wide circle of friends, including journalists, artists, diplomats and businessmen. The Auden family lived in a flat in Lansdowne Road with Sheila Bonnerjee’s sister Minnie and her husband Lindsay Emmerson. Summer holidays were occasionally spent in Darjeeling at Point Clear, a house on the Jalaphar Road which belonged to an aunt. The children were sometimes taken to festivals by their bearer, ‘Mouse’, where the brightly painted statues garlanded with flowers would be carried to the Hooghly river and then left to float away. In 1951 the girls left India to be educated in England, travelling via the island of Ischia, where they stayed with their uncle Wystan. They initially went to school at the Convent of the Holy Child of Jesus in Edgbaston, Birmingham, near their grandfather George Augustus Auden, who lived in Repton. Later, when their mother settled in London, they went to More House, a Catholic day school, initially in South Kensington. Rita then went to Cambridge to do science A levels, as More House did not offer science teaching. Influenced perhaps by memories of the poverty and disease of Calcutta, she decided to choose medicine as a career, going to St Anne’s in Oxford in 1959 and then the London Hospital Medical College. There she stood out for her striking beauty and daunting intelligence, winning praises from all her chiefs and gaining the Andrew Clark prize in clinical medicine. After qualifying, she became house physician to Lawson McDonald and Wallace Brigden and then house surgeon to Clive Butler and Alan Parks, who all found her outstanding. She went on to win the Hallett prize for the primary FRCS. She was senior house officer in casualty in 1969, and then spent two years doing research with Charles Mann, before returning to the surgical unit. During this time she took study leave at the Mayo Clinic and spent a year in Belfast, where she gained experience with gun-shot injuries, and a year in Vietnam, seeking always to meet fresh challenges in the most dangerous and difficult situations. It was the same when she took a vacation: she thought nothing of spending a month going down the Amazon accompanied only by tribesmen. She returned to the London as a clinical assistant on the surgical unit in 1974 under David Ritchie, one of a group of exceptional young people, four of whom had been Hallett prize winners. There she showed herself to be an excellent organiser, a competent operator and a kind and caring doctor. When the time came for her to enter for an appointment as senior registrar to J E (Sam) Richardson in 1976, it was agreed that she was the outstanding candidate even though her appointment was vehemently opposed by the senior surgeon. Within a year however he had completely changed his opinion, saying she was the best senior registrar he had ever had. Indeed, so strongly did he advocate her further promotion that at his retirement dinner in 1981 he announced that Rita was to be appointed as a consultant. This was strongly opposed by some within the department. In the event she was appointed as a senior lecturer on the surgical unit, with consultant status. In 1984 she became ill and had a breakdown. At first Rita declined the offer of expert help, but within a few weeks she was sectioned and treated as an inpatient. After some three months it was thought she was fit to return to work, but unfortunately soon after her return she deteriorated again and had to be readmitted to a psychiatric unit. She resigned in 1987. She led a full life after her retirement. Until their deaths, she lived with her parents in Thurloe Square and her medical skills and instinct for care meant that neither had to go into a home, despite ill health. She also cared for and supported her wider family and friends, including her sister Anita, her nephew Otto and her aunt Anila Graham, who suffered a series of strokes. She would visit people in hospital even if this meant travelling up to Yorkshire. She was extremely interested in and concerned about the people around her, and would recount stories about her 90 year old neighbour who still drove a car and spent holidays in France, her Italian hairdresser, her Polish cleaner, and the regulars she would chat to in the local coffee shop. Her observations made them all the more human. While still an undergraduate she had met Peter Mudford, an English scholar at Christ Church who later lectured in English and European literature at Birkbeck College, London, eventually becoming a professor emeritus. They married in 1965 and divorced in 1985, though they kept very much in touch until her death. Because of her family and educational background her interests ranged widely. She used to play the piano and listen to music. She liked gardens and used to go to talks at the British Museum. She also regularly did crosswords and had a penchant for detective stories, tastes shared by her mother and her uncle Wystan. She died on 3 January 2008. Her family and friends will miss the special quality of her presence and her sense of humour and her sensitivity to the quirks and oddities of life.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000574
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Seyal, Nur Ahmad Khan (1920 - 2008)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Masud Seyal
Publication Date 2008-12-05 2008-12-12
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/372758372758
Occupation Obstetric and gynaecological surgeon Obstetrician and gynaecologist
Details Nur Ahmad Khan Seyal was professor of obstetrics and gynaecology and a former principal of King Edward Medical College, Lahore, Pakistan. He was born on 16 July 1920 and received his early education in his home town of Jhang (Punjab). In 1936 he went to study medicine at Glancy Medical College, Amritsar, qualifying in 1940. He then went to Iran, in 1942, and joined the medical department of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company in Abadan. Over a period of ten years he held various surgical appointments in the 500-bed Abadan Hospital and gradually rose to the status of a consulting surgeon. During this time he twice spent time in the UK, gaining his FRCS in 1951. A year later, in 1952, he returned to Pakistan, where he was appointed clinical assistant to the professor of obstetrics and gynaecology at the King Edward Medical College, Lahore. In 1954, when Nishtar Medical College was established in Multan, Seyal was selected to take up the new chair of obstetrics and gynaecology, the first professorial appointment on the clinical side. He went on to establish a department that was recognised as “outstanding” by Sir Hector MacLennan, president of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, who visited in 1961. C M Gwillim, professor of obstetrics and gynaecology at St George’s Hospital Medical School, London, also visited the hospital and recognized the department as easily comparable to the best abroad, and called Seyal’s devotion to duty “saintly”. In 1967 N A Seyal was appointed as professor of midwifery and gynaecology at King Edward Medical College and medical superintendent of Lady Willingdon Hospital Lahore. He completely reorganised the hospital and very markedly improved the clinical facilities available there. He took over as principal of the King Edward Medical College in 1969 and reorganised the teaching programme and formulated a number of schemes for the improvement of this premier institution. Seyal was nominated as a founder fellow of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Pakistan in 1962, and was elected to serve on its council. He was also a member of the Pakistan Medical Research Council for over six years. In recognition of his service to the medical profession, the government of Pakistan awarded him the Tamgha-i-Imtiaz, followed by the Sitara-i-Khidmat. After his retirement, Seyal was involved in the establishment of the Fatima Memorial Hospital and was the leading consultant for obstetrics and gynaecology. He retired to California in the early 1980s to be closer to his children. He died on 19 July 2008, just after his 88th birthday. He is survived by his wife (Iran Shafazand Seyal), his sons (Masud Seyal, professor of neurology at the University of California, Davis, and Mahmood Seyal, a business executive) and by his daughters (Mahnaz Ahmad, a scholar, and Farnaz Seyal Shah, a psychologist). He had seven grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000575
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Dave, Nareshkumar Balvantrai (1937 - 2003)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2008-12-12
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/372759372759
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon Trauma surgeon
Details Nareshkumar Balvantrai Dave was born on 25 August 1937 and passed the FRCS in 1967. At some time he went to Tampa, Florida, USA, from where the College was informed of his death on 5 January 2003 by his employer. It is understood that he specialised in orthopaedics and trauma, but the College has no further information about him. We would be grateful for any details that can be supplied.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000576
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
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First Title value, for Searching Phillips, Charles Henry (1787 - 1863)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

First Title value, for Searching Baird, John ( - 1844)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2009-01-16 2016-02-05
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000500-E000599
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372761372761
Occupation General surgeon
Details Practised at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and his death was reported to the Council in July, 1844, the authority for the report being The Times for June 19th, 1844. [2] [Amendments from the annotated edition of *Plarr's Lives* at the Royal College of Surgeons: [1] MRCS under the name John Forster (He changed his surname to BAIRD c.1821/2); [2] In 1830 opened an Egyptian mummy belonging to the Literary & Philosophical Society of Newcastle see letter inserted at life of *Greenhow* (T.M.) i.e. **his** entry]
Resource Identifier RCS: E000578
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Brown, Andrew A. ( - 1852)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2008-05-01 2013-08-07
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/372687372687
Occupation General surgeon
Details Practised in Paris. He died on or before May 7th, 1852.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000503
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Blaker, Harry ( - 1846)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

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/372688372688
Occupation General surgeon
Details One of the first surgeons appointed to the Sussex County Hospital at Brighton, his colleagues being Robert Taylor (q.v.) and John Lawrence (q.v.). He was Surgeon to the Royal Family, and received £300 a year for attending the household at the Pavilion. He vaccinated King Edward VII and the Princess Royal, afterwards the German Empress, and from them inoculated two of his own grandchildren. He also attended Mrs Fitzherbert and was one of the witnesses to a codicil of her will. The first three Surgeons to the Sussex County Hospital resigned on the same day and were succeeded by the first three House Surgeons – Benjamin Vallance (q.v.), E J Turner (q.v.), and John Lawrence, junr. Harry Blaker died on or before April 27th, 1846.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000504
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Woolriche, Stephen (1770 - 1856)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2007-10-18
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000400-E000499
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372594372594
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born on June 3rd, 1770, became Surgeon's Mate, and on May 30th, 1794, was gazetted Surgeon to the 111th Foot. From March, 1798, to May 22nd, 1806, he was on half pay, when he exchanged into the 4th Foot. On June 18th, 1807, he was appointed Surgeon to the Staff. He was on active service in Holland in 1799, at Copenhagen in 1807, in the Peninsula 1812-1814, and was present at the Battle of Waterloo. He was promoted to Deputy Inspector of Hospitals on May 26th, 1814, and Brevet Inspector of Hospitals on Dec 9th, 1823. He retired on half pay on May 25th, 1828, and on July 22nd, 1830, was promoted to be Inspector-General of Hospitals. He was one of the seven officers of the Army Medical Department upon whom the CB (mil) was conferred for the first time in 1850. He lived in retirement at Qwatford Lodge, Bridgnorth, and died on Feb 29th, 1856.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000410
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Annesley, Sir James H [1] (1774 - 1847)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2007-10-18 2016-01-29
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000400-E000499
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372595372595
Occupation General surgeon
Details Son of the Honourable Marcus Annesley, born in County Down, Ireland, about 1774, and educated at Trinity College and the College of Surgeons in Dublin, also at the Windmill Street School in London. On April 29th, 1799, he received a nomination in the medical service of the HEIC on the Madras side from Sir Walter Farquhar, and arrived in India in December, 1800. He was at once appointed to the Trichinopoly Corps and saw hard fighting with the field force in Southern India during the whole of the year 1801. He served with a battalion of native infantry at various stations from 1802-1805, when he was invalided home. Two years later he returned from England and was appointed Garrison Surgeon at Masulipatam, where he made himself well acquainted with native diseases and their treatment. He took careful notes of every case which came under his care, recording the symptoms, the remedies used, and the results. Annesley was placed in medical charge of the 78th British Regiment during the Java expedition in 1811. He had the satisfaction of landing 1070 men fit for duty out of a strength of 1100, and the field hospital at Cornalis being in an unsatisfactory condition, Annesley, although the junior officer, was ordered to take command, and it is on record that in ten days he had the hospital in proper order, with its 1400 or 1500 patients clothed, victualled, and treated. He was soon ordered back to Madras to superintend a field hospital established by Government for the native troops who had lost their health in the expedition to the Isle of France and Java. His administration proved so successful that he was publicly thanked by the Commander-in-Chief for "the ability, exertion and humane attention displayed by Surgeon Annesley, equally honourable to his professional talents and public zeal, which His Excellency trusts will entitle him to the good opinion and favourable notice of government". Native troops had been employed upon foreign service, and as a result of Annesley's treatment the Madras Sepoys were said to be willing to volunteer for any service in any part of the world. In 1812 Annesley joined the Madras European Regiment, with which he remained until 1817, when the last Mahratta and Pindaree War began. Annesley was appointed Superintending Surgeon to the advanced divisions of the Army and served in the field until the end of 1818, being repeatedly mentioned in general orders for his zeal and ability. He was appointed Garrison Surgeon at Fort St George on his return to Madras, and placed in charge of the General Hospital, where he remained until he was invalided home in 1824. On leaving India on furlough the Admiralty presented him with a piece of plate of the value of one hundred guineas "as a mark of the sense their Lordships entertained of his gratuitous medical attendance on the officers and men of His Majesty's ships in Madras Roads, 1823". Annesley returned to India in 1829, and was immediately appointed to examine the Medical Reports of former years with the view to selecting such cases as might tend to throw light upon the diseases of India. He made a digest of the Reports from 1786 to 1829, and also reported upon the climate, healthiness, and production of the hills in the Madras presidency. The digest occupied twelve volumes and was accompanied by four volumes of medical observations, all of the highest value. The digest had been made without cost to the Government, but on its completion the Court of Directors of the HEIC voted Annesley an honorarium of 5000 rupees. He was appointed a member of the Medical Board in 1833, and in 1838 was permitted to retire from the Honourable Company's service on the pension of his rank, having served in India for the long period of thirty-seven years. On his return to England he received the honour of knighthood in [2] 1844; he was also elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries. During his later years he lived at 6 Albany, Piccadilly. He died at Florence on Dec 14th, 1847. Annesley did good service to the medical profession by his zeal, tact, and administrative ability, for he founded the tradition upon which was built the high reputation afterwards gained by the Indian Medical Service both amongst the Europeans and the native population of India. Publications:- Sketches of the Most Prevalent Diseases of India, Comprising a Treatise on Epidemic Cholera of the East, London, 1825, 2nd ed., 1828 [3]. Annesley discusses cholera with extensive first-hand information and makes some inquiries on the historical side in regard to the disease. The sketches include "Topographical, and Statistical Reports of the Diseases most prevalent in the different stations and divisions of the Army under the Madras Presidency", and "Practical Observations on the Effects of Calomel on the Mucous Surface and Secretions of the Alimentary Canal; and on the Use of this Remedy in Disease, more Particularly in the Diseases of India". For these sketches he received the Monthyon Prize, and the section on cholera was translated into German by Gustav Himly, Hannover, in 1831. Researches into the Causes, Nature and Treatment of the more Prevalent Diseases of India, and of Warm Climates Generally, 4to, 2 vols., with 40 coloured engravings, London, 1828. The work is rendered unwieldy by its wealth of detail. [4] [Amendments from the annotated edition of *Plarr's Lives* at the Royal College of Surgeons: [1] The 'H' is deleted and the following added - *Crawford's Roll of I.M.S;* Madras list no 435; [2] Crawford says knighted 13 May 1844 'F.R.S. 1840'; [3] 3rd edition 1841; [4] *Digest of Madras Medical Reports* 1788-1829 (Crawford) & ? above p.29; Portrait in College Collection]
Resource Identifier RCS: E000411
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Albert, George Frederick (1771 - 1853)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2007-10-18 2016-01-15
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000400-E000499
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372596372596
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born Dec 18th 1771, and became an army surgeon. He was gazetted Staff Surgeon on Aug 30th, 1799, was placed on half pay in 1802, and restored to full pay on March 17th, 1803, when he exchanged to the cavalry depot at Maidstone. He was promoted Deputy Inspector of Hospitals on Nov 4th, 1813, and was put on half pay on Nov 25th, 1815. Practised at Cheltenham and at various times at St George's Terrace, Hyde Park, and in the Isle of Wight. He died on April 5th, 1853. Albert's thesis for the Edinburgh MD may have been [1] *Quœdam de Morbis Ætatum* (8vo, Edinburgh, 1823), but he is not given credit for it as a thesis in the Index Catalogue, USA Army. [Amendment from the annotated edition of *Plarr's Lives* at the Royal College of Surgeons: [1] 'may have been' deleted and 'was' added]
Resource Identifier RCS: E000412
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Parkin, Henry (1779 - 1849)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

