Search Results for

First Title value, for Searching Dalliwall, Kenneth Hayat Singh (1913 - 2010)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

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

First Title value, for Searching Graham, Norman Garrick (1932 - 2010)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

by N Alan Green
Publication Date 2011-07-07 2011-07-20
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001200-E001299
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373439373439
Occupation General surgeon
Details Garrick Graham was a consultant general surgeon in Huddersfield from 1967 to 1993 and chairman of the Huddersfield NHS Trust for many years after 1992 and into his retirement. He was born in Palmerson North, New Zealand, on 15 December 1932. His father, Cecil Davies Graham, worked in life insurance and his mother, Martha Berneice Isabel née Glass, was a housewife. Through his father he was proud of his lineage through 'Graham' of the 'House of Montrose'. Garrick Graham was a proud member of the Huddersfield St Andrew's Society from 1968 and became 'chief' in 1977 and again in the 1980s. His education commenced at the Central Primary School, New Plymouth, New Zealand, where he was 'dux' in 1945. This was followed by secondary education at King's College, Auckland, where he gained the Swale's memorial biology and the Moorhouse science prizes in 1950. In addition to these scholastic achievements he represented the school XI at cricket in 1950. Garrick went to Otago University medical school from 1951 to 1956 and was greatly influenced by D'Ath in pathology, who gave superb clinico-pathological tutorials and W E Adams, an anatomist, who had a great gift for imparting his knowledge. After qualification he was a houseman in the Auckland hospitals from 1958 to 1959 and then a surgical registrar up to 1962, when he passed the FRACS. During his years in New Zealand he led a very active life in sport. He had played cricket for the university first XI and was in the Waikato provincial team in 1955. He also kept himself fit as a member of the Otago Rugby Union Referees Association. In 1964 he went to the UK as a lecturer with senior registrar status at Leeds General Infirmary, where he was fortunate to work with John C Goligher. He was taught the importance of good clinical work underpinning all other areas of practice. During this period of training, Garrick Graham had many joint publications on ulcerative colitis, including 'Early surgery in the management of severe ulcerative colitis' (*Brit.med.J.*, 1967 2 193) and 'Reliability of physical signs in patients with severe ulcerative colitis' (*Brit.med.J.*, 1971 2 746). He also published on many aspects of bowel surgery, acute pancreatitis, the biliary tract and vagotomy. In 1967 he was appointed as a consultant surgeon in Huddersfield. He was widely respected as a busy and approachable general surgeon, who was also an examiner in surgery for the BDS at the University of Leeds and in the final MB BCh. He assumed managerial roles for several years leading up to his retirement and wrote an article 'Self-governing hospital: a hospital manager's assessment' (*Brit J Hosp Med* 1989 42, 438). This was from his experience in the years 1986 to 1991 as the part-time unit general manager at Huddersfield Royal Infirmary. He became a membership councillor and was elected by the local population to help steer the Catherdale and Huddersfield Trust into the future. Passionate about health and health services, he assumed the role of chairman of Huddersfield NHS Trust from November 1992 and was involved for many years following his retirement. 'Huddersfield Royal Infirmary always occupied a special place in his heart: he was a great man and I miss him greatly,' wrote one colleague from the Trust. He married Joy Frances Bayly on his 24th birthday in Te Awamutu, New Zealand. They had three children: Michael Ian, born in New Zealand in 1958, became a research manager in the pharmaceutical industry and now works in finance; Kathryn Denise, also born in New Zealand, was a stewardess on cruise liners but more recently a primary school teacher; and Jacky Joy, who was born in the UK, is a former BBC journalist and now a vicar in the Anglican church. Relaxation in Garrick's consultant years came from playing golf to a high standard - he won the Moynihan cup (Leeds) in 1977. In his earlier years as a consultant he switched his allegiance to Association Football. From active participation as a referee in rugby union in New Zealand, in the UK he followed the 'round ball'. From 1970 to 1974 he was director of Huddersfield Town Football club. As early as 1990 Garrick developed a keen interest in wines and had an extensive cellar in his large Victorian house. For his last 10 to 15 years he had been particularly interested in wines from New Zealand. To accompany the wines, in retirement he also became very interested in cooking and became an accomplished chef. He and Joy hosted many fun dinner parties. Norman Garrick Graham died on 25 February 2010 and was survived by his wife of 54 years Joy, their three children and three grandchildren.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001256
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Hardy, Eric Gordon (1918 - 2010)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

by N Alan Green
Publication Date 2011-07-07 2013-12-06
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001200-E001299
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373440373440
Occupation General surgeon
Details Eric Hardy was a hardworking general surgeon who spent his consultant career in Chester and was awarded emeritus status when he retired in 1982. He was born on 21 July 1918 in Royton, Lancashire. His father was Frank Stanley Hardy, a typewriter mechanic, and his mother Jean née Leslie. Eric was the only son of a short-lived marriage and was brought up in the Scottish Glens by his mother, a talented if irascible teacher. Overcoming the circumstances of his upbringing, Eric excelled at Banff Academy, winning school prizes. As a classical scholar with little or no science training, he decided to study medicine. He qualified with honours in 1940 at Aberdeen University and at a later date completed his medical doctorate. After house appointments in Aberdeen he moved south, first to Chester and then to Norwich. He entered wartime National Service as a flight lieutenant in the RAFVR, one of his postings being in Norfolk. There he met and married Shirley née Cook, a staff nurse. Eric went to Norwich after the war as a registrar, and he gained considerable experience with Charles Noon, a surgeon of the 'old school', and Norman Townsley, who had just come back from Army service in Norway and India. Two of his three sons were born in Norwich. John, now an IT consultant, was born in 1949 and Peter, a local government officer in Norfolk, in 1951. The family lived in 'Pull's Ferry', a delightful house owned by the dean and chapter of Norwich Cathedral, that fronts the River Wensum. In 1953 the family emigrated to the USA when Eric obtained a post as a fellow and instructor in surgery at Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas. He worked in the famous cardiovascular unit with Michael DeBakey and Denton Cooley at the Jefferson Davis Hospital. Notwithstanding a stimulating professional environment and the prospect of rapid career advancement, in 1955 Eric and Shirley decided to take the children home to England. He was then appointed resident surgical officer at the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital and associated hospitals, working with his former 'chiefs' and in addition 'Monty' Ridley Thomas, a good general surgeon with a urological interest, and Alan Birt. Working for all four surgeons, including his former chiefs, Noon and Townsley, he obtained good paediatric training, some neurosurgical experience, vascular training, as well as exposure to the full range of general surgical procedures. Eric Hardy then proceeded to Newcastle, perhaps on the recommendation of Norman Townsley who held him in high regard and knew the professor there well. He became first assistant in the department of surgery at Durham University and to the surgical professorial unit in Newcastle. Under the guidance of the dynamic Andrew Lowden his surgical skills were further increased. He returned to his studies and passed the English fellowship in 1958, under the impression that this was essential at consultant interviews. He was appointed to the Chester Royal Infirmary as a consultant general surgeon the following year. Eric and the family moved there in July 1959 just after the birth of their third son, Michael, who is now a technical consultant in the oil industry. He published on 'Acute ischaemia in limb injuries' and did experimental work on 'The role of bacteria in irreversible haemorrhagic shock', and the use of trypsin on experimental thrombotic and inflammatory conditions. He was an avid correspondent to the broadsheets and was respected for his comments on medical and world matters. His MD thesis was accepted in 1954 but in 1987, after he had retired, he wrote a letter to the editor of the *Journal of the RSM* based on this thesis. An article on Meigs' and pseudo-Meigs' syndrome had been published suggesting the role of 'lymphatic stomata' in the diaphragm in the benign ovarian tumour producing both ascites and pleural effusion. Eric Hardy, based on his early work, felt that frequent shock waves produced by coughing, for example, could easily explain the diffusion of fluid in the abdomen to a sub-atmospheric pressure zone of the pleural cavity and through an attenuated diaphragm. There was no need to implicate lymphatic stomata. In Chester he gained a superb reputation as a fine diagnostician, an excellent teacher who 'did not suffer fools gladly', but who was extremely supportive to his staff and much appreciated for his support of medical colleagues. Many of his trainees still use and pass on some of Eric's techniques. He was a founder and president of the Liverpool and North West Society of Surgeons and was honoured by his peers when elected president of the Chester and North Wales Medical Society. He retired from his busy surgical life in 1982, and for the next ten years became a 'hobby' farmer in west Cheshire. After his wife, Shirley, died in 1994 he moved back to Norfolk and lived for some 15 years in Surlingham near Norwich. He was very active up to the last, and was shopping in Norwich a few days before his death following a fall. Eric Gordon Hardy died on 9 July 2010, and left three sons and five grandchildren.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001257
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Reynolds, Ian Stuart Russell (1943 - 2011)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

by John Black
Publication Date 2011-07-07
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001200-E001299
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373441373441
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon
Details Ian Reynolds, formerly a consultant orthopaedic surgeon in Hereford, was born into a medical dynasty. His grandfather, Russell Reynolds, himself a third generation doctor, was a pioneer radiologist in the early years of the 20th century and some of his equipment is on display in the Science Museum in London. Ian's father, Seymour Reynolds, was also a radiologist and became dean of the Charing Cross Medical School, where the main building is named after him. Ian went to school at Harrow, where his outgoing personality and sporting ability made him a popular figure. He gained colours in cricket, rugby and Harrow football, and played three times at Lords in the Eton/Harrow match. His medical training was at Caius College, Cambridge, and St Thomas' Hospital. He never achieved the sporting representative honours of which he was capable (he was a batsman of county standard) because of a disdain for training and practice, there being for Ian many more interesting things to do in life. He was a true Corinthian and never put winning before sportsmanship and enjoyment of the game. His surgical training was initially in London. He became a surgical registrar in Wolverhampton and did the West Midland senior registrar rotation in orthopaedics, working in Birmingham and Coventry. In 1980 he obtained a consultant post in Hereford, where the need to be able to cover a wide range of the specialty suited him perfectly: not for Ian the narrow sub-specialist approach. When he arrived in Hereford his new post increased the complement to three orthopaedic surgeons and he also had sessions at Oswestry. When he retired there were nine. His cheerful light-hearted manner concealed (lightly) a good brain and he was clinically very astute and well informed, with technical skills to match. He did not take to NHS management other than chairing the medical staff committee. The social milieu in Hereford, a small cathedral city, suited Ian and his wife Jill, a former St Thomas' nurse, perfectly. Ian was a generous host and loved entertaining, wine and food. Their household became a hub for a large collection of friends from all walks of life. The Reynolds' house in Hereford came with a two and a half-acre garden, including 'Scott's Hole', a sizeable crater of uncertain origin. Ian took this as a challenge and began to fill it with increasingly exotic and rare plants, as well as ponds and many other garden features. He knew every one of his plants, and there were hundreds, by their Latin names. His garden was included in the National Garden Scheme 'Yellow Book', the standard for opening to the public, an achievement of which he was very proud. Ian developed carcinoma of the prostate in 2004, and after initial treatment had a four-year remission. Unfortunately, the condition returned in 2009 and he died on 12 February 2011. He left a widow Jill, three children (Nick, Kim and Jonathan) and five grandchildren. His daughter Kim continues the medical tradition into a sixth generation.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001258
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Cooper, Sir Alfred (1838 - 1908)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2011-07-14
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001200-E001299
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373444373444
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born at Norwich on December 28th, 1838, the son of William Cooper, Recorder of Ipswich, by his wife Anna Marsh. He entered Merchant Taylors' School, then in Suffolk Lane, in April, 1850, and was afterwards apprenticed to W Peter Nichols, Surgeon to the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital. He entered as a student at St Bartholomew's Hospital in 1858; went to Paris in 1861 to improve his knowledge of anatomy in company with Sir Thomas Smith (qv), and on his return was appointed Prosector at the Royal College of Surgeons. He started practice in Jermyn Street and soon acquired a fashionable private connection. He was Surgeon to St Mark's Hospital for Fistula, to the West London Hospital from 1867-1884, to the Royal Hospital for Diseases of the Chest, and to the Lock Hospital in Soho. He visited St Petersburgh as medical attendant to King Edward VII, when Prince of Wales, on the occasion of the marriage of the Duke of Edinburgh in 1874. He was decorated by the Tzar, Chevalier of the Order of St Stanislaus of Russia. He was appointed Surgeon in Ordinary to the Duke of Edinburgh in 1893, and was knighted at King Edward VII's Coronation in 1902. At the Royal College of Surgeons of England he was a Member of the Council from 1895-1905 and served as Vice-President. He married in 1882 Lady Agnes Cecil Emmeline Duff, third daughter of the Duke of Fife, by whom he had three daughters and one son, Alfred Duff Cooper, DSO, MP, who afterwards distinguished himself in political circles. He died at Mentone on March 3rd, 1908, and was buried in the English cemetery. Cooper was gifted with great social qualities which were linked with fine traits of character and great breadth of view. He gained in the course of his life a wide knowledge of the world, partly at Courts, partly in Hospitals, and partly in the exercise of a branch of the profession which more than any other reveals the frailty of mankind, for he is now chiefly remembered as one who treated syphilis. The possession of a competence limited, but did not wholly destroy, his professional activity. Appointed early in life Surgeon to the Inns of Court Volunteers - 'The Devil's Own' -he cherished a deep interest in the reserve forces throughout his life. He was decorated with the volunteer medal for long service and became Surgeon Colonel to the Duke of York's Loyal Suffolk Hussars. Freemasonry appealed to him. He held high rank in the United Grand Lodge of England, and was instrumental in founding the Rahere Lodge No 2546, the first masonic body to be associated with St Bartholomew's Hospital in London. The portrait of him by Spy in *Vanity Fair*, 1897, is rather a likeness than a caricature. Publications: *Syphilis and Pseudo-syphilis*, 1884; 2nd ed., 1895. *A Practical Treatise on Disease of the Rectum*, 1887. The second edition (with F. SWINFORD EDWARDS) is entitled, *Diseases of the Rectum and Anus*, 1892.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001261
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Cooper, Clarence (1830 - 1924)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

First Title value, for Searching Cooper, George (1792 - 1877)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

First Title value, for Searching Cooper, George Lewis (1810 - 1875)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

First Title value, for Searching Cooper, Percy Robert ( - 1925)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

First Title value, for Searching Cooper, Thomas Henry (1813 - 1881)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

First Title value, for Searching Cooper, Thomas Sankey (1818 - 1898)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2011-07-21 2013-08-07
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001200-E001299
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373452373452
Occupation General surgeon
Details Practised in Canterbury, his birthplace. His practice was extensive, but he retired at the early age of 50 (1867), after being Surgeon, Vaccinator, and Officer of Health to the Canterbury Corporation, and Medical Officer and Vaccinator to three Districts of Bridge Union. He resided at 3 Bridge Street. He was Trustee of City Charities and Mayor of Canterbury in 1866 and 1875, and from 1874 to the time of his death was Chairman of the Commissioners of Income Tax. He was courteous but firm, of a generous disposition, and always ready to help in cases of genuine necessity. He died on March 13th, 1898, at Thanington House, Canterbury, and was buried in Thanington churchyard.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001269
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Coote, Holmes (1815 - 1872)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

First Title value, for Searching Copeman, Edward (1809 - 1880)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

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

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

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

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

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

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2011-08-19
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001200-E001299
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373474373474
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born in Glasgow on November 7th, 1835, the son of John Couper, Professor of Materia Medica in the University of Glasgow, and Charlotte, daughter of Charles Tennant, of the St Rollox Chemical Works. The family of Couper is of ancient lineage in Scotland, and the name is the northern variant of the English 'Cooper' or 'Cowper'. After the death of Professor Couper in 1855, John Couper, who had begun his education at Glasgow Academy and at the University, went to Paris to perfect himself in French. He then returned to Glasgow and graduated in 1858, having been one of Lister's pupils at Edinburgh, where he also studied anatomy and physiology under Allan Thomson. After graduation he came to London and continued his study of anatomy at University College under Professor Viner Ellis (qv). Later he studied operative surgery under Langenbeck at Berlin. On his return to London he was appointed Demonstrator of Anatomy at the London Hospital Medical College largely through the influence of Professors Sharpey and Ellis. Turning his attention to ophthalmology, he also became Assistant to George Critchett (qv) at the London Ophthalmic Hospital in Moorfields. His researches in ophthalmology enabled him in 1883 to produce a 'magazine ophthalmoscope' which facilitated the measurement not only of errors of refraction, but of degrees of astigmatism. At the London Hospital his career was one of unswerving and upward progress. He was successively Demonstrator of Anatomy, Professor of Physiology, Assistant Surgeon, and full Surgeon and Professor of Surgery. As Professor of Physiology at the London Hospital he lectured conjointly with Hughlings Jackson, who was wont to say of his colleague that "no man had more knowledge worth communicating". It is probable that some of this knowledge was shown in communicating to Hughlings Jackson the value of the ophthalmoscope in diagnosis. As Professor of Surgery Couper gave a special course of lectures on diseases of the eye. On retiring under the time limit he was appointed Consulting Surgeon, and went to live at Ellesborough in the Chiltern Hills, whence he afterwards removed with his family to Falmouth. His death occurred on April 30th, 1918, and he was buried at Falmouth. He was survived by a widow, three daughters, and one son, Colonel Duncan Campbell Couper, RE. He left £178,000. Couper was amongst the last of the general surgeons who practised ophthalmology. A pupil of Lister, he introduced the use of the spray and dressings at the London Hospital before Lister came to King's College Hospital. He was a good but slow operator and was a pioneer in operations on the kidney and liver; he did much to popularize the use of the ophthalmoscope, more especially in estimating errors of refraction by the direct method of examination. Shy and somewhat retiring in manner, he wrote no books, though he made many contributions to the medical periodicals. He practised for many years at 80 Grosvenor Street, Grosvenor Square, W, and at the time of his death was Consulting Surgeon to the London, the Royal London Ophthalmic, and the Scottish Hospitals. He married in 1868 Helen Macfarlan, daughter of Alexander Campbell, Surgeon to the 1st Life Guards, and his wife Helen, daughter of the Rev Duncan Macfarlan, DD, Principal of Glasgow University, and Minister of the Cathedral. There is an excellent bust of Couper by Miss Anna Dabis and a three-quarter length portrait in oils, both in the Medical College of the London Hospital, and his coat of arms - two laurel branches inclining towards each other -appears in one of the College windows. Publications:- "Wounds of the Intestines." - *Trans. Pathol. Soc. Lond.*, xiv, 160. "An Attempt to Reduce a Dislocation of the Lower Jaw which had lasted nearly Four Months." - *Lond. Hosp. Rep*., 1864, i., 177. "The Diagnosis of Astigmatism by the Ophthalmoscope." - *Brit. Med. Jour.*, 1870, ii, 804. "A Magazine Refraction Ophthalmoscope." - *Trans. Ophthalmol. Soc.*, 1883, iii, 297.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001291
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

First Title value, for Searching Coutts, David Kirkpatrick (1881 - 1911)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

First Title value, for Searching Covey, Edward ( - 1861)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

First Title value, for Searching Covey, William Henry (1804 - 1878)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

First Title value, for Searching Cowen, Henry Lionel (1817 - 1886)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

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

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2011-08-19
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001300-E001399
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373487373487
Occupation General surgeon
Details The eldest son of E T Cox, a well-known Birmingham surgeon (1769-1863). After education at King Edward VI Grammar School and at the General Hospital, Birmingham, he studied at Guy's and St Thomas's Hospitals, (1821-1823), and at the École de Médecine, Paris (1824). Early in his career he conceived the idea of establishing a school of medicine in Birmingham on the lines of Grainger's school in London. After visiting numerous schools, both British and Continental, he settled in Birmingham, was appointed Surgeon to the General Dispensary in 1825, and commenced to lecture on anatomy, with physiological and surgical observations, on Dec 1st, 1825, at Temple Row. In 1828 he succeeded, after opposition, in founding, in conjunction with Drs Johnstone, Booth, and others, the Birmingham School of Medicine, himself lecturing on anatomy at first, and later on surgery. He took an active part in the formation of the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association (now the British Medical Association): in 1840-1841 he founded the Queen's Hospital, Birmingham, and became its Senior Surgeon. In 1843 he secured a Royal Charter for his medical school by the title of Queen's College, and its scope was enlarged to that of a College in Arts in 1847, and in Theology in 1851. Cox's aim was to make his college into a university for the Midlands, but it appears his administrative ability was not equal to his creative power and he became embroiled in serious quarrels with his associates. This led to an inquiry in 1860 by the Charity Commissioners, with the result that the hospital and college were separated; thereafter Cox ceased to take part in the work of either. He left Birmingham on his father's death in 1863 and lived at Bole Hall, near Tamworth, at Leamington, and at Kenilworth, where he died on December 23rd, 1875. Cox left nothing to the institution he had founded, but he bequeathed £3000, with his medical library and instruments, to the Cottage Hospital at Moreton-in-the-Marsh, as well as other charitable bequests. There is a Maguire lithograph of him in the College Collection, dated 1854, and a portrait in Barker's *Photographs of Eminent Medical Men*, 1865, i, 61. Publications: *A Synopsis of the Bones, Ligaments and Muscles, Blood-vessels, and Nerves of the Human Body*, 1831. *A Letter to J T Law on establishing a Clinical Hospital at Birmingham*, 1849.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001304
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Crabb, Alfred (1814 - 1875)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

First Title value, for Searching Crabtree, Angelo Matteo ( - 1925)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

First Title value, for Searching Craddock, William (1818 - 1872)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2011-08-19 2012-03-22
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001300-E001399
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373490373490
Occupation Military surgeon
Details Born in July, 1818, the son of John Craddock, of Radstock, Somerset. He joined the Bengal Army as Assistant Surgeon on Jan 30th, 1843, being promoted to Surgeon on May 31st, 1857, and to Surgeon Major on January 30th, 1863. In 1857 he was attached to the 70th Native Infantry, and saw service in the First Sikh or Sutlej War (1845-1846) and in China (1858-1859). He retired on December 25th, 1870. He died on board the ss *Scotland* off Cape St Vincent, on April 18th, 1872.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001307
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Lawrence, George Anthony (1925 - 2010)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

by N Alan Green
Publication Date 2011-08-25
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001300-E001399
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373492373492
Occupation General surgeon
Details George Anthony Lawrence, known as 'Tony', was a consultant general surgeon in Cumberland County, Nova Scotia, Canada, where he practised for 35 years. He served as a coroner and from 1984 to 1993 was chief of staff of the Highland View Regional Hospital and was also medical examiner for Cumberland County over many years. He was an enthusiastic volunteer manager of the Red Cross blood donor clinic. He left the UK when he was at senior registrar level as resident surgical officer to the Norfolk and Norwich and allied hospitals, and emigrated to Canada. He and his wife, Gillian, and family went to Amherst, Nova Scotia, Canada in 1965 to make a permanent home, highly recommended by his friend in Norwich, Joe Donachie, who had settled in the locality. Here Tony developed a fine reputation as a friendly practitioner who gave wise advice and took excellent care of patients on whom he performed a wide variety of general surgical procedures. Tony was born in Nottingham on 9 April 1925, the son of Ernest Lawrence, a dentist, and his wife Millicent. He had two sisters, Sheila and Bobbie, and was a great nephew of the writer, D H Lawrence. He was educated at Nottingham High School before entering Guy's Hospital for his medical training, whence he graduated in 1950. A gifted singer, he shunned a professional career in music to pursue medicine, but used his fine baritone voice to good effect in choirs, and also in Christmas shows, where his sense of fun became apparent as he mimicked consultants on the staff of the hospital. An all round sportsman, he played in the Guy's first XV as a scrum half. After house appointments, he entered the Royal Army Medical Corps and served as a captain in Egypt for two years before returning to Guy's for further surgical training. He met Gillian Wood, a medical student, whom he married: they had a family of six children, three boys and three girls. In Norwich, first as a registrar and from 1964 as a senior registrar, he was recognised as a superb diagnostician and an excellent surgeon. In Canada he developed the same reputation. His love of medicine was apparent as he retained a strong belief in the principle that the interests of patients were paramount. Outside medicine he had a love of the countryside even during his time in Norwich, when he and Gill lived in a 'wattle and daub' country cottage at Wreningham. They kept a variety of animals, including a donkey, 'Belinda', fed from hay in the fields, hand-mown by Tony and the many guests they entertained. In 1967, after a year or so in Canada, he moved to Burnside Farm as his permanent residence and in retirement was able to pursue his interest as a 'hobby farmer'. He was a proud Rotarian for over 40 years and his services were recognised with a Paul Harris fellowship and the Club's distinguished service award. He enjoyed a regular game of golf with his medical colleagues in the area. Tony Lawrence died at his home in Amherst, Nova Scotia, on 10 August 2010 from metastatic malignant melanoma. He was survived by his wife Gill, five children (Noel, Claire, Sarah, Anne and Michael) and nine grandchildren. He was predeceased by his son Mark.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001309
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Talbot, Clifford Heyworth (1925 - 2009)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

by Andrew Shorthouse
Publication Date 2011-08-26 2011-09-02
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001300-E001399
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373498373498
Occupation General surgeon
Details Clifford Talbot became one of the country's leading thyroid surgeons following his appointment as a consultant general surgeon to the Sheffield Royal Hospital in 1961. He rapidly gained a fine reputation for his outstanding technical ability and was highly respected as a colleague, trainer and mentor. He continued in the finest tradition of surgical technique pioneered by Cecil Joll two generations previously. He was born in Southport, Lancashire, on 22 April 1925, the son of Frank Heyworth Talbot, a barrister, and Mabel Jane Talbot née Williams. He was a pupil at the Downs School, Malvern, between 1933 and 1939, where he gained an academic scholarship to Leighton Park School, which he attended from 1939 to 1943. At both schools he continued to develop his interest in cricket. Having originally decided to become a surgeon as an eight-year-old, his ambition was unwavering: he gained a place at St John's College, Cambridge, followed by clinical years at Guy's Hospital, qualifying in 1948. At Cambridge, he pursued his love of cricket, representing the St John's College first XI. In 1949 he was called up for National Service and was a medical officer at the Military Corrective Establishment in Colchester. In preparation for a surgical career, he was keen to improve his knowledge of anatomy and taught medical students as an anatomy demonstrator at Cambridge in 1951. From 1952 to 1953 he was a house surgeon at Guy's and his FRCS followed in 1953. He was a registrar in Sheffield between 1954 and 1956 and was then appointed as a senior registrar in Bristol, where he remained until 1961. He was awarded his MChir in 1957. He was appointed as a consultant general surgeon to the Sheffield Royal Hospital in 1961 at the age of 35. He built up a very large thyroid practice and was an early proponent of multidisciplinary team working, building a close professional relationship with Donald S Munro, the eminent Sheffield endocrinologist. He published widely and reported on the surgical management of over 600 cases of thyrotoxicosis and more than 100 cases of autonomous hot nodules. He published his 10 year results of over 200 patients with Graves' disease treated by subtotal thyroidectomy, with an emphasis on the development of late hypothyroidism. He had a large experience of treating thyroid carcinoma, reporting his experience of over 100 cases, confirming that, in the absence of extra-thyroid dissemination, lobectomy is safe and effective. Large personal case series of operations performed in a standardised manner, such as those carefully documented by Clifford Talbot, are now part of surgical history. Clifford valued the close working relations he enjoyed with his team, and in particular the registrars. He trained them meticulously and encouraged them to make surgical decisions confidently and operate under supervision. He was very conscientious, always at the end of the phone for emergencies, and went into the hospital without hesitation if the registrar called for help. He was so supportive, and his trainees really appreciated working with him. Clifford played an important part in the amalgamation of the surgical departments of the Royal Infirmary and the Royal Hospital in Sheffield into the newly built Royal Hallamshire Hospital in 1978, where he had a pivotal role in the organisation of the new outpatient departments. He was a superb mentor to newly appointed consultants. I felt extremely fortunate to have such a supportive colleague in my early days, one who actively encouraged us to develop our practices and our management roles without restraint. He was a father figure on a very happy and functional surgical unit. We so much admired his wisdom, clinical judgment, gentlemanly demeanour and his technical ability He was a keen member of the Sheffield Town Trust, one of the oldest charities in England, during the latter part of his career, using its funds to protect and safeguard the city's heritage and environment. Clifford loved his adopted city and he wanted to give something back. He was also a well-loved and active member of the Grey Turner Surgical Club. On the day of his retirement he ceased all clinical work 'at a stroke' and concentrated on his family and his woodwork. He was an expert turner. But perhaps his greatest love was fly fishing. The Derbyshire river, the Derwent, was at the bottom of his garden and across a field; he liked nothing better than to teach his grandchildren to 'present the fly beautifully'. He enjoyed a long, healthy and active retirement before falling ill in his early eighties. Typical of Clifford, he continued to lead life to its full, until metastatic disease presented as a short illness just before his death on 24 March 2009. At Guy's he had met Margaret Hilda Hooper, a ward sister, and in 1950 they married. He adored Margaret and was hugely supportive to her. They had three children, David, Mary and Jenny, who survive him.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001315
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

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

First Title value, for Searching Craven, Robert (1798 - 1850)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

First Title value, for Searching Craven, Robert (1812 - 1875)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

First Title value, for Searching Cresswell, Alfred (1837 - 1876)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

First Title value, for Searching Collis, John Leigh (1911 - 2003)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-09-23
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/372229372229
Occupation Thoracic surgeon
Details Jack Collis was a pioneering thoracic surgeon. He was born in Harborne, Birmingham, on 14 July 1911, the son of Walter Thomas Collis, an industrial chemist, and Dora Charton Reay. His choice of medicine was greatly influenced by his local GP and his two medical uncles, one of whom was a professor of medicine at Cardiff. He was educated at Shrewsbury School and studied medicine at Birmingham. There he was a member of the athletic club and captained the hockey team. He was equally outstanding as a scholar, winning the Queen’s scholarship for three years running, and the Ingleby scholarship and Priestley Smith prize in his final year, together with gold medals in clinical surgery and medicine. He graduated in 1935 with first class honours. He was house physician to K D Wilkinson at Birmingham General Hospital and then house surgeon to B J Ward at the Queen’s Hospital. He went on to be surgical registrar to H H Sampson at the General Hospital, before becoming a resident surgical officer at the Brompton Chest Hospital in London under Tudor Edwards and Clement Price Thomas. The outbreak of war saw him back in Birmingham as resident surgical officer at the General Hospital. By July 1940 he was surgeon to the Barnsley Hall Emergency hospital, which received Blitz casualties from Birmingham and Coventry. He was in charge of the chest unit for the next four years, during which time he wrote a thesis on the metastatic cerebral abscess associated with suppurative conditions of the lung, where he showed the route of infection via the vertebral veins. This won him an MD with honours, as well as a Hunterian professorship in 1944. In February 1944 he joined the RAMC to command the No 3 Surgical Team for Chest Surgery, taking his team through Europe into Germany shortly after D-day, for which he was mentioned in despatches. From Germany he was posted to India to receive the anticipated casualties in the Far East. He ended his war service as a Lieutenant Colonel. At the end of the war he applied to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham, from his posting in India, with a glowing reference from Tudor Edwards. He was appointed initially as a general surgeon, though he was soon engaged mainly in thoracic surgery, especially thoracoplasty for tuberculosis, and spent much time travelling between sanatoria in Warwick, Burton-on-Trent and Malvern. With the advent of cardiac surgery, Jack was responsible for a successful series of mitral valvotomies and was one of the first to remove a tumour from within the cavity of the left atrium, using a sharpened dessert spoon and a piece of wire gauze. Later he withdrew from open heart surgery to concentrate on the surgery of the oesophagus. He became celebrated for three advances in the surgery of the oesophagus – the Collis gastroplasty for patients with reflux, the Collis repair of the lower oesophagus and, above all, a successful technique for oesophagectomy. In this his mortality and leakage rates were half those of his contemporaries. He attributed his success to the use of fine steel wire: his assistants attributed it to his outstanding surgical technique. He was Chairman of the regional advisory panel for cardiothoracic surgery, an honorary professor of thoracic surgery at the University of Birmingham, and was President of the Thoracic Society and the Society of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgeons. He was Chairman of the medical advisory committee at the Birmingham United Hospitals from 1961 to 1963, and Chairman of the planning committee from 1963 to 1965. He trained a generation of thoracic surgeons whose friendship he retained, along with those medical orderlies who served with him during the war. Vehemently proud of Birmingham, he devoted much of his retirement to promoting the city. He married Mavis Haynes in 1941. They had a holiday bungalow in Wales, where he enjoyed walking, gardening and fishing. They had four children, Nigel, Gilly, Christopher and Mark, two of whom entered medicine. He died in Moseley, Birmingham on 4 February 2003.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000042
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Crabtree, Norman Lloyd (1916 - 2004)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

First Title value, for Searching Cudmore, Roger Edward (1935 - 2004)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

First Title value, for Searching Cummins, Brian Holford (1933 - 2003)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

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/372232372232
Occupation Neurosurgeon
Details Brian Cummins was a consultant neurosurgeon at Frenchay Hospital in Bristol. He was born in Somerset on 10 March 1933, the son of Peter Cummins (known as ‘Cecil’ or ‘Pop’) and his wife, Rita. His early years were spent in Bath, but he moved to Edmonton, Alberta, in 1946, when his family emigrated to Canada. At the age of 16 he entered the University of Alberta to study classics and modern languages, at the same time as helping his father build the family home. He spent his vacations working as a foreman in pipeline construction in Manitoba. He graduated with honours in 1953. A chance encounter with a book on the surgery of epilepsy by Wilder Penfield, director of the Montreal Neurological Institute, raised in him an ambition to become a neurosurgeon and he spent two years on the medical course at Alberta, before returning to England to complete his studies at Bristol in 1961, when he won a gold medal. After qualifying, he held a junior post in neurosurgery in Oxford under Joe Pennybacker and John Potter, where he developed his interest in head injury management, brain tumour and spinal injury. He returned to Bristol in 1968 as senior registrar. He became a consultant neurosurgeon at Frenchay Hospital, Bristol, in 1973. He retired in 1999. Cummins’ interests in neurosurgery were wide, encompassing tumours, spinal surgery and head injuries. He was instrumental in bringing the main technological advances in neurosurgery to Bristol and pioneered teleradiology. He was involved in improving the standards of head injury care in the region by education and guidance on management, and helped the College and the Society of British Neurological Surgeons in producing their booklet on the topic. He was an advocate of multidisciplinary clinics and this, plus his interest in the rehabilitation of head injuries, led to his setting up a head injury unit at Frenchay in 1992, of which he was director for three years. He also took part in the charity Headway which sought to help these patients. He also established a combined clinic for managing brain tumours. In spinal surgery he developed a steel prosthetic joint for implanation into the cervical spine. He was an enthusiastic and patient teacher of junior staff and would spend much time supervising them in operations. Consultant surgeons from at least half the neurosurgical units in the UK trained with him at some stage. He was an adviser on head injury to the Department of Health, the Royal Colleges, and to the World Health Organization in Bosnia. He advised on neurosurgical services in India and South East Asia, and raised funds for a children’s unit. His character was enthusiastic and extroverted. Love of outdoor activities resulted in him breaking both hips rock climbing in 1970. He was so grateful for the help he received from the mountain rescue team that he joined the organisation to advise and teach. He enjoyed skiing, canoeing, hill-walking and travel to remote places, and he was an extremely knowledgeable gardener, studying for a degree in botany during his early retirement. He married Annie in 1961 and they had two sons, Sean and Jason. He died on 16 August 2003 after a short illness of carcinoma of the pancreas.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000045
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Critchett, George (1817 - 1882)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

First Title value, for Searching Croft, Charles Ilderton (1812 - 1860)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

First Title value, for Searching Weaver, Edward John Martin (1921 - 2003)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

First Title value, for Searching Webster, John Herbert Harker (1929 - 2003)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

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/372330372330
Occupation General surgeon
Details John Herbert Harker Webster was a consultant surgeon in Southampton. He was born in Heswall, Cheshire, on 2 October 1929, the son of Herbert Webster, a biscuit manufacturer, and Doris Louise née Harker, the daughter of a chandler. In 1935 the family moved to Prenton in order to be near to Birkenhead Preparatory School. However, in 1939 he was evacuated to mid-Cheshire because of the war. The schooling there proved unsatisfactory and in 1940 John was sent to Ellesmere College, a school with a fine tradition of choral music, piano and organ teaching. From there he gained a place at Cambridge. He admitted to being absolutely hopeless at ball games, although in his own words he did “become a competent small bore .303 shot” and became a competent rower, rowing fairly consistently in all the major meetings at Cambridge, Putney, Bedford, Chester and Henley. He obtained an upper second degree in anatomy, physiology, pathology and pharmacology. He went up to London and studied for his clinical examinations at the Westminster Medical School, where he won prizes in medicine, surgery, pathology and obstetrics. After qualifying he became house surgeon to Sir Stanford Cade. He then did his National Service in the Royal Air Force from 1955 to 1957, ending up as a medical officer on an Army troop ship, being involved in the preparation of Christmas Island for the first British hydrogen bomb test. On returning to civilian life in 1959 he met Joy, his wife, at St Albans and they were married the following year at Epsom. He was a junior hospital doctor in Sheffield as registrar, lecturer and then senior registrar. He was given the most enormous responsibilities and, as was the case in those days, given wide knowledge of practically all surgical procedures. In 1967 he was appointed to the Southampton hospitals as a consultant general surgeon with a special interest in vascular surgery, more specifically to his favourite, the Royal South Hants. John noted that he had operated not only from his base at the South Hants, but in places as far flung as Southampton General Hospital, Southampton Western Hospital, Romsey and Lymington Hospitals, the Isle of Wight, Haslar, Basingstoke, Torquay and even the Royal Free. John was a member of the Peripheral Vascular Club, a club made up mostly of so-called ‘second-generation’ vascular surgeons. These surgeons had learnt their trade from single-handed vascular surgeons in the teaching hospitals such as London, Leeds and Edinburgh. They in turn became consultants in their own right in what were then considered to be provincial hospitals. This club formed a great part of John's life; he and Joy enjoyed travelling widely with the fellow members. His teaching abilities, particularly at technical surgery, were renowned. Many of his students were endowed with a sense of confidence, the major characteristic needed in a vascular surgeon. In its heyday his unit attracted excellent senior registrars and lecturers, many of whom have become famous in their own right across the country. He had a particular interest in cervical rib surgery and, together with Peter Clifford, David Whitcher and Richard Bolton from the teaching media department, produced an excellent film on first rib resection, which, in 1988, received an award from the Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland for the most outstanding contribution of the year to surgical education. He was a council member of the Vascular Society. He retired in 1994. John was a rather retiring person and sometimes taciturn, but he was a great raconteur once he got going and told many stories. He was a character, a good friend and an excellent surgeon. There was an intellectual side of John's character. If you looked at the bookshelves in his office you were more likely to find works on art and poetry, rather than the latest textbook of anatomy. He made sure he filled in *The Times* crossword every day, and actually became a semi-finalist in a crossword competition. His main regret was not to pursue music, but in retirement he improved his skill on the keyboard and built his own clavichord. He was also a great fly fisherman, fishing with his old chief and mentor from the Westminster Hospital, Robert Cox. Mixed in with all this was a love of golf and, above all, a love of his family, his son, two daughters and eleven grandchildren. He died on 31 August 2003.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000143
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Cronin, James Dennis ( - 1909)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

