Search Results for

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

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

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)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

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 Graves, Frederick Thomas (1919 - 2003)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

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/372251372251
Occupation General surgeon
Details Fred Graves was a general surgeon in Staffordshire with an interest in urology. He was born in Hereford in 1919, later studied medicine at University College Hospital and specialised in surgery at King’s College Hospital. He was subsequently appointed consultant general surgeon at Staffordshire General Infirmary. Graves undertook original research on the kidney, carried out in his workshop at home. Concerned by the poor results of surgery for stone in the kidney, at that time dominated by the misleading concept of Brödel’s ‘bloodless’ line, and the inefficient method of controlling haemorrhage during nephrolithotomy, he studied the vascular anatomy of the kidney using the corrosion cast technique, which had been developed by Tompsett at the College. He discovered the segmental anatomy of the renal arteries, leading directly to the development of safe techniques for partial nephrectomy, the reconstruction of malformations of the renal artery and conservative surgery of small tumours of the kidney. This work was of exceptional importance, gained him a Hunterian professorship in 1956 and a masters in surgery, and was published in a monograph *The arterial anatomy of the kidney: the basis of surgical technique* (Bristol, John Wright and Sons, 1971). His interest in research continued throughout his career and he was awarded a DSc by the University of London in 1974 for his work on renal tubules. He was a visiting professor of urology at Wake Forest University, North Carolina, USA. He married Mary and they had two children. There are four grandchildren. He died on 27 February 2003.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000064
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

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

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

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

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)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

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/372341372341
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon
Details Jamil Soomro was an orthopaedic surgeon at Orpington. He was born in Shikarpur, Sind, Pakistan, on 28 March 1948. His father, Haji Moula Bux Soomro, was a farmer. His mother was Fazlaan Soomro, a housewife. Jamil was educated at the Government High School, Shikarpur, where he gained a distinction in Islamic studies, and went on to the C&S College, Shikarpur, where he gained a first in intermediate science. He studied medicine at Liaquat Medical College, Jamshoro, Hyderabad, passing with the highest marks of his year. After house posts in the Navy in Pakiston, he came to England in 1975. He was a senior house officer at Lewisham Hospital and then at Stoke-on-Trent. He then held a post in the accident and emergency department at Stockport for six months, before moving to Birmingham, where he carried out paediatric surgery for a year in the Children’s Hospital. He then worked in Hull, at the Royal Infirmary, as a paediatric surgeon. He then moved to Crawley, as a senior house officer, and embarked on his career in orthopaedics. He worked as an orthopaedic surgeon at Chelmsford, then Portsmouth, before joining Orpington Hospital, Bromley Hospital NHS Trust, in 1980. He became an associate specialist in 1990, and developed a special interest in knee surgery. He retired in 2003. He was an excellent surgeon and an active and enthusiastic teacher, teaching staff at all levels and regularly helping junior doctors prepare for their MRCS examinations. He had a warm bedside manner and is remembered not only for his surgical skills, but also for his politeness, kindness, sincerity and dedication to his work. In July 2006 a plaque was unveiled at Orpington Hospital to commemorate his service to the trust. He was married to Nigar. They had a daughter, Hibba, who is an ophthalmologist, and two sons, Omer, who works in the pharmaceutical industry, and Mohammed, a pharmacist. Jamil Soomro died on 12 September 2004.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000154
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