First Title value, for Searching Kidd, Thomas (1777 - 1849)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2007-10-18
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000400-E000499
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372598372598
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born on Aug 25th, 1777. He was Regimental Mate in the 49th Foot from June 17th, 1796, to Jan 23rd, 1797, and Surgeon's Mate on the Hospital Staff, not attached to a regiment, from Jan 24th to April 5th, 1797. He was gazetted Assistant Surgeon to the 13th Regiment of Foot on April 6th, 1797, was transferred to the 14th Dragoons on March 15th, 1799, and became Surgeon to the 4th Battalion of the 60th Foot on April 25th, being transferred to the 63rd Foot on July 25th. He became Staff Surgeon on Aug 27th, 1803, and Deputy Inspector of Hospitals, afterwards Deputy Inspector-General of Hospitals (Brevet), on July 17th, 1817. The last-mentioned grade was abolished from 1804-1830, but the rank Deputy Inspector-General (Brevet) seems to have been conferred during that period. Kidd was again gazetted Deputy Inspector-General on Jan 27th, 1837, and became Inspector-General of Hospitals on Dec 16th, 1845, on which date he retired on half pay. He had served in the Peninsular War in 1810-1813, and had devoted his life to the service of his country in various parts of the globe, being stationed at one time at Corfu. He was held in high esteem by his brother officers. He died from bronchitis after a few hours’ illness on Dec 24th, 1849.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000414
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Carpue, Joseph Constantine (1764 - 1846)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2007-10-18 2016-04-15
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000400-E000499
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372599372599
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born on May 4th, 1764, at Brook Green, the son of a gentleman of small fortune descended from a Spanish family. As a Roman Catholic he was educated at the Jesuits' College, Douai, being at first intended for the Church. At the age of 18, before the Revolution, he travelled about France on foot, saw Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette at the dinner table with Philip Egalité, Duke of Orleans, waiting on them. Later, in Paris, he listened to the declamations of Danton, Marat, and Robespierre. This was the beginning of what he continued through life, journeying on foot through Wales and the Highlands of Scotland with Sharon Turner the historian, also through Holland, Italy, Germany, and even, in 1843, the Tyrol. After the Church Carpue next thought about becoming a bookseller in succession to an uncle Lewis in Great Russell Street; then his admiration for Shakespeare turned his thoughts towards the stage, and up to the time of his death he continued to advocate the erection of a colossal iron statue of Shakespeare at the mouth of the Thames. Finally, fixing on surgery, he studied at St George's Hospital under Keate and George Pearson. On qualifying as a surgeon he was appointed Staff Surgeon to the Duke of York's Hospital, Chelsea, in 1799, and, through Pearson, became an ardent vaccinator. The former post he resigned Oct 1st, 1807, because he declined to go on foreign service, but he continued Surgeon to the National Vaccine Institution until his death. At the Duke of York's Hospital he held classes in anatomy with a fee of 20 guineas for the course, and had for years an overflowing attendance. He delivered three courses of daily lectures during the year without intermission except for a few days in summer. He also gave lectures on surgery twice a week in the evening. A strange occurrence happened in 1800. West, President of the Royal Academy, Sir Joseph Banks, and Cosway, agreeing that the classical representation of the Crucifixion was unsatisfactory, called upon Carpue. A murderer was about to be executed. Keate, Master of the College of Surgeons, gave permission. A structure was erected, including a cross, near the place of execution. The executed murderer, whilst still warm, was nailed on the cross, the cross suspended, and after the body had fallen into position, a cast was taken under the direction of Banks. The cast was removed to Carpue's anatomy theatre, and in 1843 was still in existence in the studio of Behnes. In connection with his anatomy teaching Carpue published a *Description of the Muscles of the Human Body*. He took up medical electricity, had a fine plate machine in his dining-room and made many experimental researches, including that on himself for the relief of lumbago, by passing the current through his loins. He published a book on the subject in 1803. On the occasion of the illness of Princess Amelia, at Worthing, Carpue was introduced to the Prince Regent, who talked with him on medical subjects, as he did later when king. Hence, when Carpue published his *Account of Two Successful Operations for Restoring a Lost Nose*, in December, 1815, he dedicated it to the Prince Regent. Carpue began with an historical account of the Tagliacotian operation by tracing the first description of the operation to the Sicilian surgeon Branca in 1442. Tagliacozzi (1546-1599) first noted his operation in his *Epistola ad Hieronymum Mercurialem de Naribus multo ante abscissis reficiendis*, 1587. He described it more fully in *De Curtorum Chirurgia per Insitionem*, libri duo, 1597, which included the well-known engraving of an arm attached to the nose by a flap of skin. Outside Italy the only reported case subsequently had been that by Griffon, of Lausanne, in 1590, mentioned by Fabricius Hildanus. The operation had been popularly confused with transplantation of skin, particularly from the buttock of a donor. Butler, in the 1st canto of his *Hudibras*, had mixed up this transplantation of skin with the superstition about sympathy. The nose restored from the donor's buttock, Butler's 'parent breech', was said to disappear on the death of Nock, the donor, the portion of the donor's spirit, or numen, having to rejoin that of its parent breech, alias Nock- "When the date of Nock was out, Off dropped the sympathetic snout." What had occurred in several instances was healing by first intention when a cut-off nose had been sutured into place at once. Carpue entered upon a long disquisition concerning healing by first intention, and mentioned more or less veracious instances. Yet owing to cold or other causes, a restored nose might shrivel up or slough off. Carpue's attention had been attracted to the description of the Indian method in the *Gentleman's Magazine*, 1794, given by two English surgeons, Thomas Cruso and James Findlay. It was also described in Pennant's *View of Hindoostan*, 1798, ii, 237, as a procedure practised from time immemorial by the caste of the Koomas - potters and brickmakers. His first case was that of an officer the tip of whose nose had sloughed in 1809, not so much the result of syphilis as from the excessive administrations of mercury for hepatitis. There are four plates in illustration of the operation and result. The second case was that of an officer the tip of whose nose had been cut off at the Battle of Albuera, in 1810; Plate V illustrates the deformity and the result of the operation. In both instances an exceedingly good result was obtained considering the surgery of the time. In 1819 Carpue published a *History of Suprapubic Lithotomy*, giving a history of other methods, without adding anything from his own experience, but the book is a useful compendium. Carpue saw the operation performed in Paris by Soubervielle. Franco had pushed up the calculus in a boy's bladder; John Douglas and Cheselden injected water to distend the bladder. In either procedure the fold of peritoneum was likely to be raised. But Frère Côme introduced his sonde-à-dard, by an incision in the perineum, to push forward the wall of the bladder after he had emptied it of urine. Consequently a perforation of the fold of peritoneum was likely. Either this accident, or the over-distension of the bladder causing rupture, was the reason why the operation failed. Suprapubic lithotomy was resuscitated by Carson, who showed that the fold of peritoneum was raised when the rectum was inflated; by Petersen, of Kiel, who carefully distended the bladder; and by the method of Sir Henry Thompson in pushing up the exposed fold bluntly with the fingers. Carpue was also Surgeon to the St Pancras Infirmary, and after seeing at Greenwich Hospital multiple punctures made into inflamed areas, he adopted the practice. It was especially through Sir Joseph Banks that Carpue was elected Fellow of the Royal Society. At the College of Surgeons he was one of the original Fellows but was not elected to the Council. Although successful at first in attracting a large anatomical class, private medical schools died out as the staff of the great hospitals set themselves to give medical instruction systematically and ceased to take private pupils. J F South, although he allowed that Carpue was a very good anatomist, depreciated him for holding private classes. Soon after the opening of the railways to Brighton, Carpue in travelling there put his two daughters in a first-class carriage, whilst he himself with two servants travelled in an open car. A collision occurred which threw him and his servants out upon the line. One of the servants was killed, and Carpue sustained severe contusions. After a tedious process at law he obtained a verdict for damages in the sum of £250, most of which had already been spent in costs. He did not recover, suffered from increasing bronchitis, and died on Jan 30th, 1846. His portrait, as well as a marble bust, was presented to St George's Hospital by his daughter, Miss Emma Carpue, who left St George's Hospital £6,500 and £1000 to the Society for the Relief of the Widows and Orphans of Medical Men. Carpue is described as a tall, ungainly, good-tempered, grey-haired man who wore an ill-fitting suit of black relieved by an enormous white kerchief which encircled his neck like a roller towel. He was a facile draughtsman on the blackboard and thus earned the name of 'the chalk lecturer'. Each pupil was made to repeat after him and in identical words the description of the bone or organ which he had just given. Tom Hood alludes to Carpue in his "Pathetic Ballad of Mary's Ghost":- "I can't tell where my head is gone, But Dr Carpue can. As for my trunk, it's all packed up To go by Pickford's van." Publications:- "Cast of Crucifixion," from an unpublished MS in Carpue's handwriting. - *Lancet*, 1846, I, 167. *Description of the Muscles of the Human Body*, London, 1801. *An Introduction to Electricity and Galvanism, with Cases showing their Effects in the Cure of Disease*, London, 1803. *An Account of Two Successful Operations for Restoring a Lost Nose from the Integuments of the Forehead in the Cases of Two Officers of His Majesty's Army*, to which are prefixed historical and physiological remarks on the nasal operation, including descriptions of the Indian and Italian methods, with engravings by Charles Turner, London, 1818, translated into German, Berlin, 1817. *A History of the High Operation for the Stone by Incision above the Pubes* (with observations on the advantage attending it, and an account of the various methods of Lithotomy from the earliest periods to the present time), London, 1819.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000415
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

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

First Title value, for Searching Barros D'Sa, Aires Agnelo Barnabé (1939 - 2007)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

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

First Title value, for Searching Ainslie, Derek (1919 - 2006)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2007-11-08 2009-02-26
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000400-E000499
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372602372602
Occupation Ophthalmologist
Details Derek Ainslie was an ophthalmologist and a pioneer in the development of vision corrective surgery. He was born in Hereford on 19 September 1919, the third child and second son of Janet (née Rogers) and William Ainslie, a surgeon and a fellow of the Edinburgh College. Derek Ainslie was educated at Hereford Cathedral Preparatory School, Sherborne and Clare College, Cambridge, going on to complete his clinical training at the Middlesex Hospital. He subsequently joined the RAMC and was en route to the Far East when the war ended. He remained in the Army, working in Africa until 1948 and reaching the rank of major. He underwent training in ophthalmology at Birmingham Eye Hospital, the Middlesex Hospital, and as senior resident officer at Moorfields Eye Hospital. Soon after completing his training he was appointed consultant ophthalmologist to the Middlesex and Moorfields Eye hospitals, in 1962. His work in ophthalmology was remarkable: he was a pioneer in corneal refractive surgery, using a microkeratome and surgical cryolathe. He worked closely in parallel with José Barraquer, a Spanish surgeon, in what was then a contentious field of work, but which has developed into the laser refractive surgery of today. Derek wrote extensively on the use of antibiotics in ophthalmology, corneal grafting and refractive keratoplasty. Sadly his work was interrupted in 1975 with the onset of a severe illness compounded by deteriorating vision from glaucoma. He retired prematurely at the age of 55. He examined for the diploma in ophthalmology and was a member of the Court of Examiners for the FRCS in ophthalmology. He was an adviser to the Merchant Navy from 1953 to 1963, and ophthalmic surgeon to Chorleywood College for Girls, a school for the partially sighted and blind. He married Robina Susan Lock in 1960, a medical practitioner. They had one son and two daughters. He had a wide interest in music, was a keen salmon and trout fisherman, and an ardent supporter of Arsenal Football Club. He died on 1 August 2006, and is survived by his third wife, Diana, children and grandchildren.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000418
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Crawford, Bernard Searle (1919 - 2007)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2007-11-08
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000400-E000499
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372603372603
Occupation Plastic surgeon Plastic and reconstructive surgeon
Details Bernard Crawford was a plastic surgeon in Sheffield. He was born in Rotherham, Yorkshire, on 30 November 1919. His father, Alfred Edgar Crawford, was a teacher, and his mother, Nellie Cooper, a nurse. He was educated at Rotherham Grammar School and Sheffield University, where his teachers included Ernest Finch, James Lytle, Wilfred Hynes and Sir Frederick Holdsworth. He completed house officer jobs at the Royal Hospital, Sheffield, and then joined the RAMC as a graded surgical specialist, serving in India and Burma, and ending his service in 1947 as officer in charge of the surgical division, No 1 Burma General Hospital. On his return to the UK he became a supernumerary registrar at the Royal Infirmary, Sheffield, and was then house surgeon at the Northern General Hospital, and RSO at the Royal Hospital, Sheffield. He then specialised in plastic surgery and worked as a house surgeon, registrar and then senior registrar at the plastic and jaw department of Fulwood Hospital, Sheffield, where he was appointed as a consultant in 1960. He published on surgery for hypospadias, for which he was awarded a Hunterian Professorship in 1966, as well as other congenital lesions, including buried penis. His main interests were in reconstructive surgery after major burns and injuries. He was a keen teacher and encouraged his pupils to publish and carry out research, admonishing them: “surgery was not invented for the benefit of surgeons”. He married Hilda Fenn, a nurse, in 1949. Their son John became a professional violinist. His hobbies included copying old master paintings in acrylic. He died on 24 January 2007.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000419
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Thomas, William Lloyd (1791 - 1855)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

First Title value, for Searching Barendt, Frank Hugh (1861 - 1926)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