First Title value, for Searching Saunders, Dame Cicely Mary Strode (1918 - 2005)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-11-02 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/372337372337
Occupation Nurse Physician
Details Dame Cicely Saunders established St Christopher's Hospice in London, which became the model for hundreds of other hospices. She was born in Barnet, Hertfordshire, on 22 June 1918, the daughter of Gordon Saunders, a domineering estate agent, and Mary Christian Wright. She was educated at Roedean and St Anne's College, Oxford, and on the outbreak of war deferred completing her degree to become a nurse. She entered St Thomas's, but a back injury put an end to a career in nursing. She returned to complete her degree at Oxford and qualified as a lady almoner (a hospital social worker). By now she had fallen in love with David Tasma, a refugee from the Warsaw ghetto, who was dying of cancer. Through him she learned how the pain of cancer could be tamed by modern drugs, and that the inevitable distress of the dying could be made tolerable by care in which physical and spiritual needs were combined. At this time she also gave up her agnostic stance and became a committed and evangelical Christian. Her experience as a volunteer at St Luke's Home for the Dying Poor caused her to realise that the received medical views on dying and bereavement needed to be changed, and to do this she needed to become a doctor. She returned to St Thomas's and qualified in 1957, at the age of 38. She set up a research group to study the control of pain, while also working at St Joseph's, Hackney, which was run for the dying by the formidably down-to-earth Sisters of Charity. Before long Cicely had reached the unorthodox conclusion that the usual intermittent giving of morphine for surges of pain was far less effective than giving enough morphine to achieve a steady state in which the dying patient could still maintain consciousness, self-respect and a measure of dignity. It was at St Joseph's that she met Antoni Michniewicz, who for the second time taught her that loving and being in love were powerful medicaments in terminal illness. His death determined her to set up St Christopher's Hospice, named after the patron saint of travellers, as a place in which to shelter on the most difficult stage of life's journey. Her unorthodox views were published as *The care of the dying* (London, Macmillan & Co) in 1960. This opened many eyes, and soon another edition was needed. There followed years of hard work, lecturing, persuading and fund-raising. St Christopher's was set up as a charity in 1961 and the hospice was opened in 1967. That her methods worked was soon apparent and before long Cicely was invited to join the consultant staff of St Thomas's and the London Hospital. In 1980 she married Marian Bohusz-Szyszko who shared her love of music and with whom she was blissfully happy. Sadly he predeceased her in 1995. A tall, impressive lady, she had a tremendous though quiet personality that shone with honesty and wisdom. Innumerable distinctions and honours came her way - honorary degrees and fellowships galore, the gold medals of the Society of Apothecaries and the British Medical Association, the DBE and the Order of Merit - but it was the establishment of hundreds of hospices according to her principles and the revolution in the care of the dying that will be the real measure of her greatness. She died from breast cancer on 14 July 2005 at St Christopher's.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000150
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Cronin, William James ( - 1876)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

First Title value, for Searching Singha, Hiran Sirikantha Kirthi (1927 - 2007)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

by John Blandy
Publication Date 2011-09-02 2014-08-19
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001300-E001399
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373520373520
Occupation General surgeon
Details Sri Singha was professor of surgery in Kandy, Sri Lanka. He was born on 14 February 1927, in Moratuwa, in what was then Ceylon, the son of A C Fernando, a doctor from Colombo, whose name he bore when he arrived in the UK. He was educated at St Thomas's College and the Royal College, Colombo, where he passed the London matriculation examination. He travelled to England and went to Sydney Sussex College, Cambridge, before going to the London Hospital. Many in his year group were ex-servicemen. He changed his name by deed poll to Singha in 1947. After qualifying, he was a house surgeon to the orthopaedic firm of Watson-Jones, Osmond Clarke and Scotty Law at the London Hospital, did three months in the receiving room and then spent two years as a registrar in associated hospitals, including the Devon and Cornwall Hospital in Plymouth under Mike Reilly. He then returned to the London as a junior registrar to surgical outpatients. He then went to Ceylon, as a senior lecturer in surgery at the University of Ceylon and honorary consultant surgeon to the Peradeniya General Hospital in Kandy, being promoted to founding professor in 1965. He published on surgical aspects of amoebiasis and ascariasis. He eventually left Sri Lanka and returned to England, where he became a GP in Southampton. He was married twice: firstly to a German woman, by whom he had two sons, and secondly to Chrisanti, a Sri Lankan. He died peacefully at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital on 1 October 2007.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001337
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

First Title value, for Searching Skinner, David Bernt (1935 - 2003)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-11-02 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/372340372340
Occupation Thoracic surgeon
Details David Skinner was an eminent American thoracic surgeon and one of the most influential individuals affecting surgical and medical care in the United States in the last quarter of the twentieth century. He was born on 28 April 1935 in Joliet, Illinois, the first child of James and Bertha Skinner, and educated at Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He joined the Boy Scouts and maintained an interest in the movement throughout his life. After graduating with distinction from the University of Rochester, he studied medicine at Yale, where his MD was awarded *cum laude*. He trained in general and thoracic surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital, completing his residencies in 1965, when he went to Bristol as senior surgical registrar to Ronald Belsey and developed a life-long interest in surgery of the oesophagus. During the Vietnam war he served for two years in the US Air Force. He returned to join the surgical faculty of Johns Hopkins Hospital under George Zuidema. At Johns Hopkins he rapidly rose to full professor in 1972. Shortly thereafter he was appointed as the first Dallas B Phemister professor of surgery at the University of Chicago Medical School. He developed an administrative model that encompassed clinical excellence, basic surgical research, dedicated teaching and a remarkable degree of autonomy for faculty growth. His personal devotion to the development of his faculty was life-long and legendary. In 1987 he moved to New York to become President and chief executive officer of the New York Hospital and professor of surgery at Cornell Medical College. Under his leadership financial difficulties were reversed, a new hospital purchased, a new pavilion built and a merger achieved with the Presbyterian Hospital of Columbia University. He retired in 1999, but remained active as President emeritus of the New York Presbyterian Hospital and professor of surgery and cardiothoracic surgery at Weill Cornell. He served on several philanthropic and corporate boards. He generously hosted the group that travelled from our College to New York under the presidency of Sir Barry Jackson. During his career he served as President of several scientific and surgical societies, including the Association of Academic Surgery, the Society of University Surgeons and the International Society for Diseases of the Esophagus, and was a member of multiple societies, including the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Science. He received three honorary degrees and 15 medals or prizes for his contributions. He was made an honorary medical officer of the fire department of New York city, gaining the parking privilege that came with the honour. His faith was extremely important to him: he was a trustee of the Fourth Presbyterian Church of Chicago and the Fifth Presbyterian Church of New York. He died on 24 January 2003, following a massive stroke, and is survived by his widow Elinor and four daughters, Linda, Kristin, Carise and Margaret. Linda is a surgeon at Delaware County Hospital.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000153
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Soomro, Jamil Ahmed (1948 - 2004)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

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

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

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)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

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)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

First Title value, for Searching Vaughan, Sir Gerard Folliott (1923 - 2003)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-11-02 2006-10-11
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/372345372345
Occupation Politician Psychiatrist
Details Sir Gerard Vaughan was a former Minister of State for Health in the Thatcher government. He was born on 11 June 1923 in Mozambique, Portugese East Africa, the son of a Welsh sugar planter who was more interested in big game hunting than sugar and was later killed in the RAF. Gerry was educated by a series of governesses, notably one Mafeta, who coached him through the matriculation at the age of 14. At first he wanted to become an artist and enrolled at the Slade and St Martin’s School of Art, but as war broke out he entered Guy’s Hospital to study medicine, helping in the casualty department during the Blitz. After qualifying, he became a house surgeon to Russell Brock, who encouraged him to become a surgeon, but suggested he learn some medicine first and take the MRCP. While doing a medical registrar job at the York clinic he became fascinated by psychiatry and went on to the Maudsley Hospital, returning to Guy’s as a consultant psychiatrist. There he became interested in the treatment of children and adolescents, particularly those with anorexia, and was responsible for the establishment of the Bloomfield clinic at Guy’s. Always interested in politics, Gerry sat on the London County Council as alderman for Streatham, becoming chairman of the strategy and planning group, and in 1970 he was elected MP for Reading. He was one of Ted Heath’s whips, and was Minister of State for Health for five years, first under Patrick Jenkin and later under Norman Fowler. He was knighted in 1984 on being dropped from the government. His views were on the extreme right, and among other things he championed homoeopathy. He died after a long illness on 29 July 2003, leaving a wife, Joyce Thurle, whom he married in 1955, and a son and daughter.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000158
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

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)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

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)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

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 Cleland, William Paton (1912 - 2005)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-11-15
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/372349372349
Occupation Thoracic surgeon
Details Bill Cleland was a pioneering thoracic surgeon who helped develop open heart surgery in London in the 1950s. He was born in Sydney, New South Wales, on 30 May 1912, the son of Sir John Burton Cleland, professor of pathology at the University of Adelaide, and Dora Isabel Robson. He was proud to be the 26th head of his ancient Scottish family who were kinsmen of William Wallace. He was educated at Scotch College, Adelaide, and Adelaide University, where he qualified in 1934. He then completed two years as house physician and house surgeon at the Royal Adelaide and the Adelaide Children’s Hospital. He went to England, to King’s College Hospital, in 1938 to be a resident medical officer and passed the MRCP. With the outbreak of war he was evacuated with King’s to Horton, Surrey, where he was busy in the Emergency Medical Service dealing with wartime injuries. This generated an interest in surgery: he quickly passed the FRCS and then went on in 1948 to the Brompton Hospital as house physician and resident medical officer, where he was influenced by Russell Brock, Tudor Edwards and Price Thomas. He soon specialised in chest surgery, moving gradually on into cardiac surgery. He was appointed consultant thoracic surgeon at King’s College Hospital and the Brompton in 1948, and the following year as a lecturer at the Hammersmith, where he worked with Denis Melrose on the prototype heart-lung machine with which he performed the first successful open-heart operation in Britain in 1953. He was a pioneer in the subsequent development of cardiac by-pass surgery, which he described in a classic paper in *Thorax* in 1983. He wrote more than 70 papers, and was much sought after abroad, setting up cardiothoracic units in Russia, Egypt, Iraq, Syria and Iceland. He was consultant adviser in thoracic surgery to the Department of Health and the Royal Navy. He married Norah Goodhart in 1940 who predeceased him. They had two sons and a daughter. In retirement he continued to follow up his old patients, and enjoy his hobbies of fishing, the opera, gardening and beekeeping. A strongly built man, he became somewhat frail in old age, and died peacefully at home in Goodworth Clatford, Hampshire, on 29 March 2005, just before his 93rd birthday.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000162
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Doll, Sir William Richard Shaboe (1912 - 2005)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-11-15
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/372350372350
Occupation Epidemiologist
Details Sir Richard Doll, the most distinguished epidemiologist of his generation, established that smoking causes cancer and heart disease. Born in Hampton, Middlesex, on 28 October 1912, he was the son of Henry William Doll, a general practitioner, and Amy Kathleen Shaboe. He was educated at Westminster and St Thomas’ Hospital, doing junior jobs as casualty officer, anaesthetist and house physician. He began his research career under Paul Wood at Hammersmith, while working as a resident medical officer at the London Clinic. When war broke out he was called up into the RAMC, where he served as a battalion medical officer at Dunkirk, was posted to a hospital ship, and served in the invasion of Sicily. He contracted tuberculosis of the kidney in 1944, underwent a nephrectomy, and was discharged in early 1945. He took a course on statistics under Sir Austin Bradford Hill, who was impressed by him, and in 1948 that he went to work with Bradford Hill at the Medical Research Council. They began to study the causes of the huge increase in deaths from cancer of the lung. It was a time when smoking was regarded as normal and harmless. Their preliminary study of hospital patients with cancer of the lung and other diseases showed, to their surprise, that those with lung cancer were smokers, those with other diseases were not. This was confirmed by a prospective study on doctors’ smoking habits. At this stage Doll himself gave up smoking. Immensely distinguished, honoured by innumerable institutions, Doll was a genial and likeable man whose juniors adored him. One of his last public speeches was to a meeting of the Oxford Medical Graduates Club, where to the relief of his audience he showed that there was no statistical harm done by wine. When asked how much, he replied: “enough”. Doll married Joan Mary Faulkner in 1949. They had a son and daughter. He died on 24 July 2005.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000163
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Hardy, James Daniel (1918 - 2003)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-11-15 2007-08-09
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/372351372351
Occupation Thoracic surgeon
Details James Daniel Hardy was an organ transplant pioneer and the first chairman of the department of surgery and surgeon in chief at the University Medical Center, Jackson, Mississippi. Board certified by both the American Board of Surgery and the Board of Thoracic Surgery and a fellow of the American College of Surgeons, Hardy worked to improve medical and surgical care in Mississippi throughout his career of teaching, caring for patients and clinical research. Over 200 surgeons trained with him during his tenure as chairman of the department of surgery from 1955 to 1987. Born in Birmingham, Alabama, on 14 May 1918, the elder of twin boys, he was the son of Fred Henry Hardy, owner of a lime plant, and Julia Poyner Hardy, a schoolteacher. His early childhood was tough and frugal, thanks to the Depression. He was educated at Montevallo High School, where he played football for the school, and learned to play the trombone. He completed his premedical studies at the University of Alabama, where he excelled in German, and went on to the University of Pennsylvania to study medicine, and during his physiology course carried out a research project (on himself) to show that olive oil introduced into the duodenum would inhibit the production of gastric acid - an exercise which gave him a lifelong interest in research. At the same time he joined the Officers Training Corps. In his last year he published research into the effect of sulphonamide on wound healing. After receiving his MD he entered postgraduate training for a year as an intern and a resident in internal medicine at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and also conducted research on circulatory physiology. Research became a vital part of his professional life. His military service in the second world war was with the 81st Field Hospital. In the New Year of 1945 he found himself in London, before crossing to France and the last months of the invasion of Germany. After VE Day his unit was sent out to the Far East, but when news arrived of the Japanese surrender his ship made a U-turn and they landed back in the United States. He returned to Philadelphia to complete his surgical residency under Isidor Ravdin. He was a senior Damon Runyon fellow in clinical research and was awarded a masters of medical science in physiological chemistry by the University of Pennsylvania in 1951 for his research on heavy water and the measurement of body fluids. That same year Hardy became an assistant professor of surgery and director of surgical research at the University of Tennessee College of Medicine at Memphis, later he was to become an associate professor, and continued in this position until 1955, when he became the first professor of surgery and chairman of the department of surgery at the newly established University of Mississippi Medical Center, School of Medicine, Jackson. As a surgeon charged with establishing an academic training programme, Hardy became known as a charismatic teacher and indefatigable physician. He also actively pursued and encouraged clinical research in the newly established department of surgery. His group’s years of research in the laboratory led to the first kidney autotransplant in man for high ureteral injury, and to advances in the then emerging field of human organ transplantation. The first lung transplant in man was performed at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in 1963 and in 1964 Hardy and his team carried out the first heart transplantation using a chimpanzee as a donor. Hardy authored, co-authored or edited more than 23 medical books, including two which became standard surgery texts, and published more than 500 articles and chapters in medical publications. He served on numerous editorial boards and as editor-in-chief of *The World Journal of Surgery*. He also produced a volume of autobiographical memoirs, *The Academic surgeon* (Mobile, Alabama, Magnolia Mansions Press, c.2002), which is a most readable and vivid account of the American residency system and its emphasis on research, which has been such a model for the rest of the world. Over the course of his career he served as president of the American College of Surgeons, the American Surgical Association, the International Surgical Society and the Society of University Surgeons and was a founding member of the International Surgical Group and the Society for Surgery of the Alimentary tract. He was an honorary fellow of the College, of the l’Académie Nationale de Médicine and l’Association Français de Chirurgie. The proceedings of the 1983 surgical forum of the American College of Surgeons was dedicated to Hardy, citing him as “…an outstanding educator, investigator, clinical surgeon and international leader.” In 1987 Hardy retired from the department of surgery and served in the Veteran’s Administration Hospital system as a distinguished VA physician from 1987 to 1990. He married Louise (Weezie) Scott Sams in 1949. They had four daughters: Louise, Julia Ann, Bettie and Katherine. He died on 19 February 2003. An annual James D Hardy lectureship has been established in his honour at the department of surgery, University Medical Center, Jackson.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000164
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

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

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

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

by T T King
Publication Date 2011-06-09
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001200-E001299
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373430373430
Occupation paediatric neurosurgeon
Details Kenneth Till was a paediatric neurosurgeon at Great Ormond Street Hospital, London. He was born in Stoke-on-Trent on 12 February 1920, the son of Reginald Till, a ceramic designer, and his wife, Grace Adelaide née Smallcombe. He was educated at Poole Grammar School, Dorset, and later at Downing College, Cambridge, and St George's Hospital Medical School, London, winning an Anne Selina Fernee scholarship and the Brackenbury surgical prize. He graduated in 1944 and, while a house surgeon at St George's, encountered neurosurgery in the form of Wylie McKissock, into whose operating theatre he ventured at Atkinson Morley's Hospital, Wimbledon, a branch of St George's. McKissock was impressed and offered him an appointment as a neurosurgical house surgeon at Great Ormond Street Hospital where, ultimately, he made his career. After house jobs at St George's and National Service in the RAF, he obtained the FRCS in 1953 and was appointed first assistant to McKissock at Great Ormond Street. He spent 1956 at the Chicago Memorial Children's Hospital, and in 1959 he was appointed as a consultant neurosurgeon at Great Ormond Street, where he remained single-handed until 1970. He also held a consultant appointment at University College Hospital and honorary appointments at the Whittington Hospital, London, and Queen Mary Hospital, Carshalton, Surrey. Till was an exceptionally rapid surgeon, with wide interests. Together with the engineer, Stanley Wade, and the author Roald Dahl, whose son had developed hydrocephalus following a head injury and was under Till's care, he helped develop the Wade-Till-Dahl valve for the treatment of this condition. This device, which followed the appearance of the first valved shunts in the US designed by Holter and Nulsen, was simple, cheap, re-sterilisable and less likely to become blocked with debris, since the valves were of metal. It had considerable success, though it did not provide a pressure against which the CSF drained, a consideration that subsequently became regarded as important and led to more complex designs. Till's contributions to the literature covered a number of topics, especially craniopharyngioma and spinal dysraphism. He was involved in the development of Great Ormond Street Hospital as a centre for cranio-facial surgery and was a founding member of the International Society for Pediatric Neurosurgery. In 1975, he published a textbook, *Paediatric neurosurgery: for paediatricians and neurosurgeons* (Oxford, Blackwell Scientific). After retirement he moved to Somerset and acted as a technical adviser to publications which included the *British Journal of Neurosurgery* and the *Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry*. He married Morwenna Tunstall-Behrens, a doctor who had engaged in leukaemia research and was also a distinguished plantswoman. They had one daughter and three sons. Till's interests outside the profession were gardening, photography and music. He died on 8 July 2008 of complications of Waldenström's macroglobulinaemia.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001247
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Harper, William Michael (1955 - 2008)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

by N Alan Green
Publication Date 2011-06-16 2013-09-06
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001200-E001299
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373432373432
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon Trauma surgeon
Details William Michael Harper was professor of orthopaedic trauma at the University of Leicester. Born in Jersey, 'Joe' Harper was proud of his roots in the Channel Islands and was equally fond of the years he spent in Bolton, Lancashire, where he went to school. Harper was one of the pioneering band of students that made up the first cohort at the Leicester Medical School in 1975. A gap year before commencing his studies was not spent trekking in the Himalayas, but in a factory in Bolton. Not one of the archetypal medical students of his day, 'Joe' Harper possessed a mop of unruly hair, generally had a cigarette dangling from his mouth, and had a broad Lancastrian accent. He did not flaunt his academic ability, but never struggled with the course work and moved easily into his clinical studies. This period of undergraduate training was interrupted on two occasions. He apparently caught chicken pox from a patient and was banished from the wards. According to a colleague, he 'attempted to make an early comeback but he was, in more ways than one, "spotted"'. A fractured femur, under unknown circumstances, occasioned an even longer absence and may have stimulated his later interest in orthopaedics. Awarded his MB ChB in 1980, he undertook junior surgical training in Leicester, where he obtained his first true exposure to his chosen specialty in the trauma and orthopaedics unit. It was said by one of his classmates that: 'the odds on his becoming a professor would have been as long as on an Englishman winning Wimbledon!"' He moved around the country to obtain more experience in general surgery at senior training level, before returning to Leicester as a lecturer in orthopaedic surgery. His academic career blossomed in the department then run by Paul Gregg. From 1988 to 1990, he held the Smith and Nephew trauma research fellowship in the department of orthopaedic surgery. During this specialist training, Harper researched different questions in the management of fractures of the neck of the femur. In a randomised trial, he evaluated internal fixations and hemiarthroplasties. He assessed the results and attempted to find the best surgical option, also noting the modes of treatment failure. This work was submitted to the university for an MD thesis in 1995. Completion of his higher surgical training saw him appointed as a senior lecturer/honorary consultant in trauma and orthopaedic surgery at the University of Leicester in 1993. His work on fractures of the neck of the femur continued and he established the renowned Trent regional arthroplasty study with Gregg in 1989. This was the inspiration for the National Joint Registry, now well established by the Department of Health. Much of this work continues, as does the new undergraduate musculoskeletal programme in the University. He fought hard to maintain trauma and orthopaedics as an independent department within the medical school. In the mid-nineties, Harper was appointed as clinical director of the trauma unit at the Leicester Royal Infirmary and was instrumental in changing clinical practice in several important ways. These included the appointment of a consulting physician to oversee the medical management of patients with fractures of the neck of the femur and nurse-led clinics for simple fractures. A framework of management for complex trauma was established and soft tissues were not ignored, and he set up and ran a multidisciplinary team for the management for bone and soft tissue tumours. As professor, he made a significant contribution to research and training, and in the Trent region area developed various aspects of his chosen specialty, particularly in the management of sarcoma. It took nobody by surprise at this later stage when 'Joe' Harper became professor of orthopaedic trauma at Leicester University in 1997 and, not long after that, head of the academic unit when Paul Clegg moved to Newcastle. He ran a busy research unit, publishing extensively on outcomes of arthroplasty of the hip and knee. Under his guidance many young doctors completed their MD dissertations on subjects ranging from cementation in hip arthroplasty to infection management. Increasingly senior roles in UK orthopaedics engaged his attention and he was the chairman of the Association of Professors of Orthopaedic Surgery from 2000 to 2003, a member of the Intercollegiate Specialty Board of Examiners for Trauma and Orthopaedic Surgery from 2002, and of the Specialist Advisory Committee in the disciplines from 2005. With his publishing skills, he became a valued member of the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery for two terms. These commitments were enough for a very full life, but he spent much time on local issues, being very supportive of his staff and colleagues, all of whom held him in the highest regard. Outside these commitments, he enjoyed a relaxed family life. With his wife Liz and daughter Alice he spent time in northern France, renovating a farm cottage over many years. He was a lifelong collector of stamps, Marvel comics and cards. Throughout a two-year illness leading to his death on the evening of 13 May 2008 he managed to maintain his optimism and showed great courage and independence, pursuing his clinical and academic work almost to the end. He was survived by his wife and daughter. Of his open-minded approach, it was recorded: 'There could be no doubt that, with "Joe" Harper, what you saw was what you got.'
Resource Identifier RCS: E001249
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Ludlow, Joyce Rewcastle (1905 - 2006)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

by John Blandy
Publication Date 2011-06-16
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001200-E001299
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373433373433
Occupation General surgeon
Details Joyce Rewcastle Ludlow was a surgeon who spent her working life in Nigeria. She was born Joyce Rewcastle Woods in Sidcup, Kent, on 24 July 1905, the daughter of James Rewcastle Woods, a minister, and Una Marion Pierce née Couch. Both parents were keen members of the Temperance Movement. Joyce studied medicine at the Royal Free Hospital, where she qualified in 1930. She passed the FRCS the following year, the 22nd woman to become a fellow of the College. She went at once to Nigeria to work at Ilesha Hospital. There she met the Reverend Richard Nelson Ludlow, a Methodist missionary, whose training had included a three-month crash course in surgery. Nelson Ludlow's sister Elsie was working in that hospital as a nurse, and ultimately became its matron. Inevitably Joyce and Nelson found themselves working together. Eventually Nelson popped the question, to receive the answer 'Yes, provided you will see to the Tilley lamp'. They were married on his first leave in Dublin in April 1933 and, after a very brief honeymoon in Switzerland, returned to Nigeria to be 'partners in pioneering' for a lifetime. Nelson learned dispensing and how to give the anaesthetic while Joyce was operating: in exchange Joyce would take services and preach when needed. Joyce insisted on extending the work of the hospital into the districts in the hope of detecting remediable diseases at an earlier stage and for this purpose they devised a mobile operating theatre that could be towed behind their elderly Chevrolet, and set up a chain of village dispensaries. Together they built their own house of unbaked mud bricks, established some 25 schools for women, built their own looms, taught the local people how to weave, organised the building of new roads and made long treks into the country on foot, by canoe, and later by car. To support this activity on a salary of £3 per week from the Missionary Society, Nelson raised funds for new buildings by importing ancient harmoniums and organs that had been thrown out by churches in England, learned how to mend them, and sold them in Nigeria, eventually setting up a regular workshop for this. The tough and difficult life was later described in Nelson's moving book *Partners in pioneering*, which was privately published by his son. It was not without its hilarious incidents: their car was accidently shot by a hunter who mistook its headlights for the eyes of some giant jungle creature. They had no refrigerator until 1939. They had two sons and a daughter who went with them everywhere but, as with so many of that generation, they suffered agonies when it became necessary to send the children to England to be educated. During their first leave after the war they were given an ex-Army ambulance which they rebuilt as a better mobile operating theatre cum school, kitchen, cinema and dispensary, which was to serve them for the next 10 years. As well as a hunt for superannuated harmoniums, they obtained 90 church bells that had been preserved by the London Fire Service after the Blitz, together with 1,000 hand-bells formerly used by Air Raid Patrol wardens, for use in the new schools they planned to set up. Ancient brass instruments were begged for the new brass band they intended to set up. They organised the building of a chain of rural dispensaries and a new hospital, which was opened in 1945. They organised play schools for their own and local children, and were enthusiastic proponents of literacy campaigns. Joyce and Nelson retired from Nigeria in 1952. Their partnership went on: Nelson continued with his ministry, while Joyce did locums. They developed a method of 'duologues', taking turns to preach. These proved to be very popular and the team were much in demand. A member of the congregation told Nelson, 'My goodness your wife can talk!' It was no news to him. On their return to England Joyce was awarded the MBE in 1952 for her outstanding medical work in Nigeria. Nelson Ludlow died in 1998. Joyce died in Poole on 5 January 2006 at the age of 100.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001250
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Crockett, David John (1923 - 2009)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

by N Alan Green
Publication Date 2011-07-07
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001200-E001299
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373437373437
Occupation Plastic surgeon Plastic and reconstructive surgeon
Details David Crockett contributed greatly to the specialty of plastic surgery in the Sudan and then in Bradford as a consultant surgeon from 1964 until he retired in 1987. A very gifted man, he enjoyed many hobbies during his very busy professional life and was above all a family man. He was born in Northampton on 5 August 1923, the son of Leonard Marshall Crockett, a dental surgeon, and his wife, Eleanor Carol née Baker. Educated first at Winchester House School, Northamptonshire, he completed his school education at Charterhouse. He then went to Trinity Hall, Cambridge, before entering St Thomas' Hospital for his clinical training. In his undergraduate days at Cambridge David took up judo for recreation and this proved beneficial at a later date in the Sudan, where he instructed the Sudanese police in the art of self defence. Qualifying in 1946, he was a casualty officer and house surgeon at St Thomas' before becoming a senior house officer in orthopaedics at Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge, in 1947. He then entered National Service in the RAMC for two years with the rank of captain. Deciding on a surgical career, he undertook a general surgical senior house officer post at St Peter's Hospital, Chertsey, and then demonstrated anatomy at St Thomas' whilst studying for the primary FRCS. Having passed this hurdle, he continued in general surgery as a surgical registrar, first at Tilbury and then Alton, and passed the final FRCS examination. An interest in trauma was kindled at the Birmingham Accident Unit, by which time he was veering towards a career in plastic surgery. No doubt influenced by Douglas Jackson, he studied many aspects of burns. Of his early joint publications, 'Bacteriology of burns treated by exposure', was published in the Lancet in 1954 (ii 1157). He then undertook a research project on oedema and colloid replacement at the Middlesex Hospital from 1955 to 1956. Definitive training in plastic surgery took place at Mount Vernon Hospital, Northwood, from 1956 to 1959. David then accepted a post as a senior lecturer in general surgery at the University of Khartoum, working first with Julian Taylor. He remained in the Sudan for five years before returning to the UK. The time spent in Africa was a productive period, with publications on cancer, keloids and reconstructive procedures. His workload was enormous and his reputation amongst Sudan's medical fraternity was very high. He was an invited lecturer at many conferences of the Sudanese Association of Surgeons, including one held at the time of the celebrations of the 25th anniversary of the foundation of the Kitchener Medical School in 1974, giving a lecture on keloids. Also taking part were three other fellows present as examiners for the overseas primary FRCS (G W Taylor, Ian McColl and N Alan Green) and two working for WHO (Adrian Marston and Ivan Johnston). In 1964 David Crockett and his family returned to the UK, and he became a consultant plastic surgeon at the Bradford Royal Infirmary, St Luke's Hospital and Airedale Hospital. He retired in 1987 after a very full professional life punctuated by conferences in the UK. At St Thomas' Hospital he had met Anne Chalmers, a nurse, whom he married on 7 August 1947 at Quinton, Northamptonshire. As both of Anne's parents had died, David's parents proved very supportive during their courtship and for many years of their happy married life. Anne later trained as a medical social worker at Leeds University and then practised in the Bradford area. They had a family of four: Carolyn Mary, Paul Jonathan Marshall, Georgina Jane and Thurstan David. David and Anne enjoyed many educational and social trips in mainland Europe, the Indian subcontinent and Australasia. For some 18 years they had a bungalow retreat in Mullaghmore, County Sligo, Ireland. They kept a small boat there and enjoyed family holidays sailing, walking in the countryside, bird watching and cataloguing the many orchids that grew in the area. David made a collage of the varieties of orchid he found in Ireland and was very knowledgeable in various facets of natural history. He was a talented landscape painter and, as a creative carpenter, he made tables and chairs to furnish their home and garden. In retirement, David and his brother Clifden Crockett played serious bridge on a regular basis in Northampton, but the more friendly and 'family' variety was played at home with his wife. Snooker with many friends at his house was another form of relaxation. David John Crockett died on 28 June 2009. He had suffered a stroke on 11 June and was nursed at home by Anne with superb help from the local nursing and social services, and also from his granddaughter, Naomi, who had trained as a doctor at Leeds University. He could not speak, but was able to smile and recognised his family until he passed away. He was survived by Anne, their four children and seven grandchildren, Naomi, Tamara, Thomas, Victoria, Hannah, Kathryn and Jonathan.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001254
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Cooper, Bransby Blake (1792 - 1853)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2011-07-21
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001200-E001299
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373445373445
Occupation General surgeon
Details The fourth of the twelve children and the eldest son of the Rev Samuel Levick Cooper, the elder brother of Sir Astley Cooper and grandson of Dr Cooper, Vicar of Great Yarmouth. Born in Great Yarmouth on September 2nd, 1792, he went to school at Bungay under the Rev Robert Page, and afterwards to the Grammar School at Yarmouth. In 1805 he was sent to sea as a midshipman in the Stately (64 guns) by the interest of Admiral Russell, then the Port Admiral at Yarmouth, and was placed under the care and instruction of the first lieutenant, who afterwards became Admiral Fisher. Nostalgia combined with sea-sickness soon made him give up all idea of becoming a sailor, and he was sent to school for the next two years at North Walsham, Norfolk, where the Rev Mr Spurdens was head master. A visit to his uncle, Sir Astley Cooper, led him to desire a medical training, and he entered the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital as a pupil under Edward Rigby and Edward Colman, P M Martineau, who was a brilliant operator, being his teacher in surgery. He came to London in 1811, entered the United Borough Hospitals, lodged with Joseph Hodgson (qv) in King Street, Cheapside, and became his uncle's pupil. On May 20th, 1812, he joined the Ordnance Medical Department as Temporary Assistant Surgeon, becoming 2nd Assistant Surgeon on December 2nd, 1812, and retiring on half pay on April 1st, 1816. During this period he was present at the battles of Vittoria, the Pyrenees, Nivelle, Orthez, and the sieges of St Sebastian and Toulouse. In 1814 he went to Quebec on the secret expedition, and for these services he was decorated. Returning to England in 1815, he found that his brother Henry had been apprenticed to Sir Astley Cooper, and as such apprenticeship usually carried the right of succession at the Hospital, Bransby determined to abandon surgery. He proceeded to Edinburgh with the intention of taking a degree in medicine. During his short residence there he was elected President of the Royal Medical Society of Edinburgh, and married Miss Keeling, a daughter of John Keeling, of Broxbourne, Herts, by whom he had a son who died before his father. Henry Cooper having died unexpectedly of fever in February, 1816, Bransby returned to London, and it was arranged that with his wife he should live in his uncle's house, for Mrs Astley Cooper disliked London and preferred to live in the country house at Gadesbridge. From June, 1818, until 1827 this arrangement was continued to the mutual advantage of uncle and nephew. Bransby assisted in the dissecting-room, where there was a class of 400 students, and in February, 1823, was appointed Demonstrator of Anatomy conjointly with John Flint South (qv) on the resignation of Charles Aston Key (qv). Astley Cooper was ceasing to teach, and it became a part of the duty of the demonstrators to deliver some of the anatomical lectures for him. The appointment of Bransby Cooper was made by Sir Astley Cooper without previous consultation with his colleagues, and brought to a head a long-simmering dissension between the governors of Guy's and St Thomas's Hospital. An acrimonious dispute took place, and it was decided by the autocratic Treasurer - Benjamin Harrison - that Guy's Hospital should be separated from St Thomas's, with which it had hitherto been joined for administrative and teaching purposes. A new medical school thus came into existence and Bransby Cooper took the Chair of Anatomy, was elected Assistant Surgeon in 1825, becoming full Surgeon in the same year, and retaining office until his death in 1853. He lectured on surgery in the medical school and was also Consulting Surgeon to the Western Infirmary. The Lancet of March 29th, 1828, contained a highly sensational description, written by James Lambert, a surgeon in general practice at Walworth, of a lithotomy operation performed by Bransby Cooper in the theatre of Guy's Hospital. The account was written in a most unfriendly spirit, and was indirectly an attack upon Sir Astley Cooper. Bransby Cooper brought an action for libel against Thomas Wakley as proprietor of the Lancet. The trial began at Westminster in the Court of Queen's Bench on Dec. 12th, 1828, and became a cause célèbre in the course of which this squib was quoted:- "When Cooper's 'nevey' cut for stone His toils were long and heavy: The patient quicker parts has shown He soon cut Cooper's 'nevey'." The jury found for Bransby Cooper with damages assessed at £100, but it left a lasting mark upon him, and throughout the remainder of his life he was unduly emotional. He was elected FRS on June 18th, 1829. At the Royal College of Surgeons he was Arris and Gale Professor of Human Anatomy and Surgery from 1841-1845, a Member of the Council 1848-1853, and Hunterian Orator in 1853. He died suddenly in the Athenaeum Club on August 18th, 1853, from a large haemorrhage due to ulceration at the base of the tongue, and was buried at St Martin's-in-the-Fields. There is a fine portrait by Eddis which was engraved by Simmonds. A copy of the mezzotint hangs in the Library of the Royal College of Surgeons. There is also a lithograph by J Bizo. Bransby Cooper paid the penalty of his relationship to Sir Astley Cooper, whom he idolized. He would perhaps have done better, and he would certainly have been happier, had he remained an army surgeon. He was warm-hearted, sympathetic, and jocular, but had little confidence in himself. He never had a large practice, and towards the end of his life interested himself in the chemistry of the human body, analysing animal fluids and calculi. As a man he was well made, muscular, a good oarsman and pugilist, and a good shot. It is told of him that, when Demonstrator of Anatomy, he came to the rescue of his pupils during a fight between St Bartholomew's and Guy's, and thrashed the enemy. On another occasion he was unable to operate because he had rowed himself from Westminster Bridge to the Hospital and felt his hand was unsteady. He was beloved of his pupils and was never referred to otherwise than as Bransby. Publications: *A Treatise on Ligaments*, 4to, 18 plates, fol., 1825; 2nd ed., London, 1827; 4th ed., 1836. In this work Cooper is said to have discovered more ligaments than actually exist. *Lectures on Anatomy, interspersed with Practical Remarks*, 4 vols., 8vo, 13 plates, London (published by the author), 1829-32 ; again, London, 1830-5. This work is said to have been the first in this country to contain lithographs. *The Anatomy of the Human Bones*, comprised in a series of lithographic drawings carefully taken from nature and arranged for the purpose of illustrating the Lecture, by Henry J. Shrapnell, fol., 30 plates, London, 1833. *Surgical Essays; the Result of Clinical Observations made at Guy's Hospital*, 8vo, 4 plates, London, 1833; republished in German at Weimar in 1837. *The Life of Sir Astley Cooper, interspersed with sketches from his Notebooks of Distinguished Contemporary Characters*, 2 vols., 8vo, a portrait, London, 1843. This is an unbalanced work, which might have been turned into a philosophical history of contemporary surgery as well as of a great surgeon's career. *Lectures on Osteology, including the Ligaments which connect the Bones of the Human Skeleton*, 8vo, 10 plates, London, 1844. "Observations on Lithotomy," 8vo, nd; reprinted from *Guy's Hosp Rep*, 1843 and 1844, N.S. i and ii. "On the Pathology and Treatment of Fracture of the Neck of the Thigh Bone," 8vo, London, 1845; reprinted from *Guy's Hosp Rep*, to which at different times Cooper contributed a large number of papers. *Lectures on the Principles and Practice of Surgery*, 8vo, London, 1851; reprinted in Philadelphia, 1852. *The Hunterian Oration, delivered at the Royal College of Surgeons, February 14th*, 1853, 8vo, London, 1853. The Oration is said to have been a great failure, and the auditors were sorry for the Orator as, like all his distinguished family, he was a great favourite. Cooper also edited Sir Astley Cooper's *Treatise on Dislocations*, "with additional observations and a memoir," 8vo, 1842. (Philadelphia and also Boston, 1844. Published also by the Massachusetts Medical Society in the "Library of Practical Medicine").
Resource Identifier RCS: E001262
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Cotes, Charles Edward Henry (1860 - 1893)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

First Title value, for Searching Cotterell, Edward (1857 - 1898)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

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

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

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

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

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

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

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

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

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

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

First Title value, for Searching Cox, Charles Lindsey (1813 - 1886)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