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/372438372438
Occupation General surgeon
Details Sholem Glaser was a general surgeon at the Royal United Hospital in Bath. Born on 12 May 1912 in Cape Town, the son of Hessel Glaser, a fruit-grower, and Sonia née Zuckerman, he was educated at the South African College School and the University of Cape Town, where he followed his cousin Solly Zuckerman as senior demonstrator of anatomy and won the Croll memorial scholarship. He was an enthusiastic climber, and indeed courted his wife Rose Nochimovitz on Table Mountain. They were married in 1934. He then entered the London Hospital for his clinical studies, where he won the Frederick Treves prize in clinical surgery and the Sutton prize in pathology, gained honours in his MB BS, and again demonstrated anatomy while he studied for the FRCS. At the outbreak of war he volunteered for the RAMC and was for a time a regimental medical officer in Edinburgh before being posted to Bath Military Hospital. He served as major with 8 Casualty Clearing Station in North Africa, where he was the first British surgeon ashore with the Allied landing. He was later at the landing in Salerno. Finally he was promoted Lieutenant Colonel in command of a surgical division. His experience in Italy prompted a lifelong interest in the Italian language, which he continued to study in retirement. He travelled extensively in North America, visiting teaching centres, including the Mayo Clinic, before being appointed consultant surgeon to the Royal United Hospitals, Bath. There he set about organising postgraduate teaching for general practitioners and surgical trainees, offering the latter beer and sandwiches at home. He developed a special interest in urology, and was a highly respected member of BAUS. He retired in 1971. In addition to several surgical papers he published a biography of Caleb Hillier Parry and wrote several entries for the *Dictionary of National Biography*. His many hobbies included needlework, at which he was very skilled, fly-fishing, and medical history. In the sixties he took up fruit farming in Devon. Sholem was a delightful, amusing and stimulating companion. He died on 31 January 2006.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000251
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Maguire, William Brian (1925 - 2007)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2008-02-07
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/372632372632
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon
Details Bill Maguire was an orthopaedic surgeon in Brisbane, Australia. He was born in Newcastle, New South Wales, on 6 March 1925, the second son of John Francis Maguire, a schoolmaster, and his wife, Margaret née Jones. His father had lost his leg in France during the First World War and Bill later based his design for a simple prosthesis on that used by his father. Bill was educated at Coorparoo State Primary and the Church of England Grammar School in Brisbane, where he became a good swimmer and middle distance runner, and played rugby. He also developed an uncommon skill with languages, particularly French, and on leaving school he at first planned to teach French, but later decided to study medicine, for which he won a Commonwealth scholarship to the University of Queensland. There he paid his way by working at the Carlton and United Breweries, the Coca Cola factory, and as a labourer in the Mount Isa mines, working deep underground, freeing rocks that had become jammed after blasting. After a year at university he volunteered for the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), where he won his wings and gained his licence. He returned to complete his medical degree, and then held junior posts at the Royal Brisbane Hospital and did his Primary from a post as demonstrator in anatomy. In 1952, by now married to Dorothy Friend, a nurse, he took a ship to England, to work as a registrar at the Queen Alexandra and the Royal hospitals in Portsmouth. He attended the FRCS course at St Thomas’s, passed the FRCS, and then worked at Walsall Hospital. In 1956 he returned to Australia, as medical superintendent at Toowoomba Base Hospital. There he did all types of surgery, but increasingly specialised in orthopaedics. He moved to Brisbane in 1958 as an orthopaedic supervisor. In 1964 he moved into private practice as visiting consultant at the Princess Alexandra and Greenslopes Repatriation hospitals. In the Australasian College Maguire helped develop the training programme in orthopaedics, examined in that specialty, and helped to set up a programme for training Indonesian surgeons in orthopaedics. In 1968 he joined an Australian medical team in Vietnam, where he found his facility in French helpful in dealing with the French-speaking nuns who nursed his patients. There he carried out a number of operations on lepers. When hostilities were over he continued to help Vietnamese doctors who had come to Australia. Bill Maguire was president of the Queensland branch of the Australasian Orthopaedic Association in 1983, served on the Australian Medical Association council in 1961, and continued in the RAAF reserve as a consultant orthopaedic surgeon with the rank of wing commander. He published *All you need to know about joint replacement* (Brisbane, Boolarong, 1990) and various papers on orthopaedic topics, published in the *Medical Journal of Australia* and the *Australian and New Zealand Journal of Surgery*. In 1996, whilst on holiday in Tasmania, Bill was involved in the notorious Port Arthur massacre, when a mentally disturbed young man murdered 35 people. Bill was one of the first doctors on the scene and helped tend the victims. He was decorated for his bravery. Outside medicine, Bill Maguire had many interests. He continued to fly and was a keen sailor. He was a voluntary doctor at the Commonwealth Games in Brisbane in 1982. Above all, he was devoted to all things French, being a member of the French Orthopaedic Association, where he gave his papers in French, enjoyed Proust, and acted as the interpreter for the Australian Rugby Tour of France in 1984. Taking up golf later in life, he achieved two holes in one. He and his wife, Dorothy, had five sons, John William, Alan Henry, Bruce Douglas, Stephen Francis and Robert Evan. Bill Maguire died on 12 March 2007.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000448
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Coates, Henry (1779 - 1848)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2008-02-21
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000400-E000499
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372633372633
Occupation General surgeon
Details Received his professional training at St George’s Hospital. He practised at Salisbury, where he was Surgeon to the Infirmary from 1804-1847. He died at Salisbury on April 6th, 1848. Another Henry Coates seems to have been entered as six-months’ pupil to Benjamin Brodie at St George’s in August, 1830, and to have become MRCS in 1833 and LSA in 1834. Mr R R James, FRCS, Dean of St George’s, believes this Henry Coates to have been FRCS, 1844.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000449
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2008-03-07
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/372642372642
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born in Myddleton Square, Pentonville, London on 7 July 1848, the fourth child and second son of Golding Bird, MD, FRS, and his wife, Mary Brett. His father (1814-1854) was appointed assistant physician to Guy's Hospital in 1843 on the retirement of Richard Bright; his uncle, Frederic Bird, was obstetric physician to Westminster Hospital. His mother founded the Golding Bird gold medal and scholarship for bacteriology at Guy's Hospital. Golding-Bird was educated at Tonbridge School 1856-62, and afterwards at King's College School in the Strand and at King's College. He graduated BA at the University of London in 1867, and won the gold medal in forensic medicine at the MB examination in 1873. Entering the medical school of Guy's Hospital in October 1868 he received the first prize for first year students in 1869, the first prize for third year students and the Treasurer's medals for surgery and for medicine in 1873. For a short time he acted as demonstrator of anatomy at Guy's, but on his return from a visit to Paris he was elected assistant surgeon in 1875 and demonstrator of physiology, Dr P H Pye-Smith being lecturer. He held the office of surgeon until 1908, when he resigned on attaining the age of 60, was made consulting surgeon, and spent the rest of his life at Meopham, near Rochester, in Kent as a country gentleman interested in the life of the village, in gardening, and in collecting clocks. At the Royal College of Surgeons Golding-Bird was an examiner in elementary physiology 1884-86, in physiology 1886-91, in anatomy and physiology for the Fellowship 1884-90 and 1892-95. He was on the Dental Board as Examiner in surgery in 1902, a member of the Court of Examiners 1897-1907, and a member of the Council 1905-13. He married in 1870 Florence Marion, daughter of Dr John Baber, MRCS, of Thurlow Square, Kensington, and of Meopham. She died on 23 March 1919, and there were no children. He died at Pitfield, Meopham, Kent, of angina with asthma after much painful dyspnoea, on 6 March 1939, being then the oldest living FRCS. Golding-Bird was an exceedingly neat operator and a delicate manipulator. His training in histology, at a time when all section-cutting of tissues was done by hand with an ordinary razor, enabled him to make sections of the retina, drawings of which afterwards appeared in many editions of Quain's *Anatomy*. He did much useful work during his long period of retirement, for he was surgeon to the Gravesend Hospital and the Royal Deaf and Dumb School at Margate, chairman of the Kent County Nursing Association, a member of the Central Midwives Board, and churchwarden of St John's Church, Meopham. He was interested in local archaeology and wrote a history of Meopham which reached a second edition. He also published a history of the United Hospital Club and contributed many papers to the medical journals. He long retained his youthful appearance and it is recorded that when he had been assistant surgeon for some years, a question of amputation having arisen, the patient said she would not have her “leg took off by that boy”, but if it had to be done, pointing to the house surgeon, he should do it. He left his residence, Pitfield, to Guy's Hospital, £1,000 towards the maintenance of Meopham Church and churchyard, £1,000 upon trust for the Village Hall, Meopham, £300 to Kent County Nursing Association, £300 to Meopham and Nursted Local Nursing Association, £100 to the National Refuges for Homeless and Destitute Children, £50 each to the Mothers' Union Central Fund, the SPG, the YMCA, the YWCA and the Church of England Zenana Missionary Society, and the residue, subject to life interest, between Gravesend Hospital, Epsom Medical College, and the Village Hall, Meopham.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000458
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

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

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

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)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

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)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

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)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

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)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

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/372450372450
Occupation General surgeon
Details Norman Addison was a consultant surgeon at Bradford Royal Infirmary. He was born in Leeds on 26 April 1925, the son of Herbert Victor Addison and Alice née Chappell. He was educated at Leeds Grammar School, where he won an exhibition and sixth form prizes in biology and chemistry. He went on to study medicine at Leeds University, where he also played rugby. After completing house posts, one of which was with P J Moir at Leeds General Infirmary, he did his National Service in the RAF as a Flight Leiutenant. He returned to demonstrate anatomy with A Durward while preparing for the Primary FRCS. Between 1955 and 1957 he trained at Leeds General Infirmary and was one of the first to be enrolled into a senior surgical registrar rotation. He was appointed consultant surgeon at Bradford Royal Infirmary and St Luke’s Hospital in 1963, becoming the first postgraduate tutor, converting a former mill-owner’s mansion into a Postgraduate Medical Centre. After serving on the council of the Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland he became treasurer and then president in 1987, holding the annual general meeting at Harrogate. Norman was granted a Hunterian Professorship in 1982 and was a member of the Court of Examiners. In 1949 he married Joan King, the daughter of the professor of chemistry textiles at the University of Leeds. They had two sons, neither of whom followed a medical career. Norman Addison was a forceful personality who tended to push forward to take the lead, and many found him overwhelming, but he was an excellent and energetic organiser and his close friends found him an amiable companion with a sense of humour. He died on 8 July 2003.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000263
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

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 Hayes, Brian Robert (1929 - 2004)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

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

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

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/372260372260
Occupation Naval surgeon
Details George Hayes qualified from Durham University in 1938, having already joined the RNVR. When the second world war broke out, he joined the Royal Navy, serving overseas throughout the war and afterwards in shore-based hospitals in Ceylon, Mauritius and Malta. His last commission was as President of the Naval Medical Board, London. He took early retirement and he and his wife, Margaret, continued to travel abroad. He died on 10 February 2004, and is survived by his widow, three daughters and two sons.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000073
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