First Title value, for Searching Barker, Arthur Edward James (1850 - 1916)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2009-11-11
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/372935372935
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born in Dublin, the son of Dr William Barker. Studied medicine at the Medical School of the College of Surgeons, Dublin, and later at the University of Bonn, where he acquired a written and spoken knowledge of German as well as of French, which was of primary importance to him. Indeed, his first distinction came through his translation of the *Histologie und Histochemie des Menschen* by Professor Heinrich Frey, of Zurich. The work, first published in 1859, was illustrated by many woodcuts by Kölliker, much in advance of anything published before, and had been recommended to Barker by his teacher, Professor Max Schultze. The translation was published in 1874 and Barker’s preface is in a style characteristic of his subsequent writing. He was then living in Hume Street, Dublin, and was Surgeon to the City of Dublin Hospital, Demonstrator of Anatomy at the College of Surgeons, and Visiting Surgeon to the Convalescent Home at Stillorgan. Barker’s appointment at the age of 25 to the post of Assistant Surgeon at University College Hospital, London, in 1875, was out of the ordinary in that he had not passed the FRCS England, nor, indeed, did he qualify FRCSI, until the following year, 1876. Moreover, he received the FRCS England, in 1880 ad eundem. These occurrences have not repeated themselves. None the less, time, as it passed, showed Barker to be a leader of surgery in his day, fortified by his acquaintance with German surgery during its particularly flourishing period. University College Hospital was then the centre of Listerian surgery in London, from which Barker, following German surgeons (*see under* Bergmann, E von) began to deviate by using salicylic wool, perchloride of mercury, and adopting the so-called aseptic methods. The following is a selection in order of date from among Barker’s great surgical achievements during forty years: In 1880 he removed the kidney for a malignant tumour through an abdominal incision in a woman aged 21; the tumour had been noticed for eight months. The patient died of pulmonary embolism on the second day, after which it was found that the operation had been well performed, but there were secondary growths in the lungs the size of nuts. Barker referred in detail to Simon’s recently published monograph, including the record of twenty-eight cases, half of which had recovered and half had died. In clinical lectures in 1885 and 1889, he described further renal operations. In 1883 he rewrote articles in the third edition of the *System of Surgery* by Holmes and Hulke, on “Diseases of Joints”, “Diseases of the Spine”, and “Diseases of the Tongue”. In this last article there is a full account, with histological drawings, of leukoplakia, already recognized as a precursor of epithelioma. In 1886 he described four cases of removal of deep-seated tumours of the neck, which a few years before would have been held to be incurable. One case was probably an instance of an accessory thyroid, the others enlarged and tuberculous lymphatic glands. Also in 1886 he was the first to perform gastroenterostomy in London, and that successfully, for cancer of the pylorus in a woman aged 57, using the anterior method, the jejunum being turned over towards the right from its commencement. The patient survived for just over a year. In 1898 he noted that he had adopted von Hacker’s posterior gastrojejunostomy. In 1887 he published *A Short Manual of Surgical Operations*, illustrated by his own drawings, a capital résumé of the subject at that date. He was called upon at the hospital to examine and treat cases of ear disease before the institution of a special department, and this gave him opportunities for extending surgical measures beyond the opening of abscesses over the mastoid process after fluctuation had been detected. He had noted and explained anatomically the extension of suppuration from the middle ear to the temporomandibular joint. In four cases he trephined the mastoid antrum and drained the middle ear, so that in one case optic neuritis disappeared. In a case under Sir William R Gowers he first cleared out the disease from the middle ear and antrum, then trephined and drained a temporosphenoidal abscess. This appears to be the first case in which a cerebral abscess, due to tympanic suppuration, had been correctly diagnosed, localized, and then evacuated by operation, with complete success. Barker published a similar case in 1888, and his experience in this branch of surgery formed the subject of his Hunterian Lectures in 1889 on “Intracranial Inflammations Starting in the Temporal Bone”. To Barker is due the chief credit for establishing in this country the early diagnosis and immediate operation upon cases of intussusception. Previously there had been delay in making a definite diagnosis, and attempts at reduction by distending with water the bowel below the intussusception were generally disastrous failures. Barker saw the patient, a boy aged 4, twelve hours after the onset of the symptoms. He first distended the bowel with water until the tumour became imperceptible; five hours later he operated, reduced the intussusception, and the boy recovered. The table of cases showed how unsuccessful had been laparotomy done late in the case. He also operated successfully on the other variety of intussusception, that caused by a new growth in the rectum. Further reports on intussusception were published in 1894, 1897, and 1903 – the last in German. On the subject of active surgical interference with tuberculous disease of the hip- and knee-joint at an early stage Barker was led into error by following German authorities. In evidence of this, note the list at the end of his third Hunterian Lecture in 1888. He was quite right in substituting the term ‘tuberculous’ in place of the indefinite ‘strumous’ used, e.g., by Howard Marsh (qv) in his *Diseases of Joints*, 1886; but the getting rid of a disease which, however it had got there, had become completely localized in the joint, by removing the interior of the joint at a surgical operation, was an erroneous assumption. Howard Marsh stated the experience gained at the Alexandra Hospital for Hip Disease in favour of prolonged rest under good conditions, together with any surgical measures as restricted as possible. There followed increased support of Marsh’s contention, and great advances have occurred in combination with fresh air and sunlight. In 1887 Barker described thirty-five cases in which he had undertaken the radical cure of hernia, just at the time when that operation was coming into general use. He introduced improvement, including the removal of the neck of the hernial sac at its junction with the peritoneum. By 1898 he had operated upon 200 cases with three deaths. He had modified his earlier procedure to that of Bassini’s “as the best operation of any yet devised”. He used hard twisted Chinese silk, boiled in 5 per cent of carbolic acid; in 21 of the 200 there were reports that silk knots had worked out. In 1892, and again in 1896, he described his method of applying a ‘subcutaneous suture’ to bring together a recent fracture of the patella. His second report confirmed his primary experience, but in other hands and even in the earliest cases it proved difficult to get the fractured surfaces into apposition with none of the aponeurosis intervening. Hence with increasing certainty as to asepsis, the open operation continued the standard method. He published in 1895 two cases illustrating obliteration of psoas abscesses after one washing out, scraping, and closure without drainage. His flushing spoon was adopted as most useful and convenient, the actual scraping of the inside of a psoas abscess being practically omitted. The closure without drainage had the advantage over that of Lister’s success in draining, that there was no chance of secondary infection through the drainage tube. Barker gave great attention to detail in the designing of instruments and apparatus, and in carrying out exact asepsis, as well as in the use of local anaesthesia. In 1898 he published the description of the ‘sewing machine needle’ for the introduction of sutures whether intestinal or cutaneous. A reel of silk, after sterilization by boiling, was fixed on the handle of the instrument, so that the reel could be turned to pay out or wind up the thread by the thumb. The needle was held at right angles to the handle, threaded from the reel. It could thus be used for passing interrupted sutures, by cutting the thread beyond the needle. Strictly speaking it lacked the sewing-machine shuttle carrying the under thread and moving at the same time as the needle armed with the upper thread. Barker passed the needle well through, drew it back a little to form a loop, and then with his left thumb and finger passed the free end of the thread through the loop – to make a continuous looped stitch. Practice with both hands was necessary, and also practise in regulating the tightness of the stitch. In describing his sewing-machine needed he noted silk as the thread, but in 1902 he adopted linen sewing-machine thread for ligatures and sutures. In 1899 Barker gave a “Clinical Lecture and Demonstration on Local Analgesia” “which has of late been practised in many parts of the world”, using 1-1000 eucain ß in normal saline solution. He continued in subsequent years to make reports of improvements in technique. In 1907 he published a full description of spinal analgesia in 100 cases by injecting stovaine. In the following year a further series exhibited improvement by the addition of 5 per cent glucose to increase the density and limit the spread of the fluid. The Obituary Notice in the *British Journal of Surgery* said: “The profession in this country is deeply indebted to him for the share which he took in promoting the subject, and for recording his work with sufficient detail to enable others to practise the method with a great measure of success”. Of all the Clinical Lectures which Barker published none was better, and bears re-reading with greater advantage, than that delivered in 1906, entitled, “The Hands of Surgeons and Assistants in Operations”. The title does not cover all the ground. He commenced: “We have now arrived at an era in which we may claim to know a great deal about septic processes”, and he proceeded to summarize half a dozen possible avenues of infection where operations are undertaken: access from the patient’s own body; access from without, from his skin, from the atmosphere, from the instruments employed in making the wound and in its treatment, ligatures, swabs and dressings, and in addition to the “Hands of Surgeons and Assistants, their Clothes and Breath”. No surgeon spent more of his time and his attention over the technique of the surgeon. In the Address on Surgery at the Belfast Meeting of the British Medical Association in 1909, he reviewed in particular the advances made in intestinal surgery in which he had taken such a great part, including a definition of the protective power of the peritoneum, the faculty possessed by the intestinal coats in health of preventing migration of micro-organisms and the loss of this faculty as a consequence of disease and accident, the wider choice of anaesthetics, the success in removing malignant disease of the colon. In 1914, in apparently his last communication, he returned to the subject of leukoplakia which he had described so ably forty-one years before in the Holmes and Hulke *Surgery*. A charming and witty conversationalist, Barker was not a lively speaker. As a teacher he was at his best when discussing and explaining some subject in which at the time he was particularly interested. When lecturing he was apt to deal in allusions and to get above the level of his hearers. He examined at the Universities of London and Manchester, but he seemed to find it difficult to maintain rigorously his attention upon an exacting task. He had acted as Consulting Surgeon to the Queen Alexandra Hospital, Millbank, and to the Obsborn Convalescent Home for Officers. At the outbreak of the War he served as Colonel AMS, at Netley, next at Malta, and then at Salonika. He died there of pneumonia on April 8th, 1916. He practised at 144 Harley Street. A portrait appears in the *British Journal of Surgery*. By his marriage in 1880 to Emilie Blanche, daughter of Mr Julius Delmege, of Rathkeale, Co Limerick, he had issue two sons and four daughters. In the midst of all his work he had great anxiety even during the last days of his life. The younger son died of acute ear disease. The elder, after entering the Army, developed signs of chronic bilateral pulmonary tuberculosis, for which he was invalided. He rejoined six weeks before the outbreak of War, was wounded and taken prisoner. During this time the tuberculosis again became active. On his release after his father’s death the disease was held in check until an attack of bronchopneumonia proved fatal. Publications:- *The Histology and Histo-chemistry of Man*, by Heinrich Frey, translated from the 4th German edition by A E J Baker, 1874. “Nephrectomy by Abdominal Section” – *Med.-Chir. Trans.*, 1880, lxiii, 181; also “Clinical Lectures Illustrating cases of Renal Surgery.” – Lancet, 1885, i, 93, 141; 1889, i, 418, 466. Holmes and Hulke, *System of Surgery*, 3rd ed, 1883, ii. “On the Removal of Deepseated Tumours of the Neck.” – *Lancet*, 1886, i, 194. “A Case of Gastro-enterostomy for Cancer of the Pylorus and Stomach.” – *Brit. Med. Jour.*, 1886, i, 292, 618; also *The Surgical Affections of the Stomach and their Treatment*, 1898. *A Short Manual of Surgical Operations*, 1887. Erichsen and Beck, *Science and Art of Surgery*, 8th ed. 1884, ii, 600. Gowers and Barker, *Brit. Med. Jour.*, 1886, ii, 1154; 1888, i, 777. “Hunterian Lectures on Intracranial Inflammation Starting in the Temporal Bone, their Complications and Treatment.” – *Illust. Med. News*, London, 1889, iv, 10, 35, 63, 82, 108. “A Case of Intussusception of the Caecum, Treated by Abdominal Section with Success.” –*Lancet*, 1888, ii, 201, 262. “A Case of Intussusception of the Upper End of the Rectum due to Obstruction by a New Growth. Excision with Suture. Recovery.” – *Med.-Chir. Trans.*, 1887, lxx, 335. “Cases of Acute Intussusception in Children.” – *Brit. Med. Jour*., 1894 , i, 345. “Fifteen Consecutive Cases of Acute Intussusception with Appendix of all Cases at University College Hospital.” – *Trans. Clin. Soc. Lond*., 1897-8, xxxi, 58. “Zur Casuistik des Darm-Invagination.” – *Arch. f. klin. Chir*., 1903, lxxi, 147. “Three Lectures on Tubercular Joint Disease and its Treatment by Operation.” – *Lancet*, 1888, i, 1202, 1259, 1322. “Diseases of Joints” in Treves’ *System of Surgery*, 1896. “Operation for the Cure of Non-strangulated Hernia.” – *Brit. Med. Jour.*, 1887, ii, 1203; 1890, i, 840; 1898, ii, 712. “Permanent Subcutaneous Suture of the Patella for Recent Fracture.” – *Brit. Med. Jour.*, 1892, i, 425; 1896, i, 963. “Two Cases Illustrating Obliteration of Psoas Abscesses after one Washing out and Scraping and Closure without Drainage.” – *Trans. Clin. Soc.*, 1895, xxviii, 301. “Sewing Machine Needle.” – *Brit. Med. Jour.*, 1898, ii, 148. “A Short Note on the Use of Linen Sewing Machine Thread for Ligatures and Sutures.” –*Lancet*, 1902, i, 1465. “Clinical Lecture and Demonstration on Local Analgesia.” – *Lancet*, 1899, i, 282; 1900, i, 156; 1903, ii, 203. “A Report on Clinical Experiences with Spinal Analgesia.” – *Brit. Med. Jour.*, 1907, i, 665; 1908, i, 244. “Clinical Lecture on the Hands of Surgeons and Assistants at Operations.” – *Lancet*, 1906, i, 345. “Progress in Intestinal Surgery.” – Address on Surgery at the Belfast Meeting of the British Medical Association. – *Brit. Med. Jour*., 1909, ii, 263. “Leukoplakia.” – *Practitioner*, 1914, xciii, 176.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000752
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Barlow, Joshua (1820 - 1867)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

First Title value, for Searching Barlow, William Frederick (1817 - 1853)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

First Title value, for Searching Barnard, Harold Leslie (1868 - 1908)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

First Title value, for Searching Barnes, Alfred Brook (1804 - 1867)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2009-11-11 2013-08-07
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/372946372946
Occupation General surgeon
Details Apprenticed to Richard Cremer, of Chelmsford, before he entered Guy's and St Thomas's Hospitals in the time of Astley Cooper and of Addison. First practised at Ingatestone, Essex, removed to Chelsea in 1820, practising for many years at 19 Manor Place, King's Road. There he was instrumental in founding the Western Medical and Surgical Society, also the West London Eye Infirmary, to which he was surgeon. He was also Surgeon to the School of Discipline and to the Royal Manor Hall Asylum for Young Females. He died before the year 1867.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000763
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Allen, William Edward (1834 - 1885)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2009-09-18
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/372855372855
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born Sept 23rd, 1834; educated at University College. Entered the Bengal Army as Assistant Surgeon, Feb 10th, 1859; promoted Surgeon Feb 10th, 1871, and Surgeon Major July 1st, 1873. Retired Nov 5th, 1884, and died at Romford on May 15th, 1885.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000672
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Allfrey, Charles Henry (1839 - 1912)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2009-09-18 2013-08-06
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/372856372856
Occupation General surgeon
Details Educated as an Associate Scholar at King's College, London, and professionally at King's College Hospital, where he served as House Physician. After qualifying in London in 1861 he spent some time in Edinburgh, where he acted as Dresser and Clinical Clerk in the Edinburgh Infirmary, and then proceeded to Paris. He practised in partnership with Dr J Heckstall Smith at St Mary Cray, and took an active part in founding the Chislehurst and Cray Valley Hospital. He was Medical Officer and Public Vaccinator of the 3rd District of the Bromley (Kent) Union, Surgeon to the Governesses' Benevolent Institution, Chislehurst, and District Surgeon to the Metropolitan Police. He left Chislehurst in 1890 for St Leonards-on-Sea, where he practised as a physician. He was elected Assistant Physician to the East Sussex Hospital in 1892, and was Consulting Physician at the time of his death. He served on the Town Council for many years, and was active as Chairman of the Sanitary Committee at the time of the establishment of the Isolation Hospital. He was also a JP and Chairman of the South-Eastern Branch of the British Medical Association. In politics he was a Conservative. He died on April 16th, 1912, suddenly, whilst walking on the parade at St Leonards. Publication: *Sanitary Reports on Chislehurst and Cray Valley*, 1875.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000673
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Allingham, Herbert William (1862 - 1904)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2009-09-18 2016-01-22
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/372857372857
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born on April 17th, 1862, the eldest son of William Allingham, (qv); was educated at Chatham House, Ramsgate, and University College School in London. He entered St George's Hospital in 1879, where Timothy Holmes (qv) and Pickering Pick (qv) were surgeons. Here he rapidly developed a marked talent for teaching and for surgery; at school he had been undistinguished. Served as House Surgeon in 1883-1884, and at the end of his term of office was appointed Surgical Registrar and Demonstrator of Anatomy. Elected Assistant Surgeon to St Mark's Hospital in 1885, resigning in 1890, and in 1887 he became Surgeon to the Great (now the Royal) Northern Hospital, a post he held until 1896. Elected Assistant Surgeon to St George's Hospital in 1894. [1] He was appointed Surgeon in Ordinary to the Prince of Wales, now His Majesty King George V, having been previously Surgeon to the Household of King Edward VII. He also filled the offices of Surgeon to the Surgical Aid Society and to the Osborne Home for Officers. He practised at 25 Grosvenor Street, W. He married in 1889 Fraülein Alexandrina Von der Osten, who died in January, 1904, when her husband had become inoculated with syphilis whilst operating in 1903. After her death he became mentally depressed, started for a holiday to Egypt, and died at Marseilles on Nov 4th, 1904, from an overdose of morphia. Allingham was a fine surgeon who did not confine himself to his father's specialty. As an operator he was rapid, neat, and accurate; as a man he was handsome, courteous, and helpful to his juniors. His affectionate nature was shown by the utter prostration into which he was thrown by the death of his lively and charming wife. Publications: Colotomy, Inguinal, Lumbar and Transverse, for Cancer or Stricture with Ulceration of Large Intestine, 8vo, London, 1892. The Treatment of Internal Derangements of the Knee-joint by Operation, 8vo, illustrated, London, 1889. Jointly with his father, Allingham on the Diagnosis and Treatment of Diseases of the Rectum, 5th ed., London, 1888. Operative Surgery, 8vo, London, 1903. [Amendments from the annotated edition of *Plarr's Lives* at the Royal College of Surgeons: [1] '1894' is deleted and '1895' put in its place, together with '[information from Sir Humphry Rolleston]'; Portrait in College Collection.]
Resource Identifier RCS: E000674
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Allingham, William (1829 - 1908)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2009-09-25 2016-01-22
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/372858372858
Occupation General surgeon
Details Educated for the profession of architecture at University College, where he gained prizes. He even practised as an architect, exhibited studies at the exhibitions of the Royal Academy, and obtained honourable mention for a design of a building to house the Great Exhibition of 1851. In this year, however, he decided to abandon architecture for medicine. Entering as a student at St Thomas's Hospital, he carried off prize after prize - the Descriptive Anatomy Prize, the Anatomy Prize (1854), the Medicine Prize, the Clinical Medicine President's Prize, and the Clinical Medicine Treasurer's Prize (1855). After qualifying in 1855 he volunteered as Surgeon in the Crimean War. He was in time to be present at the siege of Sebastopol and to see a vast amount of practical surgery in the most arduous circumstances at the hospitals at Scutari. During a large part of his war services he was attached to the French Army, which was extremely badly provided with surgical aid, and there is no doubt that under the strenuous nature of the duties which devolved upon him, Allingham gained the courage and sense of responsibility which marked him out as a successful operating surgeon from the beginning of his career. After his return home he was Surgical Tutor, Demonstrator of Anatomy, and then Surgical Registrar at St Thomas's Hospital. He set up in practice in 1863 as a consultant at 36 Finsbury Square, EC, but removed to Grosvenor Street, where he soon became a well-known authority on diseases of the rectum and enjoyed a large practice. In 1871 he published his classical book on Diseases of the Rectum. It was accepted at once as an authoritative and inclusive work, though some surgeons differed from the author on points of technique. William Allingham was not attached to the staff of any of the great London Hospitals possessing a medical school, but was for many years Surgeon to the Great Northern Central Hospital and to St Mark's Hospital for Fistula and Diseases of the Rectum. He was also Consulting Surgeon to the Farringdon General Dispensary and to the Surgical Aid Society, of which, together with some of his relatives and others, he was one of the founders in 1862. He was a Member of the Council of the Royal College of Surgeons from 1884-1886, and retired from practice in 1894. Allingham was one of the first surgeons in England to specialize in the treatment of diseases of the rectum, out of which he made a considerable fortune. He was kindly, generous, and hospitable. After his retirement he lived for some time at St Leonards, and then at Worthing, where he died on Feb 4th, 1908. He married twice: (1) Miss Christiana Cooke, by whom he had six children - four sons and two daughters. The eldest son was Herbert William Allingham, (qv). Of his two daughters both married medical men; the elder, who afterwards became Mrs Chevallier Tayler, having been first the wife of Mr Charles Cotes, of St George's; the younger was married to Claud E Woakes. (2) Miss D H Hayles, [1] who, like Mr Herbert William Allingham, predeceased the subject of this memoir. William Allingham appears in the portrait group of the Council by Jamyn Brooks (1884). Publications: Fistula, Hæmorrhoids, Painful Ulcer, Stricture, Prolapsus, and other Diseases of the Rectum, their Diagnosis and Treatment, 8vo, London, 1871. The Diagnosis and Treatment of Diseases of the Rectum. Edited by Herbert William Allingham. 8vo, London, 1871. The final 1901 edition, a collaboration between father and son, was practically rewritten. The work was translated into several foreign languages. "On the Treatment of Fistula and other Sinuses by Means of the Elastic Ligature, being a Paper (with Additional Cases) read before the Medical Society of London, November, 1874." 8vo, London; reprinted again in 1875, etc. [Amendments from the annotated edition of *Plarr's Lives* at the Royal College of Surgeons: [1] who had nursed him through a severe illness]
Resource Identifier RCS: E000675
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Ambler, Edward Holland (1821 - 1879)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