First Title value, for Searching Janikoun, Samuel Hirsch (1913 - 2008)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

by Norman Kirby
Publication Date 2011-08-25
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001300-E001399
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373491373491
Occupation General surgeon
Details Samuel Hirsch Janikoun was joint professor of the Royal College of Surgeons of England and the Royal Army Medical College. He was born in the East End of London on 12 March 1913 into a Jewish family. He won a scholarship to Hackney Downs Grammar School and from there went on to University College London to read medicine, qualifying MRCS LRCP in 1937. During the Second World War he first treated war casualties in a civilian hospital in Croydon. In 1942 he joined the RAMC as a surgical trainee and was posted to the Cambridge Military Hospital in Aldershot. The following year he was sent on an urgent mission as a senior medical officer on board HMS Orion with reinforcements to North Africa. On his return from this mission he was posted to 33 Casualty Clearing Station as a junior surgical specialist training for the invasion of Europe in 1944. He went on to serve in France, Holland, Belgium and Germany, operating on shattered limbs in tents behind the front line. He subsequently moved to India in January 1945, serving in Secunderabad and Barrackpore as a senior surgical specialist until he was discharged in June 1946. On demobilisation, he became a resident surgical officer at Acton Hospital and passed his FRCS in 1950. He rejoined the RAMC in 1955. His initial posting on returning to the service was as officer in charge of the surgical division at BMH Catterick. With the intensity of action in Malaya, the Far East troops were reinforced and he was posted to BMH Singapore, qualifying for the general service medal with the Malayan clasp. On his return to the UK in 1960 he became the senior consultant at Queen Alexandra's Military Hospital, Millbank, the central reference hospital for Army patients from home and abroad. Here he gave tremendous support to UK surgeons. If they had difficult cases he would readily give second opinions and advice, and on many occasions accepted the patient on transfer. This was an invaluable service. After six years he returned to the BMH Singapore for a short tour before his appointment as professor of military surgery based at the Army Medical College, but he soon re-established his consulting role at Queen Alexandra's Military Hospital, Millbank. In 1967 he was promoted to brigadier as the command consulting surgeon at the headquarters of the British Army of the Rhine, Rheindahlen, Germany. He retired on 12 March 1973 and was soon appointed as a consultant surgeon at the limb fitting centre at Queen Mary's Hospital, Roehampton. He extended this service, taking on not only the cases from the Far East and Northern Ireland, but also the large numbers of patients from the Second Wold War who needed regular reviews as the grew older. He also gave a large amount of time and consultation to the Israel Army wounded when he was on leave. He was given a special tea party for his 90th birthday attended by his extended family and friends. The director general of the RAMC held a special lunch in his honour at the headquarters mess of the Army Medical Services, attended by many retired surgical colleagues. His wife Magaly, who was a dental student when they met, predeceased him after nearly 60 years of marriage. He died on 15 December 2008 and was survived by two sons and two daughters.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001308
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Craigie, John Livingston (1814 - 1864)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2011-08-26
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001300-E001399
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373493373493
Occupation General surgeon
Details Received his medical education at the London Hospital, where he was afterwards for some time Lecturer on Dental Surgery. He practised at 42 Finsbury Square, EC, and died at The Woodlands, Chigwell, Essex, on January 14th, 1864.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001310
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Hill, David William (1926 - 2008)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

by Enid Taylor
Publication Date 2011-08-26
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001300-E001399
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373494373494
Occupation Ophthalmologist
Details David William Hill was research professor in ophthalmology at the Royal College of Surgeons and a consultant ophthalmologist at Moorfields Hospital, London. He was born on 5 May 1926 in Croydon, Surrey, the son of a bank manager and a housewife. He attended Whitgift School, Croydon, before becoming a medical student at St Bartholomew's Hospital, qualifying in 1948. After house jobs at St Bartholomew's, he began training in ophthalmology at Brighton Eye Hospital. He did his National Service in the RAMC, serving in Austria and Trieste, and was the sole ophthalmic trained doctor in this area. He was then appointed as an ophthalmic surgeon to Edgware General Hospital and to a research post at Hammersmith Hospital. He subsequently became research professor in ophthalmology in our College in 1967, his research covering retinal circulation and diabetic retinopathy. At the same time he was appointed as a consultant ophthalmic surgeon to Moorfields Eye Hospital, where he continued his clinical work with a special interest in cataract surgery. He examined for the Royal College of Surgeons and also worked with the Royal National Institute for the Blind. He married Jean Adams, who was a part-time general practitioner and taught and examined in first aid. They had three children, one daughter qualifying as a doctor. There are eight grandchildren. After retirement in 1991 he was able to devote more time to the church as a lay reader and sacristan. He was keen on mountain walking, climbed the Matterhorn twice, and also found time to pursue his other interests of carpentry, bird watching and classical music. Sadly in April 2006 he suffered a stroke and died on 5 February 2008. He was survived by his wife Jean, their children and grandchildren.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001311
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Watts, John Cadman (1913 - 2010)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

by Norman Kirby
Publication Date 2011-08-26
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001300-E001399
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373495373495
Occupation General surgeon
Details Colonel John Watts was the first joint professor of military surgery of the Royal College of Surgeons of England and the Royal Army Medical College, a post he held from 1960 to 1964. Watts was born on 13 April 1913 at Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, the only child of John Nixon Watts, a solicitor, and the Honorable Amy Bettina Watts née Cadman, a teacher. He was educated at Alleyn Court Preparatory School and Merchant Taylors' School, where he joined the Officer Training Corps. His medical career started at St Thomas' Hospital, London. Here he joined 'Mitchener's Army' in the University of London Officer Training Corps. Phillip Henry Mitchener was one of the most colourful figures in surgery and a consultant surgeon to St Thomas' Hospital. John, his house surgeon, asked him for career advice. He was advised to join the RAMC as war was imminent, and in February 1938 he did. In the run up to the Second World War, Watts served in Palestine with the Black Watch, and then with the No 8 General Hospital. Between 1942 and 1944, he was officer in charge of 41 Field Surgical Unit, in Italy. With the surgeon Robert Stephens, Watts developed field surgical teams for war. On D-day he took an airlanding field surgical team by glider to Normandy and operated under fire for several weeks. On seeing the red cross, one of the defending German soldiers attended his unit with a wound he had sustained on the Russian front which had broken down - this was properly treated and the patient evacuated. After several months, the lightly equipped field surgical team returned to the UK to prepare for the airborne Rhine crossing, by which time John had been promoted to deputy assistant director of medical services. For his gallant actions in these battles he was awarded the Military Cross and was mentioned in despatches. He was promoted to command 225 Parachute Field Ambulance, which, after training in UK in July 1945, went to South East Asia. He was again mentioned in despatches. In 1946, in command of 195 Parachute Field Ambulance, he returned to Palestine and was awarded the third clasp. After a spell at the RAMC College, Millbank, he became officer in command of the surgical division in the British Commonwealth Hospital in Korea and Japan. He wrote articles on the treatment of war wounds and of frostbite in Korea. Returning to the Cambridge Military Hospital in Aldershot, adjacent to the Airborne Forces Depot, he maintained his expertise in the treatment of parachute injuries. He later went to Cyprus at the start of the EOKA campaign, the nationalist struggle to end British rule, as officer in charge of the surgical division at the military hospital in Nicosia and later Dhekelia. During the Suez campaign, he was able to train another parachute field surgical team for the 3 Para drop on El Gamil airfield in November 1956. The EOKA campaign resulted in 704 British casualties and these were reviewed by Watts and presented to the RCS in his Hunterian Lecture, in January 1960. After a short tour at Iserlohn with the British Army of the Rhine, in February 1960, he was appointed as the first joint professor of military surgery of the Royal College of Surgeons of England and the Royal Army Medical College and was promoted to colonel. Retiring from the Army in 1965, he was appointed as a consultant in trauma and orthopaedics at Bedford General Hospital. He was a senior fellow of British Orthopaedic Association. In 1955 he published *Surgeon at war* (Allen & Unwin), which described his many adventures at war, but also expressed the many principles of war surgery that he had learnt and taught. Watts retired from the NHS in1976 and moved to Suffolk, where he could enjoy his lifelong passion of sailing the tidal waters of East Anglia. In 1938 he married Joan Lilian Inwood, a nurse. They had a daughter, Stephanie Carol, and three sons (John Michael, Jeremy Christopher and Richard Charles). His wife and one son predeceased him. John Cadman Watts died on 17 December 2010.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001312
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Rogers, Norman Charles (1916 - 2011)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

by Norman Kirby
Publication Date 2011-08-26 2011-09-01
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001300-E001399
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373497373497
Occupation Accident and emergency surgeon General surgeon
Details Major General Norman Rogers was the director of Army surgery, and during his career encouraged the training of Army surgeons and the study of military wounding at the research establishment at Porton Down. He was born on 14 October 1916 in Long Acre, central London, the only child of Charles William Rogers, a wing commander in the RAF, and Edith Minnie née Weaver. He was initially educated at Mostyn House School in Cheshire, but, with his father's posting to Egypt, he moved to Victoria College, Alexandria. Finally, he was schooled at Imperial Service College, Windsor. He then studied medicine at St Bartholomew's Hospital, where he was awarded the Brackenbury scholarship in surgery. Immediately on qualifying, he volunteered to join the Royal Army Medical Corps and was soon posted to join the British Expeditionary Force in France, Belgium and eventually the beaches of Dunkirk, from where he was evacuated to the UK. For his work with the wounded at Dunkirk he received his first mention in despatches. In 1941 he joined the 4th Royal Tank Regiment and served in North Africa, Tobruk, and the battle of Gazala. During this battle they were surrounded and came under heavy shellfire. When the crew of an anti-tank gun was hit, Rogers collected the wounded in his truck and, whilst moving them to the field ambulance, he was intercepted by a German armoured car and taken prisoner. He was sent to a prisoner of war camp in northern Italy at Fontanellato near Parma. In this camp were 600 prisoners with a wide variety of characters and abilities. He wrote that there seemed to be experts on everything from physics to forgery, and the personalities ranged from the straight laced to the raffish. The student could learn fascinating details about low-life east of Suez or the Danish system of pig farming. He also was involved in a discussion with an Italian doctor about whether the novel *Don Quixote* is a comedy or a tragedy: later he was able to discuss the same problem with his grand-daughter when she was studying the same book at university. In September 1943, after the Italian Armistice, the camp commandant opened the gates and allowed the prisoners to march out. Norman joined up with Captain Arthur Jones, later an MP, and they decided to walk south to meet the Allied Forces who were 400 miles away near Naples, they believed. Other prisoners, Eric Newby and Richard Carver, the stepson of Field Marshal Montgomery, made the same walk and wrote books about it. Norman and Arthur skirted La Spezia, crossed the river Arno east of Florence and trekked along the Appennine ranges. They used sheep tracks, knocked on the doors of isolated houses of shepherds and peasants. They slept in barns and dodged the German patrols who were furiously seeking the escapees. The Italians fed, sheltered and sometimes clothed them. However poor they were, they always shared with them what little they had. They were voluble, occasionally unreliable, but generous, kind and brave. As they approached the Volturno river, near Venafro, the Germans were establishing a new defensive line and blowing things up. At Raviscanina the village was empty - they were in no-mans land. There was a castle on the high ground being shelled. As they went towards it along a narrow alleyway, an old woman shouted at them - the path was mined and had killed a boy the night before. Following in her footsteps, they got through the minefield and reached the crest. They were eventually met by an astonished GI of the 36th Texas Division. Rogers considered that they had covered 400 miles as the crow flies, but his maps and diary indicated that the tortuous route they had actually walked had taken them more than twice the distance. They gave the Americans a lot of useful information, but then were moved under armed escort to a British intelligence officer for more debriefing. They were flown to Algiers and then repatriated on a troopship. Norman woke his parents at dawn on Christmas Eve. He was later mentioned in despatches for the second time. He then wrote his personal diary of his escape - it was for his family, not for publishing. In June 1944 he was the resident medical officer of the 1st Battalion of the Black Watch in the Normandy landing and served in North West Europe. He was wounded in the leg and evacuated to the UK. After surgery, he rejoined his regiment and served with them to the end of the war. He was mentioned in despatches for a third time. On 31 March 1945 he was released, unemployed, from the Army. His experience of treating battle casualties during the Second World War led to his desire to become a surgeon. Following his demobilisation, he commenced training in surgery, starting as a house surgeon at Bart's and then as a casualty and surgical registrar in Norwich hospitals. He passed his FRCS in November 1949 and was subsequently appointed as a senior registrar at the Birmingham United Hospitals in 1952. It was there that he met and married Pamela Marion Rose, a doctor, in 1954. They had three children, Charles, now a car designer, Emma, a dentist, wife and mother, and Richard, a consultant paediatric anaesthetist at the John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford. He rejoined the RAMC in 1956 and was soon designated a consultant and officer in charge of the surgical divisions at the British Military Hospitals in Chester, Dhekelia in Cyprus, Catterick in the UK and Iserlohn in Germany. He was promoted to brigadier and appointed as a consultant surgeon to the British Army of the Rhine in 1967. In 1969 he was appointed as the director of Army surgery and honorary surgeon to the Queen. He was promoted to major general on 23 March 1969 and retired from the Army in May 1973. Returning to the NHS, he became the consultant in the accident and emergency department at Guy's Hospital, London, and was soon appointed as clinical superintendent, dealing with the many changes to which the NHS is subject. On retirement from his distinguished career at Guy's, he returned to the Army as a civilian consultant surgeon at the British Military Hospital at Iserlohn in Germany. His main hobbies were gardening and walking, and he loved the countryside. But his abiding love was books. His knowledge of history, both military and political, was enormous. He finally retired to Kidlington, and became a familiar figure to residents, walking into the village every morning to collect his paper. A religious man, he attended St Mary's in Kidlington every week until his last illness. He died from porocarcinoma on 19 February 2011. He was survived by his wife Pamela, their three children and five grandchildren. At his funeral, his grand-daughter, Ruthie, gave a eulogy, emphasising how grateful he had been for the kindness and generosity of the Italian peasants during his trek across Italy. It was 'the most important lesson that he wanted his family to learn from his experience'.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001314
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Craven, Sir Robert Martin (1824 - 1903)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2011-09-02
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001300-E001399
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373502373502
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born in Hull on March 12th, 1824. He came of a family distinguished professionally and as prominent citizens in his native town. His grandfather, Robert Martin Craven (the first), was born on November 11th, 1770 (St Martin's Day), and began to practise in Hull in 1794. He was Sheriff of Hull in 1822, carried on practice as Robert M Craven and Son, and died in 1859. The name Craven was borne by Sir William Craven (1548-1618?), Lord Mayor of London, whose eldest son, William Earl of Craven (1606-1697), was the soldier, and his second son, John, the founder of the Craven Scholarships at Oxford and Cambridge. Robert Martin Craven (the second) was educated at Kingston College, Hull, and received his professional training at the Hull General Infirmary, the Hull Medical School, and at St Bartholomew's Hospital and School, where Lawrence, Paget, Skey, and Stanley were amongst his most distinguished teachers. Later he pursued his studies in various Paris hospitals. He practised in Hull in partnership with his father and was elected Hon Surgeon to the Hull Infirmary (October 8th, 1852), having previously, during five years, acted as Dresser there under his father. He was for twenty years an admirable Lecturer on Anatomy and Physiology in the Hull Medical School, which was dissolved in September, 1870. He was during the same time Secretary to the School. In 1876 he made his wife and six children Life Governors of the Hull Infirmary, and in August, 1886, one of the wards was named 'The Craven Ward' in recognition of the eminent services rendered to the institution by three generations of Cravens. In 1878 he was elected Sheriff of Hull, and in the following year he was made a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons, Edinburgh. His election to the Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons of England took place more than ten years later. He was admitted to the freedom of the Society of Apothecaries, London, on Oct 14th, 1890. In 1892 he resigned his position as Hon Surgeon to the Hull Royal Infirmary after forty years' tenure of office, when he was presented with a testimonial and appointed Consulting Surgeon. He also became a member of the Board of Management. In March, 1894, he was elected Consulting Surgeon to the Hull Women's and the Orthopaedic Hospitals. He was twice President of the Hull and East Riding and North Lincolnshire Branch of the British Medical Association, and in 1891-1892 he was President of the Hull Medico-Ethical Society. He took a considerable part in the political and social life of what he loved to refer to as 'my town'. His knighthood, which was conferred on him in 1896, was much appreciated by his fellow-citizens. Sir Robert was a most familiar figure at the Royal College of Surgeons, his striking and rugged head, with its thick white hair, being conspicuous at Hunterian Orations and elections of Fellows when personal attendance was necessary. His loud voice with a strong Yorkshire accent revealed his presence in every assembly. On stepping from his cab in front of the College, one or other of the porters would run out with a judicious "Good day, Sir Robert". "Ah, you're glad to see me, then," would come the reply. A pourboire of half-a-crown invariably followed, so that there was keen competition for the honour of opening the door of the cab. He died at his residence, 13 and 14 Albion Street, Hull, on November 15th, 1903, and was buried in the Hull General Cemetery. Sir Robert Craven was twice married: (1) in 1853 to Jane, daughter of William Ward, a shipowner of Hull, and (2) in 1859 to Mary, daughter of Robert Welsh, Writer to the Signet, Edinburgh. This lady was a descendant of John Knox, and first cousin to Jane Welsh Carlyle. By the first marriage there was born to him one son, and by the second five daughters. His second wife died in 1885. His portrait - an admirable one, from the *Scalpel*, 1896, i - is in the College Collection. Publications: Sir Robert Craven was an occasional contributor to the medical journals. "His first contributions", says the Scalpel biography, "were published in 1868 by Christopher Heath, FRCS, in his work on *Injuries and Diseases of the Jaw* (Jacksonian Essay, 1867)."
Resource Identifier RCS: E001319
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Crawford, Henry ( - 1872)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

First Title value, for Searching Creed, George (1798 - 1868)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2011-09-02 2022-10-03
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001300-E001399
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373504373504
Occupation General surgeon
Details Educated at St George's Hospital. He was Surgeon to the West Suffolk Militia in 1824 and at one time Surgeon to the Suffolk General Hospital. He died at Bury St Edmunds, where he had practised, in 1868. **See below for an expanded version of the original obituary which was printed in volume 1 of Plarr’s Lives of the Fellows. Please contact the library if you would like more information lives@rcseng.ac.uk** George Creed was a general surgeon in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk. He was born in Bury St Edmunds, the son of John Stephens Creed, a surgeon, and Emilia Creed née Herring on 18 December 1798. Creed’s twin brother Henry went on to become the rector of Mellis in Suffolk. He attended King Edward VI Free Grammar School in Bury, left before 1817 and became apprenticed to his father. He later studied at St George’s Hospital in London. He gained his MRCS in 1821 and the licentiate of the Society of Apothecaries in 1822. He went on to become a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England in 1844. He was a surgeon at Suffolk General Hospital in Bury St Edmunds from 1825 to 1847 and a surgeon in the West Suffolk Militia for 44 years. In 1828 he used the skin of the notorious murderer William Corder to bind an account of his trial. The book includes an inscription: ‘The binding of this book is the skin of the murderer William Corder taken from his body and tanned by myself in the year 1828. George Creed Surgeon to the Suffolk Hospital.’ Creed was also a farmer, first at Boarhunt Farm, Fareham, Hampshire, where he farmed 472 acres and employed 24 labourers, and later at Hall Farm, Great Whelnetham, Suffolk. He was a magistrate, a trustee of the Guildhall Feoffment, which provided almshouses, and a free burgess of Bury St Edmunds. He was mayor of Bury St Edmunds in 1839. He was married to Louisa (née Powell). They had no children. He died at his home in Albert Street, Bury St Edmunds, on 28 November 1868 just before his 70th birthday. Sarah Gillam
Resource Identifier RCS: E001321
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Crellin, Frederick (1801 - 1860)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

First Title value, for Searching Cretin, Eugene (1851 - 1908)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2011-09-02 2013-08-07
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001300-E001399
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373507373507
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born in Mauritius on January 6th, 1851, and was educated at St Bartholomew's Hospital, where he gained the Senior Scholarship in Anatomy, Physiology, and Chemistry in 1872-1878; the Brackenbury Scholarship in Surgery in 1873-1874; and the Lawrence Scholarship and Gold Medal in the same session. He acted for a year as House Surgeon and then proceeded to Netley, where he won the Martin Memorial Gold Medal. His determination to enter the Indian Medical Service was perhaps fostered by a eulogistic communication by M C Furnell (qv) which appeared in the *St Bartholomew's Hospital Reports* (1870, vi, 138) soon after he entered the hospital. He entered the Bengal Army as Surgeon on March 30th, 1878; was promoted Surgeon Major on March 30th, 1890, and Lieutenant-Colonel on March 30th, 1898. He saw active service in the Afghanistan campaign of 1880 and was present at the action on Gara Heights and at the operations in the Hisarak District (Medal). He served in Burma (1885-1887), being in the operations of the 2nd and 5th Brigades (Medal and Clasp). He also took part in the Dongola Expedition (Sudan), for which he received a medal and the Khedive's medal, and on the North-West Frontier at Tochi in 1897-1898 (Medal with Clasp). He retired on December 31st, 1905, and died at Felstead in Essex on September 10th, 1908.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001324
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Crew, William Thomas (1854 - 1892)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

First Title value, for Searching Cridland, Arthur John ( - 1860)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

First Title value, for Searching Cripps, William Harrison (1850 - 1923)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2011-09-02
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001300-E001399
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373510373510
Occupation General surgeon
Details The second of three sons of Henry William Cripps, QC, sometime Recorder of Lichfield, and Julia, the eldest daughter of Charles Lawrence and niece of Sir William Lawrence (qv). His eldest brother, Henry, was a prominent member of the Parliamentary Bar, and his younger brother was created Lord Parmoor. A bad attack of scarlet fever left Harrison Cripps a weakly boy for many years and unable to go to school. He was placed under the care of a private tutor, and encouraged to take open-air exercise. Perhaps it was then he developed a taste for 'shootin' and fishin'', as he used to call it, which lasted the length of his life. His connection with the Lawrence family brought him naturally to St Bartholomew's Hospital, which he entered about 1868 or 1869. Immediately after qualification in 1872 he became House Surgeon to Thomas Smith (qv). Later he was an Assistant Demonstrator of Anatomy in the Medical School, which post he held till 1879, when he was appointed Surgical Registrar. In 1882 he was elected Assistant Surgeon to St Bartholomew's Hospital, having previously contested an election in which he was beaten by W J Walsham (qv). From 1880 to 1890 he served as Surgeon to the Great Northern Hospital and the Royal Free Hospital, but the bulk of his work was done at St Bartholomew's. In 1876 he gained the Jacksonian Prize of the Royal College of Surgeons for his essay on "The Treatment of Cancer of the Rectum, particularly as regards the possibility of Curing or Relieving the Patient by Excision of the Affected Part". This essay marked Cripps as a coming man, and he made his name as a rectal specialist, an abdominal surgeon, and a teacher. He attained the zenith of his fame both as an operator and as a teacher during the long period of twenty years for which he was Assistant Surgeon. He was at his best in the out-patient room, where twice a week he held a class, in which the students sat round him in a ring - and woe betide the man who was late! Thirty years have scarcely dimmed the memory of those classes, in which Cripps taught with dogmatism, enlivened by caustic wit and shrewd thrusts. The capacity he had for saying sharp and clever things often gave offence, and earned for him a reputation for cynicism which was hardly deserved. Cripps was a man who liked not to let his left hand know what his right hand did, and his alms were in secret. In 1892, while still an Assistant Surgeon, he was appointed Surgeon to the Gynaecological Wards, then under the charge of Sir Francis Champneys, who did not undertake abdominal operations. This work was dear to Cripps's heart, and he appeared to prefer it to his general surgical work. As a rectal surgeon credit is due to Cripps for his advocacy of colostomy, both as a palliative and as a preliminary measure to the extensive perineal and trans-sacral excision of the rectum which he favoured. As an operator he was quick, neat, and clean, and for many years he was the only surgeon at his hospital who made a complete change of clothes before operating. In January, 1902, he was elected Surgeon to St Bartholomew's Hospital on the retirement of Alfred Willett (qv). His long service in the out-patient room may have exhausted his energies, for though he did his routine work, it cannot be said that, as a full Surgeon, he increased the reputation he had already made. He retired in 1909, when he was elected Consulting Surgeon and a Governor of the Hospital. He was elected to the Council of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1909, served as a Member till 1920, and was Vice-President in 1918 and 1919. He served on the Finance Committee, where his business acumen was of great assistance, for he took an active part in the negotiations which led to the transference of the Examination Hall from the Embankment to Queen's Square. His business capacity had already brought Cripps a considerable sum of money, for he realized early the capabilities of electrical enterprise and he bought founders' shares in the Metropolitan Electric Supply Company, of which he became Chairman. A considerable portion of this company was purchased by the St Marylebone Borough Council, and Cripps reaped the reward of his foresight. He lived for many years at 2 Stratford Place, W, and for some time rented Abbotsford, the home of Sir Walter Scott. In later years he bought a large estate at Glendarnel in Argyllshire, where he could get the sport he loved and where it gave him the greatest pleasure to entertain his friends. He married twice. His first wife was Blanche, daughter of Richard Potter, of Standish, Gloucestershire; she was one of nine sisters, one of whom married Lord Parmoor and one became Mrs Sidney Webb. By her he had three sons and two daughters. One son, Lawrence, entered the medical profession. His second wife was Signorina Julia Ravogli, a well-known Italian *prima donna*, who survived him. He died on November 8th, 1923, at his London residence, at the age of 73.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001327
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Davey, William Wilkin (1912 - 2004)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

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/372234372234
Occupation General surgeon
Details Will Davey wrote the first textbook on surgery in tropical countries. He was born on 28 February 1912 in Dunmurry, near Belfast, in Northern Ireland. His father, Robert, was a minister of religion. His mother was Charlotte née Higginson. One of a family of five, he studied medicine at Queens University, graduating in 1935. During his studies his mother gave him a copy of *For sinners only*, which led to his involvement in Moral Rearmament, an international movement for moral and spiritual renewal. During the second world war he joined up, but was given time to complete his exams, and became a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland. He was then assigned to the RAF as a medical officer to a number of operational squadrons. In early 1944 he was part of a medical team assisting the Normandy landings. After the war he trained in gastroenterology at St James's Hospital, Balham, and subsequently became a consultant at the Whittington Hospital, where he ran a gastroenterological unit covering the whole northern area of London. In 1958 he was a Hunterian professor at the College. He ran courses to prepare students for the FRCS. His skills as a teacher led to an invitation from London University to go to Nigeria to become professor of surgery at University College, Ibadan, an offshoot of the British University. The first 14 doctors ever to graduate in Nigeria were among his students. Returning to London, Will wrote *Companion to surgery in Africa, etc*, (Edinburgh and London, E & S Livingstone, 1968), the first textbook on surgery for tropical countries. In 1969 he decided to settle in Australia, and set up as a surgeon in general practice in Portland, where he was also the port and quarantine officer, and medical officer to the town's large meatworks. In his later years he made several visits to India and four to Papua New Guinea, where he was pleased to find his book on tropical surgery being used. He was a past President of the Australian Provincial Surgeons Association. He retired in 1984. He played tennis into his 80s, took on computers at 90 and, latterly, the intricacies of digital cameras. He married Gill née Taylor in Reading, in 1950, after meeting her in the hospital laboratory where she worked. They had five children, ten grandchildren and a great grandson. He died on 30 May 2004 in Altona in Melbourne, Australia.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000047
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

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 Young, Terence Willifer (1931 - 2003)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

First Title value, for Searching Connell, Anthea Mary Stewart (1925 - 2003)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

by Enid Taylor
Publication Date 2005-11-02 2008-12-12
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/372333372333
Occupation Ophthalmic surgeon
Details Anthea Mary Stewart Connell was a senior ophthalmic consultant at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Barbados, from 1969 to 1996. She was born on 21 October 1925, the daughter of two medical doctors. Her father, John S M Connell, was a surgeon and gynaecologist and had served as a colonel in the RAMC on wartime hospital ships. Her mother, Constance B Challis, had trained at Cambridge and the University of Birmingham Medical School, and became a public health doctor. Anthea was educated at Edgbaston High School, before moving to City Park Collegiate Institute, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, and then to the University of Saskatchewan, Canada. She completed her medical education at the University of Birmingham Medical School, qualifying in 1952. Her ophthalmic training was at Moorfields Eye Hospital, London, firstly as a resident, then as a registrar and subsequently as a senior registrar/first assistant in joint appointments at Moorfields, Guy’s Hospital and the London Hospital. In 1969 she moved to Barbados as a senior consultant and head of the department of ophthalmology and assistant lecturer at the University of West Indies until 1991. She initiated the Barbados Eye Study and was its director from 1987 to 1996. This group investigated glaucoma in the Barbadian population and founded the Inter-Island Eye Service. Although living in Barbados, she held courses and organised diploma of ophthalmology examinations in the Caribbean, which were recognised by the Royal College of Surgeons. She was also a fellow of the American Academy of Ophthalmology, giving presentations at their annual meetings. She wrote extensively, covering her work and research in Barbados and the islands. In 1963 she married George E P Dowglass, a master of wine, who was a wine merchant. They had one child, Charlotte, born in 1965, who became financial director to Hampton Court Palace and the Tower of London. Anthea supported the local community, was chairman of the local Conservative Policy Forum, and enjoyed painting in oil and acrylic, showing her work both locally and in London. She died on 23 September 2003 after a long series of strokes.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000146
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Croft, John (1833 - 1905)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

First Title value, for Searching Richmond, David Alan (1912 - 2003)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

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/372335372335
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon
Details David Richmond was an orthopaedic surgeon in Burnley. He was born on 1 September 1912 in Stockport, where his father, George, was Manchester’s last private Royal Mail contractor. His mother was Edith Lilian née Hitchin. He was educated at Stockport Grammar School and went up to University of Manchester to read medicine. In 1933 he was awarded a BSc in anatomy and physiology and won the Dickinson scholarship in anatomy. On qualifying he won the Dumville surgical prize and the surgical clinical prize. He was captain of the lacrosse university team and was presented to the Duke of York, later King George V. After qualifying, he was house surgeon and demonstrator in anatomy at Manchester Royal Infirmary, and then became registrar to H H Rayner and Sir Harry Platt. From 1940 to 1946 he was a surgeon in the EMS Hospital at Conishead Priory under the supervision of T P McMurray and I D Kitchin, and was involved in the treatment of many casualties. After the war he went with his family to work as a surgeon to a general practice in Stratford, North Island, New Zealand, which proved to be a low point in his career. The family returned to England in 1947, when he joined the RAMC as an orthopaedic specialist with the rank of Major, and served in Malaya and Japan. Whilst in Japan he worked in the American Military Hospital in Tokyo with several reputed American surgeons. He returned to England in 1949 as first assistant to I D Kitchin at Lancaster Royal Infirmary. In 1950 he was appointed consultant orthopaedic surgeon in Burnley with the task of setting up an orthopaedic and trauma service where none had previously existed. This soon proved to be a success and he was joined by two other consultant colleagues. In 1960 he won a WHO travelling fellowship to work with Carl Hirsch in Sweden, and later his special interest in the surgery of the hand took him to the United States for several sabbaticals. In Burnley he was a respected member of the medical community, branch President of the BMA, and devoted much time to training junior medical staff and students, who remembered his freshly cut rose buttonhole. He married Eira Osterstock, a theatre sister, in 1939, and they had one son William David Richmond, a surgeon and a fellow of the College, and one daughter, Jennifer, who became a nurse. He retired in 1977 and the following year moved to Gatehouse of Fleet in Dumfries and Galloway, where he could devote himself to gardening and walking. Eira predeceased him in 1983 and he learned to cook and continued to be active in the Gatehouse Music Society. In 1996 he moved to Suffolk to be near his daughter, but began to develop signs of a progressive debilitating illness, from which he died on 9 August 2003.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000148
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Riden, Donald Keith (1959 - 2005)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-11-02 2006-12-21
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/372336372336
Occupation Oral and maxillofacial surgeon
Details Surgeon Commander Donald Keith Riden RN was born in Liverpool on 5 May 1959, the son of Alfred Donald and Mavis Irene Riden. He attended West Derby Comprehensive School in Liverpool from 1970 to 1977, and then went on to study dentistry at King’s College Dental School, winning the Wellcome award in pharmacology and therapeutics in 1980 and the annual oral surgery prize in 1981. With an increasing interest in oral and maxillofacial surgery, which had developed from his early days at dental school, he entered Southampton University Medical School in 1984, qualifying in 1988. Serving in the Royal Navy, he undertook his house surgeon appointments in urology, orthopaedics, general surgery and accident and emergency at the Royal Naval Hospital, Haslar. He had short appointments in endocrinology at Southampton General Hospital and in general surgery at the Royal Naval Hospital, Plymouth. After an ENT job at RNH Haslar, he returned to RNH Plymouth to start his oral and maxillofacial training, becoming a registrar in October 1993 and gaining his FDS in 1994. Subsequently he entered the south west specialist registrar rotation in Plymouth, Frenchay, Southmead and Bristol Royal Infirmary from 1994 to 1999. As is customary with RN medical officers, he saw service overseas and at sea, serving in Gibraltar, on HMS *Tamar* (Hong Kong), HMS *Ariadne*, HMS *Minerva*, HMS *Nelson* and HMS *Illustrious*. He was on active service in Kosovo from 2000 to 2001. He loved to travel, particularly in the Far East and was able to serve in Hong Kong, China and India as a visiting registrar. He was awarded consultant status by the Defence Medical Service Consultant Approval Board of the College in 2000. His first posting as consultant oral and maxillofacial surgeon and postgraduate clinical tutor was to RNH *Haslar*. In 2003 he was appointed to the Joint Services Hospital, the Princess Mary Hospital, RAF Akrotiri, Cyprus, where he remained until illness intervened. He published papers on dental pain and, during his training rotation, wrote *Key topics in oral and maxillofacial surgery* (Oxford, Bios Scientific, 1998) and contributed to the UK national third molar audit in 1998. In his later years he honed his skills as both a facial trauma and head and neck cancer specialist, developing techniques for facial reconstruction and neck dissections. He was a particularly good teacher of house officers and SHOs, and enormously enjoyed this role. He thoroughly enjoyed his time in the Royal Navy, especially on overseas deployments. He had a lifelong interest in music and was a lover of classical music and opera. He was an accomplished classical guitar player. He regularly sang with a variety of groups, choral unions and barbershop, and was a member of Portsmouth Choral Union, Solent City Barbershop Club and Island Blend, a Cyprus barbershop group. He married Leslie Carol, a teacher and college librarian, in August 1981. They had three sons, Daniel James, Andrew Mark and Nicholas John. He died on 19 February 2005 from carcinoma of the oesophagus.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000149
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

First Title value, for Searching Denham, Robin Arthur (1922 - 2004)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

First Title value, for Searching Thomas, Lewis Philip (1921 - 2009)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