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

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

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/372453372453
Occupation Obstetric and gynaecological surgeon Obstetrician and gynaecologist
Details Dennis Bonham was head of the postgraduate school of obstetrics and gynaecology at the National Women’s Hospital, Auckland, New Zealand. He was born in London on 23 September 1924, the son of Alfred John Bonham, a chemist, and Dorothy Alice Bonham, a pharmacist. He was educated at King Edward VI School, Nuneaton, and Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge. He then went to University College Hospital for his clinical training and for junior posts. He spent three years in the RAF at Fighter Command headquarters at Bentley Priory and then returned to University College to work with Nixon, researching into polycystic ovarian syndrome and the use of Schiller’s iodine in carcinoma of the cervix. In 1962 he was seconded to the British perinatal mortality survey as the obstetrician and co-authored its report with Neville Butler. In December 1963 he went to New Zealand as head of the postgraduate school of obstetrics and gynaecology in the University of Auckland. There, over the next 25 years, he made huge contributions to medicine and perinatal outcome, marked by an 80 per cent fall in perinatal mortality. He established the Foundation for the Newborn and the New Zealand Perinatal Society, and was adviser to WHO, receiving the gold medal from the Federation of Asia and Oceania Perinatal Societies. He went out of his way to encourage women into his specialty, setting up job-sharing training schemes. In 1990 he was involved in a controversial study into carcinoma of the cervix, which led to a national outcry, an inquiry and his censure by the New Zealand Medical Council. He married Nancie Plumb in 1945. They had two sons, both of whom became doctors. A big man, with colossal energy, he had many interests, notably sailing on the Norfolk Broads and New Zealand coastal waters, garden landscaping, building stone walls and designing terraced gardens. He was a passionate grower of orchids, becoming president, life member and judge of the New Zealand Orchid Society. He was awarded the gold medal of the 13th World Orchid Conference in 1990. He died in Auckland on 6 April 2005.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000266
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

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

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

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

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

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

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

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

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

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

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

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

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

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

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-10-12
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000000-E000099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372268372268
Occupation General surgeon
Details Kodituwakku Gnanapala Jayasekera was a distinguished surgeon in Sri Lanka and Australia. He was born in Sri Lanka (then Ceylon). He travelled to the UK, where he became a Fellow of the College in 1948. Soon after, he returned to Sri Lanka. In 1954 he was appointed as honorary surgeon to the Queen, during Her Majesty’s visit to the country on her coronation tour. In 1970, alarmed by the prospect of political violence in Sri Lanka, he emigrated to Australia with his family, with the help of his good friend Sir Edward ‘Weary’ Dunlop. At the time of his departure he was the senior consultant surgeon at the General Hospital, Colombo, and President-elect of the Sri Lanka Society of Surgeons. In Australia he practised general surgery in Melbourne for a further 20 years. When he finally retired from surgery, he continued to practise general medicine until his death on 26 September 2001.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000081
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Williams, Thomas Meurig (1910 - 2007)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