First Title value, for Searching Amphlett, Edward (1848 - 1880)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2009-09-25
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/372860372860
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born on Oct 20th, 1848, the second son of Samuel Holmden Amphlett (qv), by Mary Georgiana, his wife. He was nephew of Sir Richard Amphlett, of Wychbold Hall, near Droitwich, at one time Lord Justice of Appeal. Edward Amphlett was the grandson of George Edward Male, an early nineteenth century authority on medical jurisprudence. He was educated for the sea, and served as midshipman in the Royal Navy for several years, seeing many parts of the world and acquiring great interest in nautical matters. At the time of his death he was Surgeon to the Naval Artillery Volunteers, with whom he had recently been a cruise on board HMS *Esk*. He suffered so severely from asthma that he was invalided out of the service. Determining to enter the medical profession, he first graduated at Cambridge from Peterhouse as a Junior Optime in the Mathematical Tripos (his uncle, Sir Richard Amphlett, who died in 1883, had been Sixth Wrangler). He is thus one of the first Cambridge man on our record. Entering at Guy’s Hospital, he was House Surgeon and Resident Obstetrician. After qualifying and passing the Fellowship examination he was appointed Assistant Surgeon to Charing Cross Hospital, and began to devote himself to practice and more particularly to diseases of the eye, which he had studied at Vienna. At the time of his death, besides being Assistant Surgeon, he was also Demonstrator of Surgical Pathology in Charing Cross Hospital Medical School and Assistant Surgeon at the Central London Ophthalmic Hospital. He practised at 40 Weymouth Street, Portland Place, W, and died there on Sept 9th, 1880. His elder brother was Richard Holmden Amphlett, QC, Recorder of Worcester.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000677
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Barnes, Christopher Hewetson (1801 - 1875)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

First Title value, for Searching Barnes, John Wickham (1830 - 1899)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