by N Alan Green
Publication Date 2011-09-02
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001300-E001399
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373521373521
Occupation General surgeon
Details Lewis Thomas was a highly respected consultant general surgeon who worked in the Royal Gwent Hospital, Newport, from 1961 to 1986. Prior to this, he had been a senior lecturer in surgery at the Cardiff Royal Infirmary. He served the RCS, first as a surgical tutor under the Nuffield 'pilot scheme', and later as a regional adviser throughout the principality. He was also an RCS member on the court of governors of the University College of Swansea. He was born on 7 September 1921 in Pyle, Glamorgan, the only child of David Thomas, a civil servant working in the Swansea bankruptcy court, and his wife Stella née Philips. When serving as a captain in the 14th Welsh regiment David Thomas was awarded the Military Cross for his actions with the supply division at the battle of Passendale at Ypres in July 1917. He experienced one of the first gas attacks in the First World War and had shell shock, being mentally scarred by these experiences. Lewis' mother died early and he had to 'grow up' quickly as his father needed support in many ways. Lewis gained his secondary school education at Cardiff High School for Boys from 1933 to 1939 and progressed to the Welsh School of Medicine. He had a good academic record and gained the Willie Seager gold medal, a prize in surgery in 1944 and was awarded the Cardiff Medical Society prize in surgery. In Cardiff he met Anne Gwendolen Tighe, daughter of the regional medical officer of health for Swansea, and who qualified herself in 1950. They married on 9 July1955. On qualification Lewis became a house surgeon at the Cardiff Royal Infirmary and was greatly influenced by John Berry Haycraft, and in whose memory a surgical prize was established in Cardiff, and also D J Harris. After internships in Cardiff, he entered National Service as a captain in the RAMC in charge of a surgical division in Germany. Having decided on a career in general surgery, he was a resident surgical officer in Newport and progressed to senior registrar at the Cardiff Royal Infirmary from 1950 for five years. In these days it was essential to obtain experience in the USA to improve career prospects, so he obtained a Fulbright scholarship to travel to the USA where he worked in Boston, Massachusetts, between 1955 and 1956. His mentor was Francis D Moore, Moseley professor of surgery in Harvard University and surgeon-in-chief at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital. As assistant in surgery he was introduced to the concept of 'grand rounds', operating lists starting at 7am after residents did their ward rounds, and was to experience 'Franny' Moore's dynamic enthusiasm as a postgraduate teacher. His research work was performed in the Harvard Medical School laboratories and under the guidance of Joe Murray, later to receive a Nobel prize for his work on 'renal transplantation'. In his definitive post in Newport, Lewis was recognised as a good diagnostician and a surgeon with great dexterity, whose hands 'simply hovered and delivered' with consummate ease. Many regarded him as one of the finest technicians in Wales. He built strong surgical teams throughout his professional life and his interest in medical education was most apparent as a co-editor with David Macfarlane of the highly successful *Textbook of surgery* (E & S Livingstone, 1964). This went into five editions, including an Italian translation in 1974. Contributors to this book were all 'young' consultants who themselves enjoyed undergraduate and postgraduate teaching. The two editors were contemporaries at medical school and also studied for the BSc in anatomy and physiology at the same time. He sat on many committees for the Welsh Office and the Department of Health and Social Security, for whom he served in medical appeals tribunals. Lewis enjoyed a happy family life, and he and Anne had four children, all of whom inherited their 'medical' genes. Richard, the eldest son, born in 1956, is a dentist who works in Poole. Philip, born in 1958, became a surgeon and is a urologist in Brighton and Peter, born in 1960, is a GP in South Wales. Sarah, the youngest, born in 1962, is a child psychiatrist in Winchester. Lewis showed great interest in all their activities, and was loved by family and his colleagues for his great loyalty and fairness, always being in charge in a quiet way. He relaxed by playing golf as a faithful member of the Newport Golf Club. As a founding member of the New Quay Sailing Club, and commodore in 1978, he taught his family to sail. Two of his sons, Richard and Peter, have also been 'commodores' in 2002 and 2010. He was a keen photographer, almost professional in his pursuit of this, and was made a fellow of the Royal Photographic Society. Lewis Thomas died on 26 August 2009 after a long illness of cardiac failure and prostatic cancer for which medication was a fine balancing act. Confined to one room for some 18 months, his wife, Anne, cared for him continuously and with great devotion. He leaves his wife, three sons and a daughter, and seven grandchildren, one of whom is studying medicine.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001338
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2011-09-06 2011-09-07
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001300-E001399
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373522373522
Occupation General surgeon
Details Educated at Guy's Hospital. He began to practise in Scarborough in 1840, shortly afterwards going into partnership with Thomas Weddell, who died in 1862. He practised for more than forty years in Scarborough, and was a prominent public man. At one period he was Physician to the Royal Scarborough Sea-Bathing Infirmary and a member of the Committee of the Cliff Bridge Company. He was for thirty-six years Medical Officer to the Ancient Order of Foresters Friendly Society. Elected a member of the Scarborough Corporation on November 1st, 1849, when he headed the poll for the North Ward, he was re-elected with regularity until 1862, when he was made Alderman. He was Mayor in 1860-1861, and retired from civic duties in 1874. He was also a Magistrate for the Borough and a Trustee of the Municipal Charities, Medical Referee for the Railway Passengers and the Imperial Union Accident Companies, Surgeon Major on the Staff of the East and North Riding Brigade of the Yorkshire Artillery Volunteers, Ordnance Surgeon for Scarborough, Fellow of the Royal Medico-Chirurgical and Obstetric Societies, London, and a member of the British Medical Association. He was greatly honoured and esteemed for his professional and social qualities, his courtesy and geniality rendering him very popular. He was eulogized by John Marshall (qv) in his "Presidential Address" before the Medico-Chirurgical Society in March, 1883, as "eminent in both private and public practice", for his character, and as "an admirable example of a large class of provincial practitioners". Latterly Cross was in partnership with his son, Thomas Brown Cross, MA Cantab, MRCS. His professional address in Scarborough was 6 Queen Street. His death occurred on November 19th, 1882, about twelve hours after he had submitted to an amputation above the knee, for a tedious and painful disease of that joint. His funeral was celebrated with military honours and attended by the volunteers, the Mayor and Corporation, and others. Publication: "A Table of Obstetrical Studies." - *Lancet*, 1866, ii, 274, 456.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001339
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2011-09-06 2014-06-19
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001300-E001399
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373524373524
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born at Gosberton, near Spalding, Lincolnshire, the son of a farmer. Educated at University College School and University College, London, and received his professional training at St. Thomas's Hospital, where he was House Surgeon and Demonstrator of Anatomy in the Medical School. He started practice in Fenchurch Street, EC, where his partner was Charles Brodie Sewell. The City was at that time still somewhat of a residential quarter, and Messrs Sewell and Crosby enjoyed a busy practice among City families. Later he moved to Finsbury, where he enjoyed a large practice in a recognized medical district less than fifty years ago. His connection with municipal affairs dated from 1877, when he was elected a Common Councillor of the City for the Langbourn Ward. In 1898 he became Alderman for the same Ward. In 1906-1907 he was one of the Sheriffs, and during his year of office he paid, with other representatives of the Corporation, a visit to Berlin as the guest of the Municipality of that City. He was knighted the same year (1906). Being the senior Alderman below the Chair in 1911, he was elected Lord Mayor of the City of London. He was then 82 years of age, and the choice of the City gave him the double distinction of being the first medical man to occupy the civic chair in the metropolis, and of being the oldest citizen who had ever undertaken the responsibilities of Lord Mayor of London. He was conscientious and untiring in carrying out his official duties, his daughter assisting him as Lady Mayoress. On a notable occasion he dined at the Royal College of Surgeons, and his Lord Mayoralty is marked by two important events - the tragedy of the sinking of the White Star passenger steamship Titanic, and a coal strike, which at that time was regarded as threatening a national disaster. A Mansion House Fund for the sufferers by the foundering of the great ship was immediately opened, and £450,000 was raised. In a critical stage of the coal strike he convened at a few hours' notice a meeting of Lord Mayors, Mayors, and Provosts from all parts of the country, and the resulting intention on the part of the municipalities to take concerted action against impending danger did much to relieve the stress of a dangerous social situation. On retiring from the position of Lord Mayor the vote of thanks accorded to him in Common Hall was especially cordial, as it was recognized that he had used his civic position with great promptitude in the public cause. In private life Sir Thomas Crosby was a shrewd, witty, kind, homely man, and his success was the outcome of persistent habits of hard work and self-restraint. He had no great learning, but he was an admirable magistrate, whose decisions were informed throughout with that real knowledge of the life of the people which the successful and industrious general practitioner cannot fail to possess. He died after a brief illness on April 7th, 1916. His London addresses were at 19 Gordon Square, WC, and Cullum House, 136 Fenchurch Street, EC. There is a good portrait of him in his Lord Mayoral robes in the *St Thomas's Hospital Gazette* (1911, xxi, 293), and another in the *Lancet* (1916, I, 836, 884).
Resource Identifier RCS: E001341
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2011-09-06 2011-09-07
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001300-E001399
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373525373525
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born on December 7th, 1815, received his professional training at the Royal College of Surgeons, Ireland, and at Guy's and the London Hospitals. He then studied for some time in Paris and entered the Army in 1840, being gazetted Assistant Surgeon on the Staff on October 9th. He first served with the 88th Regiment of Foot (Connaught Rangers), to which he was gazetted on Sept 24th, 1841. With his regiment he passed through an epidemic of yellow fever in the West Indies, he himself suffering from a severe attack. He was gazetted Staff Surgeon (2nd Class) on June 16th, 1848, and joined the 31st Regiment of Foot on July 18th, 1851. On June 3rd, 1853, he became Surgeon to the 11th Dragoons, and served in Bulgaria and through the Crimean Campaign, being present at the affair of Bulganac, the Battles of Alma, Balaclava, Inkerman, Tchernaya, and the Siege and Fall of Sebastopol. For his services he received the Medal with Four Clasps, the Turkish Medal, and the Order of Knight of the Legion of Honour. He became Surgeon Major of his regiment in 1860, was placed on the Staff in April, 1865, and retired on half pay in 1884 or 1886 with the rank of Deputy Inspector-General of Hospitals. "He was an ideal regimental surgeon, well educated, enthusiastic in his profession, beloved and trusted by officers and men, ever watchful and painstaking in all that concerned the health and well-being of his regiment, a military surgeon every inch of him, a high-toned honourable man, a kind and steadfast friend." After his retirement he resided at 58 Chester Square, SW, and was for many years Surgeon to the Duke of York's Royal Military School, where the orphan boys looked on him as their father - so kind, careful, and considerate was he of them. His services never received the acknowledgement they merited. He was nearly related to Sir Richard Francis Burton, the famous traveller and scholar. He died at Leigh House, Surbiton, on August 21st, 1900.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001342
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2011-09-07
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001300-E001399
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373526373526
Occupation General surgeon
Details The son of a Suffolk yeoman, born near Stowmarket, in which town he was apprenticed at an early age to Mr Bailey, the surgeon-apothecary, whose daughter he married in 1815. After his apprenticeship he studied at St George's Hospital and at the Windmill Street School of Anatomy, where he soon gained a reputation for skill in dissection. This skill secured for him an appointment as Demonstrator of Anatomy under Professor James Macartney at Trinity College, Dublin, where he proved a successful teacher. At Dublin he failed to obtain the diploma, so he went to Paris where he spent the winter of 1814-1815. Here he wrote his *Sketches of the Medical Schools of Paris*, which gives an interesting and illuminating account of the French medical course, of how Dupuytren lectured on inguinal hernia to twelve hundred students, and of the dullness of Chaussier. In March, 1815, Crosse settled in Norwich, and in 1820 published *A History of the Variolous Epidemic* which occurred in Norwich in the year 1819 - valuable for its account of the progress of vaccination. In 1822 he was elected Assistant Surgeon, more than 500 Governors attending and voting, and in 1826 Surgeon, to the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital. He soon acquired a great reputation as a lithotomist and a large practice as a surgeon. In 1833 he was awarded the Jacksonian Prize of the Royal College of Surgeons for an essay on "The Formation, Constituents, and Extraction of the Urinary Calculus". In the following year he was made a FRS. He had a series of forty apprentices, among whom was G M Humphry (qv), the first Professor of Surgery at Cambridge. Crosse died on June 9th, 1850, and was buried in Norwich Cathedral. His portrait is in the College Collection. He was commonly known as 'Crosse of Norwich'. Publication: *Treatise on the Formation, Constituents, and Extraction of the Urinary Calculus*, 4to, bibliography running from p.108-280, plates, London, 1835.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001343
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2011-09-07
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001300-E001399
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373527373527
Occupation General surgeon
Details The son of John Green Crosse, FRS (qv), entered as a dresser to his father for three years from 1842, the half of his pupil's fee, viz, £26 5s, being paid to the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital. He received his professional training at St Bartholomew's Hospital and then succeeded to his father's Norwich practice. At first he very naturally suffered by comparison with his famous forerunner, but he won his way in time owing to his own high qualities. In 1857 he became Assistant Surgeon to the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital in succession to William Cadge (qv) and full Surgeon in 1872, when W P Nichols (qv) resigned. Crosse resigned and was elected Consulting Surgeon in 1888. His work in the hospital was good and sound rather than brilliant. As a lithotomist he had no superior, and his operations were accurate, expeditious, and generally successful. He was keenly devoted to the welfare of the hospital and was Curator of its Museum, founded by his father and by William and John Dalrymple (qv). The collection owes its excellence to his fostering care. At the time of his death he was Chairman of the Board of Management of the Hospital, having always taken a large share in its domestic administration and nursing departments. In 1866 he was President of the East Anglian Branch of the British Medical Association and a Member of the Council. Crosse's biographer speaks of his high courage, shown especially in his warfare with gout, which frequently attacked and often for long periods prostrated him. He died at Norwich on October 22nd, 1892, from a slow and distressing form of pleuropneumonia, and he was buried in the village churchyard of Eaton, near Norwich. He married Miss Taylor, daughter of a well-known Norwich solicitor, and left a family of three sons and three daughters. Two of his sons were then in the profession, one being House Surgeon to the Hospital. At the time of his death, besides being Consulting Surgeon to the Hospital, Crosse was Consulting Surgeon to the Norwich Lying-in Charity and to the Jenny Lind Infirmary as well as Medical Officer of Health of Norwich. He was a Fellow of the Royal Medico-Chirurgical Society and practised at 45 St Giles' Street with his sons. Publications: "Urinary Calculi," "Stone in the Female Bladder" in Heath's *System of Surgery*.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001344
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Crouch, Charles Percival (1861 - 1926)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

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

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

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

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

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)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

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)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

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)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

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

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

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 Shawcross, Lord Hartley William (1902 - 2003)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

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)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

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 Yellowlees, Sir Henry (1919 - 2006)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-06-21 2012-03-08
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/372437372437
Occupation Chief Medical Officer
Details Sir Henry Yellowlees was Chief Medical Officer for England from 1973 to 1983. He was born on 16 April 1919 in Edinburgh, the son of Sir Henry Yellowlees, a psychiatrist, and Dorothy Davies, a cellist. He was educated at Stowe and University College, Oxford, but deferred his medical training to join the RAF, where he became a flying instructor. After the war he went up to Oxford to read medicine, going on to the Middlesex Hospital for his clinical studies. After house appointments he became a resident medical officer at the Middlesex. His skilful handling of an epidemic among the staff drew him to the attention of Sir George Godber and before long Henry was involved in medical administration, first as medical officer at the South West and later the North West Regional Hospital Boards, and finally the Ministry of Health. There he became Deputy Chief Medical Officer in 1966 and finally Chief Medical Officer in 1973, despite having suffered a coronary thrombosis. During his time the NHS went through a series of massive and destructive reorganisations, wrought by Barbara Castle and her successors just at a time when important new developments were taking place in medicine and surgery. After he left the Department of Health he worked at the Ministry of Defence, restructuring the medical services of the Armed Forces. He married Gwyneth 'Sally' Comber in 1948. They had three children, Rosemary (a nurse), Lindy (a psychiatrist) and Ian (an anaesthetist and pain specialist). After his wife's death in 2001 he married Mary Porter. He died on 22 March 2006.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000250
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Glaser, Sholem (1912 - 2006)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

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

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

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

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

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

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 Jones, Geoffrey Blundell (1915 - 2004)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

First Title value, for Searching Fussey, Ivor ( - 2003)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-09-22 2007-08-15
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/372442372442
Occupation General surgeon
Details After qualifying from St James’s Hospital, Leeds, Ivor Fussey studied neurophysiology for nine years, gaining his PhD in 1972, during which time he devised platinum microelectrodes that could be implanted in the brain and used to locate vagal afferent impulses. After this experience he decided to specialise in surgery and did registrar jobs with George Harrison in Derby and Duthie in Sheffield, where he met his future wife Kate, a medical student. He was appointed as a consultant general surgeon to Lincoln County Hospital in 1980, where he developed a special interest in surgery of the breast and, together with Jenny Eremin, established the breast unit in the 1990s. After he retired in 1996 he went to Leicester, where he was a mentor to preclinical staff and students, with whom he was very popular. He died suddenly on 30 November 2003, leaving his wife, Kate, and two daughters, Tamsin and Miekes.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000255
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

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)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

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)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

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

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

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)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

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)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

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)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

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)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

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

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

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)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

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

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

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

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

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/372658372658
Occupation General surgeon
Details Educated at St Bartholomew’s Hospital; practised at Dudley, Worcestershire, where he died on April 16th, 1870. He was a favourite pupil of Abernethy, and Badley’s notebooks of Abernethy’s lectures were presented by his grand-daughter, Miss Laura E Badley, to Queen’s College, Birmingham. It does not appear that he ever held any public appointment.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000474
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

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/372659372659
Occupation General surgeon
Details The son of Jeremiah Vaux, whom he succeeded as Surgeon to the General Hospital, Birmingham, an office held by Dr Jeremiah Vaux from the foundation of the institution. Bowyer Vaux held office from 1808-1843. He died at Teignmouth, South Devon, where he had resided for seventeen years, on Saturday, May 4th, 1872.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000475
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Tjandra, Joe Janwar (1957 - 2007)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2008-03-27 2013-11-25
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/372660372660
Occupation Colorectal surgeon
Details Joe Tjandra was a colorectal surgeon at the Royal Melbourne Hospital and the Royal Women's Hospital, and associate professor of surgery at the University of Melbourne. He was born in Palembang, Indonesia, to Hasan and Tini Tjandra, who were of Chinese origin. His father ran a small trading business. After primary school in Indonesia, Joe Tjandra was sent to Singapore, where he learnt English. He went on to Melbourne, Australia, to Mentone Grammar School, and then studied medicine at the University of Melbourne. He was house surgeon to Alan Cuthbertson and Gordon Clunie in the colorectal unit at the Royal Melbourne Hospital. He then went to the UK, where he trained under Les Hughes at Cardiff. He gained his FRCS in 1986. In 1987 he returned to Australia and carried out clinical research with Ian McKenzie at the Research Centre for Cancer and Transplantation at the University of Melbourne. They worked on monoclonal antibodies, hoping to target toxins specifically to cancer cells. Among the volunteers for his project was his old headmaster at Mentone. Tjandra was awarded his MD for this research and, in the following year, gained his FRACS while a surgical registrar in the colorectal unit. Tjandra then spent a year with John Wong in Hong Kong, after which he went to the Cleveland Clinic, USA, to work for two years with Victor Fazio. He then spent a further year with Les Hughes in Cardiff. In 1993 he returned to Australia and was appointed colorectal surgeon to the Royal Melbourne Hospital and to the Royal Women's Hospital. In 2002 he was made an associate professor at the University of Melbourne and, three years later, coordinator of the Epworth Gastrointestinal Oncology Centre. He also established a large private practice. He published over 150 scientific papers, wrote 70 chapters and edited six books. His *Textbook of surgery* (Malden, Mass/Oxford, Blackwell Scientific) is now in its third edition. He was frequently a visiting lecturer/professor, particularly in the Asian Pacific region, but also in the US and Europe. He was editor of *ANZ Journal of Surgery* for several years and was on the board of a number of international journals. He died on 18 June 2007, aged just 50, following a ten-month battle with bowel cancer. He leaves a wife, Yvonne Pun, a rheumatologist, two sons (Douglas and Bradley) and a daughter (Caitlin).
Resource Identifier RCS: E000476
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Cousins, Adrian Gordon (1928 - 2006)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2008-03-27 2014-04-08
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/372661372661
Occupation General surgeon
Details Adrian Cousins was a consultant surgeon in Sydney, Australia. He was born in Sydney, New South Wales, on 20 July 1928. His father, Gordon James Cousins, was a doctor, and his mother, Yvonne Effie Matild Zani née de Ferranti, a housewife. He was educated in Sydney; at Belmore Primary School, the Erskinville Opportunity Class for Gifted Children (from 1938 to 1939) and then Sydney Boys High School. He then studied medicine at Sydney University. He undertook surgical training in England as there was no surgical training in Australia after the Second World War. He was a surgical resident at Haymeads Hospital, Bishop's Stortford. He studied anaesthetics at St George's on Hyde Park Corner, orthopaedics under Tommy Sergeant at Nuneaton, thoracic and plastic surgery at Hyde Park Corner in 1954. In 1955 he studied accident and emergency surgery under Lionel Jones at Nuneaton and general surgery under Trevor Berrill in Coventry. In 1956 he studied general surgery under Sir Rodney Smith at St George's. The friendships he made during his postgraduate training were enduring. In December 1957 he returned to Australia. In 1959 he was appointed as a consultant surgeon to the Canterbury Hospital, Sydney, a post he held until 1962. He was then a consultant surgeon at the Sutherland Hospital, Sydney, until 1976. From 1976 to 1988 he was director of surgical services at the Sutherland Hospital. He retired in 1988. He was a member of the Australian Medical Association, the Australian Association of Surgeons, and the sections on colon rectal surgery and general surgery at the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons. He was a member of the Society for Growing Australian Plants and the Australian Stock Horse Society. He enjoyed skiing, tennis, rugby union, squash, swimming, farming (sheep, cattle and horse breeding) and cultivating Australian native plants. He was a member of the Volunteer Bushfire Brigade in Bungonia, New South Wales. He married Helen Collier Southward in 1953 in London. They had two sons (Peter Gordon Ziani, now deceased, and Timothy James Ziani) and two daughters (Penelope Joy and Hilary Jane). He had six grandchildren. He died on 12 May 2006 in Canberra, in a nursing home, of respiratory failure.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000477
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

First Title value, for Searching Ford, Colin Gagen (1934 - 2004)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-09-23 2007-02-09
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/372245372245
Occupation General Practitioner
Details Colin Gagen Ford was a former general practitioner in Chislehurst, Kent. He was born in Merton Park on 11 December 1934, the son of Bertram Leonard Ford and Kathleen May née Gagen. He attended Rutlish School, but left at 16 after gaining his O levels. He joined Cable and Wireless, becoming a proficient morse operator, and whilst working there attended evening classes to gain the necessary A levels for entry to medical school. His studying was interrupted by his National Service: he served with the Royal Marines, winning the coveted green commando beret and serving in Cyprus. He went on to St Mary’s to study medicine, graduating in 1962. He played rugby for the second XV and rowed for the college. After qualifying, he was a house surgeon to Sir Arthur Porritt and H H G Eastcott at St Mary’s and was then a house physician at Paddington General Hospital. He then went into general practice, but later returned to hospital medicine and developed an interest in orthopaedics. However, he failed to gain a place on a training programme, being told he was “too old and too experienced”, although he did achieve his FRCS in 1973. After several locums, he returned to general practice. He married Ann McAra, a consultant anaesthetist, in 1969 and they had two sons and two daughters – William, Kate, Robert and Helen. He was interested in old cars, sailing and golf. He had a long battle with alcohol and finally retired in 1991 on medical grounds. He died from pancreatitis as a result of alcoholic liver disease on 29 March 2004.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000058
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Fuller, Robert Charles (1914 - 2004)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

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

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

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

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

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

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

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)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

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 Graves, Frederick Thomas (1919 - 2003)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

First Title value, for Searching Bastable, John Ralph Graham (1923 - 2003)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-09-07 2007-06-14
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/372209372209
Occupation Urologist
Details John Bastable was a consultant urologist at York. Born in 1923, he spent his childhood in Cornwall and studied medicine at Birmingham. He qualified in 1945. After National Service, he was a registrar to Alan Perry at Poplar Hospital and then at the London Hospital, where he became senior lecturer on the surgical unit under Victor Dix, and where David Ritchie supervised his MCh thesis on the effect of vagotomy on the oesophago-gastric junction. He specialised in urology, spending a year as resident surgical officer at St Paul’s Hospital and then at the London. In 1966, he was appointed consultant urologist at York, and remained there until he retired in 1988. At York, he developed a department of urology, introduced day surgery facilities, and also undertook parathyroid surgery, and was involved in the planning committee for the new district general hospital. He married Morag Millar, an anaesthetist. They had three children. In his retirement he found time for music, travelling, walking and history of art. He died after a stroke on 28 May 2003.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000022
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Bigelow, Wilfred Gordon (1913 - 2005)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-09-07
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/372210372210
Occupation Cardiac surgeon
Details Wilfred Gordon ‘Bill’ Bigelow, who helped develop the first electronic pacemaker, was a professor of cardiac surgery at the University of Toronto and a pioneering heart surgeon. He was born in Brandon, Manitoba, in 1913. His father, Wilfred Bigelow, had founded the first medical clinic in Canada. Bill trained in medicine at the University of Toronto and did his internship at the Toronto General Hospital, during which time he had to amputate a young man’s fingers because of frostbite, leading Bill to research the condition. During the second world war, he served with the Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps, in a field transfusion unit and then as a battle surgeon with the 6th Canadian Casualty Clearing Station in England and Europe, where he saw many more soldiers with frostbitten limbs. After the war, he returned to a surgical residency in Toronto, followed by a graduate fellowship at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. He returned to Toronto in 1947 as a staff general surgeon. In 1950 he became a research fellow in the university department of surgery. He was made an assistant professor in 1953 and a full professor in 1970. He researched into hypothermia in a cold-storage room in the basement of the Banting Institute. He theorised that cooling patients before an operation would reduce the amount of oxygen the body required and slow the circulation, allowing longer and safer access to the heart. This work led to the development of a cooling technique for use during heart operations. He also discovered that he could restart the heart by stimulating it with a probe at regular intervals, work which led him on to develop the first electronic pacemaker, in collaboration with John Callaghan and the electrical engineer John Hopps. He published extensively and received many awards, including the Order of Canada and the honorary Fellowship of our College. He was President of the American Association for Thoracic Surgery and the Society for Vascular Surgery. He was predeceased by his wife, Margaret Ruth Jennings, and is survived by his daughter, three sons and three grandchildren. He died from congestive heart failure on 27 March 2005.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000023
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Bond, Alec Graeme (1926 - 2004)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

First Title value, for Searching Boustany, Wa'el Seifeddin (1931 - 2004)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

First Title value, for Searching Campbell, George Gunning ( - 1858)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

First Title value, for Searching Langstaff,(1) George (1780 - 1846)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

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/372665372665
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born at Richmond in Yorkshire, in or about the year 1780, and received his preliminary education in that town. Proceeding to London to study medicine, he was attracted by the reputation of Abernethy and entered St Bartholomew's Hospital. Here he soon distinguished himself by his love of observation. “His interest in the study of morbid action would seem to have been only increased by the death of his patient, for he diligently sought every opportunity of verifying the results of his observation by a careful examination of the diseased organs, and of determining the traces impressed by disease on the human frame.” Before settling in practice he made several voyages to the East and West Indies, and became a zealous naturalist and zoologist, laying the foundations of the collection of specimens which afterwards grew into his museum. During an eastward voyage he made some important observations on the cause of the luminosity of the sea at night. In the years following his Membership examination - that is, between 1804 and 1813 - he settled in St Giles's Cripplegate, and in the latter year received the appointment of Surgeon to the workhouse, where he had abundant opportunities of studying both pathology and practical anatomy. During many years he acquired a large local practice. He was a good surgeon and operator, and was the first to call attention to that bulbous condition of the extremities of the nerves in an amputated limb, which he termed ‘ganglionated’. He possessed several specimens in his collection illustrative of this condition (*see Lancet*, 1846, 439). Besides drawing largely for his collection on the specimens afforded him in the Workhouse Infirmary, he wrote important papers on pathology in the *Transactions of the Royal Medico-Chirurgical Society*, of which body he became a Fellow in 1814. In 1842 he published the catalogue of his museum, in the compilation of which he had been assisted by one of his pupils, Erasmus Wilson (q.v.). The full title of the work is *Catalogue of the Preparations illustrative of normal, abnormal, and morbid structure, human and comparative, constituting the Anatomical Museum of George Langstaff,* 8vo, pp. 518, London (Churchill), 1842. In his *catalogue raisonnée* he records the great work of his life: 2380 preparations are described, and Langstaff refers to it as a brief abstract of ten bulky MS volumes, in which he had preserved careful descriptions, case-histories, collateral circumstances, etc. “The consequences of Mr Langstaff's excessive devotion to his museum, and the resulting neglect of the calls made upon his attention by practice, began to be apparent towards the latter years of his life.” But he still supported himself with the belief that present loss of income could be compensated for by the sale of his museum, in which he had sunk thousands of pounds in the purchase of alcohol (methylated spirit was as yet unknown) and glass. Pleasant and sociable, a typical collector ever ready to impart his experience to others, he impressed his friends and admirers as a great man with a magnificent hobby that might prove his ruin. His *Lancet* biographer, who was probably George Macilwain, his contemporary among the Fellows of 1843, writes as follows: “The catalogue being finished, the preparations were transferred to the auction-rooms of Mr Stevens, in Covent Garden. The sale commenced; and, to Mr Langstaff's chagrin and disappointment, many of the preparations sold at prices less than the original cost of the glass and spirit. With the hope of averting the sacrifice, the sale was suspended. But now another evil presented itself - the collection was too bulky and fragile to be moved without difficulty; while, on the other hand, the rent of the rooms would each day be diminishing its proceeds. In this dilemma, application was made to the Council of the College of Surgeons, who consented to receive the collection and purchase such of the preparations as were suitable for the Hunterian Museum. The sum given by the College was very small, and another and a smaller sum was offered for the remainder of the collection.” The Museum Committee actually paid £165 15s 6d, for 1500 preparations. This was in October, 1842. Langstaff had previously sold to the College some 257 specimens, and he was proud that he had always put up the preparations with his own hands. The poor prices were probably accounted for by the state of the specimens. The College at that time gave large prices and was buying freely. Thus in January, 1842, they gave £800 13s Od for a specimen of Mylodon. In March, Liston offered 307 specimens, which were bought for £450 (his own price). Langstaff's biographer concludes:- “Such was the honour and reward of the devotion of a life and fortune to science. The disappointment naturally preyed upon Mr. Langstaff's mind, and weakened his constitution; and his death, which took place at his house at New Basinghall Street, on the 13th of August [1846], was undoubtedly hastened by this sad blight of his expectations and hopes. It is remarkable that his Commonplace Book, a bulky folio, preserved in the College Library, says nothing of this sale, though it contains many interesting accounts of cases, notably his own first attack of gout, in describing which he follows Sydenham's precedent. Among the College Archives are two MS lists by Clift, entitled severally, “Mr Langstaff's Collection. List of Specimens proposed to be taken by the Royal College of Surgeons, July, 1835”, and “List of Preparations selected…July, 1835”. In Sir James Paget's handwriting we find a note on the title-page of the last-mentioned MS to the effect that “Mr Langstaff sent the College detailed descriptions and histories of nearly all the pathological specimens named in this list, and these descriptions and histories were used in describing for the catalogue all those of this portion of his Museum which are still preserved in the Pathological Series.” Publications:- “A Case of Fungus Thematodes.” - *Trans. Roy. Med.-Chir. Soc.*, 1812, 277. “A Case of Fungus Hæmatodes, with Observations; to which is added an Appendix by William Lawrence, Esq.” - *lbid.*, 1817, viii, 272. “Practical Observations on the Healthy and Morbid Conditions of Stumps.” - *Ibid.*, 1830, xvi, 128. “A Case of Polypus of the Uterus.” - *Ibid.*, 1882, xvii, 63. “History of a Case of Medullary Sarcoma which affected several important Viscera; with a Description of the Morbid Appearances which were observed on Dissection.” - *Ibid.*, 1833, xviii, 250. Besides these he contributed several papers to the *Lancet*. (1) The name is so spelt by himself: Clift spells it LONGSTAFF.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000481
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Ludlow, Samuel ( - 1853)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

First Title value, for Searching Toogood, Jonathan (1784 - 1870)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

First Title value, for Searching Burgess, Charles Terence Anthony (1913 - 2004)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-09-14 2015-09-04
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/372217372217
Occupation General surgeon
Details Charles Burgess, known as Terence, was born in Hoylake, the Wirral, Cheshire, on 10 January 1913, into a medical family. His father, Charles Herbert Burgess, was a general practitioner, as was his grandfather, Robert Burgess. His mother was Meta Jeanette née Leitch. Terence was educated at Haileybury, and then in 1931 went on to Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. He completed his clinical training in Liverpool. After junior posts, he served in the RAMC and was awarded an MBE for his part in the rescue of wounded servicemen from a hospital transport ship when it was mined and sunk off the Normandy beaches shortly after D-day. He returned to Liverpool to specialise in surgery, training at the David Lewis Northern Hospital. In 1950, he was appointed as a consultant surgeon at Ormskirk District General Hospital and, the following year, to Southport Infirmary. He retired from both positions in 1978. He kept up his links with the RAMC, retiring from the 8th Liverpool Unit in 1963 with the rank of Colonel. He served on the Southport bench as a magistrate from 1971 to 1983, and after retirement became involved with the movement to found the Queenscourt Hospice in Southport, of which he was first chairman of the committee. The hospice education centre is named after him. He wished to be remembered for the good quality, compassionate care he gave to patients and as an enthusiastic educator of medical and nursing staff. Outside medicine, he was involved with his church, St Cuthbert's in Southport, serving as a churchwarden. He played golf, and was interested in cartography and local history. He was a lifelong supporter of Everton Football Club. He married Stella née Smith in 1951 and they had two daughters, Catherine and Priscilla, an ophthalmologist. There are two grandchildren. He died on 29 January 2004, following a stroke.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000030
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Thomas, Morgan ( - 1865)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

First Title value, for Searching Davis, Thomas (1778 - 1863)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2008-04-03 2013-08-07
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/372670372670
Occupation General surgeon
Details Was Surgeon to the 1st Life Guards, having been appointed Assistant Surgeon to the regiment on Dec 26th, 1804. He resigned before Sept 22nd, 1812. He died at his residence, Boxmoor House, Herts, on May 2nd, 1863.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000486
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Andrews, William ( - 1862)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

First Title value, for Searching Dawson, James (1779 - 1875)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

First Title value, for Searching Rideout, John (1784 - 1855)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

First Title value, for Searching Knipe, John Augustus (1778 - 1850)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

First Title value, for Searching Kemball, Vero Clarke (1780 - 1853)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

First Title value, for Searching Moshakis, Vidianos (1946 - 2005)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

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/372468372468
Occupation General surgeon
Details Vid Moshakis was a consultant surgeon at Leicester. He was born in Athens, where his father Jhon was an accountant. His mother was Eudokia Karamolegoy. At Anauryta National School he won a scholarship in medical studies which took him to the London Hospital, where he was a brilliant student, taking prizes in pathology and medicine. He was house surgeon to David Ritchie. After junior posts he was registrar on the St George’s Hospital scheme with the Royal Marsden Hospital and Frimley Park, before moving to Leicester, where he became consultant surgeon and clinical tutor at the University of Leicester Medical School. He married Georgia Robertson in 1969 and had one son. He moved back to Athens, where he died on 20 September 2005.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000281
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

First Title value, for Searching Wilson, James Noël Chalmers Barclay (1919 - 2006)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-11-09 2007-03-08
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/372470372470
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon
Details James Noël Chalmers Barclay Wilson, known as ‘Ginger’, was an orthopaedic surgeon. He was born on Christmas Day 1919 in Coventry, the son of Alexander Wilson, a schoolmaster, and Isobel Barbara née Fairweather, many of whose relatives were general practitioners. His parents later moved to Kenilworth, where a great friend of the family was W E Bennett, a founder member and the first treasurer of the British Orthopaedic Association. Bennett may have influenced Wilson’s later choice of specialty. Wilson was educated at King Henry VIII School, Coventry, where he began to study classics, but switched to science, much to the disgust of his headmaster, and won the Newsome memorial gold medal for physics and a prize for shooting. He studied medicine at Birmingham University, where he passed the primary as an undergraduate, won the Peter Thompson prize for anatomy, as well as the senior surgical and Arthur Foxwell prizes, and qualified with honours. In 1939 he was called up as an emergency dresser and lived in the General Hospital, Birmingham, until January 1940. He was one of the first students to enter Coventry after the notorious raid of 14 November 1940. This was followed a few days later by a massive air raid on Birmingham, when the hospital took in over 240 patients in one night. He qualified in 1943. After six months as a house surgeon at Birmingham General Hospital (during which time he won the Heaton award for being the best resident) he joined the RAMC. There he served as regimental medical officer, qualified as a parachutist, and was attached to the 9th Armoured Division, the 11th Armoured Division and the First Airborne Division, with whom he landed at Arromanches shortly after D-Day. In April 1945 he was recalled to the 1st Airborne to prepare for the attack on Denmark and Norway. He flew in on 9 May in a Stirling bomber, landing at Gardermoen. He remained in Norway until late August, returning in time to marry Pat McCullough, a nurse he had met in Birmingham, on 3 September, celebrating with champagne liberated from a German cache in Norway. After the war he returned as supernumerary registrar to Birmingham and, after passing the FRCS, spent a year at the Coventry and Warwickshire Hospital as an orthopaedic registrar, followed by three years at the Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital, Oswestry, where he was much influenced by Sir Reginald Watson-Jones, Sir Henry Osmond Clarke and A M Henry. He earned his ChM degree for a thesis on supracondylar fractures of the elbow, written at Oswestry. In 1952 he was appointed consultant orthopaedic surgeon to Cardiff Royal Infirmary, but after three years moved to the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital London to set up the accident service at Stanmore, where he was on call three nights a week and alternate weekends. He was also consultant orthopaedic surgeon to the National Hospital for Nervous Diseases, Queen Square. His orthopaedic interests were at first general, and he helped to develop the Stanmore total hip replacement, along with John Scales and was the first to put one of them in. Later the same team developed the method for replacement of the upper femur and hip for bone tumour. He devised his own osteotomy for the treatment of hallux valgus in adolescents, and set up the RNOH bone tumour registry, which he directed until his retirement. He established the London Bone Tumour Registry. He described a new sign in the early diagnosis of osteochondritis dissecans of the knee, which became known in the USA as ‘Wilson’s sign’, and described two new conditions - ‘Winkle-Pickers’ disease’ and ‘the Battered Buttock’. After retirement he devoted his energies to developing orthopaedic services throughout the third world, travelling to Addis Ababa (where he was made professor of orthopaedics in 1989), Nigeria, Ghana, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Malaysia and Papua New Guinea. He revised and edited the fifth and sixth editions of Watson-Jones’s textbook on *Fractures and joint injuries* and published more than 60 papers in orthopaedic journals. He was founder member and president of the World Orthopaedic Concern, president of the orthopaedic section of the Royal Society of Medicine, an honorary fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine, and a member of the editorial board of the *Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery*. In the College he was the Watson-Jones lecturer in 1988, and Jackson Burrows medallist in 1991. He was appointed OBE in 1995 for services to orthopaedics worldwide. Among his hobbies he included his vintage Bentley, occasional golf, and making things out of rubbish. He died suddenly on 2 March 2006, leaving his wife (who died two weeks later), two daughters (Sheila Barbara and Patricia Elizabeth Jane), two sons (Michael Alexander Lyall and Richard Noël) and three grandchildren (Sam, Rosie and Alice).
Resource Identifier RCS: E000283
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Wilson, Charles Graham (1924 - 2005)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

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/372471372471
Occupation General surgeon
Details Charles Wilson was a surgeon at the Royal Adelaide Hospital. He was born in Adelaide on 3 April 1924. His father, Sir George Wilson, was a founding fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons and a foundation fellow of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. His mother, Elsa May Cuzens, had been a nurse. He was educated at St Peter’s College, Adelaide, and Adelaide University, where he won a blue for golf. After qualifying in 1947 he was an intern at the Royal Adelaide Hospital for 15 months before joining the RAMC, serving with the British Commonwealth Occupation Force in Japan for a year. He returned to Australia to spend a year as a resident at the Adelaide Children’s Hospital. He then went to England to study for the FRCS, working at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School, Hammersmith, and Kingston General Hospital. After passing the Edinburgh and English fellowships he returned to Australia in 1954. He was first a registrar and then a senior registrar at the Royal Adelaide Hospital. In 1959 he became an honorary assistant surgeon, becoming a full surgeon in 1969 and a senior visiting surgeon in 1970. He remained at the Royal Adelaide Hospital until 1988. In 1967 he led the South Australian Civilian Surgical Team to South Vietnam, and in 1969 was lieutenant colonel surgeon at the First Australian Field Hospital for three months, remaining as consulting general surgeon to Central Command from 1969 to 1979. At the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons he was chairman of the South Australia state committee, coordinator of surgical training from 1975 to 1980, and served on the Court of Examiners. He was a keen golfer, serving as captain and later president of the Royal Adelaide Golf Club. He married Lois Penelope Fox: they had two daughters, Susan and Philippa, and one son, Thomas Graham Wilson, who is a fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons. Charles Wilson died on 15 August 2005.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000284
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

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 Freebody, Douglas Francis (1911 - 2005)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2007-07-25
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/372556372556
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon
Details Douglas Freebody was a consultant orthopaedic surgeon at Kingston Hospital. He was born in Woolwich, London, on 19 April 1911, the son of a successful tailor, and attended the City of London School, before entering Guy’s Hospital Medical School, which he represented at hockey and boxing. After qualifying he filled a number of junior surgical posts around London, and in the early part of the war worked for Burns and Young at the major casualty hospital at Botley’s Park, so beginning an orthopaedic career. In 1946 service with the RAMC took him to Egypt and Palestine, where he ran the orthopaedic services at Fayid and Bir Yaacov respectively. On his release from the Army in 1948 Douglas was mentioned in despatches for distinguished service, and was soon appointed consultant orthopaedic surgeon to Croydon General Hospital, East Surrey Hospital Redhill, and later the Kingston and Richmond Area Health Authority. There he concentrated his activities and made a major contribution to orthopaedic surgery, devising an anterior transperitoneal approach for fusion of the lower lumbar spine. This he demonstrated widely at home and abroad and was the subject of his contribution to the third edition of *Contemporary operative surgery* in 1979 and of an educational film awarded a silver medal by the BMA. He was a founder member of the International Society of the Lumbar Spine. Douglas Freebody was a dignified man with a great sense of humour, devoted to his family, his dogs and his garden, where he was an expert on orchids. He died from heart failure on 12 October 2005 at the age of 94, and is survived by his wife, Yvonne, a former physiotherapist at Middlesex Hospital whom he met in Egypt during the war, and their children.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000370
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Jonasson, Olga (1934 - 2006)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2007-07-25
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/372557372557
Occupation General surgeon
Details Olga Jonasson was professor of surgery at the University of Illinois at Chicago and a pioneer in organ transplantation. Born in Peoria, Illinois, the daughter of a Swedish Lutheran pastor and a nurse, she was first attracted to medicine by following her father round on his hospital visits. After Lyman Trumbull Elementary School and North Park Academy, she attended Northwestern University as an undergraduate, and won honours for her MD from the University of Illinois, a tough medical school whose practice included the notorious Cook County Hospital. She did her residency under Warren Cole at the Illinois Research and Education Hospital at a time when the department was devoted to the hunt for cancer cells in the venous blood draining cancers, many of those being actually monocytes. Exceptionally tall and blonde, she stood out from her fellow residents for her fearless and outspoken criticism of her peers and her seniors. After her residency Olga did a fellowship in immunochemistry at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, which was followed by a second fellowship in transplantation immunology at the Massachusetts General Hospital. In 1969 she did the first renal transplant in Illinois. She was one of the first to realise the importance of HLA (human leukocyte antigen) matching, setting up a nationwide matching scheme. In 1967 she became chairman of the department of surgery at Ohio State University College of Medicine, the first woman in the United States to become head of a department of surgery. She served as director of education and surgical services at the American College of Surgery from 1993 to 2004. Her interests were not limited to transplantation: she studied inguinal hernia, pointed out that watchful waiting was appropriate in many cases, and carried out clinical trials comparing open versus laparoscopic repair. She was also a determined advocate of helmets for motorcycle riders. Despite having a formidable reputation as an ‘ice queen’, she was highly regarded by her peers, and went out of her way to encourage young women to take up careers in surgery, although she warned them not to marry or, if married, to get divorced. However, this did not stop her from being a sympathetic friend to them and their spouses. She was involved in the Episcopal Church of the Epiphany, Chicago, raising huge sums of money to repair its fabric, and was an expert cook and a lover of opera. She was made an honorary FRCS in 1988. She died on 30 August 2006.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000371
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Belcher, John Rashleigh (1917 - 2006)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2007-07-25
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/372558372558
Occupation Thoracic surgeon
Details John Rashleigh Belcher was a thoracic surgeon at the Middlesex Hospital, London. Born in Liverpool on 11 January 1917, he was the ninth in a long line of doctors who originally hailed from Bandon in Cork. He was educated at Epsom and St Thomas’ Hospital, where he graduated at the age of 21, having asked for an early viva. At the outbreak of war St Thomas’ was evacuated to Farnham and there he met his wife, Jacqueline Phillips. It was a watershed time in medicine: on one side of the ward leeches were being applied and on the other an early sulphonamide drug (M&B 693) was being prescribed. He joined the RAFVR as soon as possible and was posted to Cottesmore. He became FRCS in 1942 and was posted to Canada. On his return he went to RAF Wroughton, where he gained huge experience from D-day casualties. After demobilisation, he returned to St Thomas’ as resident assistant surgeon, before becoming interested in thoracic surgery. He worked at the Brompton in 1947 and became senior registrar at the London Chest and Middlesex hospitals. In 1951 he was appointed to the North West Thames region as a thoracic surgeon, a post which included the London Chest Hospital and places as far afield as Arlesey, Pinewood and Harefield. He was appointed consultant thoracic surgeon to the Middlesex Hospital in 1955. He promoted lobectomy for lung cancer at a time when the conventional wisdom, endorsed by Tudor Edwards, was that nothing short of pneumonectomy was of any use, and he published on the treatment of emphysematous cysts. He performed over 1,000 closed mitral valvotomies, even as fourth operations, and reported on these. He was Hunterian lecturer in 1979. Unfortunately his reputation in this field was less widely acknowledged than his expertise in ‘lung volume reduction surgery’. He was a kind, supportive and tolerant boss who was always ready to praise. He was president of the Society of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland in 1980. He travelled extensively with the British Council and set up cardiothoracic units abroad. A devoted family man, he had wide musical tastes, was a compulsive gardener and an accomplished artist and photographer. Jacqueline died in 2006 and he died on 12 January 2006, leaving a daughter and two sons.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000372
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Wilson, Peter Ernest Heaton (1932 - 2006)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2007-07-25
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/372559372559
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon Trauma surgeon
Details Peter Wilson was a consultant orthopaedic and trauma surgeon at Coventry and Warwickshire Hospital. He was born in Deptford, London, on 16 October 1932, the son of Joseph Henry Wilson, a housing administrative officer for Bermondsey Borough Council, and Sarah Heaton, a teacher of physical training whose father had owned a brewery. The first of his family to go into medicine, his younger sister also eventually became a doctor. He was educated at several schools, including Upholland Grammar School and Newcastle-under-Lyme High School, where he gained colours in hockey, cricket and rugby, before going on to St Thomas’ Hospital in 1950. After junior posts he did his National Service in the Royal Navy and then specialised in orthopaedics, becoming a registrar at the Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Hospital, Oswestry and then a senior registrar at the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital Birmingham under Peter London and J H Hicks. He was appointed consultant orthopaedic and trauma surgeon at Coventry and Warwickshire Hospital in 1970. Peter was particularly interested in the treatment of multiple and major injuries and was a pioneer in the operative fixation of fractures. Having been chairman of the regional junior hospital staff committee from 1968 to 1970 and a member of the BMA junior group council (from 1969 to 1970), he went on to chair the regional senior hospital staff committee from 1970 onwards, and was medical director of the trust board. He was active in the St John Ambulance Brigade. He retired in 1994, and continued to play golf, cricket and cultivate his garden. He was married twice. In 1951 he married Sheila Patricia Hansen, who predeceased him. They had three children, a daughter (Sallie Anne) and two sons, Michael John, a solicitor, and David Ian, a plastic surgeon. In 2002 he married Anne Elizabeth Mary Stott née Binnie. Peter Wilson died on 19 November 2006.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000373
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Kindersley, Hugh Kenyon Molesworth, Second Baron Kindersley of West Hoathly (1899 - 1976)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