by N Alan Green
Publication Date 2008-08-21 2010-02-04
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/372729372729
Occupation General surgeon
Details Thomas Williams was a consultant general surgeon at the West Suffolk General Hospital, Bury St Edmunds. He was born into a medical family in Canterbury, Kent, on 6 May 1910, the son of Moses Thomas Williams FRCS. Tom’s schooling was first at Sir Roger Harwood’s Grammar School, Sandwich, and then Rugby School, from which he entered Oriel College, Oxford, and gained a BA degree before going on to St Thomas’ Hospital for his clinical training. After qualifying, he became a casualty officer and later a house surgeon at St Thomas’, working with Philip Mitchiner and Oswald Lloyd Davies, both of whom influenced him greatly. Later he was a resident surgical officer to St Mark’s Hospital. He had the highest regard for Norman Tanner and visited him frequently, as did many aspiring gastric surgeons. During the Second World War he served in India with the RAMC, reaching the rank of lieutenant colonel. His wide general experience did not extend to vascular surgery and in later years at Bury St Edmunds he referred these cases to a newly appointed surgeon who had a wide experience in this field. Tom was a good golfer, and went abroad on regular skiing trips in his early days. He married a Miss Thomas in 1943: they had two daughters. He re-married and his second wife, Chrissie, cared for the two daughters and her own son. Retiring in 1975 to live first in Great Barton, Bury St Edmunds, he later moved to Winchester to be near his family. He died on 31 August 2007.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000545
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Nisbet, Norman Walter (1909 - 2007)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2008-08-21 2009-05-01
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000500-E000599
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372730372730
Occupation General surgeon
Details Norman Walter Nisbet was a former director of research at the Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Hospital, Oswestry. He was born in Edinburgh on 23 March 1909, the son of a science master. He first qualified as a dentist, but abandoned dentistry in favour of medicine. After completing his training in general surgery in Edinburgh and Birmingham, he began his orthopaedic career. In 1938 he was appointed as a house surgeon at the Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital, Oswestry, where at the outbreak of the Second World War he became resident surgical officer. During the war years, the Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt was virtually a military hospital. Nisbit was responsible for the surgical care and rehabilitation of many war casualties. One German airman crashed not far from the hospital. Norman treated his serious fractures by standard methods and his burns with ‘Tannifax’, which turned the burnt area black. When the airman saw the black area he was horrified, thinking that he had been deliberately painted black as a distinguishing mark - what the English do to their prisoners - according to German propaganda. He was only reassured by seeing a British soldier, similarly treated, peeling away the black tan on his own injury to reveal healthy skin underneath. Of the hundreds of war wounded Nisbet treated, the German patient was the only one who sent him a letter of thanks. During this time, he had an unrivalled opportunity of learning all aspects of orthopaedic and fracture surgery under the influence and guidance of Sir Harry Platt, Sir Reginald Watson-Jones and Sir Henry Osmond-Clarke, amongst others. He also worked closely with Dame Agnes Hunt, the founder of the hospital. Between 1946 and 1947 he served in the Royal Air Force as a senior orthopaedic consultant with the rank of wing commander, in charge of the orthopaedic unit at the RAF Hospital, Wroughton, Wiltshire. On demobilisation, he became a consultant orthopaedic surgeon to the Coventry and Warwickshire Hospital, Coventry. He also held the posts of orthopaedic surgeon to the Paybody Orthopaedic Home and the Coleshill Orthopaedic Hospital for Children. Nisbit was in New Zealand from 1950 to 1962 as associate professor in orthopaedic surgery at the University of Otago and director of the orthopaedic and fracture department of the Dunedin Hospital. The University of Otago later created a personal chair of orthopaedic surgery for him, its first personal chair. He always had a keen interest in medical research. While he was in Dunedin, spurred on by the then professor of surgery, Sir Michael Woodruff, he began working on the biology of transplantation with special reference to immunology and genetics. He returned to the Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hosptial in 1964 as the first director of the purpose-built Charles Salt Research Centre. He continued his work in immunology and published extensively. He retired as director of research in 1983, at the age of 74. However, having received a personal MRC grant to further his work into the origins of osteoclasts, he stayed on for another three years. With his wife, Mary, he retired to the south coast of England. His passion had always been shooting. He maintained a gun in a shoot in Sussex until the age of 93. Thereafter he continued shooting clay pigeons. Mary, who had been in declining health for many years, died in 2005. They had been married for 60 years. Nisbet, having looked after Mary for many years, continued to live completely independently. He swam daily, shopped, cooked and cleaned for himself and carried on driving his car until, at the age of 95, his health slowly went down hill and he began to depend on others. He died on 25 September 2007 at the age of 98 and is survived by his daughter, Lesley, son-in-law St John and grandchildren, Katherine and Tom.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000546
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching O'Malley, Eoin (1919 - 2007)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2008-08-21
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000500-E000599
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372731372731
Occupation Cardiac surgeon
Details Eoin O’Malley was a cardiac surgeon and a past president of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. He was born on 5 April 1919 in Galway, where his father was professor of surgery. From Clongowes Wood College he went to medical school, at first in Galway and later at University College, Dublin, where he proved himself a formidable debater and rugby football player, and won prizes and distinctions in every subject. He completed house appointments in the Mater Misericordiae Hospital and went on to specialise in surgery at Southend General Hospital and the Lahey Clinic in Boston. He was appointed to the consultant staff of the Mater Hospital as a general and cardiac surgeon in 1950 and became professor of surgery in 1958. At first an all round general surgeon, he was one of the first to specialise in cardiac surgery and succeeded in setting up a specialist unit, which was later named after him. As a teacher he was noted as a skilled and thoughtful lecturer and a sympathetic examiner. As a trainer of young surgeons he took care to see that his pupils expanded their vision by going abroad to other centres for clinical experience and research. Indeed, to encourage his colleagues to travel, he founded the Irish Surgical Travellers Club. Together with other Irish professors of surgery, Eoin organised a national surgical training programme, a planned rotation scheme, entry to which was to be by competitive examination. He soon became involved in the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, was elected to its council in 1965 and became president in 1983. His presidency was marked by the celebration of the bicentenary of the college. His interests outside surgery included fishing, meteorology, literature, theatre, history and politics. Eoin married Una O’Higgins, a young solicitor, in 1952. Una was the daughter of the Irish national hero Kevin O’Higgins, the hard man of the liberation movement and first minister of justice in the new republic, who was assassinated when Una was only five months old. Later Una became a nationally celebrated poet, whose verse sang of peace and forgiveness. Una was a prime mover in the reconciliation movement and a founder of the Glencree Reconciliation Centre. They had six children, of whom Kevin has followed his father and grandfather into surgery. A man of great dignity, utterly without bombast or arrogance, Eoin was the recipient of numerous honorary degrees and distinctions, including the honorary Fellowship of our College. Enid Taylor
Resource Identifier RCS: E000547
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2008-08-21
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000500-E000599
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372732372732
Occupation Otolaryngologist ENT surgeon
Details Rex Barton was a former otolaryngologist, head and neck surgeon at the Leicester Royal Infirmary. He was born in Carmarthen, Wales, on 3 May 1944, the eldest son of Lieutenant Colonel Edward Cecil Barton of the Royal Sussex Regiment and Gwendolen Margaret Gladwys née Thomas, who qualified at the Royal Free Hospital and became a pathologist in Salisbury. Her father, David J Thomas, was formerly medical officer of health for Acton. Educated at the Cathedral School, Salisbury, Harrow School (where he received the Exeter prize for biology) and University College, London, Rex Barton qualified from University College Hospital Medical School, where he was both house surgeon and house physician. After senior house officer posts in Bristol, he elected to pursue a career in ENT and was subsequently appointed registrar and later senior registrar (with plastic surgery) to St Mary’s and the Royal Marsden hospitals, London. Here he was much influenced by Ian Robin and Anthony Richards. During this period he spent four months at the Victoria Hospital, Dichpalli, India, sponsored by the Medical Research Council and LEPRA, where he researched into the ENT manifestations of leprosy. This led to a number of landmark papers and a continued interest in the subject. Appointed consultant head and neck oncologist and ENT surgeon to the Leicester Royal Infirmary and Loughborough General hospitals, Rex Barton was instrumental in establishing a multidisciplinary head and neck oncology service. Sadly because of ill health he was obliged to retire early in 1994. Rex Barton had a firm Christian faith and always resolved to live accordingly. In 1969 he married Nicola Margaret St John Allen, a state registered nurse. They had three children, Thomas, Jennifer and Samuel. Rex Barton died on 18 June 2006. Neil Weir
Resource Identifier RCS: E000548
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Hankinson, John (1919 - 2007)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
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/372733372733
Occupation Neurosurgeon
Details John Hankinson, known as ‘Hank’, was a consultant neurosurgeon at the Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle upon Tyne, and professor of neurosurgery at the University of Newcastle. He was born in Ramsbottom, Lancashire, on 10 March 1919, the son of Daniel Hankinson, a company director, and Anne née Kavanagh. He described himself as half-Irish, from Kilkenny, and half-English, from Cheshire. He was educated at Thornleigh College, Bolton, and entered the medical school of St Mary’s Hospital, London, in 1941. He edited the St Mary’s Hospital *Gazette* and, in 1945, was a member of the London University medical group which visited Belsen, an experience of which he later spoke little, though it affected him markedly. The group helped to care for the survivors, many of whom suffered from typhus, tuberculosis or other serious diseases. After qualifying in 1946, he held house appointments at St Mary’s, with Arthur Dickson Wright and John Goligher, the Seaman’s Hospital, Greenwich, the Middlesex Hospital, and Harold Wood Hospital. Dickson Wright, though a general surgeon, included neurosurgery in his wide practice and it was while working with him that Hankinson’s interest in this specialty developed. In 1951 he became a house surgeon to Wylie McKissock and Valentine Logue at the neurosurgical unit of St Georges’s Hospital at Atkinson Morley’s Hospital, Wimbledon. He progressed to registrar and senior registrar, interrupting this with a year in the USA, at the Children’s Memorial Hospital, Chicago, with Luis Amador and as research assistant at the neuropsychiatric institute, University of Illinois, with Ralph Gerrard, returning as senior surgical registrar to Atkinson Morley’s Hospital in 1955. In 1954 he developed diabetes, requiring insulin for its management. McKissock encouraged him to continue in neurosurgery in spite of this, which he did, without difficulty. He spent 1956 and 1957 at the National Hospital, Queen Square. In September and October 1956 he was clinical assistant in Lund to Lars Leksell, an early exponent and developer of stereotaxic surgical technique. While at Queen Square he frequently met Sir Geoffrey Jefferson, who was carrying out research for his centenary lecture on Sir Victor Horsley, given at BMA House. In 1957 Hankinson was appointed as a consultant neurosurgeon to the Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle upon Tyne, and to the Regional Neurosurgical Centre. He came into contact with G F Rowbotham, who had set up neurosurgery in that city. He also held an academic post as senior lecturer in neurological surgery at the University of Newcastle. In 1972 he was appointed to a chair of neurosurgery, which he held until his retirement in 1984. Hankinson’s main interests were stereotaxic functional neurosurgery and the surgical treatment of syringomyelia, upon both of which he wrote a number of papers and chapters. He was secretary of the Society of British Neurological Surgeons from 1972 to 1977, president from 1980 to 1982 and, from 1977 to 1983, neurosurgical adviser to the Chief Medical Officer, Department of Health and Social Security. Hankinson married Ruth Barnes, a theatre sister at St Mary’s, in 1948. There were two daughters of the marriage (Barbara and Elizabeth). His first wife died in 1982 and he married Nicole Andrews, a radiographer and later a managing director of a plastics engineering works. He was a keen yachtsman and also played the organ at the local church. Hankinson was a popular figure in neurosurgery. He had a droll sense of humour and was an amusing and entertaining conversationalist. He died suddenly on 9 March 2007. T T King
Resource Identifier RCS: E000549
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

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)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

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)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