First Title value, for Searching Melrose, Denis Graham (1921 - 2007)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2009-01-16
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/372765372765
Occupation Cardiac surgeon
Details Denis Melrose played a crucial role in designing and developing the first heart-lung machine. He was born in Cape Town on 20 June 1921, the son of Thomas Robert Gray Melrose, a surgeon, and Floray Collings. The family went to England before the Second World War, and Denis was educated at Sedbergh and University College, Oxford, going on to University College Hospital for his clinical studies. There he was taught by Sir Thomas Lewis, the cardiologist. After qualifying, he did junior jobs at Hammersmith and Redhill County Hospital, Edgware, before serving in the RNVR from 1946 to 1948. He returned to the Royal Postgraduate Hospital Hammersmith as a lecturer when Ian Air was the professor of surgery. Air encouraged Melrose in his dream of making a heart-lung machine. At that time a Hungarian refugee, Francis Kellerman, had set up a medical instrument firm called New Electronic Products (NEP) and generously offered to collaborate with Melrose in designing the Melrose-NEP heart-lung machine. This was first used at Hammersmith in 1957 on a patient with an atrial septal defect, who survived more than 25 years. The machine was soon used in other UK centres, New Zealand and Australia. In 1959 a group of Russian surgeons visited Hammersmith, decided to buy a Melrose machine, and Denis accompanied a team which included Bill Cleland, Hugh Bentall, John Beard, the anaesthetist, and Arthur Hollman, the cardiologist. There was half a ton of equipment. Four children with severe congenital heart lesions were successfully operated on, as well as two others. Melrose’s second great contribution to cardiac surgery was his introduction of a method of reversibly stopping the heart beat using cold solutions of potassium salts. In 1956 he was Nuffield travelling fellow in the USA and Fulbright fellow in 1957, becoming associate in surgery at Stanford University Medical School in 1958. Melrose was successively promoted to reader and then professor and continued to work at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School until his retirement in 1983. Melrose had the ideal temperament to lead innovative methods in medicine: exceptionally friendly and out-going, he was full of fun and at the same time exceedingly practical. In 1945 he married Ann Warter, and had two sons. His hobbies included skiing and sailing. He died in Ibiza on 2 July 2007.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000582
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Farrington, Graham Hugh (1934 - 2008)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by N Alan Green
Publication Date 2009-01-30 2012-03-22
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/372766372766
Occupation General surgeon
Details Graham Farrington was a consultant general surgeon to Kingston Hospital, Surrey, from 1971 until his retirement at the age of 60 in 1994. He was born in Whetstone, London, on 31 October 1934 into a non-medical family. His father, Percy Morgan Sibley Farrington, owned a garage and his mother, Iris Lilian Broughall, was a housewife. Graham received his early education at the Minchenden Grammar School, Southgate, before proceeding to the University of Leeds School of Medicine, graduating with distinction in 1958 and obtaining the Public Welfare Foundation Prize of the College of General Practitioners. House appointments and registrar posts followed, including some in East Anglia. When working at the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital he showed an early interest in paediatric surgery. During training he demonstrated a meticulous care when dealing with children suffering with testicular maldescent who had been referred to the paediatric centre at the Jenny Lind Hospital for Sick Children. These children he followed up into their teens. Graham Farrington's definitive higher surgical training in general surgery was undertaken on a rotational scheme at St George's Hospital, Tooting. In 1968 he went to the USA as a research fellow in surgery at the Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Hospital, Boston. Here he was able to participate in work on pulmonary response in shock and sepsis, for which this centre had a worldwide reputation stemming from the work of Jacob Fine. His first major publication was in the paediatric field and co-authored by C Gordon Scorer, of Hillingdon Hospital, on *Congenital deformities of the testis and epididymis* (London, Butterworths, 1971). This original work established the important principle that few if any testicles descend spontaneously after the age of one. Scorer and Farrington went on to publish a chapter on the topic in *Campbell's urology* (fourth edition, Philadelphia/London, Saunders, 1979). A popular and highly respected teacher, Farrington was surgical tutor at Kingston Hospital from 1980 to 1985 and was an enthusiastic commissioning officer for the new surgical wing at the hospital. Outside medicine, he was fond of gardening, enjoyed classical music and was an avid reader, particularly on the history of civil aviation. Close to his mother, who died in 2000, Graham Farrington never married. He died on 30 August 2008 in St Helier Hospital, Carshalton, from pneumonia following a stroke.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000583
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Bower, David Bartlett (1929 - 2007)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2009-01-30 2014-06-30
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Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000500-E000599
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372767372767
Occupation Obstetrician and gynaecologist
Details David Bower was a consultant gynaecologist and obstetrician at St Stephen's Hospital, Chelsea, later amalgamated into Chelsea and Westminster Hospital. He was born on 1 July 1929 in northwest London, the eldest son of Bartlett St George Bower, a successful lawyer, and Vera Bower née Luson. He went to the Hall School, Hampstead, from which he won a bursary to Oundle. He suffered considerably from asthma in the days before Ventolin and antibiotics, and concentrated on school work rather than sports. He shone academically and won an exhibition to Trinity College, Cambridge, to read law, as his father wished him to join his legal practice. However, David quickly decided that his real preference was medicine and he transferred to the medical faculty at Cambridge, whilst continuing his study of the law, and bought a motorbike so that he could commute between the Middle Temple and Cambridge. After being called to the Bar in 1950, he never in fact practised law. He completed his medical training at St Bartholomew's Hospital and obtained his FRCS in 1958. After a registrarship at Oldchurch Hospital, Romford, he became a senior lecturer at Charing Cross and Westminster, from which he gained the Berkeley research fellowship to Toronto General Hospital. Whilst in Canada, he went to rural Newfoundland, where he practised mainly gynaecology, frequently visited patients by snow cat, and operated on the kitchen table. After returning to London, he was appointed consultant gynaecologist at St Stephen's Hospital, Chelsea, which later joined with the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital. David's research interests included vaginal surgery, where his skills became legendary. He was a patient and supportive teacher, and passed on his techniques to future generations until he retired at the age of 68. Unpretentious, pragmatic and compassionate, David was ideally suited to caring for women with reproductive health problems, and his help was sought by nurses and others who worked with him. Outside his professional life, David enjoyed music and at one time toured post-war Germany playing jazz on the piano for the US troops. At the end of his life he was learning to play the organ, having borrowed the keys to his local church. He was a keen sailor and for years took his boat to Cowes Week. Perhaps his greatest self-indulgence was big motorbikes and his holidays were spent touring abroad. Dressed in leathers and with a tangled beard, he was the original hairy biker, proud to be viewed with suspicion and even disallowed entry into country inns until he had proved his credentials. Enjoying a pint or two of local ale at lunchtime with him was a treat as he was singularly affable and philosophical. David was married with three children, however much of his later life was spent with his partner Maureen Sands, with whom he retired to The Barley Mow, a 15th century former alehouse in Oxfordshire. David struggled bravely with progressive complications from renal carcinoma and died at home on 18 March 2007, at the age of 77.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000584
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Onyeaso, Onyemara Nduche (1931 - 1979)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by E Olumbumni Olapade-Olaola
Publication Date 2009-02-10 2014-06-27
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/372768372768
Occupation General surgeon
Details Onyemara Nduche 'Dick' Onyeaso was chief consultant surgeon at Aba General Hospital, Nigeria. He was born on 7 July 1931 in Enugu, Nigeria, the son of Samuel Onyeaso, a clerk, and Minah Onyeaso, a housewife. He was educated at St Peter's Primary School, Enugu, the Methodist College, Uzuakoli, and Dennis Memorial Grammar School, Onitsha. He learnt his basic medical sciences at the University of Ibadan Medical School, which was then affiliated to the University of London, and went on to do his clinical studies at Westminster Hospital Medical School, London, where he won the class prize in midwifery and graduated MB BS on 16 November 1958. He completed his internship at University College Hospital, Ibadan, and thereafter returned to England, where he trained in general surgery and passed his FRCS in 1964. He was a senior registrar in cardiothoracic surgery at Bethnal Green Hospital in 1971, but thereafter his interest in cardiothoracic surgery waned. He worked variously in England, Switzerland and Nigeria, and as personal physician to the family of the president of Gabon, Omar Bongo, until 1974, when he returned to Nigeria to be the chief consultant surgeon at the General Hospital, Aba. He started his private practice in 1976. Outside medicine, he loved swimming and lawn tennis, and was fluent in French. Dick was a family man. He married Ibobo Antoinette Allgoa in 1971. They had four children - Nduche, Chinwe, Nkechi and Obinna. Nduche and Nkechi are physicians in the USA, Obinna is a physician in Nigerian, while Chinwe is a banker in Nigeria. Dick Onyeaso became sick in 1979 and was diagnosed with hepatocellular carcinoma. He died on 24 September 1979 in Westminster Hospital, London, aged 48.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000585
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Ellis, Frank Groves (1925 - 2003)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Norman Kirby
Publication Date 2009-02-10 2011-05-05
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000500-E000599
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372769372769
Occupation Renal transplant surgeon Vascular surgeon
Details Frank Groves Ellis was a renal transplant and vascular surgeon at Guy's Hospital. He was born on 12 September 1925 into a long-standing farming family. After grammar school, he entered Guy's medical school in 1943, qualifying in 1949. He was an anatomy demonstrator in 1952. He gained a consultant post at the Royal Northern Hospital London as a general surgeon, gaining particular experience in oesophageal, breast and urinary surgery, but in 1969 was appointed as a renal transplant and vascular surgeon at Guy's Hospital. His first renal transplant at Guy's was in fact done in Brighton. In that early period transfer of the donor kidney was not easy, so he took the whole surgical team, with the recipient patient, to the south coast in his car. The operation was successful. Further developments made his department internationally renowned and he made countless working trips to the Middle East and built up a multitude of foreign connections. At one period, due to a shortage of established anaesthetists, he personally financed the employment of one to help lower his long waiting list. He genuinely enjoyed teaching students: he could be abrasive at times, but never talked down to them, or to junior colleagues. He did on occasion talk down to many of his seniors, which displeased a minority. However, this was usually regarded as professional tactlessness rather than intentional rudeness. He was particularly helpful to new consultants to Guy's. He was a staunch friend to his juniors. Alongside this thrusting personality was a man who was courteous with patients, NHS or private, who took careful case histories, with diligent note and record keeping, together with a comprehensive pre-operative examination and investigations. He was not a committee man, so did not rely on their decisions and usually did what he had decided to do. This undoubtedly did upset the committees, but benefited his patients. Frank belonged to many surgical societies and was a fellow of the Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland. The Lettsomian lecture he gave to the Medical Society of London in 1975 was entitled 'Organ transplantation'. He was elected president of the society in 1978. In 1961 he was Hunterian Professor of our College. He published many papers on vascular surgical emergencies and angioplasty, and wrote a chapter on acute and chronic renal failure in *Surgery* by Kirk et al (London, Pitman). His wife and children endured with him the difficulties of the last phase of his life. He bore this period with great courage. He died on 10 August 2003.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000586
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Fickling, Benjamin William (1909 - 2007)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Brian Morgan
Publication Date 2009-02-10
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/372770372770
Occupation Oral and maxillofacial surgeon
Details Benjamin William Fickling was a distinguished oral surgeon and a past president of the British Association of Oral Surgeons. The son of Robert Marshall Fickling, a dentist, he was born in London on 14 July 1909, in a house in Sloane Street where there had been a dental practice since 1840. His mother was Florence Isobel née Newson. By agreement with the deans of St George’s and the Royal Dental Hospital, he studied both medicine and dentistry at St George’s Hospital, having won the William Brown senior exhibition by examination at St George’s and a senior entrance scholarship to the clinical teaching hospital. These paid all his fees until he qualified. He also received the Johnson prize in anatomy, the Pollock prize in physiology and passed the primary FRCS after three months leave of absence from dentistry – all before his 21st Birthday and under three years after entering medical school. In March 1932 he qualified LDS RCS and subsequently became house surgeon in the prosthetics department whilst starting dental practice using the second surgery in the family home. He said that he spent most time providing cheap dentures at £2 each. In 1934 he qualified MRCS LRCP and was appointed senior house surgeon at the Royal Dental Hospital, which had beds in Charing Cross Hospital. At the age of 36 he was appointed assistant dental surgeon at the Royal Dental Hospital and a year later assistant dental surgeon to St George’s Hospital. It was at this time that on the advice of Wilfred Fish he visited the established figures of the day in Vienna. He studied in the private surgery of Gottleib Bohler and the highly acclaimed Hans Pichler, who had treated Sigmund Freud’s oral cancer with a wide local excision that included the floor of the mouth and a large portion of the right mandible, all under local anaesthetic. He subsequently made an obturator, which Freud called his ‘monster’. In November 1938, Fickling returned to London and passed his final FRCS. The road to promotion and a successful career lay through research and so in 1938 he attended the Hampton Hill research laboratories to study salivary secretion, where he was the first to show that bacteriostatic drugs could be excreted in saliva and was rewarded with a publication in *The Lancet*. At that time discharging sinuses on the face persisted for years and osteomyelitis was not uncommon. In 1933 Wilfred Fish established the first periodontal department at the Royal Dental Hospital, but later (1937) he resigned to concentrate on his research at St Mary’s Hospital. Fickling was placed in charge of the department and continued this until well after the war. At the outbreak of war, he was drafted into the Emergency Medical Service (EMS) at St George’s Hospital and served there throughout the Blitz. An Army Council report in 1934 had recommended that in the event of war maxillo-facial injuries should be concentrated in specialist hospitals, and Fickling joined the plastic surgeon Rainsford Mowlem at Hill End Hospital in St Albans 1941. In 1939 there was no up to date English language text on facial injuries and so, with his senior colleague Warwick James, he wrote *Injuries of the jaws and face* (J Bale & Staples, London, 1940). After the war, Fickling returned to dental practice in London and remained part-time at Hill End hospital, which later moved to Mount Vernon, where he was joined by Paul Toller. Fickling was present at the introduction of the NHS and continued in part-time general dental practice. In 1957 he joined the board of the Faculty of Dental Surgery (FDS) of our College and was elected dean in 1968. He was a founder member of both the British Association of Oral Surgeons (president in 1967) and the International Association of Oral Surgeons in 1962. He was an examiner for the FDS (from 1959 to 1972) and in 1978 was appointed chairman of examiners for the Membership in General Dental Surgery (MGDS) and continued until 1981. In 1980 he retired from general dental practice after 58 years, handing over to his son Clive. His contributions to surgery were recognised by the award of the Charles Tomes lecture in 1956; the first Everett Magnus lecture in Melbourne in 1971 and the Webb Johnson lecture in 1978. He was awarded the Colyer gold medal of the Faculty of Dental Surgery in 1979 and his services to dentistry were recognised by the award of the CBE in 1973. He was a meticulous surgeon, devoted to detail. His Fickling forceps are still in standard use in most oral surgery sets today. He described a procedure for closing oroantral fistula and was instrumental in the development of the box frame and maxillary and mandibular rods and pins. He enjoyed travelling and skied until he was 75. In the third year of the war he offered a nurse from Bartholomew’s Hospital a lift home from a bus stop. They married soon after and Shirley (née Walker) was his companion for nearly seven decades and bore him three children (Julia Margaret, Paul Marshall and Clive Anthony). Benjamin Fickling died on 27 January 2007.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000587
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Vellacott, Keith David (1948 - 2007)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2009-02-10
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/372771372771
Occupation General surgeon
Details Keith Vellacott was a consultant surgeon at Royal Gwent Hospital, Newport. He was born in Tavistock, Devon, on 25 February 1948, the son of Douglas Hugh Vellacott, a surgeon and a fellow of the College, and Lorraine Freda Tibbs. From Kelly College, Devon, Keith followed his father and grandfather to the London Hospital, where he qualified in 1972. He was a house surgeon to John Blandy in the urology department at the London, and a house physician in paediatrics. He then became a casualty officer and a demonstrator in anatomy at Bristol Royal Infirmary, where he went on to the senior house officer rotation, from which he passed the FRCS. After a year as registrar in general surgery at Cheltenham, he spent two years in Nottingham, where he worked with Jack Hardcastle on the development of flexible fibreoptic sigmoidoscopy (publishing his results in 1981) and played a major role in the ground-breaking study of screening for carcinoma of the colon, for which he was awarded the Patey prize of the Surgical Research Society in 1980. He returned to Bristol as a senior registrar in 1981. After a period as locum consultant in Gloucester, he was appointed as a consultant surgeon to the Royal Gwent Hospital in Newport in 1986, becoming honorary senior lecturer in surgery there in 1997. By now an expert and accomplished endoscopist, Keith introduced flexible colonoscopy and endoscopic retrograde cholangiography to Newport, as well as laparoscopic cholecystectomy, and continued his work, now on a national basis, in the screening for colorectal cancer. He organised undergraduate teaching and was appointed clinical director. In 1973 Keith married Jinette, a nurse. They had two sons, Darren (who predeceased him) and Guy, and a daughter, Adele. Keith was, like his father, a man of quiet charm and serious demeanour, who was highly respected by his collegues. His hobbies included sailing, badminton, model-making and reading, and he played an active role in the St Woolos Rotary Club. By a strange irony, in 1999 he himself was found to have carcinoma of the colon, and over the next eight years underwent five successive resections, in spite of which he returned with undiminished energy to his work. His outstanding contributions were recognised by the award of the MBE in 2007, but sadly he died in harness, before he could be invested with his insignia.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000588
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Shields, Sir Robert (1930 - 2008)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by N Alan Green
Publication Date 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/372772372772
Occupation General surgeon
Details Sir Robert Shields enjoyed a distinguished career in surgery and in academic and health service administration. He was professor of surgery and chairman of the department of surgery and honorary consultant to the Royal Liverpool University and Broadgreen hospitals from 1969 to 1996. His unit was internationally respected for its research, teaching and clinical practice. He was born in Paisley on 8 November 1930, the son of Robert Alexander Shields, an electrical engineer, and his wife, Isobel Shields née Reid. Educated at Paisley’s John Neilson School, he studied medicine at Glasgow University. Showing early promise in his clinical training, he passed pathology with distinction and won the Captain H S Rankin VC Memorial, MacLeod and Mary Margaret Isobel Ure prizes in surgery and the Asher-Asher medal in diseases of the ear, nose and throat. Following house appointments at the Western Infirmary in Glasgow, he served his National Service in the RAMC, as regimental medical officer with the First Battalion of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders in Berlin. There he met (Grace) Marianne Swinburn, a nursing sister at the British Military Hospital, whom he married in 1957. Over the years that followed he retained a Territorial Army connection as a major with the Seventh Battalion of the Argyll’s until 1962, later becoming an honorary colonel to the University of Liverpool Officer Training Corps. Demobilised in 1956, Robert returned to the Western Infirmary as Hall fellow at the University of Glasgow under Sir Charles Illingworth. This was followed by a year in the USA, where he worked as a research fellow to Charles Cooke and Jesse Bollman at the Mayo Clinic. There his research on intestinal absorption formed the basis of his MD (1965), which won the Bellahouston gold medal. For three years, from 1960, he was lecturer in surgery at Glasgow University. In 1963 he followed Sir Patrick Forrest as senior lecturer at the Welsh National School of Medicine in Cardiff, becoming reader in 1969, when he accepted the chair at Liverpool University in the same year. Here he encouraged the development of a transplant unit which opened in 1973 and, with his great friend, Richard McConnell established the country’s first dedicated gastro-intestinal unit that combined both medical and surgical expertise. Robert Shields had great administrative flair. A good listener to all points of view, he was meticulous in preparation of all paper work, in which he displayed military attention to what he called ‘staff work’. He was appointed dean of the Liverpool faculty of medicine in 1982 and in this position paved the way for new chairs in general practice and public health. He was active within the National Health Service at a national level, advising the Secretary of State for Health. He was chairman of a range of advisory and training committees, as well as working for his own local authorities, the Mersey Regional Health Authority and the Royal Liverpool University Hospital Trust. In addition to all his many commitments, he was in demand as an examiner in surgery to the universities of Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dundee, Leicester and Sheffield, as well as many others overseas. Robert Shields held many prestigious offices. He was president of the Surgical Research Society, the Society of Gastroenterology and the Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland, from which he received the Moynihan medal. After 30 years of ordinary membership, Bob was elected president of the Travelling Surgical Society of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (from 2002 to 2004) and was later made an honorary member. He was chairman of the British Liver Foundation, a member of the Medical Research Council and the General Medical Council, where he served on the education and professional conduct committees. In 1990 he became the first Glaswegian in nearly 500 years to be elected president of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. In our College, he was a member of the Court of Examiners and Zachary Cope lecturer in 1992. Shields published nearly 200 original articles and reviews in the field of gastroenterology, particularly liver problems and oesophageal varices and contributed to several textbooks including *Textbook of surgery* (Philadelphia/London, Lippincott, c.1983) and *Gastrointestinal emergencies* (London, W B Saunders) in 1992, as well as serving on the editorial boards of *Gut*, *British Journal of Surgery* and the international editorial board of *Current Practice in Surgery*. He was much sought after as a visiting professor in five continents. For the Travelling Surgical Society of Great Britain and Northern Ireland he gave many short papers at home and abroad. One notable one was delivered at the diamond jubilee meeting of the society in 1984: ‘Musings of a dean’ was a model of clarity and commonsense. He had what Dean Swift called “the true definition of style”, namely the capacity to use “proper words in proper places”. Many academic distinctions came his way, among them the award of doctor of science by the University of Wales in 1990 gave him particular pleasure. He received honorary fellowships of the Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland, the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow, the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, the College of Surgeons of Hong Kong, the American College of Surgeons, the College of Surgeons of South Africa, the American Surgical Association, the Association of Surgeons of India and the Academy of Singapore. In retirement, he continued to serve as a government adviser on issues relating to the restructuring of the NHS. In 1996 he reported to the Scottish Office on *Commissioning better health*, in which he recommended that the onus for maintaining a high-quality environment should fall more directly on hospital boards, which should focus on clinical outcomes and monitor clinical practice using data from clinical audit. Robert Shields was a quiet man and had great integrity: his natural reserve hid a determination to get things done. Throughout a busy life he continued to maintain a close interest in research and supported many doctors in their clinical and laboratory work. He was knighted in 1990 and became Deputy Lieutenant of Merseyside in 1991. The Shields’ main home was in the Liverpool, where he enjoyed walking his dog on the Wirral. He and Marianne relaxed in their retreat ‘north of the border’ around Lochgilphead in the west of Scotland, where they sailed and walked in the Argyll countryside. They had two girls and a boy: Jennifer Camm has been NHS regional commissioner for the South West since 2001. The younger daughter is a commissioning manager on the Wirral and Andrew is a director of Avis Europe, based in London and Paris. Sir Robert Shields died at his Liverpool home after a long illness on 3 October 2008 and is survived by Marianne, their three children and their families.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000589
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Sames, Christopher Patrick (1912 - 2008)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Sir Barry Jackson
Publication Date 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/372773372773
Occupation General surgeon