First Title value, for Searching Al-Sheikhli, Abdul Raazak Jasim (1936 - 2007)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2007-07-25 2008-11-28
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/372561372561
Occupation ENT surgeon
Details Abdul Razaak Jasim Al-Sheikhli was an ENT consultant at the Mayday Hospital, Croydon. He was born on 20 November 1936 in Baghdad, the son of Jasim Al-Sheikhli, an Imam, and his wife, Sabria. He was educated at the Al-Risafa Intermediate School and Adhamiya Secondary School, in Baghdad, before going on to Baghdad Medical College. During his residency period at the Republic Teaching Hospital of Baghdad he witnessed and treated the victims of revolutions, and saw the body of the recently murdered president, General Kasim, and his body guards, lying in the mortuary. After doing his National Service as a lieutenant in the Iraqi Air Force, where he served in Basra, he went to England with a scholarship from the Iraqi Ministry of Health, to train in surgery. He was a senior house officer at Ipswich and Clare Hall, and was subsequently a registrar at Southampton Chest Hospital. In 1970 he returned to Iraq, as a general and thoracic surgeon in the Hilla district and Mirjan, Al-Shaab, Al-Tuwithw and Labourers hospitals. He returned to England in 1973 to specialise in ENT, becoming a senior house officer at Farnborough Hospital and registrar at Ipswich and the Royal Ear Hospital, where he was greatly helped by Bill Gibson. He was then a senior registrar at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary for nearly two and a half years. In 1981 he was appointed ENT consultant at the Mayday Hospital. He published on talc granuloma of the vocal cords following intubation, pain in the ear, and the microbiology of the adenoids. He married Sheila née Page, a nurse, in 1968. They had two sons, Peter, an artist, and Stephen, a musician. He died on 4 February 2007 of acute myeloid leukaemia.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000375
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Brown, John Andrew Carron (1925 - 2008)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

by N Alan Green
Publication Date 2008-08-28
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/372734372734
Occupation Obstetric and gynaecological surgeon Obstetrician and gynaecologist
Details John Carron Brown, known to his colleagues as ‘JCB’, was a consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist in Norwich. He was born in Sutton, Surrey, on 29 June 1925, the older son of Cecil Carron Brown, a general practitioner, and Jessamy Harper, a solicitor. Educated first at Homefield Preparatory School in Sutton, in 1939 he went to Oundle School for four years, before entering the Middlesex Hospital Medical School for his medical training, where he captained the cricket team. He felt fortunate to have as basic science teachers John Kirk in anatomy, Sampson Wright in physiology and Robert Scarff in pathology. He was greatly influenced in his clinical training by Richard Handley and Charles Lakin. Qualifying in 1949, he became house surgeon to Sir Gordon Gordon-Taylor and then to the obstetric and gynaecology unit, before becoming house physician at the Royal Sussex County Hospital in 1952. General surgical training continued at St John and Elizabeth’s Hospital and at Redhill and Reigate Hospital, and at the Middlesex Hospital under David Patey and L P LeQuesne, colo-rectal experience being obtained with O Lloyd Davies. His training in gynaecology and obstetrics was at the Chelsea Hospital for Women under Sir Charles Read, John Blakeley and R M Feroze, at the Middlesex Hospital under W R Winterton and as a senior registrar at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge. Following his appointment as consultant in Norwich in 1963 he led a busy life in clinical practice. He led the development of maternity services and specialised in gynaecological malignancy. He was a great supporter of Cromer and District Cottage Hospital, where he held weekly clinics and operating sessions until he retired in 1990. Described as “a superb clinician and teacher of medical students, midwives and doctors”, his enthusiastic approach led many into careers in obstetrics and gynaecology. He also worked with physiotherapists in the prevention and treatment of stress incontinence. He examined for the universities of Cambridge and Birmingham in obstetrics and gynaecology, the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) and the Central Midwives Board. In East Anglia he was a member of the regional advisory committee for eight years, being chairman for two years, and a member of the subcommittee making a confidential enquiry into maternal deaths. For RCOG he was elected member’s representative on council for six years, and served on the finance and executive and the hospital recognition committees. He was made an honorary fellow of the Chartered Society of Physiotherapists in 1995. He served on the Council for Professions Supplementary to Medicine (CPSM) and the Physiotherapy Board, and was vice chairman of CPSM. In Norwich he became chairman of the consultant staff committee and was very involved with the planning of the new hospital. Throughout his schooldays and in medical school he played cricket, tennis and soccer. Carron Brown started playing golf at the early age of six and resumed this once he became established in his chosen career. He enjoyed shooting and in retirement took up fly fishing. He was interested in history, especially of Napoleon and the Indian Empire. Gardening was an abiding passion, particularly the cultivation of roses. He married Marie Mansfield Pinkham, a Middlesex nurse, in 1952. They had three daughters (Susan Margaret, Elizabeth and Jane) and one son (Charles). Following his wife’s death in 1970, he married Susan Mary Mellor, sister of the special care nursery in Norwich, and they had two daughters (Helen Mary and Sarah Louise). He died on 27 May 2008 in the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital after a ruptured aortic aneurysm. A thanksgiving service was held at Norwich Cathedral, where he worshipped. Sue survives him, as do the children and 16 grandchildren.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000550
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Shaw, Henry Jagoe (1922 - 2007)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

by Neil Weir
Publication Date 2008-08-28
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/372735372735
Occupation Head and neck surgeon Otolaryngologist ENT surgeon
Details Henry Shaw was a pre-eminent otolaryngologist and head and neck surgeon. He was born in Stafford on 16 March 1922, the son of Benjamin Henry Shaw, a physician, psychiatrist, artist and fisherman, and Adelaide née Hardy, who became a JP and Staffordshire County councillor. His father came from a distinguished Anglo-Irish family with one relative an army surgeon at Waterloo, another in the 32nd Foot in the same campaign; George Bernard Shaw was an ancestor. Educated at Summer Fields School, Oxford, and Eton College, Henry Shaw read medicine at Oxford University and the Radcliffe Infirmary, where he held junior appointments. Perhaps influenced by R G Macbeth and G Livingstone, otolaryngologists at Oxford, he became registrar and senior registrar at the Royal National Throat, Nose and Ear (RNTNE) Hospital and Guy’s Hospital, London. He was appointed to a Hunterian professorship at the College (1951). After a fellowship and residency at the Sloan Memorial Hospital, New York (1953 to 1954), Henry Shaw was appointed assistant director of the professorial unit and senior lecturer at the RNTNE Hospital and the Institute of Laryngology and Otology. During this time he spent a further year in New York as senior resident at the Bellvue Hospital. In 1962 he was appointed consultant ENT surgeon to the RNTNE Hospital. This appointment was combined with a consultancy at the Royal Marsden Hospital, an honorary consultancy to St Mary’s Hospital and the post of ENT surgeon to the Civil Government and St Bernard’s Hospital, Gibraltar. In addition he was civilian consultant ENT surgeon to the Royal Navy. He retired in 1988. Henry Shaw’s professional life was devoted to the care of those suffering from cancer of the head and neck. His appointments at the Royal Marsden and RNTNE Hospital enabled him to lead the field in this aspect of otolaryngology. He wrote many publications, lectured nationally and internationally, and became a founder member and treasurer of the Association of Head and Neck Oncologists of Great Britain, president of the section of laryngology, Royal Society of Medicine, member of council, executive committee and professional care committee of the Marie Curie Cancer Care Foundation and a member of the Armed Services Consultant Appointment board. During the Second World War Henry Shaw served as a surgeon lieutenant in the RNVR. He continued in the Royal Naval Reserve, advancing to surgeon lieutenant commander. He was awarded the Volunteer Reserve Decoration in 1970. Henry Shaw was a gentlemanly person who achieved a great deal in a quiet way. He was never happier than when sailing boats of any kind. His long family association with St Mawes in Cornwall (where he eventually retired) enabled him to indulge fully in this hobby. He married Susan Patricia Head (née Ramsey) in 1967. They had no children of their own, but he gained a stepson and stepdaughter. The marriage was dissolved in 1984 and he married Daphne Joan Hayes (née Charney) in 1988, from whom he gained a further two stepdaughters. He died on 1 August 2007.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000552
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Anikwe, Raymond Maduchem (1935 - 2008)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

by John Blandy
Publication Date 2008-09-11
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000500-E000599
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372736372736
Occupation Urological surgeon Urologist
Details Raymond Anikwe was a leading urological surgeon in Nigeria. He was born on 5 June 1935, the son of Chief Lawrence Akunwanne and Helen Oyeigwe Anikwenze in Nnobi, Anambra State, Nigeria. He was educated at St Mary Primary School, Umulu, and St Joseph Primary School, Onitsha. In 1951 he entered the Government College, Umuahia, where he excelled at sports, as well as his studies, winning a Nigerian Central Government scholarship to the Nigerian College of Technology, Ibadan. After two years there he won a scholarship from the Government of Italy to study medicine at the University of Rome. He learnt Italian, and obtained the degree of MD in July 1964. After qualifying he served as a pre-registration house officer and senior house officer in general surgery in Turin, and then went to the UK as a senior house officer at Dudley Guest Hospital. He was later a registrar in surgery (urology) at the Central Middlesex Hospital. From there he went to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary as a research fellow, studying urodynamics with a special interest in urethral resistance. In 1973 he returned to Nigeria as a lecturer at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, and consultant surgeon at the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital, Enugu. He rose through the academic ranks to become professor of surgery (urology) in 1978. He served on numerous committees: he was chairman of the medical advisory committee, director of clinical services and training at Enugu (from 1978 to 1980), chief executive and medical director (from 1982 to 1985), provost of the college of medicine and medical sciences and deputy vice chancellor of the University of Nigeria Enugu campus in 1986. In 1987 he went to Saudi Arabia as professor of urology and consultant urologist at the King Faisal University and King Fahd Hospital. In 1999 he returned to Nigeria to the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital, until he established his own private hospital, the Galaxy Urology Specialist Hospital, Enugu, which was equipped with the latest endoscopic facilities. He published extensively and was a member of numerous learned societies. In 2007 he received the prestigious D’Linga gold award by Corporate and Media Africa Communications Ltd for his contribution to nation building through the medical profession. In 1974 he married Gladys Ngozi (née Ojukwu) and they had six children, of whom two became doctors. He died on 17 May 2008.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000553
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Scannell, Timothy Walter (1940 - 2006)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

First Title value, for Searching Burkitt, Robert Townsend (1912 - 2005)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

by Robin Burkitt
Publication Date 2005-09-14 2014-07-18
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/372218372218
Occupation General surgeon
Details Robert Townsend Burkitt, known as 'Robin', was a highly respected consultant general surgeon at Ashford Hospital. He was born in Enniskillen, County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland, on 28 September 1912. His father, James Parsons Burkitt, was an engineer and County Surveyor, and also a distinguished ornithologist, an interest which Robin inherited from his father. His mother was Gwendolyn Burkitt née Hill. Robin and his elder brother Denis, were educated at Dean Close School in Cheltenham and he followed his brother to Trinity College, Dublin (TCD), in 1930. At TCD he studied modern languages, anticipating a career as a diplomat, then decided to change to medicine. Denis also decided on a career in medicine and he carried out pioneering research into the cause of a particular form of cancer ('Burkitt's lymphoma'), work for which he achieved world-wide recognition. After qualifying as a doctor, Robin took up a post as a senior house officer at the Royal Cornwall Infirmary, where he met his future wife, Violet, a nurse. They were married shortly after the Second World War broke out. He joined the Army at the end of 1939 and was sent to France, where he was stationed on the Normandy coast until the German advance forced them to retreat in haste. Robin managed to reach Boulogne and take passage back to England. He was then posted as a battalion medical officer to the 9th Battalion, the Seaforth Highlanders. After a period of training in Scotland, he was sent to West Africa, where he worked in hospitals and outlying stations in the Gambia and Nigeria. He returned to England in October 1944 to qualify as a surgical specialist. Early in the following year he was sent to India to join a beach medical unit that was preparing for a planned invasion of Malaya. Returning to England at the end of the war, he joined Ashford Hospital as a surgical registrar and during his time there gained his FRCS. Due to the post-war backlog, there were few opportunities to obtain a consultant post in the UK, and he was persuaded by an old colleague to join his medical practice in Nairobi, Kenya. In 1951, he and his wife sold the family home and most of their possessions and took passage to Africa with their three young children. However, their time in Kenya was not a great success: the medical practice did not grow as anticipated and various other aspects of life, particularly the Mau Mau rebellion, meant it proved an insecure environment for his wife and young children. In 1954 they returned to the UK and Robin took up a post as a senior registrar at Upton Hospital, Slough, which he always considered the most rewarding part of his professional career. During this time he was proud to have played a major role in transforming the reputation of the hospital. When he joined no GP would think of referring a patient to the hospital: when he left they would not consider any other. In 1963 Robin took up a consultant post at Ashford Hospital, which became vacant on the retirement of Norman Matheson. He worked at various hospitals in the area and also treated patients in London. He was highly regarded, not only because of professional skills as a surgeon, but also for his great gifts of communication, which he used to reassure and comfort patients and their families. He worked tirelessly for the Slough branch of the Multiple Sclerosis Society, acting as treasurer for nearly 20 years and then as welfare officer. He did much to help and improve the quality of those suffering from the disease. Robin's own wife died in 1997, having suffered poor health since the early 1970s. Right to the end he continued to visit local people, offering sympathies, advice and comfort, drawing from his great knowledge and experience. Robin was a devout Christian with a very strong faith. He worshipped at the United Reform Church in Beaconsfield for many years and his death was a great loss to the members of the congregation. He died on 19 April 2005, aged 92, and was survived by his three children, Robin, Andrew and Beth, their families, as well as the many people who had enjoyed his friendship.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000031
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Moffoot, Alexander Gordon (1923 - 2008)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2008-09-11
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/372740372740
Occupation General surgeon
Details Alexander Gordon Moffoot was a general surgeon in British Columbia, Canada. He was born in Edinburgh on 24 April 1923, the son of George Roberston Moffoot, a dental surgeon, and Doris Hilda née Jobey. His brother followed in his father’s footsteps to become a dentist, but after attending Yarm Grammar School in Yorkshire, Alexander went to Edinburgh to study medicine, where he qualified in 1945. After junior posts he served in the RAMC with the 6th Airborne Division in Palestine. On demobilization he decided to specialize in surgery, took the FRCS course at Guy’s Hospital and passed the FRCS in 1952. In 1955 he moved to Alberta, Canada, and worked for the next five years in the Innisfail Municipal Hospital, moving to British Columbia in 1960, where he worked at the Saanich Peninsular Hospital, combining general surgery with general clinical practice in a group of six. He married Ruth Hugill, a speech therapist, in 1953. They had one son Jonathan and a daughter June Ruth, who became a nurse. He died on 5 January 2008 in Sidney, British Columbia.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000557
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2008-09-11 2008-10-24
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000500-E000599
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372741372741
Occupation Cardiothoracic surgeon
Details Ian Hill was a consultant cardiothoracic surgeon at St Bartholomew’s Hospital, London. He was born on 8 June 1919. When he was only five he developed diphtheria and was admitted to an isolation hospital for many weeks. There he was allowed no visits from his family and witnessed at close quarters the frequently unsuccessful attempts of surgeons to save the lives of other children with that terrible disease. This dreadful experience gave him the emotional drive to overcome disease and save lives, although later he maintained that he went into medicine because it was his father Tom’s own unfulfilled wish: indeed their house in Palmers Green was chosen to be near the railway that would eventually take him to Bart’s. His mother Annie was a gifted teacher and helped him with his homework, passing on to him the skills of patient and supportive clarity he used in his own teaching. He was educated at the Stationers’ Company School and St Bartholomew’s Hospital, where he had a brilliant career as a student, qualifying with honours in 1942. He was house surgeon to (later Sir) James Paterson Ross, whose testimonial stated “his academic record has been one of rapid and uninterrupted success, winning most for the prizes for which he was eligible. He is honourable, forthright, diligent and utterly trustworthy. He absorbs knowledge readily and applies theory to practice with good judgement and effect. He is a skilful, safe, and resourceful operator who can win the confidence of his patients, his colleagues and his students”. After serving as a demonstrator of anatomy he married Agnes Paice in 1944, having met her when both their hospitals had been evacuated. He joined the RAF medical branch in 1945 and was wing commander in command of the surgical division of No 1 RAF Hospital. He then specialized in cardiothoracic surgery, becoming senior registrar to Russell Brock at Guy’s Hospital in 1947, where he carried out experimental work on cardiopulmonary bypass and became surgical chief assistant at the Brompton Hospital. He returned to St Bartholomew’s as consultant surgeon in 1950 at the early age of 31, as second in command to Oswald Tubbs, where he continued to build up its cardiothoracic unit. He was a skilled operator who had ‘green fingers’. He was often described by his junior staff as a one-man band, for, apart from his operative ability he typed his own operation notes and wrote summaries of the patient after each operation. Surprisingly these records were never analysed and sadly they were destroyed after his death: they would have made a fascinating contribution to cardiothoracic archive material. He cared deeply about the training of his young doctors and for eight years served as sub-dean of the medical college (from 1964 to 1972). He was prodigiously well organised, kept meticulous records and was obsessed by time. He was both scrupulously logical and persistent in trying to solve problems. For several years he owned a vintage Rolls Royce car, which he maintained himself, having taken a course on its maintenance. When his junior staff telephoned his home for advice they were frequently told by his wife “I’ll get him from under his car!” Ian’s 40 years as a consultant surgeon were a period of explosive development in cardiothoracic surgery, but despite his brilliant mind and ability he wrote very little, and he made no definitive contribution to his specialty. He had a poor relationship with Oswald Tubbs, his senior consultant, who was disappointed in his subsequent career and thought that he had not fulfilled the potential implied in Ross’s glowing testimonial. He was a cutting surgeon rather than a writing surgeon and was, as many have said, an enigma. After he retired he continued to serve on the board of governors of St Bartholomew’s. Ian retired with Agnes to Fernham in 1984, where he lived the life he had always dreamed of in the countryside, creating his garden, running a prodigiously productive allotment, and indulging his fascination for fine engineering, old clocks, the fine arts, good food and wine. He upset his allotment neighbours by giving away much of his produce in competition to the many who sold for profit. Despite being an agnostic, he served as clerk to the parish council. Predeceased by his wife, he died on 22 September 2007 leaving three sons and a daughter, Alison, who is a general practitioner in London.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000558
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Ainger, Major (1820 - 1861)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2009-08-21
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/372836372836
Occupation General surgeon
Details Joined the Bengal Army as Assistant Surgeon on May 15th, 1846, and was one of the twenty-five officers of the Indian Medical Service who served in the Crimean War. He spent his furlough from April 30th, 1855, to June 20th, 1856, with the Turkish contingent. He was awarded the Medjidieh 4th class in 1855 for his services as well as the Crimean medal. He was promoted Surgeon on Aug 8th, 1859, and died at Oxford Terrace, Hyde Park, on Feb 10th, 1861.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000653
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Albert, Eduard (1841 - 1900)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

First Title value, for Searching Alcock, Sir Rutherford (1809 - 1897)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

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/372838372838
Occupation General surgeon
Details Son [1] of Thomas Alcock, a medical man practising at Ealing. Educated at Westminster Hospital, where he filled the post of House Surgeon, and in 1832 was appointed Surgeon to the British Portuguese forces acting in Portugal. In 1836 he was transferred to the Marine Brigade engaged in the Carlist war in Spain, and within a year was appointed Deputy Inspector-General of Hospitals. [2] On his return to England he lectured on Surgery at the Sydenham College, [3] but in 1844 he was nominated Consul at Foochow, one of the ports newly opened to trade by the treaty of 1842. He was transferred to Shanghai in 1846 and had with him Sir Harry Smith Parkes. Under Alcock's direction the municipal regulations for the Government of the British Settlement of Shanghai were established and the foundations were laid of the city which has since arisen there. In 1858 he was appointed the first Consul and in 1859 British Minister in Japan, where the admission of foreigners proved so distasteful that an attack was made upon the British Legation on July 5th, 1861, and Alcock with his staff were in serious danger. Alcock returned to England in 1862 and, having already been decorated CB, was promoted KCB on June 19th, 1862, receiving the Hon DCL at Oxford on March 28th, 1863. He returned to Tokio in 1864, leaving in the following year on his appointment as Minister-Plenipotentiary at Pekin. Here he conducted affairs with such delicacy and tact that Prince Kung said: "If England would only take away her missionaries and her opium, the relations between the two countries would be everything that could be desired." In 1871 he retired from the service of diplomacy, settled in London, and interested himself in hospital management, more especially at the Westminster and Westminster Ophthalmic Hospitals, and in hospital nursing establishments. He served as President of the Geographical Society (1876-1878) and as Vice-President of the Royal Asiatic Society (1875-1878). [4] He married: (1) Henrietta Mary, daughter of Charles Bacon, in 1841; (2) Lucy, widow of the Rev T Lowder, British chaplain at Shanghai. He died without issue at 14 Great Queen Street, London, on Nov 2nd, 1897. There is a portrait of him late in life in the Board Room of the Westminster Hospital, a copy is in the collection of the Royal College of Surgeons [5], and one, made in 1843, by L A de Fabeck, is reproduced in Michie's *Englishman in Japan*. Publications: *Notes on the Medical History and Statistics of the British Legion in Spain*, 8vo, London, 1838. *Life's Problems*, 8vo, 2nd ed., London, 1861. *Elements of Japanese Grammar*, 4to, Shanghai, 1861. *The Capital of the Tycoon*, 2 vols., 8vo, London, 1863. *Familiar Dialogues in Japanese with English and French Translations*, 8vo, London, 1863. *Art and Art Industries in Japan*, 8vo, London, 1878. He also edited in 1876 the *Diary of Augustus Raymond Margary* (1846-1875) (the traveller in China). [Amendments from the annotated edition of *Plarr's Lives* at the Royal College of Surgeons: [1] ? Nephew; [2] He was honored with the Knighthood of the Royal Spanish order of Charles III in 1839-40 (*London medical gazette* 1839-40, xxv, 720.); [3] He won the Jacksonian Prize in 1839 and again in 1841.; [4] He was a member of the Board of Guardians of St George's Hanover Square and took "a deep personal interest" in the scheme for emigrating pauper children to Canada. (see his letter to the *Spectator* 5 July 1879 [reprint in the Library]); [5] The words 'a copy is in the collection of the Royal College of Surgeons' are deleted and 'no!' added; Rutherford Alcock contributed to the *London Medical Gazette* on lithotripsy (?) 1829, 4, 464; 1830, 5, 102; on transport of wounded 1837-8, 21, 652; on medical statistics of armies 1838 22 321 & 362; on gunshot wounds & other injuries 1839 24 138 etc; on clinical instruction 1839 25 694, & on his Jacksonian prize 1840, 26, 607 and to *The Lancet* 1839/40, 1, 929 on concussion & 1840-41, 1 & 2 on amputation (a series of lectures); Portrait (No.47) in Small Photographic Album (Moira & Haigh).]
Resource Identifier RCS: E000655
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

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)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

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 Alderson, John Septimus ( - 1858)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2009-08-21
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/372841372841
Occupation General surgeon
Details Resident Surgeon to the Wakefield Dispensary from 1839-1841, when he became Medical Superintendent of the York Asylum, a post he held from 1841-1845, after which he acted as Superintendent of the General and County Lunatic Asylum of Nottinghamshire, and last of all of the West Riding Asylum at Wakefield. He died on Jan 2nd, 1858. His name appears as that of a Member of the College although he passed the Fellowship examination. It is probable, therefore, that he was never formally enrolled or given the diploma, perhaps because he never paid the additional fees.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000658
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Alderson, Richard Robinson ( - 1888)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

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/372842372842
Occupation General surgeon
Details Educated at the London Hospital; practised at York, where he was Surgeon to the York Union, Assistant Surgeon to the 2nd West York Militia (Light Infantry), and Honorary Surgeon to the 11th Derbyshire Volunteer Rifles. During the Crimean War he was a First-class Staff Surgeon to the Osmanli Horse Artillery - Turkish Contingent - and on his return to England he practised in Aberdeen Walk, Scarborough, where he seems to have remained until 1863. He moved about this time to Filey, and appears to have died there at some time before 1888. He passed the examination for the Fellowship, but is not registered in the College books as Fellow, nor did he receive the diploma, probably because he never paid the additional fees.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000659
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Aldred, George Edward (1816 - 1868)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

First Title value, for Searching Aldridge, John Petty (1813 - 1884)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2009-08-21
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/372844372844
Occupation General surgeon
Details Educated at Guy’s Hospital, and practised at Dorchester in partnership with George Panton, MRCS Eng. He was Parochial District Medical Officer and Public Vaccinator for Dorchester. He also filled the office of Medical Officer of Health and Public Vaccinator to the Broadmayne District of the Dorchester Union. He was a Fellow of the Obstetrical Society. Died at Shirley House, Dorchester, on May 22nd, 1884.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000661
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Alexander, Charles Linton (1820 - 1887)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

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/372845372845
Occupation General surgeon
Details Apprenticed to Francis Bennett at the Dispensary, Gateshead, Durham, and entered as a matriculated student at King's College, becoming a student at the hospital as soon as it was opened. He was one of the Surgeons of the Royal South London Dispensary until "the dignity of the profession" required that the staff, Messrs Osborn, Johnson, Berrell, Wood, and Alexander, should resign in a body. He was also Surgeon to the Board of Guardians of St Mary's, Newington, whose sick poor he attended, on the death of the regularly appointed surgeon, during an epidemic of typhus fever from which he himself suffered severely. He practised first at 12 Brunswick Street, Dover Road, SE, and afterwards at 45 Trinity Square, Borough, SE, where he died Jan 27th, 1887.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000662
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Alexander, Henry ( - 1859)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

First Title value, for Searching Alexander, James ( - 1895)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2009-09-18 2012-08-30
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/372847372847
Occupation General surgeon
Details Practised at Edenbridge, Kent, from 1843-1847; then at 12 North Audley Street, W, and at Scarborough from 1853-1856. His last address is given at 30 Walbrook, EC. He died either in 1894 or 1895.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000664
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Alexander, William ( - 1919)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

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/372848372848
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born at Holestone, Co Antrim; educated at Queen’s College, Belfast, where he had a brilliant career and took the University Gold Medal and Exhibition at his MD examination. Coming to Liverpool as soon as he had graduated, he was appointed Resident Medical Officer at the Workhouse Hospital, and in 1875 became Visiting Surgeon to that institution, his address being 102 Bedford Street South. He was awarded the Jacksonian Prize in 1881 for his essay on “The Pathology and Surgical Treatment of Diseases of the Hip-joint”, and in 1883 he won the Sir Astley Cooper Prize at Guy’s Hospital with an essay on “The Pathology and Pathological Relation of Chronic Rheumatic Arthritis”. He held the office of Surgeon to the Royal Southern Hospital, Liverpool, from 1889-1910, and on his retirement was elected to the honorary post of Consulting Surgeon. For forty years he acted as Visiting Surgeon to the Brownlow Hill Infirmary. At the time of his death he was Lecturer on Clinical Surgery at the University of Liverpool, Ex-President of the British Gynæcological Society, and a Lieutenant-Colonel in the Territorial Force doing duty with the First Western General Hospital. He died after a few days’ illness on March 9th, 1919, at Heswall, near Liverpool, and is buried there. He had been a widower for many years, and his only son, Dr Moore Alexander, the pathologist, died in 1915. Alexander was a good operator, but his claim to remembrance is his work on epilepsy and his determined attempt to relieve those who suffered from the condition, as was shown by his becoming the founder of a Home for Epileptics at Maghull, of which he was the Visiting Surgeon, and where he obtained good results by ligature of the vertebral arteries and division of the sympathetic nerves. He may justly be regarded as the pioneer of surgery of the sympathetic system, which was developed later by Jaboulay and Leriche (qv) in 1882. He also introduced a new method in the treatment of inveterate uterine displacements by shortening the round ligaments. Publications: *The Cure of Epilepsy and of Inveterate Uterine Displacements*, 8vo, London, 1882, reprinted from articles contributed to the *Med. Times and Gaz.*, 1881, ii, 598; 1882, i, 250, 327. “The Treatment of Epilepsy.” – *Brain*, 1883, v, 170. “Effect of Ligature of Vertebral Arteries in Certain Spinal Diseases.” – *Liverpool Med.-Chir. Jour.*, 1882, 124. *The Treatment of Backward Displacements of the Uterus and of Prolapsus Uteri by the New Method of Shortening the Round Ligaments*, 8vo, London, 1884.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000665
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Alford, Henry (1806 - 1898)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

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/372849372849
Occupation General surgeon
Details Third son of the Rev Samuel Alford, of Queen's College, Oxford, who graduated BA in 1797 and MA in 1800. He was born at Curry Rivel, near Taunton. The Alford family had held property in West Somerset from the middle of the sixteenth century, and son had succeeded father in the church for several generations. Henry Alford (1810-1871), Dean of Canterbury, and Bishop Alford were cousins of Henry Alford, FRCS. Alford became a house pupil at the Bristol Infirmary in 1822, and five years later came to London to complete his medical education at St Bartholomew's Hospital. After qualifying, he practised at Ilminster until he was appointed Surgeon to the Somerset and Taunton Hospital in 1830, when he settled in Taunton. He resigned his office in 1859 and was appointed Consulting Surgeon. He was Bailiff of Taunton, a churchwarden of St Mary's Church, a keen politician, and a hearty supporter of Sir Robert Peel in his policy of repealing the Corn Laws. He died at South Road, Taunton, in his 92nd year on June 29th, 1898. He married twice, and by his first wife left four children. His son, Henry J Alford, MD MRCS, was also educated at St Bartholomew's Hospital, and was Medical Officer of Health for Taunton.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000666
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Alford, Richard (1816 - 1893)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

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/372850372850
Occupation General surgeon
Details Son of the Rev Samuel Alford, of Curry Rivel, and younger brother of Henry Alford (qv). Educated at University College. Practised at Tewkesbury, where he was Surgeon to the Dispensary, and removed to Weston-super-Mare in 1855, continuing to practise there until 1886. He was one of the founders of the old Dispensary which developed into the Weston-super-Mare Hospital. He acted as Surgeon to the Dispensary and as Consulting Surgeon to the Hospital. He died at 6 Ozil Terrace, Weston-super-Mare, on March 30th, 1893. Publications: "A Case of Spasma Glottidis." - *Prov. Med. and Surg. Jour.*, 1847, 625. "A Case of Jugular Vein Opened by Ulceration: Death." - Quoted in Liston's *Practical Surgery*, 6th ed. "A Case of Mortification from Head of Fibula to Crest of Ilium; Recovery." -* Assoc. Med. Jour.*, 1853. "Induction of Premature Labour by Ergot of Rye and Puncturing the Membranes." - *Lond. Med. Rev.*, 1861-2, ii, 511.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000667
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Alford, Stephen Shute (1821 - 1881)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

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/372851372851
Occupation General surgeon
Details Educated at University College, London, and acted as House Surgeon to the North Staffordshire Infirmary. He moved to London, becoming Surgeon to the North St Pancras Provident Dispensary, Surgeon to the Keepers and Helpers at the Zoological Gardens, Hon Surgeon to the Asylum for Infirm Journeymen Tailors, Medical Officer to the Orphan Workhouse School at Haverstock Hill, and Surgeon-in-Ordinary to the North St Pancras Provident Dispensary. He lived at 7 Park Place, Haverstock Hill, and died on July 5th, 1881, as the result of a railway accident. Alford was an active supporter of the British Medical Association, and throughout his life was interested in the treatment of dipsomania. At the time of his death he was Hon Secretary to the Society for the Promotion of Legislation for the Control and Cure of Habitual Drunkards. Under the auspices of a Committee of the British Medical Association he had organized a home for that purpose near his house, 61 Haverstock Hill, which he had hoped to supervise. Publications: *A Few Words on the Drink Craving, showing the Necessity for Legislative Power as regards Protection and Treatment*. *Dipsomania, its Prevalence, Causes and Treatment.* *The Habitual Drunkards Act, with an Account of a Visit to the American Inebriate Homes.*
Resource Identifier RCS: E000668
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Allard, William (1818 - 1894)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

First Title value, for Searching Allen (or Allan), James (1821 - 1892)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

First Title value, for Searching Allen, Robert Marshall (1818 - 1893)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

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/372854372854
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born March 2nd, 1818; educated at St Bartholomew's and St George's Hospitals and at Paris. Joined the Cape Mounted Riflemen as Assistant Surgeon, June 30th, 1843, and served in the field with this regiment during the Kaffir War of 1846-1847 (medal). He joined the Staff on Jan 12th, 1849, was transferred to the 6th Foot on March 16th, and to the 3rd Dragoon Guards on April 25th, 1851. He was promoted Staff Surgeon (2nd Class), March 28th, 1854, rejoining the Dragoons May 12th, 1854. Surgeon Major, 3rd Dragoon Guards, June 30th, 1863. He was again placed on the Staff on March 13th, 1866, and was transferred to the 7th Dragoon Guards on Aug 7th, 1867. He retired on half pay with the rank of Deputy Inspector-General of Hospitals, July 31st, 1869, and died at Welbourn Hall, Grantham, Lincolnshire, on March 17th, 1893. [1] [Amendments from the annotated edition of *Plarr's Lives* at the Royal College of Surgeons: [1] Portrait in College Collection.]
Resource Identifier RCS: E000671
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