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 Davis, Neville Coleman (1924 - 2008)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

by John Blandy
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/372737372737
Occupation General surgeon
Details Neville Coleman Davis was a leading surgeon in Queensland. He was born in Newcastle, New South Wales, on 30 January 1924, the son of Clyde Davis, a medical practitioner, and Vera née Phillips. He was educated at Sydney Grammar School and the University of Sydney, qualifying in 1945. He completed house posts at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Sydney, and the Royal Hobart Hospital in Tasmania, before going to England in 1949 as a senior house officer at the City General Hospital in Sheffield. After passing the FRCS, he went on to Sheffield Royal Infirmary for two years and then served in the Royal Australian Army Medical Corps as a lieutenant colonel in Korea, where he commanded the British Commonwealth General Hospital in Japan from 1951 to 1952. He returned to Australia as surgical supervisor and part-time lecturer in clinical surgery at Brisbane General Hospital. In 1957 he was appointed visiting surgeon at Princess Alexandra Hospital. He was co-ordinator of postgraduate surgical education from 1980 to 1986 and was visiting surgeon at the Wesley Breast Clinic from 1982. A truly general surgeon, his main interest was in colorectal surgery, but he was one of the founders and later chairman of the Queensland Melanoma Project. He served in Vietnam as surgical specialist to No 1 Australian Field Hospital in 1969 and was honorary colonel of the RAAMC 1st Military District from 1987 to 1991. At the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, he was a member of council from 1975 to 1979, honorary librarian and a member of the board of general surgery until 1982, and chairman of the section of colorectal surgery. Many public offices came to him including membership of the council of the Queensland Institute of Medical Research and of the medical and scientific committee of Queensland Cancer Fund. He was a member of the council of the Australian Medical Association and was made a fellow in 1979. He served on the National Health and Medical Research Council, the Menzies Foundation of Queensland, and was president of the Queensland Gastroenterological Society. Among his many awards was a Churchill fellowship in 1968, the Henry Simpson Newland medal in 1958, the Justin Fleming medal in 1977 and the John Loewenthal clinical medal in 1978. He was a member of the James IV Association of Surgeons, was the Bancroft orator of the American Medical Association in 1979, gained the Hugh Devine medal of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons in 1988, and was an honorary member of the American Society of Colon and Rectal Surgeons and of the Colorectal Society of Australasia. Neville married Lois Tindale, a medical practitioner, in 1954. They had two daughters (Prudence and Catherine) and a son (Roger). He died on 6 March 2008.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000554
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Brun, Claude (1917 - 2007)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2008-09-11 2009-01-16
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000500-E000599
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372738372738
Occupation General surgeon
Details Claude Brun was a consultant surgeon in Blackburn. He was born on 23 August 1917 in Mauritius. His father, René Brun, was a bank clerk in Port Louis who was descended from a captain in the Napoleonic navy. His mother, Jeanne Brun, was also of French descent. Claude was the eldest of six children. His early schooldays were with the Loreto nuns in a boarding school in St Pierre (which he hated). He was then educated at the Royal College in Curepipe. At the age of 17 he won a British Government scholarship which took him to England in 1934, where he was sponsored by Sir Percy Ezekiel. Having had a classical education, he had to study the necessary basic sciences before going to the London Hospital in October 1936 to study medicine. At the outbreak of the Second World War as a student he was sent to Poplar, Mile End and Highwood hospitals during the Blitz. After qualifying, he did house appointments at the Northern Fever Hospital and King George V Hospital, Ilford, before joining the RAMC in 1942. He was posted to Drymen on Loch Lomond, where he met a nurse named Barbara Limpitlaw, who later became his wife. He spent most of the war on a hospital ship in the Mediterranean. On demobilisation he returned to the London Hospital as a supernumerary registrar in the accident and emergency department and completed registrar posts at King George’s Hospital, Ilford, and then specialised in orthopaedics. For ten years he worked under John Charnley at the Salford Royal Hospital, during which time he passed the MS. He returned to Mauritius in 1957 as a surgeon in the Colonial Medical Health Service, where he developed an interest in anthropology and wrote Les Ancêtres de l’homme (Port Louis, 1964). He returned to England as a consultant surgeon in Blackburn in 1965, where he worked until his retirement in 1982. There he set up a mobile breast screening service, before the advent of mammography. He had many hobbies. In retirement he continued to paint and held several exhibitions, and read widely in the classics. At the age of 88 he taught himself Spanish. He was a keen bookbinder, botanist, woodworker and numismatist. He died peacefully in his sleep on 25 May 2007 leaving his widow, two daughters (Anne and Pauline), a son, Robert, who also became a doctor, and nine grandchildren.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000555
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Birbara, George (1928 - 2006)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

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/372739372739
Occupation General surgeon
Details George Birbara was a general surgeon in Leeton, New South Wales. He was born in Sydney on 16 August 1928. His parents, Anis, a tailor, and Amanda (née Diab) had emigrated from Lebanon. George went to Sydney Boys’ High School and Sydney University. After house appointments, he went to England in 1954 to specialize in surgery, working at the Royal Masonic, Whipps Cross, St James’s Balham, St Cross Rugby, St Luke’s Bradford and Southampton Chest hospitals. Having passed the FRCS, he returned to Leeton, New South Wales in 1959. He married Hazel, a school teacher, in 1956. They had two sons (Nicholas and Andrew) and two daughters (Rosemary and Helen), none of whom followed him into medicine. He died on 17 January 2006.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000556
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

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 Gilbert, Barton (1908 - 2006)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

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

First Title value, for Searching Coakley, Patrick Kevin (1928 - 2004)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-10-26
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000200-E000299
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372463372463
Occupation General surgeon
Details Patrick Kevin Coakley was born on 19 December 1928 at Bantry, County Cork, Eire. He attended Blackrock College, Dublin, and studied medicine at the University of Cork, qualifying in 1952. After the surgical rotation he passed the FRCS in Ireland. In 1955 he was appointed to a short service commission in the Royal Army Medical Corps and was quickly promoted to Captain. After his basic military training he was posted to the Queen Alexandra Military Hospital (QAMH) as a junior specialist in surgery, the first of many postings. Later in the year he moved to the British Military Hospital Lagos, where he developed an excellent relationship with the local Nigerian surgeons. On his return to UK in 1957 he served for a short period at the British Military Hospital Chester, before moving to the Royal Postgraduate Medical School, Hammersmith, to work with Ian Aird on a sabbatical year as an honorary registrar. While he was there he passed the FRCS England. After this he was made a senior specialist in surgery and then moved to the Cambridge Military Hospital, Aldershot. Whilst there he was graded as consultant in surgery by the Armed Services Consultant Approval Board of our College and then posted to the British Military Hospital Hong Kong. Here he established good contacts with G B Ong and was soon involved in teaching. His next appointment in 1965 to the British Military Hospital Hanover, Germany, again resulted in a good liaison, with the Medizin Hochschule at Hanover. His teaching ability was now recognised by his appointment as assistant professor of military surgery at the Royal Army Medical College and QAMH Millbank. The Army oncology unit worked closely with the service at the Westminster Hospital and required a surgeon with special skills, and these he had. Another period of postgraduate training was spent in vascular surgery at St Mary’s Hospital. In 1972 he moved to the Cambridge Military Hospital, where large numbers of casualties of the Parachute Regiment from Northern Ireland were being treated. His excellent service here was recognised by the award of the Mitchiner medal from our College and the Royal Army Medical College, and promotion to Colonel. In 1978 he was posted again to Hanover and he renewed his connections with the University. During this time he volunteered to serve with the field surgical team in Belfast, for which he was awarded the General Service medal with NI clasp. Shortly after his return to Hanover he was appointed an officer of the Order of St John in recognition of his work with battle casualties and the British Army of the Rhine (BAOR) task in war. In 1982 he was promoted to Brigadier and appointed command consultant in surgery at HQ BAOR, where he became responsible for surgeons and surgery in NATO. Promotion to Major General followed in 1986, when he was appointed director of army surgery, consultant to the Army and honorary surgeon to HM the Queen. He retired in 1988 to Fleet, Hampshire, where he continued playing golf at the Army Golf Club and freshwater fishing in Ireland. His house repair skills were much in demand. On the 18 January 2004 he died from a ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm. He was a happy family man and left a wife Janet and children Janet, Fiona and Brendan. He son John predeceased him. He had five grandchildren.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000276
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Coghlan, Brian (1962 - 2003)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