Details Patrick Sames was a general surgeon in Bath with an interest in coloproctology. He was born on 17 January 1912 in Enfield, Middlesex, the only son of Christopher, a railway clerk, and Caroline née Radmore. He was a late entrant to medicine, leaving Harrow County School to become an apprentice in the fur trade, working at Debenham and Freebody in London for three years, before entering St Mary’s Hospital Medical School. There he was a good rugby player and excelled in academic studies, winning two prizes in pathology, as well as prizes in ophthalmology and surgery. On qualifying in 1937 he held house officer posts at St Mary’s and the Royal Northern Hospital, Holloway. He then became a registrar at St Mary’s, before passing his final FRCS examination in 1939. At the outbreak of war he was recruited into the Emergency Medical Service (EMS), in which he obtained considerable surgical experience with the victims of London bombing raids and evacuees from Dunkirk. He also obtained part-time appointments at St Mark’s Hospital for Diseases of the Rectum and the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital and gained the MS (London) in 1943. The terms of his engagement with the EMS meant that he was unable to join the armed services until 1945, when he was conscripted into the Royal Army Medical Corps as a surgical specialist with the rank of major. After spending two years in Nigeria he returned to civilian life and obtained the post of assistant director of the professorial surgical unit at St Mary’s. During his early years in training, Sames was greatly influenced by the various chiefs for whom he worked – Charles Pannett, Arthur Dickson Wright, Hamilton Bailey, R J McNeil Love, Zachary Cope, W B Gabriel and Lancelot Barrington Ward. Appointed as consultant surgeon to the Bath clinical area in 1950, Sames developed a special interest in coloproctology, publishing a number of articles in this field and becoming president of the section of proctology of the Royal Society of Medicine in 1967. He also served as a member of council of the Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland and as a member of the editorial committee of the *British Journal of Surgery*. He was a founder member and secretary of the Surgical Sixty Club. On retirement in 1977 he spent his time sailing, painting and rose-growing. A devoted Anglican and church warden, he published *Autumn leaves: some personal reflections on the Christian life* (Charter, 1999). His first wife, Margaret Porteus, by whom he had two sons and two daughters, died in 1970. He went on to marry Eleanor Brigham née Jenkins in 1971. She survives him. He died of heart failure on 3 January 2008.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000590
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Urquhart, David Ronald Petersgarth (1920 - 2008)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Michael Edgar
Publication Date 2009-02-10 2009-08-14
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/372774372774
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon
Details Known affectionately as ‘Dru’, David Ronald Petersgarth Urquhart was a consultant orthopaedic surgeon at St Thomas’ Hospital, London, from 1957 until 1981. Although in many ways a private person, he was undoubtedly one of the established St Thomas’ personalities in the post-war era. His skills were in student teaching and administration, having been heavily involved in the hospital re-building programme. He is remembered at St Thomas’ for his modesty, bubbly sense of humour and approachability. Dru was born in London on 15 January 1920 to Anne Urquhart (née Addis). His father, Alexander Lewis Urquhart, was a pathologist at St Thomas’. He attended Grenham House School, Birchington, Kent, and then Epsom College, from which he entered St Thomas’ Hospital medical school in 1937, qualifying in 1942. As a clinical student in the hospital at the time of the Blitz, he narrowly escaped the direct hit on the northern three blocks of the hospital. After house jobs, he was commissioned into the RAMC in 1943 and posted to HQ 5th Parachute Brigade, 6th Airborne Division. On 8 June 1944 the brigade was parachuted into Normandy to reinforce those who were holding the famous Pegasus (Bénonville) bridge against the Germans. The brigade experienced fierce fighting, during which Dru strayed into no-man’s land against orders to attend the wounded and sustained serious wounds from small arms fire, becoming one of the 4,500 casualties from the 6th Airborne Division in that period. Following repatriation and recovery, he returned to action in December 1944 to take part in the crossing of the Rhine in early 1945 with 225 (parachute) Field Ambulance, having attained the rank of major at the age of only 25. He was subsequently posted to 7th Battalion, the unit preparing to displace the Japanese from occupied Singapore with the expectancy that no one would be likely to survive this daunting task. He was in fact saved by the Japanese surrender following the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Years later in the St Thomas’ theatre coffee room he was challenged by some registrars discussing the ethics of nuclear warfare. In his modest way he commented that he had a biased opinion over the question of whether the Hiroshima bombing should have occurred. His firm view was that it should have happened. We now know why he felt that way. In 1947 Dru returned to surgical postgraduate training and at this time met his future wife Verity Hehir at the Special Forces Club in Knightsbridge. Verity was the adopted daughter of Sir Patrick Hehir, a physician in the Indian Medical Service and an authority on tropical medicine who had distinguished himself in the First World War. In 1948 Dru achieved his FRCS and also married Verity. In that same year he renewed his association with the Parachute Regiment by joining 4 Parachute Brigade, Field Ambulance TA, later to become their commanding officer in 1955. His surgical training led to specialisation in orthopaedics. In 1955 he was made senior registrar to St Thomas’ orthopaedics department. In 1957 he was appointed consultant in that department, aged 37. Of the many influences that had encouraged him in his training he cited George Perkins, the then professor of general surgery at St Thomas’, whose practice was almost entirely in trauma and orthopaedics, and also B H Burns and R H ‘Bob’ Young, who had published pivotal papers on lumbar disc herniation in The Lancet. They were both on the orthopaedic staff of St George’s and St Peter’s Hospital, Chertsey. As a young consultant Dru made, as his priority from the start, a commitment to serve his patients, for which he set a good example, leaving others to grapple with the politics of the new NHS. He enjoyed his links with medical students, using his unhurried Friday afternoon ward rounds for bedside teaching in his personal, jovial manner. He preferred this quieter form of teaching to the large outpatient teaching clinics – often quite a jamboree – led by his senior colleagues Ronnie Furlong and Alan Apley (from the Rowley Bristow Orthopaedic Hospital, Pyrford). Dru did not pursue academic orthopaedics for its own sake and his contributions to the medical literature were sparse. However, he acquired expertise in the management of the orthopaedic sequelae of haemophilia and he became an acknowledged leader in this field. Dru was head of the orthopaedic department at St Thomas’ from 1979 until his retirement in 1981. Dru Urquhart had considerable administrative ability and he was appointed governor to the hospital in the early 1960s. He found his métier when he took up the leadership of the St Thomas’ rebuilding project at a time when Government funding for London hospitals was under threat due to policies favouring peripheral hospital development. Despite this, the new east wing was completed in 1965 and the north wing in 1973, a considerable achievement. Dru subsequently became chairman of the medical and surgical officers committee. Dru was very much a family man, living in the Surrey hills near Godalming. He and Verity had two daughters – Ann and Catriona. In 1972, with the growing pressure of his hospital commitments, he and Verity took an apartment in Lollards Tower of Lambeth Palace, only a short distance from St Thomas’ and also useful for Verity, who had developed a skilful interest in jewellery design and making. However, they escaped to the country at weekends. After retirement, the Lollards flat became their main residence, where they indulged in their love of art and music. The sale of two painting enabled them to make an extensive grand opera tour. However, for part of the year, Dru and Verity regularly stayed with their daughter Ann, by then an established architect, who owns a property in the Cevennes area of southern France. Here they enjoyed walking, gardening, reading, baking bread and brewing beer. In the late 1990s Dru sadly developed cerebral decline, leading to dementia. He died on 6 April 2008, having donated his body to the Alzheimer’s Society for research. He was survived by Verity, who continued to live independently in London, and by his two daughters. Ann, the architect, continues to live in France, and Catriona, now married, was in her younger days a distinguished horsewoman at a national standard in eventing. There are no grandchildren.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000591
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Dempster, William James (1918 - 2008)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by John Hopewell
Publication Date 2009-02-20 2009-02-26
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/372775372775
Occupation Transplant surgeon
Details William James Dempster, known as ‘Jim’, was a transplant researcher and surgeon at St Mary’s Hospital, London. He was born on the island of Ibo, north of Madagascar, on 15 March 1918, although his birth was not registered until 28 April and his birth certificate was not issued until 9 August of that year. He had malaria in infancy, but made a complete recovery. Such an exotic entry into the world is in keeping with his colourful personality and career, and it demands a word of explanation. His father, James, had been raising cattle in Portuguese East Africa, but the enterprise was defeated by the tsetse fly. Sadly, Jim’s father died and his mother, Jessie, brought her young family back to Edinburgh some time after August 1919. Jim went to George Heriot’s School, shining at both work and play. At rugby he was in the school first XV for three seasons as a fly-half, and played for the first XI at cricket. He won a place to study medicine at the University of Edinburgh, where a contemporary was Sheila Sherlock (later a professor and a dame). The pair of them were prominent tennis players at the university. On qualification he spent a short time as a locum GP, before joining the RAF, serving in India and Burma. On demobilisation in 1946, like many contemporaries, he had difficulty finding a job which would lead on to further training. Meeting Sheila Sherlock again, she suggested he try the Postgraduate Hospital, Hammersmith. He followed her advice and was accepted into Ian Aird’s surgical unit. With his own wry humour, he described the task allotted to him as “the worst job in the hospital”. He was to undertake research into the problem of organ transplantation, working at the Buckston Browne Farm of the Royal College of Surgeons with Sir Arthur Keith, the famous anatomist and anthropologist of Piltdown man fame. His contribution to the nature of the rejection reaction in canine renal allografts can rightly be called unique. He published more than a 100 reviews and papers on the subject between 1951 and 1957, gaining him worldwide recognition as a pioneer. His macro- and microscopic observations confirmed that rejection was an example of immune response, mediated by serum antibodies. He travelled widely and enjoyed the company of fellow pioneers of transplantation, particularly that of Georges Mathé of Paris, with whom he shared esteem for Milan Hasek of Prague, as the first to demonstrate induced tolerance, so leading to the understanding that graft rejection was an immunological reaction. Jim and his colleagues were also the first to show that not only delayed type hypersensitivity reactions but also the response to skin allografts could be suppressed in animals by whole-body x-irradiation. He also anticipated the concept of graft-versus-host responses. Asked if his department was keen to develop the clinical application of transplantation, he replied that Ian Aird’s enthusiasm was for research. Jim’s participation in clinical work was at St Mary’s Hospital, where he joined Charles Rob in a renal transplant in 1956, generally regarded as the first in the UK. Jim’s typically outspoken comments on the procedure were that it was a disaster, performed inappropriately on a patient with acute renal failure. However, it had the virtue of starting an interest in transplantation at St Mary’s Hospital, which remains a leader in the field. Later in the early 1960s, he cooperated with Shackman in the earliest transplants conducted in his department. It has been commented that Jim’s early retirement from his professional field was regrettable. At that time he was a reader at the University of London. It would appear that, like many another in the academic field, he was discouraged by what he felt to be his prospects of advancement. He retired to his home in Twickenham. His marriage had been a romantic affair. Cherry Clark was a ballet dancer with several distinguished companies, and Jim had seen her dance in London. Cherry suffered an injury and, whilst recovering took a job as a radiotherapy nurse at the Hammersmith. They met there and subsequently enjoyed a very happy marriage. In retirement Jim lost none of his enthusiasm, which he now devoted to painting and gardening, specialising in the propagation of fuchsias. A continuing interest was the defence of John Hunter and the promotion of a little-known Scot, Patrick Matthew, as one of the rightful pioneers of evolutionary theory. In 1988 the family moved to Lockerley near Romsey in Hampshire. Cherry sadly died in 2005. Afterwards Jim was cared for by his daughter Soula, who lived nearby. He leaves two sons and a daughter, all them well-versed, from meal-time conversation, in the achievements of Hunter and Matthew. He died on 27 July 2008.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000592
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Abbey, Paul (1920 - 2008)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2009-02-20
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/372776372776
Occupation ENT surgeon
Details Paul Abbey was a consultant ENT surgeon in the Windsor area. He was born on 6 January 1920 in Stoke Newington, London, the son of M Abbey, who had arrived in the UK in 1911 from Lodz in Poland. He was the youngest of four children – there were two older brothers and one older sister. The family lived in a two-bedroom flat until Paul was about 4½ years old, when they moved to Bethnal Green into rooms above a small factory in a converted pub. He attended primary school in Teesdale Street, where he was bullied, and in the evenings he went to Hebrew classes at the same school. At the age of 11, Paul started at the Central School, where his form teacher, Mr Jones, decided that he should try for a scholarship to Parmiter’s, the local grammar school, which was a successful move. Paul’s barmitzvah took place at Teesdale Street Synagogue when he was 13. He was an active member of the Jewish Boys Club and the Cambridge and Bethnal Green Club, taking part in swimming and gymnastics, as well as summer camps near Herne Bay. In the senior years at school Paul became a prefect, and became the school’s most successful sportsman, excelling at gymnastics, swimming and football. When Paul was 15, he bought himself a racing bicycle from James Goose in Holborn, which he paid off at 2/6 per week. He and his brother Manny would take off on camping holidays by bike, once as far as the Isle of Wight. In 1939, he passed his Senior County exams and was accepted as a student at Westminster Hospital. When war was declared, the Westminster was evacuated to Glasgow, but a friend told him about a vacancy at the London Hospital which was evacuating its medical college to Cambridge. He applied and started in October 1939. Paul qualified in 1944 and then became receiving room officer, house surgeon to A M A Moore and the gynaecological firm, and then house physician to A E Clarke-Kennedy. He joined the RAF medical service in February 1945 and was posted to India, where he spent two enjoyable years, rising to squadron leader. He made friends with the RAF transport pilots. He would wander out to the airfield and see whether a DC-3 was due to take off. “Hi doc”, the pilots would yell from the cockpit. “Just off to Jaipur. Want to come along for the ride? Hop on, old chap, we’ll list you as additional freight.” He eventually learnt to fly himself in Tiger Moth planes and kept his linen flying helmet and goggles as souvenirs. On demobilisation, he returned to the London Hospital for three years, at first as a supernumerary registrar to Clive Butler in the septic ward, where penicillin was effecting a radical change in the management of osteomyelitis. He then moved to the King George Hospital in Ilford, initially as a house surgeon for six months, followed by three years as a surgical registrar, during which time he passed the FRCS. In December 1954, Paul decided to specialise in ENT. He started work at the Royal National Throat, Nose and Ear Hospital, where he became a senior registrar and then moved to a similar post at St Mary’s Hospital in Paddington. In May 1961, Paul obtained his first ENT consultant appointment at Southampton General Hospital. Two years later he applied successfully for a more advantageous ENT consultant post with the Windsor group of hospitals, where he spent the rest of his career. When he arrived in the area, Wexham Park Hospital was being built, and Paul had a large hand in the design of the ENT department. A firm believer in the original values and mission of the NHS, he disapproved of the many bureaucratic reorganisations that began in the 1970s. He published numerous articles, delivered lectures and belonged to many committees and councils, including the ENT section of the Royal Society of Medicine and the British Association of Otolaryngologists. He was particularly proud of designing a new surgical instrument which bears his name. In 1985 he retired from the NHS, but continued in private practice for several more years and became a surgical member of the Medical Appeals Tribunal for Industrial Injuries. Outside medicine, Paul’s great love was sailing. In the days before mobile phones, it was the ultimate escape from the stress of hospital life – out on the water he was completely unreachable. For many years he had an Enterprise dinghy and would tow this boat down to Cornwall every year for family holidays. Later, he teamed up with two friends to purchase the *St Brigid*, a 32-foot sailing cruiser which they moored down at Lymington on the south coast. Paul spent a lot of his spare time on *St Brigid*, including two weeks sailing in the English Channel every summer. He studied for his yachtmaster’s qualification, joined the Royal Lymington Yacht Club and even bought a house in Lymington. The whole family was involved in Paul’s sailing. Paul married Joan née Singer in March 1952. Jocelyn was born in April 1956 and Bryony came along four years later, in May 1960. Joan took navigation courses and their two children were co-opted as deck hands during school holidays. Paul was a great wine enthusiast, and he and Joan travelled extensively around Europe, and visited Australia, the USA and South Africa. Above all, Paul loved being with other people – he liked having an audience, he was great company and always entertaining. This world will be a duller place without him.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000593
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-01-25 2012-03-08
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000100-E000199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372378372378
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born at Pentonville in January, 1802, the son of John Wormald, who came of a Yorkshire family, a partner in Child's Bank, and Fanny, his wife. He was educated at the Grammar School of Batley in Yorkshire, and afterwards by the Rev. W. Heald, Vicar of Bristol in the came county. He was apprenticed to John Abernethy in 1818, lived in his house and became a friend. Abernethy used him as a prosector, caused him to teach the junior students, and made him assist Edward Stanley (q.v.) in his duties as Curator of the Hospital Museum. During his apprenticeship he visited the schools in Paris and saw something of the surgical practice of Dupuytren, Roux, Larrey, Cloquet, Cruveilhier, and Velpeau. When Abernethy resigned his lectureship Edward Stanley was appointed in his place, and it was arranged that Wormald should become a Demonstrator. But when the time arrived Frederic Carpenter Skey (q.v.), an earlier apprentice of Abernethy, was chosen, and 'Tommy', as he was known to everyone, was disappointed. He therefore became House Surgeon to William Lawrence, who was of the opposite faction, in October, 1824. It was not until 1826 that Wormald became Demonstrator of Anatomy conjointly with Skey, and when Skey seceded from the medical school to join the Aldersgate School of Medicine, Wormald remained as sole Demonstrator, and held the post for fifteen years. He was elected Assistant Surgeon to St. Bartholomew's Hospital on Feb. 13th, 1838, on the death of Henry Earle, and spent the next twenty-three years teaching in the out-patient department without charge of beds. He became full Surgeon on April 3rd, 1861, on the resignation of Eusebius Arthur Lloyd (q.v.), and was obliged to resign under the age rule on April 9th, 1867, when he was elected Consulting Surgeon. He was Consulting Surgeon to the Foundling Hospital from 1843-1864, where his kindness to the children was so highly appreciated that he received the special thanks of the Court of Management and was complimented by being elected a Governor. At the Royal College of Surgeons he was a Member of Council from 1840-1867, Hunterian Orator in 1857, a Member of the Court of Examiners from 1858-1868, and Chairman of the Midwifery Board in 1864. He served as Vice-President in 1863 and 1864, and was elected President in 1865. He married Frances Meacock in September, 1828, and by her had eight children. He died of cerebral haemorrhage after a few hours' illness whilst on a visit to the sick-bed of his brother at Gomersal, in Yorkshire, on Dec. 28th, 1873, and was buried in Highgate Cemetery. A pencil sketch by Sir William Ross (1846) is in the Conservators' Room at the Royal College of Surgeons, and a photograph taken later in life hangs by its side. Wormald was the last pupil of John Abernethy, and his death snapped the link connecting St. Bartholomew's Hospital with Hunterian surgery; but it is as a teacher of clinical surgery and not as a surgeon that Wormald is remembered. The long years first as a Demonstrator of Anatomy and afterwards in the out-patient room made him a teacher of the highest class. He was so perfect an assistant that it was said in jest he ought never to have been promoted. He is reported to have been cool, cautious, and safe as an operator, and in diagnosis remarkably correct, particularly in diseases and injuries of joints. He had some mechanical skill, for he invented a soft metal ring which was passed over the scrotum for the relief of varicocele, known as 'Wormald's ring', and would forge his own instruments. He read but little and trusted almost entirely to observation and experience. He exercised a great influence over students and put a permanent and effective stop to smoking and drinking in the dissecting-room. His manner was brusque but not offensive, and was modelled upon that of his master, John Abernethy, whose gestures and eccentricities he often mimicked. He drew well, and illustrated his demonstrations and lectures with freehand sketches on the blackboard. His style of speaking was easy, clear, and forcible. There was no hurry or waste of words, and he had the art of arresting and keeping the attention of his class, partly by his quaintness and originality, partly by his frequent reference to surgical points in the anatomy he was discussing, and partly by his inexhaustible fund of humour and of anecdotes, many of which were not quite proper. In person he was of a ruddy countenance, with light-brown hair lying thin and lank over his broad forehead, his eyes twinkling and roguish; his coat and waistcoat were 'farmer-like', his trousers tight-fitting, with pockets in which he usually kept his hands deeply plunged; his boots were thick and laced. He looked, indeed, more a farmer than a surgeon. PUBLICATIONS:- *A Series of Anatomical Sketches and Diagrams with Descriptions and References *(with A. M. MCWHINNIE, q.v.), 4to, London, 1838; re-issued in 1843. These sketches from one of the best series of anatomical plates made for the use of students. They are true to nature and not overloaded with detail.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000191
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Orr, Wilbert McNeill (1930 - 2008)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2009-02-26
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/372781372781
Occupation General surgeon Transplant surgeon
Details Wilbert McNeill Orr, known as ‘Willie’, was a renal transplant researcher and surgeon, and later a general surgeon in Manchester. He was born on 3 April 1930 in Trim, County Meath, Ireland, the son of David Orr, a bank manager, and Wilamena McNeill, a teacher. He attended Sligo Grammar School and entered Trinity College, Dublin, for his medical studies. In addition to his scholastic work, he became an enthusiastic oarsman and was captain of the senior eight rowing team that came third in the head of the river race at Putney and made the final of the Ladies’ Plate at Henley. In the last year of his studies he was a demonstrator in physiology at Trinity College Dublin Medical School and took a house physician’s post at Steeven’s Hospital, Dublin, under the watchful eye of P B B Gatenby. Wilbert Orr then went to the England for a house surgeon post, working at the Birmingham Accident Centre, before undertaking his first senior house officer post at the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre in Oxford in 1956. Deciding on a surgical career, he studied for the primary FRCS at the College on the basic sciences course. He passed this examination, before becoming senior house officer to Sir Stanford Cade at the Westminster Hospital, London. Going further north to gain more experience, he undertook a senior house officer post at the Manchester Royal Infirmary (MRI) and showed his teaching skills shortly afterwards as tutor in surgery at the MRI. During two years’ of National Service in the RAMC, he was a junior specialist in surgery with the rank of captain, serving with the Cameroon Force in West Africa. Returning as tutor in clinical surgery at the Manchester Royal Infirmary, Willie spent a year in this post in 1962, before becoming assistant lecturer. An early joint publication with Kenneth Bloor was a case report on ‘haemorrhage from ileal varices due to portal hypertension’: this was the forerunner of many joint papers and lectures over the years. In 1964 he was research fellow at the Paterson Laboratories of the Christie Hospital and Holt Radium Institute, the first of many academic posts with a research interest in surgery. Senior registrar training was undertaken at a combined post at the Postgraduate Medical School, Hammersmith Hospital, London, with Ralph Shackman, before he returned to Manchester as a lecturer in surgery. Some research work on renal function with Geoffrey Chisholm, then in London, led to other publications, as did his later stay in Manchester with Athol G Riddell on such diverse subjects as ‘the management of arterial emboli’ and ‘chemotherapy in the treatment of cancer’. Riddell was later translated to the chair in Bristol. During this lectureship he worked in the research laboratories of the Harvard Medical School under Francis D Moore, Moseley professor of surgery and surgeon-in-chief at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston. Willie became involved in the dog liver transplantation work, or the ‘Sputnik’ programme, as did so many other research fellows. Some of this work was later submitted for the degree of master of surgery at the University of Manchester. He also worked with Joseph E Murray, who in 1990 received a Nobel prize for his pioneering renal transplantation work. Some joint publications and lectures followed on the survival of both liver and kidney transplants from this one year stay in the USA. Returning to Manchester as lecturer in surgery with honorary consultant status in 1967, he was promoted to senior lecturer and became director of the renal transplantation unit. He was a founder member of the British Transplantation Society and, from 1969 to 1985, an elected non-professorial member of Senate, sub-dean of clinical studies at the University of Manchester and for 10 years Royal College of Surgeons of England tutor at the Manchester Royal Infirmary. His last 16 years, from 1974 until retirement in 1990, were spent as a consultant in general surgery, where he was happy to display the diverse range of ‘specialties’ in which he had been trained. He remained a member of the Vascular Society, the Surgical Research Society and the British Society for Immunology. As a fellow of the Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland he served on its council. Wilbert McNeill Orr married Ann Fullerton, a physiotherapist, in 1955. They had five children: Jane became a nurse, Michael an orthopaedic surgeon and a fellow of the College, Anthony a general practitioner, Robert an actor and Susan a speech therapist. Willie Orr maintained a balanced lifestyle with outside interests in fly fishing, clock making and gardening. He died on 30 June 2008.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000598
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Cooke, Timothy Gordon (1947 - 2008)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Sir Barry Jackson
Publication Date 2009-03-13
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/372782372782
Occupation General surgeon