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

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

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 Calvert, Paul Thornton (1949 - 2004)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-09-14 2012-07-19
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/372219372219
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon
Details Paul Calvert was a consultant orthopaedic surgeon at St George's Hospital, London, and at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital. He was born on 17 March 1949, the son of John Calvert, a civil engineer, and Barbara, a barrister. He was educated at the Dragon School and Rugby, where he excelled in all court games, especially rackets. He later went up to Trinity College, Cambridge, to read natural sciences. After his first year, when he played hockey, rackets and real tennis (for which he was later awarded a blue), he changed courses to read medicine. He later went on to Guy's to do his clinical studies. After qualification and house jobs, he and Deborah, whom he married as a student, went to Vancouver, Canada, where he spent a year on rotation as a surgical resident. On his return to the UK, he worked for a while as a general surgical registrar, before specialising in orthopaedics. He was then a senior house officer at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital, subsequently becoming a registrar and then senior registrar. He became interested in the shoulder after working with Lipman Kessel and later with Ian Bayley. After serving as senior surgical officer at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital and as lecturer to the professorial unit, he was appointed consultant orthopaedic surgeon to the Hinchingbooke Hospital in 1985. But, finding he missed the excitement of a teaching department, he transferred to a consultant post at St George's Hospital in 1986. The shoulder firm at St George's rapidly expanded under his leadership, with the development of arthroscopic surgery and shoulder replacement. Reluctantly, he dropped his paediatric orthopaedic commitment, but he continued to be involved with trauma and covered general orthopaedic emergencies. He was the lead surgeon at St George's dealing with the aftermath of the Clapham rail crash in 1988. In 1993, he took on sessions at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital to work with Ian Bayley. He published a number of important papers, particularly on shoulder topics, including papers on habitual instability and on the consequences of the Clapham rail crash. He maintained his interest in teaching and was Chairman of the regional specialist training committee. He was appointed trainer of the year by the British Orthopaedic Trainees' Association. He negotiated with the Department of Health on behalf of the British Orthopaedic Association to increase the number of orthopaedic surgeons in training. In 1999, he was found to have an ocular melanoma. Despite the effect it had on his eyesight, he continued to work to enlarge the orthopaedic department at St George's. He also built up a successful private practice, both in Wimbledon and at the Hospital of St John and St Elizabeth in St John's Wood, to whose hospice ward he asked to be admitted shortly before he died. He took early retirement at Christmas 2003, and died on 7 May 2004 of secondary melanoma. He left his wife, Deborah, and two children. His sister, Sandra Calvert, is also a consultant at St George's. The new orthopaedic operating theatres at St George's have been named after him.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000032
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Cameron, Alexander (1933 - 2004)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-09-14 2006-12-21
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/372220372220
Occupation General surgeon
Details Alexander Cameron, known as ‘Alistair’, was a consultant surgeon at Norfolk and Norwich Hospital. He was born in Tranent, East Lothian, on 1 August 1933, the son of Alexander Cameron, a miner who became vice-president of the National Union of Mineworkers for the Scottish area, and Margaret née Hogg, a shop assistant. He was educated at Tranent Public Primary School and then Preston Lodge School, where he gained a distinction in literature and was *dux* of his class. He studied medicine in Edinburgh and then did house jobs at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary. From 1957 to 1959, he served as a surgeon lieutenant, first in Portsmouth, and then as a medical officer aboard HMS *Torquay* and then HMS *Scarborough*, part of the Fifth Frigate Squadron of the Mediterranean fleet, visiting Malta and Syracuse. In July 1958, he was present at the nuclear test explosions on Christmas Island. His meticulous medical records of this and his formal instructions for decontamination and cleansing remain intact for safe keeping with his wife. He then sailed back to the UK via Samoa, Auckland, Sydney, Perth, Sri Lanka and the Suez Canal. Returning to civilian life south of the border as senior house officer at the North Middlesex Hospital, he gained his FRCS in 1962. An appointment as research assistant to Leslie Le Quesne and Michael Hobsley from 1964 to 1967 was followed by a rotating registrar post to the Middlesex and Central Middlesex hospitals, where he fell under the influence of Sir Rodney Sweetman, P Newman, Sir Thomas Holmes Sellors and Peter Gummer. He became senior registrar to O V Lloyd Davies from 1967 to 1970, followed by his appointment as senior lecturer with honorary consultant status in 1970. Gaining his masters degree in 1973, he went to Sweden and Germany to learn the techniques of the Koch continent ileostomy, which he went on to popularise in the UK. Appointed consultant surgeon to the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital in 1973, he was the first person with a specialist colo-proctological interest: the unit is now much expanded. It was usual in those days for the ‘junior’ surgeon in Norwich to have a paediatric interest, so Alistair spent some time at Great Ormond Street to help him in his new venture. He was surgical tutor from 1976 to 1979, and was a popular and outstanding teacher at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. A series of myocardial infarcts obliged him to retire early in 1988. He was operated on at Papworth in 1981 and 1989 by J Wallwork, using a procedure pioneered by his own boss, Sir Thomas Holmes Sellors. Distancing himself from medicine, he was able to continue his interests in astronomy, botany, microscopy, modern languages (French, German, Spanish and Italian), together with his passion for philosophy, poetry, history and politics. It was in these areas he was a formidable opponent in debate. An earlier interest in classical Greek and Latin was rekindled and, with an outstanding knowledge of computer technology, he managed to fill his life restricted by cardiac disability. An article on his experiences as a cardiac patient ‘Reflections in a glass box’, showed true and amusingly thoughtful insight into the NHS, its staff and his own condition. He met Elizabeth (‘Widdy’) neé Padfield when she was a surgical ward sister at the Middlesex. They married in 1970 and had four sons, Duncan, Angus, Hamish and Dougal. Alistair died on 20 February 2004.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000033
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Campbell, Sir Donald (1930 - 2004)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-09-14
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000000-E000099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372221372221
Occupation Anaesthetist
Details Sir Donald Campbell was a former professor of anaesthesia at the University of Glasgow and President of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow from 1992 to 1994. He was born on 8 March 1930 at Rutherglen, near Glasgow, the son of Archibald Peter and Mary Campbell. He attended Hutcheson’s Boys’ Grammar School and then went on to the University of Glasgow, where he studied medicine. After completing resident posts, he left for Canada to begin his training in anaesthesia, working in Edmonton and in Lethbridge, Alberta. In 1956 he returned to Glasgow to complete his training at the Royal Infirmary and Stobhill. From 1959 to 1960, he was a lecturer in anaesthetics at Glasgow Royal Infirmary. In 1960 he transferred to the health service department as a consultant anaesthetist, a post he held for the next 16 years. While training in Canada he had developed an interest in anaesthesia for heart surgery and also noted the early development of intensive care units. Using his diplomatic skills, he succeeded in persuading his colleagues that this was the way forward for their patients. The respiratory intensive care unit was opened in 1966, with Campbell as its first director. His research interests covered the development of ventilators, the pharmacology of new analgesic drugs, and the effects of smoke inhalation on the lungs. His published works included over 100 papers on anaesthesia, intensive care, and related subjects in peer-reviewed journals. He was the author of two textbooks. In 1976 he was appointed to the chair of anaesthesia in Glasgow. In this post he was able to develop his interest in medical education. For a period of four years from 1987 he was dean of the medical school. From 1985 to 1990 he was Chairman of the Scottish Council for Postgraduate Medical Education. As a member of the medical advisory committee of the British Council he was involved in arranging attachments to UK departments for many young trainee anaesthetists from overseas and also from the Royal Navy. On the national stage, he was vice-president of the Association of Anaesthetists of Great Britain and Ireland in 1977, and President of the Scottish Society of Anaesthetists in 1979. He was an examiner and board member of the Faculty of Anaesthetists (the forerunner of the Royal College of Anaesthetists), and was elected dean of the faculty for three years from 1982. He went on to become vice-president of the Royal College of Surgeons from 1985 to 1987. Before he retired, he was elected President of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow, the first anaesthetist to hold this post. He was awarded the CBE in 1987 and he received his knighthood in 1994, in recognition of his contribution to medicine. He suffered a stroke soon after his retirement, and this limited his ability to enjoy his favourite sports of fishing, curling and shooting. It did not, however, suppress his enjoyment of people and his skill as a raconteur. He married twice. His first wife was Nancy Rebecca McKintosh, ‘Nan’. They married in 1954 and had a son and a daughter. After her death in 1974 he married Catherine Conway Braeburn. They had two daughters. He died on 14 September 2004.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000034
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Carr, George Raymond (1922 - 2003)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

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

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

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

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

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

First Title value, for Searching Cobb, Richard Alan (1953 - 2004)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

First Title value, for Searching Coffin, Frank Robert (1915 - 2004)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

First Title value, for Searching Cohen, Louis Bloom (1915 - 2003)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

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/372227372227
Occupation General surgeon
Details Louis Bloom Cohen spent much of his career as a surgeon in various politically unstable countries in Africa and in Iran. He was born in Glasgow on 16 November 1915, the son of Arthur Israel Cohen, a company director with the Rank Organisation, and Louise née Bloom. He was educated at St Paul's School, London, where he won first prize in science in the seventh form. He studied medicine at St Mary's Hospital, qualifying in 1940. In June 1941 he joined the Navy as a Surgeon Lieutenant, seeing service on *HMS Newark*, *Whitehaven*, *Aldenham* and *Eggesford* in the North Atlantic, eastern Mediterranean and in the Far East. He was demobilised in January 1946. He was a member of the RNVR for a further six years. He was a surgical registrar at St Mary's from 1946 to 1949. He was then a resident surgical officer at Salisbury Infirmary, Wiltshire. From 1951 to 1952 he was a surgical registrar at North Middlesex Hospital. In 1952 he went to Ethiopia, as a surgeon at the Princess Tsehai Memorial Hospital, Addis Ababa, where he stayed for three years. From 1955 to 1963 he was in private practice in Nairobi, Kenya, with beds in the Princess Elizabeth Hospital. The war of independence led to the break up of his medical firm. In 1963 he moved to Nigeria, as surgeon to the Shell-BP Delta Clinic, Port Harcourt, but had to leave quickly, along with other expatriates, because of the civil war. From 1968 to 1972 he was chief surgeon at the National Iranian Oil Company Hospital, Abadan, Iran. He was appointed by London University to chair a proposed university, but the scheme was abandoned because of political pressure. In 1972, he was appointed professor of the faculty of postgraduate studies at JundiShapur University Hospital, where he stayed for a year, but was forced to leave after the radical student element burned down the administrative building and he narrowly escaped a lynching. He returned to Africa in 1973, as a surgeon at the Zambia Medical Aid Society Hospital, Lusaka. The hospital was closed for political reasons, with the government attempting to force the medical staff and patients to transfer to the Lusaka Teaching Hospital. He went on to South Africa in 1975, where he was full-time senior surgeon at the Provincial Hospital, Port Elizabeth. He retired for the first time in 1983, and then worked at the Nkensani, Letaba and Kgapani Hospitals. He finally retired in April 1995. He had attempted to retire to Famagusta in Cyprus, but the Turks invaded the Greek part of Cyprus and his property was seized. He married three times - to Valerie Holmes, Sjoukje Veenstra and Norma Hammond. He had two children, Patricia Louise and David Jared. He enjoyed boxing (representing the United Hospitals at welter and middle weight as a student), golf, swimming, painting and model making. He died suddenly of a heart attack on 9 September 2003.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000040
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Coleman, John Wycliffe (1924 - 2003)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-09-23 2012-03-28
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/372228372228
Occupation Chaplain General surgeon Missionary
Details John Wycliffe Coleman, one of three hostages detained for eight months following the Islamic Revolution in Iran in 1980 and released after the intervention of the Archbishop of Canterbury, was a missionary doctor who worked tirelessly in the Middle East and in the East End of London. He was born on 10 May 1924 in Cairo, where his father, Robert Baxendell Coleman, worked as a missionary doctor. His mother was Enid Louise née Evans, the daughter of a Dublin doctor. He was educated at Westminster School and then Christ's College, Cambridge, and went on to St Thomas's for his clinical studies. He was a house surgeon at St Thomas's and then a medical officer with the Church Missionary Society in Jerusalem, but soon moved to Iran after the outbreak of war between the Arabs and Israelis. For the next 16 years Coleman worked as a surgeon in the Episcopal Church of Iran's hospital in Shiraz. He was awarded the freedom of the city of Shiraz in recognition of his work. In 1964 he returned to London, for his sons' education, and worked in the East End, as medical superintendent of the Bethnal Green Medical Mission. In 1978 he returned to Iran to run a medical clinic in Yazd, where he was made pastor of the small Christian community. Just two years later, in 1980, Coleman and his wife were detained, along with the Bishop of Iran, the Right Reverend Iraj Muttahedeh, the bishop's secretary, Jean Waddell, and three other Christian Iranians. During the first month of captivity, he was kept in isolation and denied reading material, even his Bible. The hostages were eventually released in February 1981 after the intervention of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Robert Runcie, and his envoy, Terry Waite. He never expressed any bitterness towards his captors. Once back in Britain, Coleman travelled widely, speaking about his experiences. In 1984 he returned to the Middle East at the invitation of the Bishop in Egypt, as chaplain of a small church in Port Said and at the disocesan hospital in Menouf. In 1990 the Colemans returned to the UK, once again at the Bethnal Green Medical Mission. He became chairman of the Egypt Dioscean Association and commissary to the Bishop of Egypt. He was a firmer supporter of the Friends of the Diocese of Iran and regarded both Iran and Egypt as home. He was in demand as a speaker and Bible teacher, travelling in Britain and overseas, particularly Nepal and Afghanistan. He frequently visited Egypt and in 2000 returned to visit Iran. He married Audrey Ponsford in 1946 and they had four sons. He died on 16 August 2003 in St Joseph's Hospice, London, from prostate cancer.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000041
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Quartey, John Kwateboi Marmon (1923 - 2005)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-11-30 2007-12-12
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/372483372483
Occupation Urological surgeon Urologist
Details ‘Kwashie’ Quartey had an international reputation for his work on the surgery of urethral stricture, and was one of the father figures of surgery in his home country, Ghana. He was the sixth of the seven children of Peter David Quartey snr, headmaster of the Government Junior School in James Town, and Elizabeth Abigail Quartey (née Marmon). He was educated at the Achimota Secondary School, where he was senior prefect, and won colours for cricket and hockey. In 1942 he was awarded a Gold Coast Government medical scholarship to Edinburgh, travelling there in convoy at the height of the U-boat war. At Edinburgh he captained the hockey team, became involved with the Student Christian Movement and graduated in 1948. After junior posts, which included a spell at Wilkington Hospital, Manchester, and passing the Edinburgh and English fellowships in 1953, he returned to the Gold Coast. On the ship home to the Gold Coast he met his future wife, Edith Sangmorkie Saki, who was a nurse. Quartey then worked in Ministry of Health hospitals in Kumasi, Tamale and Accra, returning to do a course in tropical medicine in London in 1954 while Edith returned to England to study theatre work. They married in 1955. He was appointed a surgical specialist in 1958 and in 1961 he was awarded a Canadian Government fellowship in urology at Dalhousie University, Halifax, where he is remembered with respect and affection, and where strenuous attempts were made to arrange a full residency for him. On his return Kwashie set up the urology unit at the Korle Bu Hospital in Accra. The following year, 1963, he set up the anatomy department of the new Ghana Medical School, in the absence of any basic medical scientists. He was extremely active in the work of the surgical department, fostering its department of plastic surgery. In April 1978 there was an order for his arrest on charges of treason and he went into exile in Lome, Togo, for six months, during which time it was arranged that he should become a WHO consultant in surgery to the Government of the Gambia. He returned home after the palace coup in which General Acheampong was ousted. In 1981 he described his method of urethroplasty based on his own careful anatomical studies that used a pedicled flap of penile skin, which had the advantage of being non hair-bearing. The method was widely publicised and earned him an ChM from Edinburgh University. He travelled widely and was a visiting professor in Iran, Johannesburg and Mainz. He was a founding member of the Ghana Medical Association and of the West Africa College of Surgeons, of which he became president, and was the recipient of numerous honorary distinctions, including the unique posthumous award of the St Paul’s medal by BAUS. He was still busy with the Operation Ghana Medical Mission at the age of 82, and it was when returning from one of these outreach visits that he was involved in a fatal head-on road collision on 27 August 2005. Only two of the 10 occupants of the two vehicles survived. A state funeral was held in the State House in Accra in the presence of the President. Kwashie had an ebullient, irrepressible personality, which won him friends throughout the world of surgery and urology. He left a son (Ian Malcolm Kpakpa), daughter (Susan Miranda Kwale) and six grandchildren (Alexis Naa Kwarma, Smyly Nii Otu, Arthur Nii Armah, Nana Akua, Obaa Akosua and John Nii Kwatei).
Resource Identifier RCS: E000296
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Sneath, Rodney Saville (1925 - 2005)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-11-30
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/372484372484
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon
Details Rodney Sneath was a consultant orthopaedic surgeon at the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital in Birmingham and a pioneer in limb salvage surgery for patients with bone tumours. He was born in Sheffield, the son of Ernest Saville Sneath, a master printer, who owned the ‘Saville Press’. His mother was Dorothy Unwin. He was educated at Chesterfield Grammar School and Sheffield University, where he qualified with the conjoint diploma in 1948, acquiring the MB ChB in 1957. He had a wide range of interests at university, including rugby, rock climbing, gliding and motor sport. In 1952 he took part in the Monte Carlo rally with his father and was the first of the private competitors to finish. During his National Service in the RAMC he was stationed in Austria, and became an accomplished skier, an interest he pursued well into his seventies. After demobilisation and the acquisition of the FRCS in 1958 he began orthopaedic training at St George’s Hospital and later at the Royal National Orthopaedic and its associated hospitals. He was appointed a consultant orthopaedic surgeon at the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital, Birmingham, in 1965, where he developed an interest in the treatment of malignant musculo-skeletal tumours. In collaboration with John Scales at the RNOH he established what became an internationally recognised unit for the treatment of bone tumours, and together they made many innovations, including a ‘growing prosthesis’ for use in children. He was a founder member of the European Musculo-Skeletal Oncology Society and a Fellow of the British Orthopaedic Association. Among many invited lectures he gave a Hunterian lecture on ‘the treatment of malignant bone tumours in children’ in 1993. He died on 1 April 2005, leaving a wife, Ann, and five children.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000297
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Staunton, Michael Douglas Mary (1925 - 2005)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-11-30 2017-06-30
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/372485372485
Occupation General surgeon
Details Michael Douglas Mary Staunton, known as 'Dudley', was a general surgeon in London with an interest in oncology. He was born on 8 September 1925 in Swinford, County Mayo, Ireland, where his father Michael Douglas Staunton was a dispensary doctor. His mother was Ursula Mellett. Of the six children, all became doctors. From Blackrock College, Dublin - 'the best rugger school in Ireland' - he went on to Trinity College Dublin to study medicine, and did house jobs at Dr Steevens Hospital, before going to Bristol Royal Infirmary, where he worked for Ashton Miller. In 1952 he did his National Service in the RAMC, mostly in 37th BMH Accra, Ghana, as a junior surgical specialist. In 1955 he returned to marry Rena Stokes, a radiographer from Tipperary, and to become surgical registrar at the Morriston Hospital, Swansea. Having passed the FRCS, he became a senior registrar at the Royal Marsden Hospital, training in cancer surgery under Ronald Raven. In 1964 he was appointed as a consultant surgeon to the Metropolitan, St Leonard's and the Royal London Homoeopathic hospitals, and in due course to the Hackney Hospital and St Bartholomew's (1980) and finally Homerton Hospital (1986). He was an enthusiastic tutor and examiner for the College, ending as chairman of the Court in 1982. He published extensively, mainly on cancer of the breast and thyroid. A keen member of the Territorial Army, he retired with the rank of lieutenant colonel. Among his many other interests were rugby, genealogy, his old college (he was chairman of the Trinity College Dublin Dining Club from 1985 to 1994) and the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries. A colourful, amusing and delightful colleague, he died on 31 August 2005 from carcinoma of the prostate. He had two sons, a daughter and two grandchildren.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000298
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Stidolph, Neville Edsell (1911 - 2005)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-11-30
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/372486372486
Occupation General surgeon Urologist
Details Neville Stidolph was a consultant in urology and general surgery at Whittington Hospital, London. He was born in Mossel Bay, South Africa, on 31 October 1911. His father, Charles Edward Stidolph, was a magistrate. His mother was Florence née Hinwood. He was educated at Grey High School, Port Elizabeth, where he was head boy. In 1929 he was Eastern Province champion in sprinting and hurdling and in 1930 South African champion in the 440 yards hurdles. From the University of Cape Town he won a Rhodes scholarship to Oxford in 1932. There he won the Theodore Williams scholarship in pathology and the Radcliffe prize in pharmacology, and went on to St Mary’s Hospital for his clinical training. On qualifying he was house surgeon in obstetrics and gynaecology at St Mary’s and house surgeon at the Radcliffe Infirmary. In 1938 he became a ship’s doctor and travelled all over the world, but in August 1939 he joined the Royal Air Force, rising to the rank of wing commander. He was senior medical officer at RAF Scampton in 1943 at the time of the Dam Busters raid. Later he served with the ground forces in Burma, and was flown to Bangkok to organise the repatriation of prisoners of war. In 1948 he was appointed consultant in urology and general surgery at the Whittington Hospital, where he created a special senior registrar post for Commonwealth surgeons and set up a structured training course for the FRCS. At the College he was the Penrose May tutor from 1963 to 1968 and a member of the Court of Examiners from 1968 to 1974. A handsome, athletic man, Neville Stidolph had great charm and presence. He married Betty Rhodes in 1941, and had two sons, Chip and Paul. Betty predeceased him in 2004. He died on 15 November 2005.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000299
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Simpson, David Andrew (1954 - 2003)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-11-30
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/372487372487
Occupation Consultant in accident and emergency medicine Accident and emergency surgeon
Details David Simpson was a consultant in accident and emergency medicine. He was born in London in 1954 and entered King’s College Hospital for medical training. He had considered a career as an engineer, but changed his mind after early training in this discipline. After gaining his FRCS, he became a surgical registrar at the Westminster Hospital and then settled on a career in accident and emergency medicine. He became an associate member of the British Association of Orthopaedic Surgeons and a member of the British Association for Accident and Emergency Medicine, and his future career seemed assured at a time when the specialty was expanding from the old ‘casualty departments’ to the modern ones capable of dealing with a variety of emergencies. He was very interested and had a great knowledge of ‘Scott of the Antartic’, to whom he was distantly related. On entering the Cambridge/Norwich senior registrar training programme he was described as a likeable and hard working, intelligent trainee, but then he developed health problems which dogged his lifestyle and made it difficult for him to engage in permanent posts. Eventually he went to the Middle East, working mainly in Saudi Arabia, and from thence to New Zealand, where he died suddenly on 14 July 2003. He is survived by Raja, his second wife, and Sue and his children, Duncan and Victoria.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000300
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Robin, Ian Gibson (1909 - 2005)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-11-30 2009-05-07
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/372488372488
Occupation ENT surgeon
Details Ian Robin was a distinguished London ear, nose and throat consultant. He was born at Woodford Green, Essex, on 22 May 1909, the son of Arthur Robin, a Scottish general practitioner, and Elizabeth Parker née Arnold, his American mother. He was educated at Merchiston Castle School, in Edinburgh, and at Clare College, Cambridge, where he achieved a half blue in cross country running (once getting lost in the fog) and gained a senior science scholarship to Guy’s Hospital, London. There he won the Treasurer’s gold medal in both clinical surgery and clinical medicine, the Charles Oldman prize in ophthalmology and the Arthur Durham travelling scholarship. At Guy’s he returned to rugby, in which sport he had won a school cap at Merchiston, and subsequently captained the hospital’s first XV. He also played regularly for the United Hospitals and the Eastern Counties. After graduating in 1933 he became house physician to Sir Arthur Hirst and Sir John Conybere and house surgeon to Sir Heneage Ogilive and Sir Russell Brock at Guy's and house surgeon to Sir Lancelot Barrington-Ward at the Royal Northern Hospital, during which time he passed the FRCS. He was so highly thought of that in 1937 he was invited back to the Royal Northern to become a part-time ENT consultant whilst still working as a senior ENT registrar and chief clinical assistant at Guy's Hospital, where he was much influenced by W M Mollison, T B Layton and R J Cann. In the same year he started his private practice, which he continued until 1994. In 1947 Ian Robin was appointed consultant ENT surgeon to St Mary's Hospital, Paddington. He served both St Mary's and the Royal Northern until his retirement in 1974. At the onset of the Second World War Ian was invalided out of the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve because of his left total deafness (the result of mastoid surgery as a child) and served with the EMS Sector 3 London Area seconded to the Royal Chest Hospital. He put his disability to good use and, always a practical optimist, he used to remark that ‘if he turned in bed onto his good ear he did not hear the guns and doodle bugs.’ Although he, together with J Golligher, in 1952 performed the first colon transplant in the treatment of post cricoid cancer, he was principally an otologist and was deeply concerned about deaf people and those who cared for them. A member of the medical and scientific committee and one-time vice chairman of the Royal National Institute of the Deaf (from 1954 to 1958) he was also, in 1953, a founder member of the Deaf Children's Society (later the National Deaf Children's Society) and, through the British Association of Otolarynoglogists, of which he became president in 1972, he fought hard for improved recognition and pay of audiological technicians and was the first chairman of the Hearing Aid Technicians Society. Determined to relieve children of the burden of body-worn hearing aids, Ian tried to convince the then Secretary of State for Health (Barbara Castle) that the newly available post-aural aids should be issued to children. In the Royal Society of Medicine Ian Robin was vice-president of the section of otology (from 1966 to 1969) and president of the section of laryngology (from 1967 to 1968), where his presidential address on ‘snoring’ raised much public interest. He gave the Yearsley lecture on ‘the handicap of deafness’ in 1967 and the Jobson Horne lecture in 1969. He jointly wrote *A synopsis of otorhinolarynoglogy* (John Wright, Bristol, 1957), and chapters on deafness in the second and third editions of *Diseases of the ear, nose and throat*. His last article, entitled ‘Personal experience of deafness’ was published in ENT News in 2003. Always popular with his colleagues and loved by his patients, he treated his juniors with great friendliness, regarding them as equals. He also took an active part in many student activities at St Mary’s Hospital. In his long retirement Ian Robin was able to continue his hobbies of golf, bowls, gardening, furniture restoration and painting, where he was an active exhibiting member of the Medical Art Society. In later retirement he progressively lost his sight and remaining hearing, but this did not stop him at the age of 90 becoming singles champion of Rutland Blind Bowls Club or completing a computer course to learn a voice activated programme. His first wife Shelagh (née Croft), whom he married in 1939, died suddenly in 1978. In 1994 Ian happily married Patricia Lawrence (Pat), who was the first patient that he operated on when he became a consultant at the Royal Northern Hospital when he was aged 28 and she 13. Neil Weir
Resource Identifier RCS: E000301
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Plaut, Gustav Siegmund (1921 - 2006)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

First Title value, for Searching Peel, Sir John Harold (1904 - 2005)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-11-30
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/372490372490
Occupation Obstetrician and gynaecologist
Details Sir John Peel was perhaps the most celebrated obstetrician and gynaecologist of his era. Born in Bradford on 10 December 1904, he was the son of the Rev J E Peel. From Manchester Grammar School he went to Queen’s College, Oxford, going on to his clinical studies at King’s College Hospital where, after junior posts in surgery and obstetrics and gynaecology, he was appointed to the consultant staff in 1936, and to Princess Beatrice Hospital the following year. During the Second World War he was surgeon to the Emergency Medical Service, and in 1942 was put on the staff of Queen Victoria Hospital, East Grinstead. Together with Wilfred Oakley, he studied the management of women with diabetes, research that led to a reduction in maternal and infant mortality. A council member of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists in 1955, he was president in 1966, when he chaired a debate on reform of the abortion law, driven by his anxiety to reduce the morbidity of illegal abortion. In 1971 he was the author of a report that recommended that all women should give birth in hospital and remain there for several days, a report which wrought a great change in maternity practice, though it did not go unchallenged. Peel assisted at the birth of Prince Charles and Princess Anne, and in time succeeded Sir William Gilliatt as surgeon-gynaecologist to the Queen, in which capacity he delivered Prince Andrew and Prince Edward (all these, paradoxically, being home deliveries). A quiet, unflappable Yorkshireman, Peel was unfazed by media interest in his royal patients. He married Muriel Pellow in 1936, and divorced her in 1947, to marry Freda Mellish, a ward sister. Their long and happy marriage was terminated by her death in 1993. He married for the third time in 1995, to an old family friend, Sally Barton. He died on 31 December 2005, leaving her and a daughter by his first marriage.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000303
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Rennie, Christopher Douglas (1948 - 2005)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-11-30
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/372491372491
Occupation Urologist
Details Christopher Rennie was a consultant urologist at Bromsgrove. He was born in Port Dixon, Malaysia, on 10 April 1948, the first son of Douglas David and Kathleen Mary (Dinah) Rennie. Douglas was an insurance underwriter for Manufacturers Life for the majority of his working life and Dinah was a GP in the same practice as her father, James Alexander Brown. She later worked in family planning in the Birmingham area. Chris was educated at Edgbaston Preparatory School and at King’s School in Canterbury. Influenced by his grandfather, whom he frequently accompanied on rounds from the age of five, he decided on a medical career. He went to medical school in Birmingham, obtained a BSc in anatomy in 1969 and graduated in 1972. He gained his FRCS in 1977, and initially trained as a general surgeon in the West Midlands, switching to urology as his chosen specialty in the early eighties. Chris became the sole urologist in Bromsgrove in 1985 and, before his early death, was instrumental in the transition to an amalgamated unit of five consultants. He was programme director for the West Midlands training programme in urology and was keen on expanding all aspects of training. Chris married twice, to Bridget (née Main) and Yvette (née Downing). He leaves a partner, Helen Kingdon, and a son, Alexander Harry James. Chris died suddenly from a heart attack on 14 September 2005.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000304
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Taylor, John Gibson (1918 - 2005)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-11-30
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/372492372492
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon
Details John Gibson Taylor, known as ‘Ian’, was a consultant orthopaedic surgeon at Norfolk and Norwich Hospital. He was born on 8 June 1918, three months before the end of the First World War, the only child of Scottish parents Kate and William Taylor. Ian’s father was an engineer employed at the Royal Aeronautical Establishment, Hampshire. Brought up in Fleet, Ian went to the local grammar school. Deciding on a medical career, he entered St Mary’s Hospital Medical School. Much of his time was spent at Amersham, where the medical school was evacuated during the Second World War. After a year on the house, during which time he was house physician to Sir George Pickering, he joined the RNVR. His first posting was to the destroyer HMS Zetland, which hunted U-boats. After a year he served on HMS Vindex, an escort carrier. Through many hard winters over the next four years on the treacherous North Sea, the ship escorted convoys to Russia. He was discharged as a surgeon lieutenant commander in June 1946. On demobilisation he returned to St Mary’s as a registrar to V H Ellis, the orthopaedic surgeon, who was soon joined by John Crawford Adams, with whom Ian retained a lifelong friendship. After passing the FRCS Ian became first assistant to the accident service at the John Radcliffe Hospital, being greatly influenced by Edgar Somerville, Robert Taylor and Joe Pennybacker, who taught Ian spinal surgery. In 1954 he was appointed consultant orthopaedic surgeon in Norwich, joining Ken McKee and Richard Howard. The unit served not only Norwich but was also responsible for most of the orthopaedic and trauma services in Yarmouth and Lowestoft. Ian embraced the introduction of new methods of joint replacement, holding clinics with Neil Cardoe and Gilson Wenley for rheumatoid and other arthritic problems, at first in an old workhouse, St Michael’s Hospital in Aylsham. Later a stable block was converted into an operating theatre – much of the money raised by voluntary donations from the Norfolk community. In this unlikely setting Ian performed knee and metacarpo-phalangeal joint replacements. Much sought-after as a teacher, he was involved with the rotation between Bart’s, Norwich and the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital, and encouraged many of his trainees to publish their first papers. In 1965 Sir Herbert Seddon asked him to help out in Nigera, where he spent several months. In 1956 he met Fodhla Burnell, an anaesthetist. They were married a year later in Norwich Cathedral. They had many shared interests – sailing in the North Sea was one, a cottage in the Perthshire hills another. He was an accomplished skier, using this method of transport to get him to hospital during the hard winter of 1979. He was a keen member of the Percivall Pott Club and regularly attended meetings of the British Orthopaedic Association (BOA). One of his last major trips abroad was to Murmansk in 2001. This commemorated the arrival of the first Russian convoy sent from the UK during the Second World War. Ian and others who had survived were welcomed by the Russians and given a medal of honour for the enormous risks taken 60 years previously. Over his last few years he developed progressive muscle disease, and died on 24 August 2005.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000305
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Williams, Rowland James (1919 - 2005)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

First Title value, for Searching Walsh, Michael Anthony (1939 - 2005)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

First Title value, for Searching Thomas, Kelvin Einstein (1926 - 2005)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-12-19
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/372495372495
Occupation General surgeon
Details Kelvin Thomas was a consultant surgeon at Nottingham General and King Mill hospitals. He was born in Hong Kong on 11 November 1926, the son of George Harold Thomas, a surgeon, and Nora née Gourdin. His father was formally admitted as a fellow by election by Sir Arthur Porritt in 1961, who went to Hong Kong to confer this honour on his way back from New Zealand. During the Second World War, following the fall of Hong Kong, Kelvin was sent to the Woodstock School in Mussoorie, India, from which he went on to Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore. He trained at Guy’s Hospital and after qualification became house surgeon to Sam Wass, and later senior registrar to Philip Reading. He did junior posts at St Olave’s Hospital, Rotherhithe, was an anatomy prosector at the College under Stansfield, and then specialised in ENT, doing posts at Tunbridge Wells, Addenbrooke’s and Guy’s. He was appointed consultant to the Nottingham General Hospital and King Mill Hospital in 1966, retiring at the age of 65. He was a very talented sculptor, exhibiting regularly at the Medical Art Society and winning prizes at the Royal Society of British Artists. His bust of the Prince of Wales stands in the entrance hall of the Queen’s Medical Centre, Nottingham, but he was more generally admired for his graceful and delicate bronze nudes. A short, quiet modest man, he had great charm. His latter years were marred by myocardiac infarctions and he underwent by-pass surgery. In 1956 he married Diana Mary Allen, a schoolteacher. They had two children, a son, Stephen Austin Thomas, who became a urologist, and a daughter, Anna Rachel, a ceramic artist. Kelvin wrote his memoirs, *My father’s coat*, for private distribution. He died on 13 November 2005, some eight months after a fall from a tree from which he never regained consciousness.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000308
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Roberts, Gwyn Richard Ellis (1929 - 2006)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-12-19
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/372496372496
Occupation General surgeon
Details Gwyn Roberts was a consultant general surgeon at the Hastings group of hospitals. He was born in Kampala, Uganda, on 26 April 1929, where his father, Clifford Ellis, was a surgeon and his mother, Lydia Flay, a nurse. He was educated at the Prince of Wales School, Nairobi, and Millfield, in Somerset, before entering the London Hospital Medical College, where he qualified in 1955. He did his junior house jobs in Plymouth and at Chase Farm Hospital and went on to be casualty officer at the Hammersmith Hospital, which was followed by senior house officer posts at the West London and the Royal National Orthopaedic hospitals. He then did his National Service in the Royal Air Force as a junior specialist. On leaving the RAF he was a registrar at the Birmingham Accident and the Luton and Dunstable hospitals, before becoming a lecturer on the surgical unit at the London Hospital under Victor Dix and David Ritchie, a time when he devised a balloon catheter with an eye downstream of the balloon which he claimed provided better drainage, and did a good deal of research into the precursor of selective vagotomy in the treatment of peptic ulcers and vascular ligation for oesophageal varices. This was followed by two years at the Connaught Hospital under J Thompson Fathi. He then obtained his consultant post in general surgery at the Hastings group of hospitals. There he found himself faced with a heavy surgical load in a district over-supplied with elderly patients, carrying out the full range of general surgery with minimal junior help, but still found time to describe a new physical sign in the diagnosis of disorders of the thyroid, and a new device for decompressing the bowel. In addition to papers on his catheter, he published extensively on the management of stab wounds to the thorax and abdomen. He married Mohini Ranchandani and had two sons, Michael and Peter. He died on 4 August 2006.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000309
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

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

First Title value, for Searching Longworth-Krafft, Gerard (1913 - 2005)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-12-19 2012-03-14
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/372498372498
Occupation Civil servant General surgeon
Details Gerard Longworth-Krafft was a medical officer at the Department of Health and Social Security. He was born in Manchester on 13 March 1913. His father, Gerardus Krafft, was a business man from Dordrecht, Holland. His mother was Sarah née Longworth. From Manchester Grammar School he won the Adams scholarship to Manchester University, where he graduated BA, intending to follow his father into business, but the outlook for business in the thirties was grim and he decided to enter medicine, went to St Mary's Hospital in 1935 and there developed a love of sailing which was to continue throughout his life. There he was much influenced by, and sailed with, Aleck Bourne. After qualifying, he did house jobs at St Mary's and then joined the RNVR as a surgeon lieutenant in 1942, spending two years on HMS *Broadway*, a destroyer accompanying North Atlantic Convoys, then on HMS *Gannett* based in Northern Ireland, and finally HMS *Chincara* in Cochin, where he prepared the medical facilities for the newly set-up base. After the war he continued his surgical training and, while a registrar at Southend General Hospital, met Catherine Johnston, also a doctor, whom he married, on which occasion he added Longworth to his name at the request of his mother, who was the last of the Longworths. Catherine later became a consultant radiologist. In 1955 he was appointed consultant surgeon to the West Dorset Hospital in Dorchester, but only for four sessions, not enough to support a growing family of four children, one of whom, Jenny, became a doctor. Reluctantly he forsook surgery and moved to the DHSS in 1960, doing medical assessment work, initially at Norcross and later at Basingstoke, before retiring in his seventies. He was a proud, clever man, fluent in several languages, and a keen amateur singer, sailor and skier. Catherine died at 81 in 2005. Gerard, his world having fallen apart, died six weeks later on 24 May 2005.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000311
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching McGavin, Donald Burns (1906 - 2003)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

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

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

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/372254372254
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon
Details Hedley Walter Hall was born in Farsley, near Leeds, on 3 October 1907. His father, Walter, was a Methodist minister. His mother was Julia Florence née Copestake. He was educated at Goole Primary and Secondary Schools, then Shebbear College, north Devon, where he was captain of the school. He studied medicine at King’s College, London, and went on to University College Hospital for his clinical studies. He was a house surgeon at UCH, a radium registrar and a night anaesthetist. He went on to the Central Middlesex Hospital, where he was a registrar, and the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital. During his training he was particularly influenced by Gwynne Williams, Philip Wiles, Norman Matheson and Illtyd James. He was a Major in the RAMC from 1947 to 1949. He was appointed as a consultant orthopaedic surgeon to the North Middlesex Hospital and then to the Bath clinical area. He was a consultant orthopaedic surgeon to the Shaftsbury Home at Malmsbury. He married a Miss Waterman in 1938, a ward sister at UCH. They had one son and one daughter, Margaret. He enjoyed cricket, played for Hinton Charterhouse until he was over 50, and was president of the club. He was also interested in archaeology, gardening, bee keeping, literature, theatre and travel. He was a governor of his old school, Shebbear College. He died on 22 September 2003.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000067
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

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 Innes, Alexander James (1912 - 2005)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-12-19
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/372503372503
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon
Details Alexander James Innes was a consultant orthopaedic surgeon at Stirling Royal and Falkirk and District Royal infirmaries. His father, James Innes, of Fochabers in Moray, was a farmhand who enlisted in the Seaforth Highlanders at the age of 16 and rose to the rank of sergeant. His mother was Jessie Tulloch, a domestic servant. In 1912 the regiment was posted to Agra, in India, and Alexander was born en route in Folkestone on 5 April, the day the *Titanic* was sunk. At the outbreak of the First World War James Innes was sent to France, where he was killed in action in 1915 at Neuve Chapelle. Alexander and his mother returned to Nairn, near Inverness, where Alexander lived for the next 15 years, being educated at Rose’s Academy, where he was *dux* in 1929. He also learned to play the clarinet, flute and bagpipes. Assisted by a Kitchener scholarship, Alexander went to medical school in Edinburgh, where he graduated with honours in 1934. He then spent a short time as anatomy demonstrator before going to London to study for the FRCS, working first at the Royal Marsden and later at the Middlesex hospitals. Having passed the FRCS, he went to Leeds. He then volunteered for the RNVR and at the outbreak of the Second World War he was seconded to the Royal Marine Commando. His first active service was in Crete in 1941, when he worked in a forward tented hospital throughout the German airborne attack, and was evacuated to Egypt. In 1942 his unit was sent to the Maldives, where he dealt with an outbreak of typhus, and then on to Burma with Force Viper, working behind enemy lines sabotaging communications and oil depots. Having scuttled their boats, the unit made their way overland to Assam. On returning to the UK in 1943 he married his favourite theatre sister, Nora Louise Jenkinson, whom he had met in Leeds. On his demobilisation in 1946 he returned to Nairn, working as an orthopaedic registrar at Raigmore Hospital, Inverness. He then went on to Glasgow Royal Infirmary, where he worked as a senior registrar. In 1947 he was appointed consultant orthopaedic surgeon to Stirling Royal Infirmary and Falkirk and District Royal Infirmary, where he remained until he retired in 1977. By then he could not walk down the street without being greeted by ex-patients. A modest man with simple interests, he travelled extensively, read widely and was a brilliant conversationalist. He died in Stirling Royal Infirmay on 9 September 2005 at the age of 93, having been predeceased by his wife. He had three children.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000316
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