First Title value, for Searching O'Donoghue, Patrick Desmond (1922 - 2004)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

by Hilary Keighley
Publication Date 2005-11-23 2015-09-14
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/372357372357
Occupation General surgeon Urological surgeon Urologist
Details Patrick Desmond O'Donoghue was a surgeon in Kenya. He was born in Kaiapoi, New Zealand, on 12 May 1922, the second son of Michael and Eva O'Donoghue. His father was a teacher and later schools inspector. Pat attended Christchurch Boys' High School, where he excelled in classics, sciences, literature, languages and sport, particularly cricket and rugby. He had a formidable intellect and he loved to write poetry and prose. He went on to study medicine at the University of Otago. He spent two years in house jobs in Christchurch, where he developed his particular interest in urology, and then, in 1949, sailed to England as a ship's doctor to specialise in surgery. He did a number of junior posts, including one at the Seamen's Hospital, Greenwich, and then became a registrar to Sir Cecil Wakeley at King's College Hospital. There he met Brenda Davies, an anaesthetics registrar at King's, and they were married in 1952. He went on to be a surgical registrar to Neville Stidolph at the Whittington Hospital for two years, gaining extensive experience in genito-urinary surgery, before going on to be RSO at St Paul's under Winsbury-White, Howard Hanley and David Innes Williams. This was followed by six months at the Brompton Hospital under Sir Clement Price Thomas and Charles Drew, who, in 1955, supported him with enthusiasm when he considered applying for a vacancy at St Mary's. However, at the same time a vacancy came up in Nairobi, for which he opted after much deliberation. His first appointment there was as a locum for Sir Michael Wood with the East African Flying Doctor Association, which cemented his love for the country and its people, and his desire to make a life for himself and his family in Kenya. From this he went on to become a partner in the Nairobi Clinic, where he rapidly developed an outstanding reputation as a very professional, capable and compassionate surgeon. He developed free outreach clinics for the Flying Doctor Service, covering remote areas of Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, where surgery was often difficult and performed under the most basic conditions. He described operating in Tanzania where the humidity was so great that the door of the room had to be kept open, despite the many onlookers. There were times when the throng of patients delayed the departure of the flying doctor and when the runway lights were switched off at the small airport in Nairobi they had to land unannounced at the international airport, pursued by a meteor of which they were unaware, which landed close behind them. Pat was also chief surgeon at the Mater Misericordiae Hospital, doing pro bono surgery for missionaries and many others. The bulk of his work was at the Nairobi Hospital, where he was well respected and liked by colleagues and nursing staff. Although he specialised in urology, he remained a very general surgeon, dealing with a wide variety of injuries, including severe mauling by leopards, buffaloes, rhinos and elephants. People were also flown in with spear injuries from inter-tribal battles and he also treated casualties from the ANC (African National Congress) bombing of the Norfolk Hotel in Nairobi. Occasionally he was asked to escort patients back to their homes in other countries, including a cardinal who needed to be taken back to Rome, where Pat had an audience with Pope John XXIII. In 1968 he became president of the East African Association of Surgeons, and was instrumental in setting up the equivalent of a coroner's court, essential to protect both surgeons and patients in the ever-increasing world of litigation, a move which was approved by the attorney general in 1969. Pat led a very full and productive working life. He loved his surgery. Even after retirement he continued to read his medical and surgical journals with great interest, and wanted to be up to date with the evidence emerging from recent research. Golf was among his many interests: he continued to play until he could no longer walk round the course (he scorned the use of buggies). He loved to learn, particularly poetry and literature. He would often quote, among others, Keats, Yeats, Manley Hopkins and Dylan Thomas. He remembered passages from Virgil - he loved Latin. Pat and Brenda raised their four daughters (Gillian, Jenny, Geraldine and Hilary) in Nairobi. In 2002 Brenda unexpectedly died whilst on holiday in England. This was a terrible blow for Pat. He had described Brenda as his 'life's navigator'. He returned to Kenya for one more year and then moved to be with his daughter Hilary in Cooma, Australia. Pat made Cooma his home for a further year, before he passed away on 22 December 2004, aged 82. He had a strong Christian faith throughout his life and he had a wonderful, quiet sense of humour that remained with him until the day he died. He was an inspirational person.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000170
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Organ, Claude H (1927 - 2005)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-11-23 2006-12-21
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/372358372358
Occupation General surgeon
Details Claude Organ was a distinguished American surgeon and the second African-American President of the American College of Surgeons. He was born in 1927 in Marshall, Texas, and educated at Terrell High School, Denison, and then Xavier University, Louisiana. Denied acceptance to the University of Texas on account of his colour, he studied medicine at the Creighton University School of Medicine, Omaha. After qualifying in 1952 he served in the US Navy, before returning to Creighton to complete his surgical training, rising to become chairman of his department in 1971. There he became famous for encouraging his trainees to pursue bio-molecular research. He then went on to be professor and chairman of the department of surgery at the University of Oklahoma, leaving in 1988 to establish the University of California Davis-East Bay department of surgery in Oakland, now UCSF East Bay department of surgery. He remained there as chairman until 2003. He was chairman of the American Board of Surgery and President of the American College of Surgeons, being honoured by the distinguished service award of that Association, in addition to gaining numerous honorary degrees from all over the world, including the honorary Fellowship of our College. The author of more than 250 papers and five books, he was for 15 years the editor of *Archives of Surgery*. He was a frequent visitor to the UK, and in 1999 was invited to tour the British Isles as the *British Journal of Surgery* travelling fellow to review our methods of surgical training and the role of women in surgery, as a result of which he presented a detailed and perceptive report to the Association of Surgeons in 2000. He died on 18 June 2005 in Berkeley, California, and is survived by his wife Elizabeth Lucille Mays, five sons (Brian, Paul, Gregory, David and Claude) and two daughters (Sandra and Rita). The Claude and Elizabeth Organ professorship at Xavier University has been endowed in his memory.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000171
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Rajani, Manohar Radhakrishnan (1935 - 2004)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-11-23 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/372359372359
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born on 19 January 1935, Manohar Rajani qualified in Bombay and after junior posts went to England to specialise in surgery. After passing the FRCS he did a series of training posts, before going to Canada in 1965, where he passed the Canadian FRCS and settled down in practice in Toronto. He died on 13 April 2004.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000172
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Williams, Robert Edward Duncan (1927 - 2004)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-11-23 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/372360372360
Occupation Urological surgeon Urologist
Details Bob Williams was a distinguished urological surgeon based in Leeds. He was born on 18 December 1927 in Motherwell, Lanarkshire, the son of Robert Williams, a steelworker, and Janet McNeil. He was educated at Dalziel High School, Motherwell, and Glasgow Medical School. After house jobs in Glasgow he did his National Service in the RAMC, serving as resident medical officer to the Northumberland Fusiliers in Hong Kong. On his return, he received his general surgical training under Sir Charles Illingworth in Glasgow and John Goligher in Leeds, before deciding to specialise in urology, which in those days was emerging as a separate entity. He became senior registrar to Leslie Pyrah in Leeds, who had set up a pioneering stone clinic. There he carried out a painstaking and far-reaching study of the natural history of renal tract stone, which won him his MD. After this he went to work with Wyland Leadbetter at the Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, in 1964, where he carried out research on total body water and whole body potassium, which was to win him a commendation for his MCh thesis. On his return he was appointed to the consultant staff of the University of Leeds urological department in 1966. He had many interests which were shown in his numerous publications, most notably on urinary calculi, bladder cancer and lymphadenectomy. He followed Leslie Pyrah in the energetic pursuit of the establishment of urology as a separate discipline in the British Isles, which won him the admiration and respect of his colleagues. Bob was president of the section of urology of the Royal Society of Medicine in 1989 and a very active member of BAUS, of which he was president from 1990 to 1992. He was awarded the St Peter’s medal of the Association in 1993. He examined for the Edinburgh and English Colleges, and was an invited member of Council of our College from 1989 to 1992. In 1958 he married Lora Pratt, an Aberdeen graduate who was a GP and part-time anaesthetist. They had a son (Duncan) and two daughters (Bryony and Lesley), all of whom became doctors. A genial, cheerful and amusing colleague, Bob was struck down by renal failure caused by polycystic disease of the kidneys, but continued with great courage to work and publish and play an active part in BAUS, despite the need for regular dialysis. A renal transplant unfortunately underwent rejection, and he was, reluctantly, obliged to retire in 1991. He died on 26 August 2004.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000173
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Gough, David Christopher Simmonds (1947 - 2005)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-01-13
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000100-E000199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372361372361
Occupation Paediatric urologist
Details David Gough was consultant paediatric urologist at the Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital. He was born on 7 July 1947 in Almondsbury, near Bristol, to Alan Gough, an electrical engineer, and Gillian née Shellard. He was educated at Bristol Grammar School and Liverpool University, where he helped to build a magnificent steam engine float for rag week, and met his future wife, Elizabeth. After qualifying he completed junior appointments at Broadgreen, the Royal Liverpool Children’s Hospital, Addenbrooke’s and the Welsh National School of Medicine, during which time he was greatly influenced by Walpole Lewin and P P Rickham. He then spent two years at the Royal Melbourne Children’s Hospital before being appointed to Manchester. At first he was a paediatric surgeon with a special interest in neonatal surgery, and gradually moved on to paediatric urology, where he was particularly interested in congenital abnormalities, including exstrophy (for which he set up the National Bladder Exstrophy Service) and spina bifida, for which he set up a special unit, the second in England. He was an enthusiastic proponent and founder-member of the British Association of Paediatric Urologists and of the European Society for Paediatric Urology. He inherited a passion for restoring old cars from his father, and in later life was interested in collecting art and enjoying good wine. A committed Christian, he worked tirelessly for the underprivileged in Manchester and Salford, for whom he established a refuge. He married Elizabeth Brice in 1970. They had three children, one of whom became a doctor. He died on 29 March 2005 after a short illness.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000174
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Moore, Keith Arthur (1911 - 2005)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-10-19
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/372291372291
Occupation General surgeon
Details Keith Moore was a consultant surgeon at North Middlesex Hospital. He was born on 30 June 1911, at Rose Bay, Sydney, Australia, the son of Frank Joshua Moore, an engineer, and Adela May née Bailey. He was educated at Brisbane Grammar School, and then Wesley College, Sydney University. He went to England to work for his FRCS. In 1941 he enrolled in the RAMC and then served in the Middle East prior to the fall of Tobruk. He subsequently escaped from an Italian prisoner of war camp and walked south through enemy territory to rejoin the Allied Forces, who were by then advancing northwards. After demobilisation he returned to Australia with an English bride, Evelyn Sarah Cowdeney (‘Sally’). They went on to have three daughters (Sarah, Charlotte and Jacqueline) and a son (Richard). He was soon appointed as a surgeon to the Children’s Hospital in Brisbane. He was unhappy with the ethos of private practice in Australia and in 1950 returned to England to work in the newly established National Health Service, the principles of which he admired. His subsequent appointment at the North Middlesex Hospital became his life’s work. He retired in 1976. He was a cutting surgeon rather than a writing surgeon, despite having kept detailed personal diaries since he was a young man. His forte throughout his surgical career was discussing the rationale for his decisions concerning the treatment of his patients with his junior staff. Much of his retirement was spent in fulfilling his life-long ambition to restore an old mill, which he had bought very cheaply and which finally became an idyllic residence and garden in Wiltshire. In his later years he was afflicted with rapidly increasing glaucoma-related blindness, which he accepted with remarkable stoicism. During this time he was ably supported by his devoted and understanding wife, Sally. He died on 4 January 2005.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000104
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