Details Tim Cooke, St Mungo professor of surgery at the University of Glasgow, was tragically killed at the age of 60 in a car accident when returning from a continental holiday with his wife and two of his six children. He was one of the UK’s leading academic surgeons, contributing extensively to research in surgical oncology with a special interest in breast disease. He was born in Birkenhead, on the Wirral. His father, Gordon George Cooke, was a sales consultant and his mother, Jeane Catherine Bremner née Mathieson, a ward clerk. He received his schooling at the Birkenhead Institute, before spending a year in Ghana working with Voluntary Services Overseas. He then proceeded to Liverpool University Medical School, qualifying in 1973. After house jobs, he entered surgical training at Royal Liverpool Hospital, including a two-year research appointment in the professorial surgical unit under the direction of Robert (later Sir Robert) Shields. His research centred on aspects of the biology of breast cancer and led to a successful MD thesis, a Hunterian professorship in 1980 and a lifelong interest in malignant breast disease. In 1980 Tim Cooke moved to Southampton as a lecturer in surgery, where he undertook research into colorectal cancer and in 1983 was appointed senior lecturer at the Charing Cross and Westminster Medical School, where he remained for three years. In 1986 he moved back to the academic department of surgery in Liverpool with honorary consultant status at the Royal Liverpool Hospital. In 1989 he was appointed to the St Mungo chair of surgery at the University of Glasgow. Over the next 20 years he contributed enormously to the research literature on breast cancer. He published almost 200 peer-reviewed papers, supervised some 25 postgraduates to obtain higher degrees, was a member of several editorial boards, edited two books, contributed chapters to several more and examined for 13 universities in the UK and abroad. He gave many invited lectures and brought substantial funding to his department. In 1996 he was elected to the prestigious James IV Association of Surgeons, a body whose active membership comprises only 100 practising surgeons worldwide. In addition to his academic endeavours he played a major part in improving NHS breast services in the Glasgow region and was also heavily involved in the wider NHS reorganisation which became necessary in greater Glasgow. He was a keen and enthusiastic teacher and universally popular with students. Outside of work, Tim led a full and varied life. He was widely read and, having attended the same school as the First World War poet Wilfred Owen, was especially knowledgeable about war poetry. He was a keen sportsman, enjoying sailing, skiing and riding. He played tennis and squash, ran marathons and rode mountain bikes. He was a longstanding supporter of Liverpool Football Club, a saxophonist, a bon vivant and a superb storyteller. Married to Lynn (née Russell), a consultant ENT surgeon, he had six children – Emma, Sophie, Ben, James, Esme and Cameron. He died returning from a sailing holiday on 20 July 2008.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000599
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Shanmugalingam, Thamotharampillai Nadarajah (1928 - 2007)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Sarah Gillam
Publication Date 2009-03-27 2014-06-19
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/372788372788
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon
Details Thamotharampillai Nadarajah Shanmugalingam was a consultant orthopaedic surgeon in Sri Lanka. He was born on 26 September 1928, in Point Pedro, Ceylon, the son of Thamotharampillai Nadarajah, a land owner and merchant, and Vettrivetpillai Muthuratnam, a housewife. He was educated at Hartley College, Point Pedro, and then Pembroke Academy, Colombo. He went on to study medicine at the University of Ceylon, qualifying in 1951 with a distinction in surgery. After junior posts he studied for the primary FRCS, winning the Hallett prize in the examination held in Ceylon in 1956. He then went to England to study surgery, passed the fellowship of the Edinburgh and English colleges in 1960, and then specialised in orthopaedics, passing the Liverpool masters degree in 1962. He then returned to Ceylon, becoming, in 1962, a consultant orthopaedic surgeon attached to the department of health services of the government of Ceylon. He also taught undergraduate and postgraduate medical students, and was an examiner for undergraduate examinations. He was initially based in the General Hospital, Galle, where he organised a new orthopaedic unit. From 1963 to 1965 he was an orthopaedic surgeon at the General Hospital, Badulla, where he again started an orthopaedic unit. From 1966 until his retirement in 1988 he was one of three orthopaedic surgeons at the General Hospital, Colombo. During his tenure there he dealt with many difficult, often neglected, orthopaedic problems, including TB of the spine, missed congenital dislocation of the hips, diseases of the shoulder and other major joints. He also treated all types of trauma, including closed and open fractures. He was an overseas fellow of the British Orthopaedic Association, and a member of the College of Surgeons of Sri Lanka and the Sri Lanka Medical Association. He married Padmajothy (Pala) in 1952 and they had two sons, Shrikharan, a consultant surgeon practising in Sri Lanka, and Easwaran, and a daughter, Sumathi. Thamotharampillai Nadarajah Shanmugalingam died on 7 December 2007, aged 79.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000605
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Hardcastle, Brian (1925 - 2008)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2009-03-27
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/372789372789
Occupation ENT surgeon
Details Brian Hardcastle was an ENT surgeon in private practice in Gainesville, Florida. He was born in Huddersfield, Yorkshire, on 14 March 1925, the only son of Francis Beaumont Hardcastle, a pharmacist, and his wife, Florence May née Boothroyd, a builder’s daughter. He was educated at Paddock Elementary School and Royds Hall Grammar School and in 1944 joined the Royal Navy. There he rose to become a petty officer radar mechanic. On demobilisation in 1947 he entered Leeds School of Medicine. After house surgeon and house physician appointments at the County Hospital York, he specialized in otorhinolaryngology, becoming a registrar at York and passing the FRCS in 1962. He then went to the Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford, as a registrar and first assistant to McBeth and Gavin Livingstone and carried out research into cochlear pathology following stapes stimulation, which was published in 1968. He emigrated to the United States, where he set up in private practice in Florida. He married Heather Sheila Holt, a doctor, in 1954. They had one son and one daughter. His hobbies included boating, fishing and golf. He died on 6 January 2008.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000606
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Kmiot, Witold Andrzej Wladyslaw (1959 - 2006)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Sir Barry Jackson
Publication Date 2007-11-22 2018-05-10
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000400-E000499
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372611372611
Occupation Colorectal surgeon
Details Wit Kmiot was a consultant in general and colorectal surgery at St Thomas' Hospital, London. He was born in London on 15 August 1959, to Polish parents. He was an undergraduate at King's College, London, and Westminster Medical School, qualifying in 1983. House officer appointments in Poole and King's Lynn were followed by an accident and emergency post at Charing Cross Hospital. He then moved to the Midlands and spent his registrar and senior registrar years in different hospitals in Birmingham. During this time he developed an interest in colorectal surgery and was awarded a travelling fellowship to the Cleveland Clinic in Florida, where he gained special coloproctological experience. He spent time as a research fellow in the academic department of surgery in Birmingham, where he studied the aetiology of acute reservoir ileitis after restorative proctocolectomy. In 1991 the resulting thesis was accepted for the degree of master of surgery, and in the same year he was awarded a Hunterian Professorship by the college for this work. In 1994 he returned to London as senior lecturer and honorary consultant in colorectal surgery at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School, Hammersmith, working with Robin Williamson. He remained in this post for two years, before moving to an NHS consultant appointment at the Central Middlesex Hospital. A year later, in 1998, he was appointed consultant in general and colorectal surgery to St Thomas' Hospital, where he worked until his untimely death at the age of 47. By the time of his death he had already established himself at the forefront of academic coloproctology, with a stream of published papers in peer reviewed journals, chapters in textbooks and oral presentations at meetings at home and overseas. His early research interests were in molecular biology and clinical immunology, but he later became particularly involved with anorectal physiology and 3-D endoanal ultrasound. He supervised the research of several trainees, all of whom gained a higher degree. He was a co-editor of the *International Journal of Colorectal Disease*. Married to a nurse, he had two sons to whom he was devoted. He was a gourmet and every year entertained his firm at St Thomas' to Christmas lunch at an exclusive private dining establishment. As an undergraduate he had been a first class rugby player, playing in the Wasps first 15 and representing Middlesex as well as the United Hospitals. Perhaps, therefore, it is no surprise that he was a large man physically. He also had a big personality and could at times be somewhat outspoken, a trait which did not always endear him. Very sadly, he was found to have a malignant brain tumour after being involved in a minor road traffic accident caused by impaired vision which he had not recognised. Despite surgery and chemotherapy he died within a few months of diagnosis on 17 November 2006.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000427
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Renton, Charles James Crawford (1930 - 2007)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2007-11-22
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URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372612372612
Occupation General surgeon
Details Charles Renton was a consultant general surgeon in Hereford, specialising in vascular and breast surgery. He was born on 22 September 1930 in Glasgow, where his father and grandfather had been surgeons. He father was James Mill Renton, who worked at the Western Infirmary. His mother died three days after he was born and he was brought up by his grandmother, aunt and a governess, who became his stepmother. Charles was educated at Glenalmond College and Glasgow University. After house physician and house surgeon posts at the Western Infirmary and the Royal Hospital for Sick Children, Glasgow, Charles completed his National Service, as RMO to the 4/7th Dragoon Guards in Germany, being briefly recalled for the Suez crisis. Following his National Service, he held posts at the Southern General Hospital in Glasgow. He was a surgical registrar in Glasgow and Dumfries, and then senior surgical registrar at the Southern General Hospital, Nottingham General Hospital and at the Royal Hospital, Sheffield, where he was also a clinical tutor in surgery at Sheffield University. In 1969 he was appointed as a consultant surgeon in Hereford, with a special interest in vascular and breast surgery. Following his retirement, the oncology unit at Hereford County Hospital was named after him. He was president of the Herefordshire Medical Society and the local branch of the BMA. Always active, he played golf, fished and sailed, and in his retirement wrote and researched two books, *The story of Herefordshire’s hospitals* (Almeley, Logaston, 1999) and *The story of Hampton Park Church* (Wooton Almeley, Logaston Press, 2004). He married Margaret, also a Glasgow graduate, specialising in obstetrics and gynaecology, in 1959 and they had four daughters. He died on 9 February 2007 from complications following an atypical pneumonia.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000428
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Robson, Sir James Gordon (1921 - 2007)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2007-11-22
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000400-E000499
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372613372613
Occupation Anaesthetist
Details Gordon Robson was a former director and professor of anaesthetics at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School and Hammersmith Hospital, and the first anaesthetist to be elected vice-president of the college. He was born in Stirling on 18 March 1921, the son of James Cyril Robson and Freda Elizabeth Howard. He was educated at the high school in Stirling, and then Glasgow University. After a six-month house job in obstetrics he joined the RAMC and served in East Africa, where he began his career in anaesthetics. Following demobilisation in 1948, he returned to Glasgow as senior registrar in anaesthetics. Four years later, he went to Newcastle, as first assistant in the department of anaesthetics, under Edgar Pask, where he wrote his first scientific papers. In 1954 he was appointed as a consultant anaesthetist at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, and in 1956 went to McGill University, Montreal, as the Wellcome research professor of anaesthetics. There he carried out research on halothane and the neurophysiology of anaesthetic drugs. In 1964 he was appointed professor of anaesthetics at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School, Hammersmith in 1964, remaining there until he retired in 1986. During this time his department attracted anaesthetists from all over the world, both as trainees and visitors. He was active in the college, as a member of the board of the Faculty of Anaesthetists, serving as dean from 1973 to 1976. He was elected vice-president of the college in 1977, the first anaesthetist to be appointed to that office. He was chairman of the committee of management of the Institute of Basic Sciences and later master of the Hunterian Institute. When the Conference of Medical Royal Colleges and their Faculties was established he became honorary secretary, serving from 1976 to 1982. During this period he published two reports, establishing the criteria for the diagnosis of brain death, which eliminated the requirement for electro-encephalography or neuroradiological investigations. These proved to be of great value to critical care and organ transplantation units. For a decade, from 1984 to 1994, he was chairman of the Advisory Committee on Distinction Awards. He held many other appointments, including that of consultant adviser in anaesthetics to the DHSS and honorary consultant to the Army. Among his many honours were the Joseph Clover medal and prize of the Faculty of Anaesthetists and the John Snow medal of the Association of Anaesthetists. He was president of the Royal Society of Medicine from 1986 to 1988. Gordon Robson married twice. His first wife was Martha Graham Kennedy, by whom he had one son. She died in 1975. He married Jenny Kilpatrick in 1984. He died on 23 February 2007.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000429
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Halton, John Prince (1797 - 1873)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-02-01 2012-03-28
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000100-E000199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372382372382
Occupation General surgeon
Details The eldest son of the Rev John Halton, MA, St Peter's, Chester; educated at the University of Edinburgh and at Guy's Hospital under Sir Astley Cooper. After Continental travel he settled in Liverpool, and in 1820 was elected Surgeon to the Royal Infirmary, an appointment he held until 1856, when he became Consulting Surgeon. In 1844 he published a pamphlet attacking the heavy mortality following operations at the Liverpool Northern Hospital, as compared with that at the Royal Infirmary during the previous twenty-two years. The reply by the Surgeons of the Northern Hospital as to the salubrity and ventilation of the building breathes a considerable spirit of deference to Halton. He caused a rule to be passed excluding the Surgeons at the Royal Infirmary from the practice of pharmacy, for a surgeon, he said, should restrict himself to cases in surgery. Further, he advocated education at universities and large centres of population. Thus, as a successor of Park and of Hanson, Halton did much to advance the reputation of surgery in Liverpool. He retired from practice in 1885 and died at Woodclose, Grasmere, Westmorland, on Jan 27th, 1873. He married in early life; his wife, a daughter of John Foster, of Liverpool, died in 1871.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000195
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Fergusson, Sir William (1808 - 1877)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-02-01 2012-03-22
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Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000100-E000199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372383372383
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born at Prestonpans on March 20th, 1808, the son of James Fergusson. He was educated at Lochmaben, Dumfriesshire, at the High School, and at the University of Edinburgh. He was placed by his own desire in a lawyer's office at the age of 15, but finding the work uncongenial he changed law for medicine when he was 17. He became a pupil of Robert Knox, the anatomist, then at the height of his reputation, who appointed him demonstrator in 1828, when the class consisted of 504 students and the lectures had to be repeated thrice daily. Fergusson quickly became a skilled anatomist, and it is said that he often spent sixteen hours a day in the dissecting-room, and he soon began to lecture in association with Knox. He was elected Surgeon to the Edinburgh Royal Dispensary in 1831, and in that year tied the third part of the right subclavian artery for an axillary aneurysm, an operation which had been published only twice previously in Scotland. He described the appearances seen at the post-mortem examination in the *London and Edinburgh Journal of Medical Science* (1841, i, 617). In 1855 he employed the dangerous method of direct compression of a subclavian aneurysm (*Lancet*, 1855, ii, 197). He married Helen Hamilton Ranken on Oct. 10th, 1833. She was the daughter and heiress of William Ranken, of Spittlehaugh, Peebleshire, and the marriage at once placed Fergusson in easy circumstances. He continued zealous in his profession, and in 1836, when he was elected Surgeon to the Royal Infirmary and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, he shared with James Syme (q.v.) the best surgical practice in Scotland. In 1840 Fergusson accepted the Professorship of Surgery at King's College, London, with the Surgeoncy to King's College Hospital, which was then situated in the slums of Clare Market. He settled at Dover Street, Piccadilly, whence he removed in 1847 to George Street, Hanover Square. His fame brought crowds of students to King's College Hospital to witness his operations. He became Member of the College of Surgeons in 1840, Fellow in 1844, was a Member of Council from 1861-1877, and of the Court of Examiners from 1867-1870, Vice-President in 1869, President in 1870, and Hunterian Orator in 1871. As Arris and Gale Lecturer he delivered two courses on "The Progress of Anatomy and Surgery during the Present Century", in 1864 and 1865. In these lectures Fergusson mentioned three hundred successful operations for hare-lip performed by himself. In 1849 he was appointed Surgeon in Ordinary to Prince Albert, and in 1855 Surgeon Extraordinary to H. M. the Queen. He was made a baronet in 1866, and Serjeant-Surgeon in 1867. The occasion of his receiving a baronetcy was seized upon to make a presentation of a dessert service of silver plate which was subscribed for by three hundred of his old pupils. He was elected F.R.S. in 1848, President of the Pathological Society in 1859-1860, and of the British Medical Association in 1873, and Hon. LL.D of Edinburgh in 1875. He resigned the office of Professor of Surgery at King's College in 1870, but retained the post of Clinical Professor of Surgery and Surgeon to the hospital until his death. He invented the term 'conservative surgery', by which he meant the excision of a joint rather than the amputation of a limb. He introduced great improvements in the treatment of hare-lip and cleft palate, and his style of operating attracted general attention and admiration. As an operator, indeed, he is justly placed at the pinnacle of fame. Lizars said he had seen no one, not even Liston himself, surpass Fergusson in a trying and critical operation, and his biographer, Mr. Bettany, says in the *Dictionary of National Biography*: "His manipulative and mechanical skill was shown both in his mode of operating and in the new instruments which he devised. The bulldog forceps, the mouth-gag, and various bent knives for cleft palate, attest his ingenuity. A still higher mark of his ability consisted in his perfect planning of every detail of an operation beforehand; no emergency was unprovided for. Thus, when an operation had begun, he proceeded with remarkable speed and silence till the end, himself applying every bandage and plaster, and leaving, as far as possible, no traces of his operation. So silently were most of his operations conducted, that he was often imagined to be on bad terms with his assistants." Fergusson was celebrated as a lithotomist and lithoritist, and it was said that to *wink* during one of his cutting operations for stone might involve one's seeing no operation at all, so rapidly was the work performed by that master hand. On one occasion when performing a lithotomy the blade of the knife broke away from the handle. He at once seized the blade in his long deft fingers, finished the operation, and quietly told the class: "Gentlemen, you should be prepared for any emergency." He died in London of Bright's disease on Feb. 10th, 1877, and was buried at West Linton, Peebleshire, beside his wife, who died in 1860. He was succeeded in the title by his sons, James Ranken; a younger son, Charles Hamilton, entered the Army, and there were three daughters. Fergusson's personality was marked. Tall and of fine presence, with very large and powerful hands, he was genial and hospitable. He was beloved by hosts of students whom he had started in life, and of patients whom he had aided gratuitously. Those who could afford to pay sometimes gave him very large sums for an operation. Like John Hunter, he was a good carpenter, and had besides a number of social pursuits and accomplishments. He was a staunch friend, forgiving to those, such as Syme, who opposed him, and his best monument is the life and work of the many pupils whom he influenced and stimulated as few have ever done. He made many contributions to surgical literature, and wrote a *System of Practical Surgery*, of which a fifth edition appeared in 1870. An expressive and nearly full length oil painting of Fergusson by Rudolf Lehmann hangs in the Secretary's office at the College, and there are numbers of portraits in the College Collection. The portrait was painted in 1874, and a replica hangs in the Edinburgh College of Physicians. He was extremely social and given to kind and friendly hospitality in private life. He sometimes invited a small circle of friends to dine at a well-known city hostelry, The Albion Tavern. On one of these occasions he invited the then Editor of *Punch*, who responded in these terms: "Look out for me at seven, look after me at eleven. - Yours, Mark Lemon." PUBLICATIONS:- *A System of Practical Surgery*, of which the first edition in 18mo was published in London, 1842; 2nd ed., in 12mo, 1846; 3rd., 1852; 4th ed., 1857; 5th ed., 1870. The work deals with the art rather than the science of surgery, and was a good text-book for medical students. Paper on lithotrity in the *Edin. Med. and Surg. Jour.*, 1835, xliv, 80. Paper on cleft palate in the *Med.-Chir. Trans.,* 1845, xxviii, 273. The Hunterian Oration, 8vo, 1871, is chiefly remarkable for the generous eulogium of James Syme, his former colleague, with whom relations had been somewhat strained.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000196
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Busk, George (1807 - 1886)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-02-01 2012-03-22
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Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000100-E000199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372384372384
Occupation Biologist Naval surgeon
Details Born at St. Petersburgh on August 12th, 1807, the second son of Robert Busk (1768-1835), merchant, and a member of the English colony there, by his wife Jane, daughter of John Westly, Custom House clerk at St. Petersburgh. His grandfather, Sir Wadsworth Busk, was Attorney-General of the Isle of Man. Hans Buck (1772-1862), scholar-poet, was his uncle; Hans Busk the Younger (1816-1862), a principal founder of the Volunteer movement in England, was his cousin. George Busk was educated at Dr. Hartley's School, Bingley, Yorkshire, and seved a six years' apprenticeship to George Beaman, being articled at the Royal College of Surgeons. He was a student at St. Thomas's Hospital, and for one session at St. Bartholomew's. In 1832 he was appointed Assistant Surgeon to the *Grampus*, the Seamen's Hospital Ship at Greenwich, and afterwards to the *Dreadnought* which replaced it. He served in this capacity for twenty-five years. During his service he worked out the pathology of cholera and made important observations on scurvy. In 1843 he was one of the first batch of Fellows of the College; from 1856-1859 he was Hunterian Professor of Comparative Anatomy and Physiology; from 1863-1880 a Member of the Council; a Member of the Court of Examiners from 1868-1872; Chairman of the Midwifery Board in 1870; Vice-President for the year 1872-1873, and again in 1879-1880; President in 1871; and Trustee of the Hunterian Collection from 1870-1876. He was a Member of the Senate of the University of London, and was for a long period an Examiner for the Naval, Indian, and Army Medical Services. He was also a Governor of the Charterhouse, Treasurer of the Royal Institution, and the first Home Office Inspector under the Cruelty to Animals (Vivisection) Act. The last office he held until 1885, performing the difficult and delicate duties with such tact and impartiality as gained him the esteem both of physiologists and of the Home Office. When he resigned his post of Surgeon to the *Dreadnought* in 1855, Busk retired from the active practice of his profession and turned to the more congenial subject of biology. In this department he did excellent work, more especially in connection with the Bryozoa (Polyzoa), of which group he was the first to formulate a scientific arrangement which appeared in 1856 in his article in the *English Cyclopaedia*. His collection is now in the Natural History Museum at South Kensington. The name *Buskia* was given in his honour to a genus of Bryozoa by Alder in 1856, and again by Tenison-Woods in 1877. The Royal Society elected him a Fellow in 1850, and he was four times nominated a Vice-President, besides often serving on the Council. He received the Royal Medal in 1871. He was elected a Fellow of the Linnean Society in December, 1846, acted as its Zoological Secretary from 1857-1868, served frequently on the Council, and was Vice-President several times between 1869 and 1882. He joined the Geological Society in 1859, served twice on the Council, was the recipient of the Lyell Medal in 1878, and of the Wollaston medal in 1885. He became a Fellow of the Zoological Society in 1856, assisted in the formation of the Microscopical Society in 1839, and was its President in 1848 and 1849. He was one of the Editors of the *Quarterly Journal of Microcopical Science*. In 1863 he attended the conference to discuss the question of the age and authenticity of the human jaw found at Moulin Quignon. His attention being thus drawn to palaeolontogical problems, he visited the Gibraltar Caves in company with Dr. Falconer, and henceforth devoted much time to the study of cave fauna and later to ethnology. He was President of the Ethnological Society before it was merged in the Anthropological Institute, of which he was President in 1873 and 1874. One result of his visit to Gibraltar was his gift of the Gibraltar Skull to the Museum of the College. He died at his house, 32 Harley Street, London, on August 10th, 1886. He married on August 12th, 1843, his cousin Ellen, youngest daughter of Jacob Hans Busk, of Theobalds, Hertfordshire, and by her had two daughters. Busk was full of knowledge, an unwearying collector of facts, a devoted labourer in the paths of science, and cautious in the conclusions he drew from his observations. He wrote but little in surgery, though his surgical work at the Dreadnought was altogether admirable and he was an excellent operator. He was a man of unaffected simplicity and gentleness of character, without a trace of vanity, a devoted friend, and an upright, honest gentleman. A good portrait painted by his daughter, Miss E. M. Busk, hangs in the Meeting-room of the Linnean Society at Burlington House. It was presented by the subscribers in 1885. There is a fine engraved portrait by Maguire and a large photograph of him as an old man. Both are in the College collection. PUBLICATIONS:- *A Catalogue of Marine Polyzoa in the British Museum*, 3 parts, London, 1852-75. Report on the Polyzoa collected by H. M. S. Challenger, 4to, 2 vols., London, 1884-6. An article on "Venomous Insects and Reptiles" in Holmes's *System of Surgery*, 1860. He was a joint translator with T. H. Huxley of Von Kölliker's *Manual of Human Histology* for the Sydenham Society, 2 vols., London, 1853-4, and he translated and edited Wedl's Rudiments of Pathological Histology also for the Sydenham Society in 1855. Buck was editor of the *Microscopical Journal* for 1842, and of the *Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science* from 1853-1868; of the *Natural History Review* from 1861-1865; and of the *Journal of the Ethnological Society* for 1869-70. Notable amongst his papers in the *Philosophical Transactions* are: (1) "Extinct Elephants in Malta", and (2) "Teeth of Ungulates".
Resource Identifier RCS: E000197
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Hancock, Henry (1809 - 1880)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