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

First Title value, for Searching Turk, John Leslie (1930 - 2006)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-12-19
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000300-E000399
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372505372505
Occupation Pathologist
Details John Turk was a former professor of pathology at the Institute of Basic Medical Sciences at the College. He was born on 2 October 1930 in Farnborough, Hampshire, where his father was a solicitor. From Malvern, where he specialised in classics, John went up to Guy’s Hospital to read medicine, qualifying with honours and two gold medals in 1953. He did house jobs at Lewisham, where he met his future wife, Terry, and then did his National Service in the RAMC in Egypt and Cyprus, where he developed his interest in pathology. On demobilisation he was appointed senior lecturer at the Institute of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, working at the Medical Research Council research unit at Mill Hill, going on to be reader at the Institute of Dermatology in the University of London. He was one of the pioneers in clinical and experimental immunology, building on the work of Medawar and Humphreys, and was a founder of the British Society of Immunology. John Turk made important links with deprived and developing nations, where he was able to use his linguistic skills, and became in time an international authority on leprosy. He was appointed Sir William Collins professor of pathology at the Institute of Basic Medical Sciences in our College. The author of many articles, he wrote two classic textbooks, *Delayed hypersensitivity* (Amsterdam, North-Holland Publishing Co., 1967) and *Immunology in clinical medicine* (London, William Heinemann Medical Books, 1969), which became very popular and was translated into many different languages, including Bulgarian and Japanese. In addition he and Sir Reginald Murley edited the collected case books of John Hunter. He was curator of the Hunterian Museum for many years. He was editor of *Clinical and Experimental Immunology* and *Leprosy Review*, was president of the British Society for Immunology and of the section of immunology of the Royal Society of Medicine, and adviser to the World Health Organization on leprosy. His wife Terry was a general practitioner; they had two sons, Simon and Jeremy (a psychiatrist), and three grandchildren. A delightful companion, John Turk was a kind and sensitive man, and a devoted servant of the College, who made him FRCS by election. He suffered from diabetes and died from renal failure and small vessel cerebral disease on 4 June 2006.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000318
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Makin, Myer (1919 - 2005)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-12-19
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000300-E000399
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372506372506
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon
Details Myer Makin was professor of orthopaedics at Hadassah University, Jerusalem. He was born in Birkenhead in March 1919, the son of Leon Makin and Rebecca nee Goldman, furniture dealers. He studied medicine at Liverpool University and was house surgeon at Walter Municipal Hospital, Liverpool, before joining the RAMC. He was mentioned in despatches in 1945 and was awarded the Croix de Guerre in France. In 1946 he was appointed to the staff of the Rothschild Hadassah University Hospital. In the early 1950s he spent two years in New York, at the New York Orthopaedic Hospital, Columbia University, as a clinical fellow in orthopaedic surgery and then the senior Annie C Kane fellow. In 1952 he returned to Jerusalem, becoming director of the department of orthopaedic surgery in 1955. At the College he was a Hunterian Professor in 1957, and in the same year was the Lord Nuffield research scholar at Oxford. He was awarded the Robert Jones gold medal and prize of the British Orthopaedic Association in 1960. In 1965 he was made a Fellow of the College by election. He was a member of many prestigious associations, and was invited as visiting professor to the Albert Einstein Medical College and elsewhere. He was corresponding editor of the *Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery* in 1962 and of *Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research* in 1967. His method of transposing the flexor pollicis longus tendon to make the thumb opposable is widely used. He was declared a Distinguished Citizen of Israel in 1960. He died on 27 October 2005.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000319
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Raine, John Wellesley Evan (1919 - 2006)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-12-19 2014-12-16
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/372507372507
Occupation General surgeon
Details John Raine, one of New Zealand's most distinguished surgeons, was born on 12 March 1919 in Wellington. His father John was an importer of china and glassware. His mother was Harriet Eva née Cox. John was educated at Scots College, Wellington, where he was *dux* in 1933, winnng the Pattie cup for the best all-rounder in the school. He went on to Victoria University, Wellington, where he won his hockey blue, and then to Otago University to study medicine, qualifying in 1941. He was house surgeon at the Wellington Hospital, before joining the RNZAF in 1943, serving as a flight lieutenant in Guadalcanal and Bougainville. After the war he returned to Wellington, where he was assistant to E H M Luke, before going to Guy's Hospital as a Dominion student registrar under Sammy Wass, Hedley Atkins, Grant Massie and Lord Brock, during which time he attended St Mark's under Gabriel and Naunton Morgan. After passing the FRCS he was resident surgeon at Barnet General Hospital in 1949. In 1950 he returned to Wellington as visiting surgeon and clinical lecturer in surgery, a post he held until he retired in 1980. After retirement he continued as an honorary postgraduate tutor in surgery and director of medical services for the Justice Department for another ten years. His main interests were abdominal and head and neck surgery. At the Royal Australasian College he was elected to council in 1963, served for 12 years on the court of examiners, was vice president for two years from 1972 and president from 1974 to 1975. As president he conferred an honorary FRCS on his friend, Rodney, Lord Smith of Marlow. In the New Zealand branch of the BMA he was honorary general secretary from 1958 to 1963. He married Eleanor Luke in 1943, by whom he had a daughter, Rosalind Frances, who became a doctor in Christchurch, and three sons, one of whom, John Kenneth, became professor of mechanical engineering, the second, Anthony Evan Gerald, a Rhodes scholar, became professor of renal medicine at St Bartholomew's Hospital, but died in 1996. His third son, Christopher Taylor, became a paramedic in St John, Southland. His first wife died in 1978 and he married Patricia Mary Cryer, in 1980. A keen sportsman he achieved two holes in one at golf, continued to ski until he required a knee replacement, played fiercely competitive bridge and was a keen gardener. He died on 12 July 2006.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000320
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Murthy, Subbayan Keshava (1931 - 2003)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-12-19 2007-08-02
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/372508372508
Occupation General Practitioner
Details Subbayan Keshava Murthy was a general practitioner in Swindon. He was born on 9 April 1931 at Channaraya Patna, in Mysore (now called Karnataka). His father, Venkatajubbiah Murthy, was a government state doctor. His mother was Subbalakhamma Murthy. He was educated at various government schools, finishing at Maharaja’s High School, Mysore. In 1946 he went on to Mysore Medical College, graduating in 1953. He then worked in various hospital posts in Karnataka State. In 1956 he went to the UK to specialise in surgery. His first post was at Swansea Hospital, from which he successfully took the Edinburgh and English fellowships. He then went on to a series of registrar jobs in general and thoracic surgery, including St John’s Hospital, London, and Sully Hospital, Glamorgan. He spent a year in Chicago, and was offered a permanent job in a surgical clinic, but declined, having found the mercenary aspects difficult to accept after his experience of the NHS. He returned to India to work in various positions, including a post at the Missionary Hospital in Karnataka, where he carried out reparative surgery on patients with leprosy. Finally, he was appointed as a pool officer in the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in Delhi, where he was joined by his colleague from Swansea, Helen Parker. They married on 4 April 1963 in New Delhi. In 1964 they returned to the UK, when he found it necessary to pass the conjoint to obtain full registration. His next posts were in cardiothoracic surgery at Sully and Broad Green hospitals. In 1971 he decided to enter general practice in Swindon, where he worked until he was obliged to take early retirement after cardiac by-pass surgery in 1987. He continued to work part-time until November 1991. He had many outside interests. He was passionately interested in cricket and loved cooking, at which he excelled. He enjoyed classical music, both Western and Indian, and also travelling, especially motoring in Europe, particularly Spain and France. On his retirement he and his wife joined the University of the Third Age, and, before his health failed, he had completed the first year of an Open University Spanish course. He died on 13 May 2003.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000321
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Fonseka, Merrennage Neil Thomas (1940 - 2005)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-12-21
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/372509372509
Occupation General surgeon
Details Neil Fonseka was foundation professor of surgery at the University of Ruhuna, Sri Lanka. A twin, he was born in Colombo on 19 July 1940, the son of Merrennage Gilbert Thomas Fonseka, a clerical officer, and Eugene Wilta Fonseka a school teacher. He was educated at St Matthew’s College, Dematagoda, and Ananda College, where he was an excellent student and also won prizes for sports. He qualified with second class honours from the University of Colombo and won distinctions in microbiology, pathology and obstetrics and gynaecology, as well as the Loos gold medal for pathology. After junior posts he went to England, where he worked at St Peter’s, St Mark’s and St Bartholomew’s hospitals in London and was senior registrar at Charing Cross and King Edward VII Hospital, Windsor. In 1976 he was appointed surgeon to the prosthetic and vascular centre at Selly Oak Hospital, Birmingham, and, in 1978, surgeon-in-charge at the prosthetic and vascular centre at Brighton Hospital. In 1980 he returned to Sri Lanka to become the foundation professor in surgery at the new University of Ruhuna. There he threw himself into the life of the university, taking a keen interest in student welfare, becoming a member of the senate and council of the university and dean of the faculty of medicine from 1988 to 1989, during horrifying days of terrorism. He founded the Ruhuna University Medical Students Alumni Association, the Galle branches of the Jaipur Foot Project and the Cancer Society, and was president of the Galle Medical Association in 1985. He was interested in cricket, tennis, chess, bridge, poker, singing, watching films, reading classics and fiction, and jokes. He owned an estate where he cultivated coconuts. He married Pushpa, a professor of community medicine at the University of Ruhuna, who cared for him devotedly during his long and disabling last illness. He died on 15 May 2005.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000322
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Ashe, Evelyn Oliver (1864 - 1925)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2009-10-07 2013-08-06
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000700-E000799
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372888372888
Occupation General surgeon
Details Educated at Owens College, Manchester, and at the London Hospital, where he was Scholar in Anatomy and Physiology (1883-1884), and in Anatomy, Physiology, and Chemistry (1884-1885). He was also Surgical Scholar, and obtained an Honours Certificate in Obstetrics in 1886-1887. After qualification he was House Physician, House Surgeon, Dental Assistant, and Resident Accoucheur at the London Hospital. In 1892 he went out to Kimberley, Cape Colony, as Senior House Surgeon to the Kimberley Hospital. Started practice in Kimberley in 1894, and became Surgeon to the De Beer's Consolidated Mines and Surgeon to the Kimberley Hospital, where he was Senior Surgeon at the time of his death on April 27th, 1925. His qualities were such that he was accorded a public funeral. Publications: *Besieged by the Boers: a Diary of Life and Events in Kimberley during the Siege*. 8vo, New York, 1900. "Galyl in Malta Fever." - *Brit. Med. Jour.*, 1918, i, 454. "Cæsarean Section for Eclampsia - Survival of Mother and Child." - *S. Afric. Med. Record*, 1919.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000705
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Ashley, William Henry (1819 - 1874)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2009-10-07
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/372889372889
Occupation General surgeon
Details Educated at University College, London, in Edinburgh, and in Paris. Practised in London from 1840 to 1874, but owing to illness, from which he died on Aug 23rd, 1874, at 28 Ladbroke Square, was unable to provide for a family of ten children. A subscription in aid of his widow and family was promoted by the *British Medical Journal* after his death. His photograph is in the College Album.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000706
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Ashton, Thomas Mather (1812 - 1878)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2009-10-07
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/372890372890
Occupation General surgeon
Details Lived and practised at Ormskirk, Lancashire, residing at The Cottage, Burscough. He was at one time Honorary Surgeon to the Ormskirk Dispensary. JP for County Lancaster. He died on July 18th, 1878.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000707
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Ashworth, Percy (1865 - 1929)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

First Title value, for Searching Carden, Henry Douglas ( - 1872)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

First Title value, for Searching Carpenter, William Guest (1815 - 1885)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

First Title value, for Searching Carpmael, Norman (1875 - 1912)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

First Title value, for Searching Carr, William (1814 - 1877)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

First Title value, for Searching Carr, William (1829 - 1905)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

First Title value, for Searching Carter, Charles Henry (1817 - 1897)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

First Title value, for Searching Carter, Henry Freeland (1821 - 1894)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

First Title value, for Searching Carter, James (1814 - 1895)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

First Title value, for Searching Carter, John Collis ( - 1866)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

First Title value, for Searching Carter, Robert Brudenell (1828 - 1918)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2010-02-11
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000800-E000899
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373042373042
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born at Little Wittenham, Berkshire, on October 2nd, 1828, traced his descent from Thomas Carter, armiger, of Higham, Bedfordshire, who lived in the reign of Edward IV. When he had authenticated his descent to the satisfaction of the Heralds’ College, and established his right to armorial bearings, he became qualified in the Order of St John of Jerusalem to be promoted from a Knight of Grace to a Knight of Justice. A later ancestor, the Rev Nicolas Carter, preached before the Long Parliament. His grandfather, the Rev Henry Carter, was Rector of Lower Wittenham for fifty-seven years. The sister of his grandfather was Elizabeth Carter (*Dict. Nat. Biog.*), the Greek scholar who translated Epictetus, and was the friend of Johnson, Edmund Burke, and Horace Walpole. His father, Major Henry Carter, Royal Marines, and his wife were staying with the grandfather when he was born. He was christened Robert Brudenell, the name of his father’s neighbour and lifelong friend Robert, sixth Earl of Cardigan, the father of Lord Cardigan of the Light Brigade. Carter’s mother died soon after his birth, and he was brought up by Mrs Fearne. After serving an apprenticeship to a general practitioner, he entered the London Hospital at the age of 19, and qualified in 1851. He then acted as an assistant to a practitioner in Leytonstone, during which he made his first publication, *The Pathology and Treatment of Hysteria* (1853). In 1854 he moved to Putney and published a second book, on *The Influence of Education and Training in Preventing Diseases of the Nervous System*. One may smile at the subjects adopted by a young medical assistant, but his account of hysteria, which he based upon the teaching of Stephen Mackenzie, to whose memory he dedicated the book, shows remarkable literary talent together with much observation, apparently made during his apprenticeship in the country. The obituary in *The Times* noted this first evidence of his talent. With the Crimean War he volunteered and was appointed a staff surgeon in Turkey, where he came under the notice of W H Russell, correspondent of *The Times*; with this introduction he wrote letters to *The Times* from the front, which subsequently determined his future; also letters and contributions to the *Lancet*. He received both the English and Turkish War Medals. On his return he moved from Putney to Fulham, then to Nottingham for five years. There in 1859 he took part in founding the Nottingham Eye Infirmary, and at the same time began to direct special attention to ophthalmology. Once again, in 1862, he moved to Stroud to a partnership with George Samuel Gregory, and had a share in establishing the Gloucestershire Eye Institution. Meanwhile he published *The Physiological Influence of Certain Methods of Teaching, The Artificial Production of Stupidity, The Principle of Early Medical Education, The Marvellous*. In spite of all this, he said: “Nevertheless I was able to go up from my country practice for the FRCS examination without either rest for study or coaching – and to pass.” He married at the age of 40, and looking around for better opportunities he applied to *The Times*. Concerning this crisis he referred to himself in a letter to the *Lancet* as “a conspicuously unsuccessful general practitioner in the country.” His Crimean letters were looked up, and as a result he was put upon the editorial staff. This determined him to settle in London. In the following year, 1869, he was appointed Surgeon to the Royal Eye Hospital, Southwark, and held the post until 1877. He became Ophthalmic Surgeon to St George’s Hospital in 1870 in succession to Henry Power (qv), and was appointed Consulting Surgeon in 1893. His literary abilities gave distinction to his writing on ophthalmology, and his *Students’ Manual* was the most widely used of the day. Another of his appointments was that of Ophthalmic Surgeon to the National Hospital for Paralysis and Epilepsy. In addition to *The Times* Carter joined the staff of the *Lancet*, and at that time James Wakley (qv) was desirous of initiating the ‘Hospital Sunday’. Carter wrote on this and also in *The Times*. On the start of the Mansion House Fund Carter was elected a member of the first Council. He was Hunterian Professor at the College in 1876-1877; Orator in 1874; Lettsomian Lecturer in 1884, and President in 1886, of the Medical Society of London. From 1887-1900 he was the representative of the Apothecaries’ Society on the General Medical Council, and was instrumental in introducing a modification in the procedure of that body, whereby before deciding upon an offence an interval of probation might be afforded by postponing a definite decision until the following session. But it was his position on the staff of *The Times* which enabled him to place the views of the medical profession on subjects of the day before the general public, and the lucidity of his style always enabled him to do so with effect. Said the *Lancet*: “Eloquent, incisive, more than occasionally bitter, he was also a generous writer, and few members of the Medical Profession have wielded greater power with the pen, while he possessed the equally valuable gift of being able to speak in public with the same command of language and high level of literary style. Carter’s ‘leaders’ belong to an older day; he used the Latin ‘period’ and a rotund full-dress method; but any appearance of pomposity thus given to his writings was purely superficial; no writer of to-day is more fastidious than was Carter in his choice of language, or more resolutely averse from the use of ‘stale metaphors, trite tags and obvious morals’.” Although his handwriting was good, he was the first on *The Times* to use a typewriter. Carter sat on the first London County Council, and obtained a special committee to report upon the Care of the Insane. The Council did not accept the recommendations, and he was not re-elected. At the age of 87 he volunteered to write again for the *Lancet* whilst the staff were depleted by the War. He died at his house on Clapham Common on October 23rd, 1918, in his ninety-first year, and was buried at West Norwood Cemetery. There is a portrait of him by ‘Stuff’ in the *Vanity Fair Album* wearing two pairs of spectacles, a habit also noted by ‘Jehu Junior’ in the biographical note, *Vanity Fair*, April 9th, 1892. There is also a portrait in the *Leicester Provincial Medical Journal*, 1890. Carter was twice married: (i) to Helen Ann Beauchamp, daughter of John Becher, and (ii) to Rachel Elizabeth, daughter of Stephen Hallpike, and widow of Walter Browne. He had four sons. Publications:– *On the Pathology and Treatment of Hysteria*, London, 1853. *On the Influence of Education and Training in Preventing Diseases of the Nervous System*, London, 1855. “Hints on the Diagnosis of Eye Disease,” Dublin, 1865; reprinted from *Dublin Quart. Jour. Med. Sci.*, 1865. “The Training of the Mind for the Study of Medicine” (Address at St George’s Hospital), London, 1873. *A Practical Treatise on Diseases of the Eye*, with plates, Philadelphia, 1875. Translations of Schaller on “Ocular Defects”, 1869, and of Zänder on “The Ophthalmoscope”, 1864. Contributions to Holmes’s *System of Surgery*, and to Quain’s *Dictionary of Medicine*. *Ophthalmic Surgery* (with W A Frost), 1887; 2nd ed. 1888. *On Defects of Vision remediable by Optical Appliances* (Hunterian Lecture RCS), London, 1877. *Eyesight Good and Bad.* A treatise on the exercise and preservation of vision, London, 1880; translated into German, Berlin, 1884. Cantor Lectures on “Colour Blindness” delivered at the Society of Arts, London, 1881. “Eyesight in Civilization,” London, 1884; reprinted from *The Times*, 1884. “The Modern Operations for Cataract” (Lettsomian Lectures, Medical Society of London), London, 1884. “Eyesight in Schools” (Lecture before the Medical Officers of Schools), London, 1885; reprinted from *Med. Times and Gaz.*, 1885. “On Retrobulbar Incision of the Optic Nerve in Cases of Swollen Disc.” – *Brain*, 1887, x, 199. “On the Management of Severe Injuries to the Eye.” – *Clin. Jour.*, 1894, iv, 317. *Sight and Hearing in Childhood* (with A H Cheatle), London, 1903. *Doctors and their Work; or Medicine, Quackery and Disease*, London, 1903. “Medical Ophthalmology” in Allbutt’s *System of Medicine*, vi.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000859
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Cartwright, Samuel (1815 - 1891)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

First Title value, for Searching Carver, Edmund (1824 - 1904)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

First Title value, for Searching Bennett, William Charles Storer (1852 - 1900)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

First Title value, for Searching Bennett, William Edward (1865 - 1927)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

First Title value, for Searching Bergmann, Ernst von (1836 - 1907)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2010-02-25
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000800-E000899
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373047373047
Occupation General surgeon
Details Came of a family of Lutheran Pastors, of long standing in East Prussia and Livonia, his father being Pastor of Rujen in Livonia; but his mother, having to take refuge from an epidemic, he was born at Riga, then the capital of the Russian Baltic Provinces, in December, 1836. On leaving school he failed to get permission from the Czar to enter the theological faculty, so he matriculated in the medical faculty of the Germano-Russian University of Dorpat in 1854. He graduated in 1860 with a “Dissertation on the Passage of the Balsams of Copaiba and Cubebs into the Urine”. After visits to German Hospitals he settled down in Dorpat as a Clinical Assistant and qualified as Dozent in Surgery in 1863. Inspired by the renown of Pirogoff, he volunteered for employment in the Prussian and Austrian War of 1866, and after the battle of Königgrätz, which ended the fighting, was appointed to a Prussian Lazaret. Later he returned to Dorpat for the autumn session. Similarly he served as Chef-Artz at Base Hospitals in Alsace, at Mannheim, and Carlsruhe during the Franco-German War of 1870-1871. Upon this in 1871 followed his appointment to the Professorship of Surgery at Dorpat in succession to Adelmann. When in April, 1877, Russia declared war upon Turkey, Bergmann became Surgeon Consultant to the Army of the Danube invading Roumania. During the campaign up to the battle of Plevna he had the additional advantage of treating wounded under the better conditions supplied by the Baltic Hospital of the Red Cross. He then made a name for himself in the History of Military Surgery by adopting Lister’s antiseptic methods for the first time, for Lister’s proposals had been ignored in the Franco-German War. Moreover, Larrey’s immediate amputation had dropped out of use, being rendered largely impracticable by the wider manoeuvres of war. Bergmann had learnt the principles of Listerian surgery through Nussbaum and Richard Volkmann, and thus replaced the vague ideas concerning putridity and fermentations, about which Bergmann himself had written in 1865. Statistics from the American Civil War stated that of 1000 gunshot wounds of the knee-joint 837 died, of 1000 gunshot wounds of the elbow 194 died. After the battle of Gorni-Dubnik Bergmann dressed 15 cases of gunshot fractures involving the knee-joint, and that for the first time, some thirty to sixty hours after the injury, by thoroughly exploring and cleaning the wound and joint, using as fluid 5 per cent carbolic acid; 8 healed without suppuration, or as good as none; in 7 cases there was suppuration, in 2 slight, in 5 severe and prolonged; 2 dressed forty-eight and sixty hours after wounding underwent secondary amputation through the thigh and recovered. One dressed forty-eight hours after the injury, suffered from pyaemia, underwent secondary amputation, and died. There was much limitation of movement in all the healed cases, in many ankylosis. Among a more inclusive number of 59, 30 healed, 2 after secondary amputations; 24 died, 9 of whom had been amputated; and 5 cases were lost sight of. Even so, this was an enormous advance both in respect to the saving of life, and avoidance of amputation. Bergmann’s service was cut short by severe dysentery complicated by pyaemia. Upon his recovery he accepted the call to become Professor of Surgery at Würzburg, the title of his inaugural lecture in October, 1878, being “The Treatment of Gunshot Wounds of the Knee-joint in War”. There he remained until 1882, when the call to become Professor of Surgery at the Universität’s Klinik in Berlin placed him in the highest rank of German surgeons. Later he was raised to Geheimrath. Bergmann’s second memorial in the history of surgery is the establishment of the aseptic method. Lister’s antiseptic method reached its acme of fame and of general use on the occasion of the 7th International Congress held in London in 1881. After Koch’s report upon the effect of sublimate in destroying anthrax bacilli, Bergmann substituted for carbolic acid the use of perchloride of mercury. The further work of Koch at the Gesundheit’s Amt in Berlin introduced the bacteriological apparatus necessary to produce sterilization by heat. Numbers of Koch’s pupils explored all possible modes of infection of wounds, through the surgeon and his assistants, through the patient’s skin, the dressings, the hospital, the operating theatre, instruments, and apparatus, also the means of sterilizing by steam under pressure, by boiling water, to which salt or bicarbonate of soda was added. Neuber began, at a special hospital in Kiel, to attain sterility in everything coming in contact with a wound. Bergmann in his Klinik, together with his Assistant, Schimmelbusch, and others, adapted bacteriological apparatus and methods to the purposes of surgery. Thus at the 10th International Medical Congress at Berlin in July, 1890, Bergmann and Schimmelbusch demonstrated the methods which ensured sterility of dressing and apparatus, using the bacillus of blue pus as the naked-eye indicator. The Preface by Bergmann to the book by Schimmelbusch begins: “During the 10th International Medical Congress the undersigned exhibited in the Klinik the apparatus for the sterilization of dressings, and entrusted his surgical Assistant, Dr C S Schimmelbusch, with the demonstration of their efficacy against the micro-organisms which affect the course of healing and the treatment of wounds”. The illness and death of Frederick, Crown Prince and Kaiser, was a severe trial and a grave misfortune to Bergmann. The Crown Prince began to suffer from hoarseness in January, 1887. At the beginning of the following March, Gerhardt saw an irregular projection of the left vocal cord and on the diagnosis of a polypoid thickening the galvano-cautery was applied. There followed a further growth and a diminution of movement of the cord. On May 15th epithelioma was definitely diagnosed, and in consultation on May 16th Bergmann recommended laryngofissure and the removal of the affected cord, also possibly part of the thyroid cartilage if involved. It was common knowledge that Hahn in Berlin had successfully operated upon Montague Williams (*Dict Nat Biog*) in that way for the same disease. On May 18th Tobold confirmed the recommendation, and to the proposed operation the Crown Prince agreed, using the words, “Fort muss die Schwellung auf jeden Fall” (Buchholtz, s 462). The operation was fixed for the morning of May 21st, the Crown Princess, the promoter of nursing in Germany, in full accord and supervising preparations. Throughout the operation of complete laryngectomy had been specifically excluded. However, by a telegram sent to Queen Victoria, Morrell Mackenzie had been summoned, and he arrived at 5 pm on the 20th. He brought no instruments with him, and if the use of strange instruments had anything to do with his primary mistakes, quite apart from his persistence in them subsequently, then upon him lay the responsibility. At the consultation held at 6 pm immediately upon his arrival Mackenzie gave the opinion that the growth was of a non-malignant polypous or fibromatous nature. Gerhardt objected on the ground of his previous observations of the fixation of the vocal cord. Mackenzie proposed to nip off a bit for examination, to which Bergmann objected as complicating the operation and its result. On the following day Mackenzie punched off what proved to be a bit of normal mucous membrane, and there was afterwards visible a wound of the *right* vocal cord which had previously been seen to be quite sound. On June 8th, in the absence of Gerhardt, Mackenzie removed two superficial bits of tissue which Virchow reported to be specimens of ‘pachydermia’. As to Virchow’s aloofness in using an indefinite term ‘pachydermia’ instead of ‘leukoplakia’, already defined as a precursor of epithelioma, there is to be noted that the galvano-cautery had already been applied, and there was the uncertainty as to what Mackenzie had actually removed. As far as it went it was claimed for Virchow’s report that it favoured the diagnosis of a non-cancerous growth. Mackenzie persisted in making optimistic assertions as regards prognosis, whilst attributing the fixation of the cord and the steady progress of the disease to perichondritis. Even when Bramann, Bergmann’s first assistant, had been compelled to perform tracheotomy at San Remo on Feb 9th, 1888, Mackenzie continued to make and publish what he afterwards printed in his *Frederick the Noble* about the diagnosis and the adoption of the tracheotomy. Bergmann was urged to go to San Remo, where he arrived on Feb 11th, and spent miserable days arguing with Mackenzie over tracheotomy tubes (*see* his Diary in Buchholtz). After the return to Berlin on March 10th a piece of necrosed cartilage was coughed up, attributed by Mackenzie to perichondritis, but on April 12th Mackenzie had to send to Bergmann for help. When he arrived with Bramann they found the patient nearly asphyxiated, but when another tube was skilfully inserted the asphyxia was relieved and life was prolonged for a further six weeks. A local post-mortem examination was made on June 30th which fully confirmed the correctness of the original diagnosis. Henry Butlin (qv) on November 21st, 1888, addressed a letter to Bergmann on behalf of himself and colleagues expressing sympathy and appreciation. The College conferred the Honorary Fellowship on Bergmann on July 25th, 1900. His speech on receiving the diploma, delivered in vigorous German, was an *apologia pro vita sua*. Bergmann, in conjunction with his assistants, made a great number of contributions to surgery, including articles in the *Deutsche Chirurgie*. He continued active as the Professor of Surgery to the age of 70; towards the end it was noticed that his hand was becoming shaky. His remarkable position at the head of German surgery of his day is shown by the Festschrift in commemoration of his 70th birthday which fills two volumes of the *Archiv für klinische Chirurgie* (1906, lxxxi, with portrait), the first composed of contributions by friends and colleagues, the second volume by assistants and pupils. A fine portrait is included. He died at Wiesbaden on March 25th, 1907, after undergoing two operations for intestinal obstruction, due, as was shown at the post-mortem examination, to an inflammatory stricture of the splenic flexure of the colon. There was a State Funeral at Potsdam. Publications:– *Das putride Gift und die putride Intoxication*, Dorpat, 1868. *Die Resultate des Gelenkresectionen*, Giessen, 1874. “Die Diagnose der traumatischen Meningitis.” – *Volkmann’s Sammlung, klin. Vortr.*, 1876, No. 101, 837. “Kopfverletzüngen.” – *Pitha’s Handbuch*, 1873, Bd. iii, Abt. 1. *Die Behandlung der Schusswunden der Kniegelenks im Kriege*, Stuttgart, 1878, 274, 1. “Die Lehre von den Kopfverletzungen.” – Billroth und Leuke: *Deutsche Chirurgie*, 1880, Lief. 30. “Die Hirnverletzungen.” – *Volkmann’s Sammlung*, 1881, No. 190. “Die Erkrankungen der Lymphdrüsen.” – Gerhardt’s *Kinderkrankheiten*, 1882, Bd. vi, Abt 1. “Die isolerten Unterbindungen der Vena femoralis communis.” –* Würzburg Universität Festschrift*, 1882, Bd. i. Von Bergmann, E, und O Angerer: “Das Verhältniss des Ferment-intoxication zur Septicæmie.” – *Würzburg Universität Festchrift*, 1882. *Die Schicksale der Transfusion im letzten Decennium*, Berlin, 1883. “Die chirurgische Behandlung von Hirnkrankheiten.” – *v. Langenbeck’s Arch.*, 1888, 36, 2 Auf., 1889; 3 Auf., 1899. “Die chirurgische Behandlung der Hirngeschwülste.” – *Volkmann’s Sammlung*, N.F. 200, C 57. “Die Behandlung der Lupus mit dem Koch’schen Mittel.” – *Volkmann’s Sammlung*, N.F., 22, C 7. *Anleitung zur aseptischen Wundbehandlung von Dr. C. Schimmelbusch*. Mit einem Vorwort des Herrn Geheimrath Professor E. von Bergmann, Berlin, 1892. Von Bergmann, Von Bruns, und Von Mikulicz:– *Handbuch der praktischen Chirurgie*, 1902. *Arch. f. klin. Chir.*, 1906, Bd. lxxxi, Th. I, II.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000864
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Bernard, Ralph Montague (1816 - 1871)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

First Title value, for Searching Berney, Edward ( - 1890)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2010-02-25 2013-08-07
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000800-E000899
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373049373049
Occupation General surgeon
Details Educated at Guy's Hospital. He practised at 73 High Street, Croydon, and died at his residence, Kirby Bedon, Lower Addiscombe Road, Croydon, in the period between November, 1889, and November, 1890.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000866
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Berry, Samuel (1808 - 1887)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

First Title value, for Searching Berry, Sidney Herbert (1874 - 1901)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

First Title value, for Searching Berry, Titus (1779 - 1868)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

First Title value, for Searching Besemeres, William ( - 1871)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

First Title value, for Searching Best, Alexander Vans (1837 - 1875)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

First Title value, for Searching Betts, Henry Augustus ( - 1871)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2010-02-25 2013-08-07
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000800-E000899
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373055373055
Occupation General surgeon
Details Was House Surgeon to the General Hospital, Birmingham, and then practised at Stourbridge, Worcestershire, where he was Surgeon to the Dispensary and District Medical Officer to the Stourbridge Union. He migrated to Galt in Canada West between the years 1855-1858. He died probably before 1871, when his name does not appear in the *Medical Register*, though it remains in the College Calendar till 1877.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000872
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Bevan, William ( - 1856)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

First Title value, for Searching Bickersteth, Edward Robert (1828 - 1908)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

First Title value, for Searching Bickersteth, Robert Alexander (1862 - 1924)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2010-03-04
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000800-E000899
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373058373058
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born at Liverpool on October 4th, 1862, the son of Edward Robert Bickersteth (qv); was educated under Dr Hornby at Eton, which he entered in 1872. He was admitted a Pensioner at Trinity College, Cambridge, on June 13th, 1881, and graduated BA with first-class honours in the Natural Science Tripos in 1884. He then entered St Bartholomew’s Hospital, where he was House Surgeon. After being a Clinical Assistant at the Throat Hospital, Golden Square, and the Royal Ophthalmic Hospital, Moorfields, he was elected Assistant Surgeon to the Royal Liverpool Infirmary, representing the third generation of his family on the staff of that institution. In due course he became full Surgeon, and, on his resignation in 1921, Consulting Surgeon. His attention was specially directed to urology, and he was elected a Corresponding Member of L’Association française d’Urologie and a Member of L’Association Internationale d’Urologie. He was distinguished as a clinical teacher and lecturer on surgery, and was Examiner in Surgery at the Liverpool University. At the Liverpool Medical Institution he was Treasurer and Vice-President. At the Liverpool Meeting of the British Medical Association in 1912 he was President of the Section of Surgery. From 1914-1918 he served as Major RAMC(T) at the 1st Western General Hospital, and later at the 57th General Hospital in France. Whilst in practice he lived at 4 Rodney Street; on retirement he went to Outgate, Ambleside. He died at Bournemouth on February 28th, 1924, and was buried at Kirkby Lonsdale, where his great-grandfather had practised, leaving a widow, three sons, and two daughters. Dr George Luys in 1901 at the Laboisière Hospital of Paris had devised an instrument for separating in the bladder the urine from each kidney. Bickersteth visited Paris in October, 1903, and on February 4th, 1904, published his first communication on the intravesical separation of the urine1 at the Liverpool Medical Institution, which was followed by later accounts of further experience with the method. In his paper on kinked ureter2 he explained how the ureter immediately below a hydronephrotic kidney is found sharply kinked so that its lumen becomes obstructed. He gave three diagrams in illustration of this occurrence owing to an abnormal accessory renal artery, which may spring direct from the aorta below the level of the main renal artery. In a few cases he had divided this artery and relieved the hydronephrosis. Publications:- “Intravesical Separation of the Urines coming from the two Kidneys.” – *Lancet*, 1904, i, 437, 859. *Brit. Med. Jour.,* 1904, ii, 837. “Kinked Ureter.” – *Proc. Roy. Soc. Med.* (Surg. Sect.), 1913-14, vii, 259.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000875
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Bickersteth, William Henry (1813 - 1862)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

First Title value, for Searching Bidwell, Leonard Arthur (1865 - 1912)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

First Title value, for Searching Bindley, Samuel Allen (1810 - 1877)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

First Title value, for Searching Birch, Edward Arnold (1852 - 1890)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2010-03-04 2013-08-07
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000800-E000899
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373062373062
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born about the year 1852 and was educated at the Royal School of Medicine, Manchester. He held most of the resident appointments at the Royal Infirmary (Assistant to the Ophthalmic Surgeon, Senior House Surgeon, and Physician's Assistant). At the time of his death he was in practice at 341 Stockport Road, Manchester, and was Surgeon to the Chorlton-on-Medlock Dispensary. He died of pneumonia on Christmas Day, 1890, leaving a widow, but no children.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000879
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Birch, William (1801 - 1869)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

First Title value, for Searching Bird, George Gwynne (1800 - 1863)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

First Title value, for Searching Bird, Henry ( - 1892)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

First Title value, for Searching Bird, James (1797 - 1864)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2010-03-04
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000800-E000899
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373066373066
Occupation General surgeon
Details Entered King’s College, Aberdeen, in 1810; apprenticed to his uncle in Elgin in 1812, then became a clinical pupil at the Aberdeen Infirmary. He entered Guy’s and St Thomas’s Hospitals in 1815 and studied anatomy and surgery under Joshua Brookes at the Blenheim Street School, and midwifery under Merriman at the Middlesex Hospital. In 1816 he gained the second prize in anatomy and surgery at a viva voce examination by Sir Astley Cooper. After qualifying MRCS he joined the Hon East India Company’s service on the Bombay side, and on reaching India in August, 1818, found himself in the midst of a great cholera epidemic. His detailed observations as he travelled from Nagpore to Poonah and Tanneh were published in the *London Journal of Medicine* in 1849. He served with the 7th Regiment in Bengal in 1819 and noted the prevalent forms of tropical fever, serving through the Kaira campaign and being present at the siege of Kittore. He was diligent in acquiring the local vernacular and so came to act as vaccinator. He published “Observations on Guinea Worm” in the *Calcutta Medical Transactions*, i. In 1826 Mount Stuart Elphinstone appointed him Residency Surgeon at Saltara, which gave him leisure to pursue studies in Persian, from which he translated the *Political and Statistical History of Gujerat*, published by the Oriental Translation Fund in 1835. In 1832 on his way home he visited Egypt, including Nubia, and Syria, where he was received by Lady Hester Stanhope at Joorie. In 1834 he gave evidence before the Parliamentary Committee on Communications with India in which he supported Waghorn’s recommendation of the route by Egypt and the Red Sea as better than that overland by Aleppo and the Euphrates. On his return he acted as Surgeon to both the European and Native Hospitals in Bombay, and was Chief Medical Attendant of the Commander-in-Chief, Lord Keane. Later he was promoted to be Surgeon of a Division of Madras troops, and then Physician General with a seat on the Medical Board. On his retirement in 1847 he settled in London at 1 Brook Street, as the chief authority upon the diseases of Europeans in hot climates, and was an active member of the Medical Societies. He became President of the Harveian Society, Foreign Secretary for India of the Epidemiological Society, a Lecturer on Military Surgery and Tropical Medicine at St Mary’s Hospital, also senior Vice-President, Treasurer, and in 1863 Lettsomian Lecturer at the Medical Society. He died on July 10th, 1864, at Gerrard’s Cross; his wife predeceased him, leaving two children. In Bird’s *Contributions to the Pathology of Cholera*, 1849, there is no mention of infection through drinking water. In his Introductory Address to the Epidemiological Society in 1854 under the title “The Laws of Epidemics and Contagious Diseases” he quotes from Caius: “For as hereafter I will shew, and Galen confirmeth, our bodies cannot suffer anything or hurt by corrupt and infectious causes, except there lie in them a certain matter prepared apt and like to receive it.” And in a debate, “and though he was not prepared to deny altogether the truth of Dr Snow’s views that it could be multiplied through the medium of water, impregnated with the poisonous dejecta of cholera patients, he could not believe that such medium of communication had more than a partial effect.” – *Lond. Jour. of Med.*, 1849, i, 1082. His most serviceable address was: “The Military Medical Instruction of England compared with that of France, and its insufficiency for training Army Medical Officers” – being the introductory lecture to a Course of Military Surgery delivered in the School of St Mary’s Hospital, 1855.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000883
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Bird, Peter Hinckes (1827 - 1891)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

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

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

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/372257372257
Occupation ENT surgeon
Details Born in London on 28 September 1918, Ronald Harvey trained at King’s College Hospital. He was appointed as a consultant in ENT, first at the Eye and Ear Hospital in 1954, and later at Altnagelvin Hospital, Londonderry, where he remained until he retired in 1983. From an early stage he was involved in the planning of the ENT department at Altnagelvin Hospital, one of the first new hospitals to be built in the new NHS. This was such a success that his advice was always sought in later developments within the hospital, even in retirement. His period as Chairman of the medical staff coincided with the worst period of civil disturbance in Northern Ireland. His leadership was remarkable: he would remain in the hospital for days on end to make sure that the frequent emergency situations were dealt with smoothly. The pressures related not only to treatment of patients with severe and multiple trauma, but to making sure that appropriate surgical teams were available at all times, in spite of difficulties with transport. He was Chairman of the Northern Ireland central medical advisory committee, and he promoted education of undergraduates and postgraduates at Altnagelvin. For this work he was appointed OBE in 1982. Outside the hospital he had many interests: he had a long involvement with the Red Cross, both at local and national level, and was awarded the Red Cross badge of honour. He served on the committee of Hearing Dogs for the Deaf, and got great pleasure from his work with Riding for the Disabled. He served two terms as high sheriff for the City of Londonderry and was a deputy lieutenant for many years. He died on 7 April 2004, and is survived by his wife Eustelle, three daughters, Elveen, Fiona and Maryrose, and four grandchildren, Charlie, Katherine, Andrew and Amy.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000070
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Bird, Robert (1866 - 1918)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