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

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

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-10-19
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000100-E000199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372293372293
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon
Details Dick Murray was a consultant orthopaedic surgeon in Inverness. He was born in Edgbaston, Birmingham, on 20 March 1907. His father, who was a general practitioner, was away serving in the RAMC during the first world war for much of Dick’s early childhood. He was educated at Sherborne and Caius College, Cambridge, from which he went to Birmingham for his clinical studies. After junior posts, he specialised in surgery, particularly orthopaedics, then a fledgling specialty. He was a resident surgical officer at the Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital, Oswestry under Naughton Dunn, Harry Platt and Sir Reginald Watson Jones. In 1940, he was appointed by the Scottish Office to take charge of the Emergency Medical Services Hospital at Killearn near Glasgow. In 1943, he was appointed as a consultant orthopaedic surgeon to Raigmore Hospital, near Inverness. He travelled far and wide in the Highlands and islands, establishing clinics and offering corrective surgery to the many local people who had disabling conditions of the limbs and spine. His practice built up and he added consultant colleagues along the way. He had a kind and empathetic nature, but developed increasingly severe migraine, which led to his early retirement in 1969. He was a talented oil painter and exhibited widely in the north of Scotland. He married Olwen secretly, at a time when resident surgical staff were not allowed to get married. They had one daughter, four grandchildren and five great grandchildren. She predeceased him in 1988. He died on 20 August 2003.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000106
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

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

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

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

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/372667372667
Occupation General surgeon
Details Was apprenticed to Mr Dawe, of Bridgwater, and was educated at St Bartholomew’s Hospital. He practised for many years at Cornhill, Bridgwater, Somerset, where he founded, and was for thirty-three years Surgeon to, the Infirmary. He also practised at Taunton. He died at Torquay, after his retirement, on Dec 7th, 1870, being then Senior Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons. Toogood’s *Reminiscences* are dedicated to Dr Francis Sibson, FRS, who conducted the author safely through a very severe and dangerous illness. Though not a biography, the work contains interesting accounts of West Country practice in the first half of the nineteenth century and of the extraordinary survivals of superstitions. The following letter is quoted by Toogood as a specimen of the familiar correspondence of Abernethy, whom he had consulted in a hopeless case:- “MY DEAR SIR, “All I can say to patients situated as yours is, after telling them what treatment seems rational and appropriate to the case, to exhort them not to despond; because we know many obstinately disordered states of the bowels which have continued until they have nearly exhausted the patient, have unexpectedly arrived at a kind of crisis, by the production of morbid discharges, etc. And with regard to local diseases, the proverb of ‘‘tis a long lane that has no turning’, is fully verified, for when least expected, a favourable change often occurs, as I suppose you can testify. In every situation of life our primary enquiry ought to be what is right to be done, and having ascertained as far as we have the power, we must then perform or endure it. I have no objection to opiates when required to soothe pain.” And he adds, in reference to a second case - “I hope Miss F - will do well under your care; I know the amendment of the health is the primary object in the cure of all local diseases; ‘tis the removal, in my opinion, of the cause. I feel that I am writing what you know, and that you will think me stupid; I will therefore add no more than that I remain, “Yours most sincerely, “J TOOGOOD, ESQ, JOHN ABERNETHY. “*Bridgwater*.” Publications: - *Hints to Mothers. Reminiscences of a Medical Life; with Cases and Practical Illustrations,* 8vo, Taunton and London, 1853.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000483
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching West, Sir Augustus (1788 - 1868)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

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

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

First Title value, for Searching Shumway, Norman (1923 - 2006)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