First Title value, for Searching Archer, John (1809 - 1886)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2009-10-02 2013-08-06
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/372880372880
Occupation General surgeon
Details Educated at St Bartholomew's Hospital and practised at Birmingham, where he was Surgeon to the Lying-in Hospital. He took an active interest in the local Medical Societies and in the Medical Institute from the time of its formation. He was a familiar figure at Fellowship elections at the Royal College of Surgeons. He died at his residence, 9 Carpenter Road, Edgbaston, on March 8th, 1886.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000697
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Archer, William (1809 - 1891)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2009-10-02
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/372881372881
Occupation General surgeon
Details For a time he practised at 1 Montagu Street, Portman Square, London, where he was Surgeon in Ordinary to the Ottoman Embassy Resident in London. Practised later at 7 Boyne Terrace, Notting Hill, London, where he died on Feb 25th, 1891.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000698
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Jayne, William Howard Wise (1916 - 2006)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

First Title value, for Searching Burroughs, John Beames (1806 - 1878)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

First Title value, for Searching Burt, George (1789 - 1874)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

First Title value, for Searching Burton, John Moulden (1817 - 1886)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

First Title value, for Searching Burton, Samuel Herbert (1854 - 1929)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

First Title value, for Searching Bury, George ( - 1886)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

First Title value, for Searching Bury, George William Fleetwood (1836 - 1918)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z

First Title value, for Searching Bury, John (1790 - 1859)

2025-08-05T08:02:38Z