First Title value, for Searching Brooke, Charles (1804 - 1879)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2010-05-13
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000900-E000999
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373157373157
Occupation General surgeon
Details Son of the well-known mineralogist Henry James Brooke; was born June 30th, 1804. He was educated at Chiswick under Dr Turner and at Rugby, where he entered in 1819. He matriculated from St John’s College, Cambridge, and graduated BA in 1827 as 23rd Wrangler. He completed his medical education at St Bartholomew’s Hospital, and lectured on surgery for a short time at Dermott’s School. He acted as Surgeon to the Metropolitan Free Hospital and to Westminster Hospital, resigning the latter post in 1869. He was an advocate of the ‘bead suture’ for bringing together the deeper parts of operation wounds and thus minimizing the tension which was a troublesome and painful condition when all wounds healed by third intention. On March 4th, 1847, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in recognition of his mathematical and experimental work in connection with physics. Between 1846 and 1852 he published papers on his invention of the self-recording instruments which were adopted at the Royal Observatories of Greenwich, Paris, and other meteorological stations. They consisted of barometers, thermometers, psychrometers, and magnetometers, which registered photographically – inventions which gained for him a premium offered by the Government as well as a council medal from the jurors of the Great Exhibition of 1851. Brooke also studied the theory of the microscope, and invented improved means of shifting the lenses and bettering the illumination. He served as President of the Meteorological and of the Royal Microscopical Societies, and was a very active member of the Victoria Institute and Christian Medical Society. As a surgeon his work was negligible. He died at Weymouth on May 17th, 1879, leaving a widow, who died at 3 Gordon Square, London, on February 12th, 1885, aged 86. Publications: In addition to his scientific papers mentioned above Brooke also wrote:- *Synopsis of Pure Mathematics*, 1829. *The Evidence afforded by the Order and Adaptations in Nature to the Existence of a God*, London, 1872. He edited the 4th edition of Dr Golding Bird’s *Elements of Natural Philosophy* in 1854, and entirely rewrote the work when it appeared as a 6th edition in 1867.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000974
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2008-06-19 2008-11-14
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000500-E000599
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372709372709
Occupation General surgeon
Details Terry Jenkins was a general surgeon to St Luke’s and the Royal Surrey County hospitals in Guildford. He was born in Shoreditch, London, on 21 April 1913, the second son of Harold and Louise Jenkins, who had a chemists’ shop. They moved to Harrow a few years later. He was educated at the John Lyon and Harrow county schools, from which he won a scholarship to University College Medical School. On qualification in 1936 he won the Magrath scholarship, and went on to be house surgeon to William Trotter. At the outbreak of war he joined the RAMC and served in France, Belgium and North Africa, mostly doing orthopaedics, and reaching the rank of major. On demobilisation, he was appointed to the Guildford hospitals as a general surgeon. There he built up St Luke’s from a Poor Law institution to a respected hospital. An experienced general surgeon, his particular contribution was to the prevention of burst abdomen by the use of a continuous looped nylon suture, placed with centimetre bites, without tension. The method had been introduced by Gordon Gill, his colleague, and the results were published in 1976. Terry married twice. His first wife was Kathleen Creegan, by whom he had two sons, Tony (an engineer) and Edward (an architect). He then married Rosemary Dockray, by whom he had a son Andrew (a senior retail manager) and a daughter, Philippa (a management accountant). He died on 16 July 2007.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000525
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Borland, James (1774 - 1863)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

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/372587372587
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born at Ayr on April 1st, 1774, and entered the Army Medical Department as Surgeon's Mate in the 42nd Highlanders in 1792. He was promoted to the Staff in 1793, and made two campaigns in Flanders under the Duke of York. He then proceeded to the West Indies with the 23rd Royal Welsh Fusiliers and did duty at St Domingo from 1796-1798. In 1799 he accompanied the expedition to the Helder, and was sent by the Duke of York with a flag of truce to the French General, Bruns, to arrange for the exchange of the wounded. He was promoted for this service to the newly-made rank of Deputy-Inspector of Army Hospitals. He was also attached to the Russian troops which had co-operated with the British in North Holland, and had been ordered to winter in the Channel Islands until they could return home when the ice broke up in the Baltic. He was thanked for his service, but declined the offer of imperial employment in Russia. He was Chief Medical Officer of the Army in the Southern Counties of England at the time of the threatened French invasion, and in 1807 he became Inspector-General of Army Hospitals. He volunteered with Dr Lemprière and Sir Gilbert Blane to inquire into the causes of the deaths and sicknesses in the unfortunate Walcheren expedition, and the report of these Commissioners was ordered to be printed in 1810. From 1810-1816 Borland was Principal Medical Officer in the Mediterranean; he retired on half pay in 1816. He was appointed Hon Physician to HRH the Duke of Kent and received the order of St Maurice and St Lazare of Savoy. He retired to Teddington, Middlesex, and died there on Feb 22nd, 1863. Borland was an excellent administrator and a man of sterling character. Many improvements in army hospital organization were tried whilst he was at headquarters in London in 1807. During his service in the Mediterranean he reconstituted the hospitals of the Anglo-Sicilian contingent with such efficiency and economy as earned him a special official minute. He received the highest praise from Admiral Lord Exmouth for his services during an outbreak of plague at Malta. He accompanied the force sent to assist the Austrians in expelling Murat from Naples, and he was with the troops which held Marseilles and blockaded Toulon during the Waterloo campaign.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000403
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Heward, Sir Simon (1769 - 1846)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

First Title value, for Searching Harris, Nigel Henry (1924 - 2007)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2008-06-26
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/372712372712
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon
Details Nigel Harris was respected in the orthopaedic world, particularly for his participation in British Orthopaedic Association (BOA) conferences, where his pertinent questions often brought meetings to life. He had outspoken views on medico-social and medico-political issues and wrote many letters to *The Times* in defence of the interests of patients and the freedom of the NHS from political interference. Nigel Harris was born in Grimsby on 24 November 1924, the eldest son of Archibald Harris, a general practitioner. His mother was Lily Nove. He was educated at the Perse School, where he shone at athletics and cricket, and on one occasion when the school entertained a visiting Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) team, he stumped the mighty Jack Hobbs. From Perse he went up to Trinity College, Cambridge, and then to the Middlesex Hospital for his clinical training. He qualified in 1948 and completed house jobs in the orthopaedic department at the Middlesex and the North Middlesex Hospital, where he was greatly influenced by Philip Wiles and Philip Newman. He then served in the RAF, reaching the rank of squadron leader, and was involved in the Berlin Air Lift of 1949, during which on one occasion he wandered by mistake into the Russian sector and narrowly escaped capture. On completing his training in orthopaedics he was appointed consultant orthopaedic surgeon at St Mary’s Hospital in 1964. He published on osteomyelitis, congenital dislocation of the hip and osteoarthritis, and was one of the first to replace hips and knees. He contributed chapters to *Clinical surgery* and edited the *Postgraduate textbook of clinical orthopaedics* (Bristol, Wright, 1983, second edition: Oxford, Blackwell Science, 1995). Having had experience as a house surgeon in the athletes’ clinic which had been set up at the Middlesex Hospital for the Wembley Olympic Games of 1948, he set up a sports clinic at St Charles Hospital, where he became interested in the symphysis pubis strain – the ‘groin strain’ of athletes. He became orthopaedic surgeon to Arsenal Football Club and consultant to the Football Association, where he was highly respected as ‘Nigel the knife’. Nigel was a friendly extrovert; quick in thought and action and never slow to speak his mind. He campaigned for the rights of patients and for freeing medicine from political constraints. He campaigned to set up the Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother Wing at St Mary’s and was secretary to the Fellowship of Freedom in Medicine. Among his many outside interests, he was interested in medico-legal work, joined the Academy of Experts, where he was respected for his impartiality and, together with Michael Powers QC, wrote *Medical negligence* (London, Butterworths, 1990, second edition: 1994). He was concerned at the increased numbers of injuries to policemen and was instrumental in setting up Flint House in Goring for their rehabilitation. In 1949 he married Elizabeth Burr. They had two sons, Andrew and Mark, who became an anaesthetist. He continued to play cricket and golf for many years, and was a keen hill walker. Unknown to many of his colleagues he owned a racehorse ‘My Learned Friend’. Frank, friendly and open, he never bore a grudge and was always the patient’s friend. He died on 8 July 2007. M Edgar
Resource Identifier RCS: E000528
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Bloxham, Robert ( - 1858)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

First Title value, for Searching Cartwright, Richard ( - 1854)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

First Title value, for Searching Beckett, Thomas (1773 - 1856)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

First Title value, for Searching Woolriche, Stephen (1770 - 1856)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

First Title value, for Searching Annesley, Sir James H [1] (1774 - 1847)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

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)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

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)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

First Title value, for Searching Brown, John (1844 - 1929)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2010-05-20
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000900-E000999
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373171373171
Occupation General surgeon
Details Cousin of John Brown, the author of *Rab and His Friends*; was educated at the University of Aberdeen, where he graduated MD with honours and CM with the highest honours, in 1863. He returned to Edinburgh after carrying on a successful practice for ten years at Wynberg, Cape Colony, and became Demonstrator of Anatomy in the University, and received the diplomas of Member and Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons on the same day in 1878, having previously obtained the DPH of Cambridge and of Edinburgh. Choosing to work amongst the poorer classes in Lancashire, he became a junior partner with Dr Henry Briggs, of Burnley, becoming senior partner in due course and then having (Sir) James Mackenzie the cardiologist as his junior. Having married the daughter of a former Premier of Cape Colony, he returned to the Cape when he retired from practice shortly after the South African War, and died at Mowbray, Cape of Good Hope, on May 7th, 1929.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000988
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Brown, Richard (1822 - 1883)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

First Title value, for Searching Brown, Robert (1800 - 1858)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2010-05-20 2018-03-21
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000900-E000999
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373173373173
Occupation General surgeon
Details Began the practice of his profession in Preston, where he soon rose in public estimation, and was much sought after by a large circle of patients. Connected with the Dispensary, he rose in time to be its Senior Hon Surgeon. He was a Member of the Preston Town Council from its first constitution under the Municipal Reform Act until his death, and in 1847 was elected an Alderman. He was also a Member of Council of the British Medical Association and Fellow of the Royal Medico-Chirurgical Society. Alderman Brown was noted for his kindness and suavity both as a public man and a friend. Despite the claims of his extensive practice, he managed to devote much time to archaeological pursuits, and in these he found full scope for his active and cultivated intellect. He was a member of the Lancashire and Cheshire Historic Society. His vigour was impaired by a serious illness, and he was compelled to relinquish much of his former activity towards the close of his life. He had been confined to his house in Winckley Square, Preston, for some months before his death on February 1st, 1858. His son was Sir Robert Charles Brown (q.v.).
Resource Identifier RCS: E000990
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Brown, Robert (1821 - 1902)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

First Title value, for Searching Batt, Frederic Collins (1810 - 1854)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

First Title value, for Searching Batten, Thomas ( - 1885)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

First Title value, for Searching Baxter, Francis Hastings (1819 - 1888)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2009-11-25
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/372974372974
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born at Enniskillen on May 26th, 1819. Joined the Army as Assistant Surgeon to the 54th Foot on July 11th, 1845, promoted Staff Surgeon (2nd class) August 15th, 1854, transferred to the 6th Dragoons on March 16th, 1855 and to the 12th Dragoons, January 14th, 1860. He was promoted Surgeon Major of that regiment on July 11th, 1865, joined the Staff on Dec 29th, 1869, and retired on half pay with the honorary rank of Deputy Inspector-General of Hospitals on July 16th, 1870. He saw service in the Crimea, and was decorated with the Medjidie Order (5th class). After his retirement he was Surgeon to the Royal Hibernian Military School, Phoenix Park, Dublin. He died at his residence, Ivy Lodge, Tivoli, Cheltenham, on March 19th, 1888.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000791
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Beale, John Evans (1794 - 1858)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2009-12-11
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/372975372975
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born in Plaistow, Essex, and died on June 26th, 1858, at Brighton. He was Surgeon to the West Ham Union and a member of the Hunterian Society.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000792
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Birmingham, George ( - 1878)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2010-03-04 2013-08-07
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000800-E000899
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373070373070
Occupation General surgeon
Details Educated at Middlesex Hospital, and entered the Bengal Army as Acting Assistant Surgeon on December 9th, 1824. He retired in October, 1827. He saw active service in Burma, 1824-1825, was afterwards in the Portuguese Navy. He was in practice in London in 1871 and he died in or before 1878. The name is spelt 'Bermingham' in the *Medical Directory* for 1871. In 1853 he gave his address as in Kentish Town.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000887
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Birt, Hugh (1814 - 1875)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

First Title value, for Searching Anthonis, Polwattearachchige Romiel (1911 - 2009)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2010-05-20
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000900-E000999
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373175373175
Occupation General surgeon
Details Romiel Anthonis was the most celebrated Asian surgeon of his day, and a role model to generations of Sri Lankans. He was born in Bambalapitiya, a suburb of Colombo, on 21 January 1911, one of the 16 children of Polwatte Arachchige Michael Anthonis, a master-carpenter, and Hettiarachchige Engaltina Perera, the daughter of an ayurvedic physician. Although the ancestral home, Madangahawatte, had extensive lands, the family were not well off. His father had little English education, but was widely read in Sinhala and was himself a celebrated poet. Romiel had been taught his letters at the age of six, and a year later entered the Milagiriya Sinhala School, walking there barefoot each day with his elder brother and sister. His father persuaded Fr Nicholas Perera, the rector of St Joseph’s College South (later to become St Peter’s College), to admit them provided they improved their English. By the time he was seven, Romiel was winning prize after prize, a feat repeated a few years later at secondary school, where he became the senior prefect. At the Colombo Medical College he again became head of his class in every year and, when he qualified in 1936, it was with gold medals in pathology, forensic medicine and surgery, and the rare government diploma medal. He became a house surgeon to Sir Arthur Marcellus de Silva who, he said, treated him like a son. In 1939 he was awarded a new scholarship, but was unable to take it up because of the war and it was not until 1945 that he went to England to specialise in surgery, passing the primary and the final FRCS at the first attempt. He returned to Ceylon in 1947 as a consultant surgeon to the teaching hospital in Colombo, now the National Hospital of Sri Lanka, where he served until he retired in 1971. He had a very extensive experience and kept meticulous notes of each of his cases, carefully illustrated with his own drawings. Among his more celebrated patients was the Prime Minister S W R D Bandaranaike, who had been repeatedly shot by a visiting Buddhist monk. He had multiple abdominal injuries and the operation took many hours. The patient recovered sufficiently well to ask that his misguided assailant should not be ill-treated, but died the following day from what was presumed to be a massive pulmonary embolism. Anthonis continued to work long after his retirement from government service, was sought after by many distinguished patients and was the recipient of many honours including the title of ‘Deshamanya’, the highest national honour of Sri Lanka. He was chairman of the Sri Lanka Medical Council and chancellor of the University of Colombo in 1981, remaining in that office for another 22 years. The College of General Practitioners of Sri Lanka awarded him the title of ‘Pride of the Medical Profession’ in 2005. The Government of Japan conferred on him the ‘Order of the Sacred Treasure’. He was head of the Police Reserve Medical Corps, and a founder director of Seylan Bank. He was much revered as a teacher, never sarcastic or humiliating, but always inspiring. He collected rare books and works of art, and was an expert on the Buddhist scriptures. In 1943 he married Lilian Constance Perera, who predeceased him. Their son, P Ravindralal Anthonis, is a photographer. He died on 17 December 2009, aged 98.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000992
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Boulter, Patrick Stewart (1927 - 2009)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

by N Alan Green
Publication Date 2010-05-20
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000900-E000999
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373176373176
Occupation General surgeon
Details Patrick Boulter, or ‘Paddy’ as he was affectionately known, was a consultant surgeon to the Royal Surrey County Hospital and the Regional Oncology Centre, Guildford, Surrey. He was elected president of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh and served from 1991 to 1994. He was born in Annan, Dumfriesshire, on 28 May 1927, the second child of Frederick Charles Boulter, a civil engineer, and his wife, Flora Victoria (née Black). The Boulters later moved to Wimbledon, where Paddy went to King’s School for his early education. The family then went north to Carlisle. His schooling continued at Carlisle Grammar School, where he developed his love of hill-walking and climbing, which was to become a life-long passion. He enjoyed cycling and on one occasion cajoled some friends to cycle from Carlisle to Coniston to climb ‘Coniston Old Man’. In school holidays he worked on Glasgow boats supplying the Highlands and Islands. Although appreciating the beauty of the Western Isles, he developed an aversion to kippers. In his final year at school Paddy decided to study medicine, having previously concentrated on the arts and classics. He entered Guy’s Hospital Medical School to study for the first MB examination, following his sister Joy, who trained as a nurse at Guy’s. Although brilliant at chemistry and physics, he failed botany (although he was later to become knowledgeable on alpine flowers). He decided to enter the RAMC for National Service, where he worked as an operating department technician. While in London he met and fell in love with Mary (Patricia Mary Eckersley) Barlow, a student. They married in 1946 while he was doing his National Service. In due course their two daughters were born in Carlisle. Jennifer (‘Jenny’) became a nurse and Anne, a physiotherapist. After demobilisation, he passed the first MB. While waiting to re-enter Guy’s Hospital to complete his medical education, he took a job at the Cumberland Royal Infirmary and worked with consultant surgeon Bill McKechnie, who had a profound effect on his future career. The two became life-long friends and shared a love of climbing and hill-walking. Paddy had a distinguished academic career at Guy’s Hospital Medical School, winning prizes in anatomy, pathology and clinical surgery, and graduating in 1955 with honours, a university gold medal and the Handcock prize from the Royal College of Surgeons of England. After house appointments at Guy’s Hospital, he became a lecturer in anatomy to Guy’s Hospital Medical School. Surgical training progressed as a registrar at the Middlesex Hospital, where he was greatly influenced by David Patey, and returned to Guy’s as a senior registrar to Sam Wass and Sir Hedley Atkins. He was appointed to the Royal Surrey County Hospital, Guildford, in 1962, where he was a general surgeon with endocrine and breast interests. Later he was appointed as an honorary professor in surgical science at the University of Surrey at Guildford. He enjoyed private practice at Mount Alvernia Hospital, which was run by a Franciscan order of nuns. This afforded him an even closer contact with patients. He kept fit by an early morning run across the Merrow Downs accompanied by his retriever. As a well-respected breast surgeon, his unit, with that of Sir Patrick Forrest in Edinburgh, did much to develop population screening for breast cancer in the UK. His reputation as a teacher and researcher resulted in visiting professorships to surgical centres around the world. Paddy wrote many papers and chapters in books on breast, skin and endocrine disorders. He was a popular and effective trainee of young surgeons, many of whom became friends and enjoyed the generous hospitality of the Boulter home, as did many other visitors from around the world. R C Bennett, giving the oration when Paddy received his honorary fellowship of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, noted: “He is a warm-hearted, generous man, with a wonderful wife, Mary…. She has been a great companion and constant help to him in his work, as well as a friend and second mother to the many overseas trainees passing through his, or should I say ‘their’, hands.” He was an active member of many societies, including the Association of Surgeons, British Breast Group, Australia and New Zealand Breast Cancer Study Group, Surgical Research Society, Melanoma Study Group, European Association of Surgical Oncology and International Surgical Society. He was an honorary member of the North Pacific Surgical Association and of the Association of Surgeons of India and was an honorary citizen of the State of Nebraska, USA. In our College, he was a regional surgical adviser and Penrose May tutor and was largely responsible for setting up the postgraduate centre in Guildford. He was an examiner for the universities of London, Edinburgh, Queensland, Singapore, Malaya, and the Edinburgh College. He represented the Edinburgh College for 10 years as a trustee for the Thalidomide Trust. He was elected a member of the Edinburgh College council in 1984 and succeeded Geoffrey Chisholm as president in 1991. Throughout his presidency, he conducted the business of the College with great skill and quiet authority and, in his seemingly endless round of international surgical diplomacy, he was able to use his natural charm to great effect. The citation he delivered on the occasion of Mother Theresa being awarded the honorary fellowship of the Edinburgh RCS was gracious and moving – Paddy at his eloquent best. He thrived on travel, on meeting people and many of his visits produced new contacts and new overseas partners for his College. His remarkable collection of honorary fellowships attested to the highest esteem in which he was held. He and Mary shared an interest in skiing and mountaineering. Paddy was active in the Alpine Club and Swiss Alpine Club, and in their travels relished the challenge of new mountain peaks in the Himalayas and Rockies. Another shared passion was angling, which they both enjoyed in retirement, within sight of his beloved Cumbrian hills. He was a member of Yorkshire Fly Fishers’ Club and the Penrith Angling Association. Uniquely conscious of his Scottish roots, it was with great pride that he kept his father’s Scottish number plate, OSM 420, on a series of cars. When examining overseas, as the team returned at a late hour from being entertained, Paddy took great delight in leading the singing of traditional Scottish airs with gusto. He was occasionally in tune. After many happy early years in Cumbria, Paddy and Mary bought ‘Quarry Cottage’, Great Salkeld, and spent as much time as they could preparing this for their retirement, creating a lovely garden, fishing in the river Eden and hill-walking. Patrick Stewart Boulter died peacefully on 30 November, 2009 at the age of 82. A Service of Thanksgiving was held at St Cuthbert’s Church, Great Salkeld, Penrith, Cumbria. Richard Notley, a long-time friend and colleague, gave a fitting tribute. Boulter is survived by Mary, his two daughters, Jenny Bond and Anne Wood, their husbands, five grandchildren and five great grandchildren.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000993
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Taaffe, Richard Patrick Burke (1829 - 1888)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

First Title value, for Searching Tait, Robert Lawson (1845 - 1899)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2012-11-28
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E003000-E003999/E003100-E003199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/375374375374
Occupation General surgeon Gynaecologist
Details Born at 45 Frederick Street, Edinburgh, on May 1st, 1845, the son of Archibald Campbell Tait, of Dryden, a Guild Brother of Heriot's Hospital, and of Isabella Stewart Lawson, of Leven. From the age of 7 Lawson Tait was educated at Heriot's Hospital School, Edinburgh, until he entered the University with a scholarship in 1860. He began the Arts course but abandoned it after his first year, and never graduated. He was apprenticed to Alexander McKenzie Edwards, the Extramural Lecturer on Surgery, and for six years acted as his assistant after he qualified in 1866. During his student career he became a favourite with James Syme (qv) and Sir William Fergusson (qv), and for some time lived in Sir James Simpson's house. He left Edinburgh in 1866, visited Dublin and other schools of medicine, and was appointed House Surgeon to the Wakefield Hospital in 1867, a post he held for three years, performing his first ovariotomy there on July 29th, 1868. He performed five similar operations before he removed to Birmingham in 1870, and these seem to have directed his attention specially to what became the work of his life. He took the practice of Thomas Partridge in September, 1870, and settled in Birmingham at the corner of Burbury Street, Lozells Road, where be soon made a name for himself as a bold surgeon, an original thinker, and an aggressive enemy. He was Lecturer on Physiology at the Midland Institute from 1871-1879, where his advocacy of the Darwinian theory of evolution excited considerable opposition. In July, 1871, he was appointed Surgeon to the newly founded Hospital for Diseases of Women, and held the post until 1893, when he was elected a member of the Consulting Staff. In 1873 he was awarded the Hastings Gold Medal of the British Medical Association for his essay "On Diseases of the Ovaries", and in 1890 he received the Cullen and Liston Triennial Prize at Edinburgh for his services to medicine, especially in connection with his work on the gall-bladder. This prize, which was afterwards exhibited in the Art Gallery at Birmingham, consisted of a silver bowl of seventeenth-century London workmanship. He performed two operations of historic importance in 1872: the first on February 2nd, when he removed a suppurating ovary; the second on August 1st, when he extirpated the uterine appendages to arrest the growth of a bleeding myoma. He did his first hysterectomy for uterine myoma in 1873, following, with slight modifications, Koeberlé's technique, and in June, 1876, he removed a haematosalpinx and thus made the profession familiar with the pathology of the condition. In 1878 Tait began to express doubts as to the value of the Listerian carbolic acid spray then generally employed by surgeons in abdominal operations, but adopted no aseptic method except that of general cleanliness. In 1879 he did his first cholecystotomy, an operation which marked the beginning of the rational surgery of the gall-bladder. On January 17th, 1883, he first performed the operation for ruptured tubal pregnancy and saved the patient. A series of thirty-five cases with only two deaths speedily followed, and the operation took its place as a recognized method of treating a condition which had previously been looked upon as desperate. Lawson Tait was instrumental in organizing the Birmingham Medical Institute, of which he was an original member in 1874, and was one of the founders of the British Gynaecological Society, serving as President in 1885. He became Professor of Gynaecology at Queen's College in 1887, and was appointed Bailiff of the Mason College in 1890. He was the chief mover in causing the transfer of Queen's College to the Mason College in 1892, and thus smoothed the way for the foundation of the University of Birmingham. Tait performed many of the duties of a citizen in Birmingham. Elected a member of the City Council in 1876, as a representative of the Bordesley Division he became Chairman of the Health Committee and a member of the Asylums Committee. He contested the Bordesley Division of the City in the Gladstonian interest in 1886, but was easily beaten by Jesse Collings. In the British Medical Association Tait was a Member of Council, President of the Birmingham Branch and of the Worcestershire and Herefordshire Branch, and delivered the Address on Surgery at the Birmingham Meeting in 1890. He was President of the Medical Defence Union and raised the Society to a position of considerable importance. In 1876 he was President of the Birmingham Natural History Society, and in 1884 President of the Birmingham Philosophical Society. He was also Professor of Anatomy at the Royal Society of Artists and Birmingham School of Design, and was a founder of the Midland Union of Natural History Societies. He took a leading part in establishing coffee-houses in Birmingham. The University of the State of New York conferred upon him honoris causa the degree of MD in 1886, and in 1889 he received a similar tribute from the St Louis College of Physicians and Surgeons, whilst in 1888 the Union University of New York gave him the honorary degree of LLD. At the time of his death he was an Hon Fellow of the American Gynaecological Society and of the American Association of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. The last five years of Tait's life were marked by almost continuous ill health, which caused him to relinquish much of his operative work and seek repose at Llandudno, where he had bought a house. He died there from uraemia on June l3th, 1899: his body was cremated at Liverpool and the ashes were buried in Gogarth's Cave, an ancient burial-place in the grounds of his Welsh home on the west side of Great Orme's Head. He married in 1871 Sybil Anne, a daughter of William Stewart, solicitor, of Wakefield, Yorkshire, but had no children. Alban Doran (qv), a contemporary of Tait, who was himself a distinguished gynaecologist, summed up his work in the following words: "Tait's special merits as a surgeon cannot be lightly dismissed. He, no doubt, placed too low a value on scientific research; his statistical methods, well fitted for earlier days, when Clay, Spencer Wells, and Keith had to prove the bare justifiability of ovariotomy, were already antiquated when he so largely employed them; and he, in the opinion of many surgeons of repute, laid too little stress on after-treatment. Nevertheless, it is easy to recognize that, without doubt, he was a very great surgeon. "Lawson Tait began, as all abdominal surgeons had to begin in the days when he entered into his professional career, by ovariotomy. He advocated a small abdominal incision, and confirmed the superiority of complete intraperitoneal ligature over the clamp. It is not necessary to dwell on his long disputes with other operators, nor on his statistics, nor on his persistent opposition to antiseptics. He relied on his good right hand, an excellent principle for any surgeon, provided that, as in the case of Tait, his right hand be really good. He, on the whole, distrusted hysterectomy, but it is in the surgery of the appendages that he gained the most renown. By this term he understood, as all have since understood, the removal of the ovary and Fallopian tube for diseases due not to new growths, but to inflammation. Though no doubt operative interference for hydrosalpinx, pyosalpinx, and chronic oöphoritis was grossly abused at first, it cannot be denied that Tait threw a bright flood of light literally and figuratively on the nature, course, and treatment of tubo-ovarian inflammation. To understand his views thoroughly it is necessary to study the clear statements which he boldly makes in his *Diseases of Women and Abdominal Surgery*, 1889. The very headings of the pages, 'Heavy Mortality of Pyosalpinx', 'Pyosalpinx resulting from Uterine Tinkering', etc, are characteristic and most suggestive. Thus the first heading has been gravely disputed, but Tait knew how to act as counsel for the prosecution of a suppurating tube. The second implies the most just surgical censure. We know but too well that it is not only tubes that suffer from therapeutical tinkering and timid palliative measures. "At an early period of his career as an abdominal surgeon Lawson Tait distinguished himself by advancing, in an operative sense, beyond the limits of the female organs. He was an advocate of timely interference in disease of the gallbladder at a date when ovariotomy was hardly generalized and when hospital surgeons were as suspicious of any attempts at operation in the upper part of the abdomen as twenty years earlier they had been suspicious of ovariotomy itself. He carried his principles into practice, and so his name is chronicled in the history of our art as one of the pioneers of the surgery of the liver and gall-bladder. Just thirty years ago Lawson Tait opened up a sinus which discharged through the umbilicus and communicated with a suppurating gall-bladder, so that he was enabled to remove some gall-stones. Nine years later Dr Marion Sims boldly performed cholecystotomy on a patient whose health was already impaired by long-standing obstruction of the bile-ducts. Relief was immediate, but the patient sank a week later. For Marion Sims, Lawson Tait had the deepest admiration, and dedicated to the great American gynaecologist his *Pathology and Treatment of Diseases of the Ovaries* 'as an acknowledgment that much of the new work described in it was the outcome of his ingenuity'. As an outcome of Sims's ingenuity beyond the area of the uterus and its appendages, Tait successfully performed a cholecystotomy in 1879, one year after Sims's operation. A living authority on hepatic surgery, Mr Mayo Robson, justly observes that 'to Mr Tait undoubtedly belongs the credit of having popularized the operation with the profession'. "Tait's renown and experience caused many others to bring to him patients with abdominal affections which baffled their powers of diagnosis. In 1887 he recorded a large series of operations for cystic collections of fluid in the anterior and inferior part of the abdomen. He treated them, as a rule successfully, by incision and drainage, and believed that the cysts had developed in the urachus. There is reason to suspect that some of these cases were simply encysted dropsies due to tuberculous disease, and their true pathology was in no instance verified by dissection or post-mortem examination. Still there can be little doubt that in more than one instance the tumour was urachal. What is more important, Tait established, by the publication of this series, the correct principles for the treatment of this rare disease. Hence, in the surgery of tumours of the urachus, Tait once more appears as a pioneer whose claims will not be forgotten. "Perhaps the most original and at the same time most valuable innovation which surgery owes to Lawson Tait is the washing of the peritoneum, after an operation, with large quantities of water for the purposes of cleansing and haemostasis. Many other terms have been applied to this method, but his original contribution on this subject in the third volume of the *British Gynaecological Journal* [1887-8, iii, 185] is named 'Methods of Cleansing the Peritoneum', and the only other term in this remarkable essay besides 'cleansing' is 'washing'. Whatever it should strictly be called in accordance with the science of hydraulics, this cleansing of the peritoneum has proved of the greatest benefit, and, although it has been much abused and often applied when unnecessary, though harmless, it has been found by later observers to act favourably on the patient in certain ways quite unrecognized by its famous inventor. Tait avowedly claimed cleansing and haemostasis as the aim of washing of the peritoneum. Within a few years it was found that it was also a process of transfusion. Later, it was shown that when some of the water was left behind in the peritoneal cavity it ensured the rapid removal of poisonous products from the peritoneum. It has further been discovered that the addition of salt greatly increases the transfusing and antiseptic value of the water used for cleansing the peritoneum. Such remarkable development of a new surgical practice greatly redounds to the credit of its inventor. Lawson Tait was, in respect to washing of the peritoneum, once again a bold projector who successfully carried an original design into practice. He did so on the sound surgical principle that the less the surgeon fears the peritoneum and the more thoroughly he cleans it and checks bleeding and oozing, the better it will be for the patient. "Enough has been said to show that Lawson Tait will always be remembered as a bold surgeon of unusual originality. His merits, widely recognized in his lifetime, will not be forgotten after his death, for he made a name for himself in the glorious history of British surgery." As a man Tait was a sound antiquarian, a good raconteur, and an admirable public speaker who kept the attention of his audience. In person he was short, broad-chested, and had a very large head from which fell long hair. His face was severe and plebeian in character, but gave the impression that he had a large fund of common sense. He listened carefully to what was told him and replied in the fewest possible words, his lips hardly moving. Publications: *The Pathology and Treatment of Diseases of the Ovaries* (the Hastings Prize Essay, 1873), London, 1874; 4th ed, 1883. *An Essay on Hospital Mortality based on the Statistics of the Hospitals of Great Britain for Fifteen Years*, 8vo, London, 1877. *Diseases of Women*, 8vo, London, 1877; 2nd ed, 1886. It appeared in New York in 1879; in Philadelphia in 1889; and was translated into French by Dr Olivier in 1886 and by Dr Bétrix in 1891. *The Uselessness of Vivisection upon Animals as a Method of Scientific Research*, 8vo, Birmingham, 1882; reissued in America in 1883, and translated into German, Dresden, 1883. It is full of fallacies. *Lectures on Ectopic Pregnancy and Pelvic Haematocele*, 8vo, Birmingham, 1888.
Resource Identifier RCS: E003191
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Takaki, Baron Kanchiro ( - 1915)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

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

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

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 Ball, Sir Charles Bent (1851 - 1916)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2009-11-04
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000700-E000799
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372925372925
Occupation General surgeon
Details The younger son of Robert Ball, LLD, Director of the Dublin Museum of Science and Art, and brother of Sir Robert Stawell Ball, the Astronomer Royal, was born in Dublin on Feb 21st, 1851. After a brilliant career at Trinity College, Dublin, he practised for a short period in South Wales; but returned to Dublin, where he obtained a Poor Law appointment which he held till 1879, when he took the Fellowship of the Irish College of Surgeons, and devoted himself entirely to surgery. He was Surgeon to Sir Patrick Dun’s Hospital, Consulting Surgeon to a large number of institutions, and a member of many important committees. In 1895 he was appointed University Anatomist in succession to Henry St John Brooks, and succeeded Sir George M Porter as Regius Professor of Surgery in the University of Dublin, holding both posts till the end of his life. In 1903 he received the honour of knighthood, and in 1911 he was created a Baronet of the United Kingdom. Ball was for many years the most prominent figure in Irish surgery, recognized as lavish in public work, a good all-round surgeon, but best known as a specialist in rectal diseases. His most important book – *The Rectum and Anus, their Diseases and Treatment* – was for many years considered the standard work in the English language. His other works are mentioned in the biographies. ‘Ball's operation’ for pruritus ani consisted in dividing the sensory nerves supplying the region. He married on July 22nd, 1874, Annie Julia, daughter of Daniel Kinahan, JP, of Roebuck Park, Dublin, by whom he had four daughters and three sons, of whom the eldest – C Arthur Kinahan Ball, FRCSI, Surgeon to Sir Patrick Dun’s Hospital – succeeded to the title. Ball practised at 24 Merrion Square, and died after an illness of several months on March 17th, 1916. His portrait is in the Honorary Fellows’ Album. Publication: *The Rectum and Anus; their Diseases and Treatment*, 12mo, London, 1887 and 1894.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000742
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Bishop, Edward Stanmore (1848 - 1912)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2010-03-18
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000800-E000899
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373074373074
Occupation General surgeon Gynaecologist
Details Educated at the Pine Street Royal School of Medicine in Manchester, which was also known as Mr Turner’s School, and gained the Turner Scholarship in three successive years – 1868-1869, 1869-1870, and 1870-1871. He settled in the Ardwick District of Manchester, where he was in general practice until his appointment as Surgeon to the Ancoats Hospital. He qualified himself for this appointment by coming to London and taking out courses of anatomy and physiology at the London Hospital and of surgery at St Bartholomew’s Hospital, and thus passing the Fellowship examination. Returning to Manchester, he devoted himself to the surgery of the abdomen and to gynaecology. He was appointed Operating Surgeon to the Jewish Memorial Hospital. At the time of his death he was President of the Manchester Clinical Society and Vice-President of the Manchester Medical Society. He died at 3 St Peter’s Square, Manchester, on July 25th, 1912, and his remains were cremated. Bishop was a man of great energy, somewhat reserved in manner, and a lover of music. He had at heart the best interests of Ancoats Hospital, and did much to place it in the position which it now occupies both as a hospital and as a centre of medical teaching. His resources in the technique of abdominal operations were very considerable. Publications:- Bishop’s publications, which were well known both here and in America, include:- *Enterorraphy*, 8vo, Manchester, 1885, from *Med. Chron*. *Lectures to Nurses on Antiseptics in Surgery*, 12mo, 11 plates London, 1891. *The Etiology of Chronic Hernia, with Special Reference to the Operation for Radical Cure, with Additional Tables*, 12mo, 1894, from *Lancet*. “A New Operation for Vesico-vaginal Fistula.” – *Med. Soc. Trans*., 1897, xx, 123. *Sealing of Operative Wounds about the Abdomen versus Treatment by Dressing*, 8vo, Manchester, 1899, from *Med. Chron*. *Uterine Fibromyomata; their Pathology, Diagnosis, and Treatment*, 8vo, 49 illustrations, London, 1901. The book is full of information, though somewhat biased towards operative surgery. “Changes observed in Uteri the seat of Fibromyomata.” – *Brit. Gynaecol. Jour.*, 1901, xvii, 286. *The Essentials of Pelvic Diagnosis, with Illustrative Cases*, 1903. This is an attempt to clarify the mental processes necessary in deducing disease from the absence or presence of symptoms. “Evolution of Modern Operations for Hysterectomy.” – *Practitioner*, 1908, lxxxi, 776. *Lectures on Surgical Nursing*, 1909. “Points in Gastric Surgery.” – *Surg. Gynecol. and Obst*., 1909, viiii, 559. “Address on Surgical Gastric Disorders” delivered before the Blackburn Medical Society, 1911. – *Lancet*, 1911, ii, 743.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000891
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Godber, Sir George Edward (1908 - 2009)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z

by John Blandy
Publication Date 2011-06-16
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001200-E001299
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373431373431
Occupation Public health officer
Details Sir George Godber was one of the principal architects of the National Health Service. He was born on 4 August 1908, the son of Bessie and Isaac Godber, a nurseryman. From Bedford School he went up to New College, Oxford, where he won a blue for rowing, taking part in two losing boat races. He went on to the London Hospital and did junior jobs there and at Poplar, where he was confronted with large numbers of people who were too poor to go to their GP and too proud to accept charity. He attended the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, became a county medical officer in Surrey and joined the Ministry of Health as a medical officer in 1939, at a time when the outbreak of war forced hospitals to work together. His first task was to organise maternity services for Londoners who had been evacuated to the suburbs. During the Second World War Beveridge published his report and Godber was part of the team that planned the National Health Service. He was appointed deputy chief medical officer in 1950 and chief medical officer in 1960. He later campaigned against smoking and for vaccination against polio and diphtheria. A tall man with a shock of hair and a monocle, Godber had tremendous presence. He married Norma Hathorne Rainey in 1935. She predeceased him in 1999. They had four sons and three daughters, but sadly three of their children died in childhood. He was an honorary fellow of many institutions, including our own College. He died on 7 February 2009.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001248
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Querci Della Rovere, Guidubaldo (1946 - 2009)

2025-07-12T03:40:43Z