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/372473372473
Occupation Transplant surgeon
Details Norman Shumway was the father of cardiac transplantation and performed the world’s first heart-lung transplant. Unlike some of his contemporaries who sought the limelight, Shumway spent a decade carrying out research into cardiac transplantation before he was ready to do the operation on a live recipient. It was ironic that he was scooped by his pupil, Christiaan Barnard, in 1967. Born on 9 February 1923 in Kalamazoo, Michigan, where his father kept a creamery, Shumway enrolled at Michigan University to study law. He was then drafted into the Army, where he was found to have an aptitude for medicine, and was sent off to Vanderbilt University, Tennessee, where he qualified in 1949. At first he set up in private surgical practice in a cottage hospital in Santa Barbara, but was invited to join Owen Wangensteen’s research programme at Minnesota. There he gained a PhD for his work on the effect of cooling on the electrical activity of the heart. His work was interrupted by two years in the US Air Force, after which he moved to Stanford University in California, where he started his work on transplantation. He became chief of cardiothoracic surgery there in 1965. While others enjoyed the brief publicity of carrying out cardiac transplantation, which was soon followed by notoriety as rejection almost inevitably took place, Shumway quietly spent his time methodically trying to improve the selection of donors, organ preservation, the technique of heart biopsy and the development of anti-rejection drugs. He was one of the first to use cyclosporine. By 1991 his department had performed nearly 700 transplants with 80 per cent survival for more than five years. A modest man, dressed scruffily, and driving a battered old car, he trained cardiac surgeons from all over the world, He published extensively and received innumerable honours, including our FRCS. Divorced from Mary Lou Stuurmans in 1951, he leaves a son and three daughters, one of whom, Sara, is a professor of cardiothoracic surgery at the University of Minnesota. He died from lung cancer on 10 February 2006.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000286
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

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

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

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

First Title value, for Searching Perrins, David John Dyson (1924 - 2005)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-11-09 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/372477372477
Occupation Medical Research Council research fellow Plastic surgeon Plastic and reconstructive surgeon
Details David John Dyson Perrins was an expert in the use of hyperbaric oxygen and a former MRC research fellow at Churchill Hospital, Oxford. Born in 1924, he studied medicine at Jesus College, Cambridge, and rowed for the university in the 1946 Boat Race. He completed his clinical studies at St Thomas's, where he was a house surgeon. After National Service in the Royal Navy, he trained in plastic surgery, gaining experience in the use of hyperbaric oxygen treatment. He completed his MD thesis in 1972 on hyperbaric oxygen and wound healing, and spent ten years at the Churchill Hospital, Oxford, studying the use of oxygen as a radiosensitiser. He also undertook experimental work with W S Bullough at London University on chalones, the mitotic inhibitors in skin. He then moved to Stockholm for two years, to work with Per Oluf Barr on the use of hyperbaric oxygen to prevent amputation in patients with diabetic vascular disease. On his return to the UK he was an honorary adviser to the Federation of Multiple Sclerosis Treatment Centres, researching into the use of hyperbaric oxygen to slow the progress of the disease. He was a former vice president of the International Society of Hyperbaric Medicine. David Perrins died on 2 November 2005.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000290
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Lewis, Cecil Wilfred Dickens (1916 - 2006)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

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/372478372478
Occupation General surgeon
Details Cecil Wilfred Dickens Lewis was a former foundation director of postgraduate medical education at Hong Kong University. He was born on 5 January 1916 in Llandeilo, Carmarthenshire, the son of Wilfred Ernest Llewellyn Lewis, an Anglican clergyman, and Dorothy Gertrude Lewis. Most of his relatives were clergy, but one brother was a medical practitioner. He was educated at St John’s School, Leatherhead, and the Welsh National School of Medicine, Cardiff, where he qualified in 1939. At the outbreak of the Second Wold War he joined the RNVR, where he served in Q-ships in the English Channel, on *HMS Ripley* (a destroyer in North Atlantic convoys) and finally as a medical officer to the Royal Marines at Eastney, Hampshire. After the war, he returned to Cardiff as assistant lecturer in anatomy and then as registrar and lecturer in the surgical unit. Here he published extensively, together with Lambert Rogers, and did research into fluid balance following head injuries, which became the subject of his MS thesis, the second to be awarded by the University of Wales. He was appointed consultant surgeon at Cardiff in 1954. In 1956 he was appointed foundation professor of surgery in Perth, Western Australia, a post he held until 1965. He then went on to be dean and professor of medical education at Auckland. In 1973 he was appointed foundation director of postgraduate medical education in Hong Kong University, where he remained until 1978. At the College he won the Jacksonian prize in 1955, and a Hunterian professorship on moles and melanomata in 1956. He married Betsy Jean Pillar in 1940, and Helen Mary Hughan in 1988. He had two sons (Peter Wyndham Dickens and David Robin Dickens) and a daughter (Celia Rosemary). A son, Robin, predeceased him. Among his many hobbies he included water-colour painting and sculpture, playing the clarinet and wood-turning. A committed Christian, he was a member of the Third Order of St Francis for the last 20 years of his life. He died on 19 March 2006 in Abergavenny.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000291
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching O'Keeffe, Declan (1922 - 2005)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

First Title value, for Searching Marsden, Austin Joseph (1919 - 2004)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

First Title value, for Searching Laird, Martin (1917 - 2004)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

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

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

First Title value, for Searching Seyal, Nur Ahmad Khan (1920 - 2008)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

by Masud Seyal
Publication Date 2008-12-05 2008-12-12
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000500-E000599
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372758372758
Occupation Obstetric and gynaecological surgeon Obstetrician and gynaecologist
Details Nur Ahmad Khan Seyal was professor of obstetrics and gynaecology and a former principal of King Edward Medical College, Lahore, Pakistan. He was born on 16 July 1920 and received his early education in his home town of Jhang (Punjab). In 1936 he went to study medicine at Glancy Medical College, Amritsar, qualifying in 1940. He then went to Iran, in 1942, and joined the medical department of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company in Abadan. Over a period of ten years he held various surgical appointments in the 500-bed Abadan Hospital and gradually rose to the status of a consulting surgeon. During this time he twice spent time in the UK, gaining his FRCS in 1951. A year later, in 1952, he returned to Pakistan, where he was appointed clinical assistant to the professor of obstetrics and gynaecology at the King Edward Medical College, Lahore. In 1954, when Nishtar Medical College was established in Multan, Seyal was selected to take up the new chair of obstetrics and gynaecology, the first professorial appointment on the clinical side. He went on to establish a department that was recognised as “outstanding” by Sir Hector MacLennan, president of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, who visited in 1961. C M Gwillim, professor of obstetrics and gynaecology at St George’s Hospital Medical School, London, also visited the hospital and recognized the department as easily comparable to the best abroad, and called Seyal’s devotion to duty “saintly”. In 1967 N A Seyal was appointed as professor of midwifery and gynaecology at King Edward Medical College and medical superintendent of Lady Willingdon Hospital Lahore. He completely reorganised the hospital and very markedly improved the clinical facilities available there. He took over as principal of the King Edward Medical College in 1969 and reorganised the teaching programme and formulated a number of schemes for the improvement of this premier institution. Seyal was nominated as a founder fellow of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Pakistan in 1962, and was elected to serve on its council. He was also a member of the Pakistan Medical Research Council for over six years. In recognition of his service to the medical profession, the government of Pakistan awarded him the Tamgha-i-Imtiaz, followed by the Sitara-i-Khidmat. After his retirement, Seyal was involved in the establishment of the Fatima Memorial Hospital and was the leading consultant for obstetrics and gynaecology. He retired to California in the early 1980s to be closer to his children. He died on 19 July 2008, just after his 88th birthday. He is survived by his wife (Iran Shafazand Seyal), his sons (Masud Seyal, professor of neurology at the University of California, Davis, and Mahmood Seyal, a business executive) and by his daughters (Mahnaz Ahmad, a scholar, and Farnaz Seyal Shah, a psychologist). He had seven grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000575
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Gunning, John (1773 - 1863)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2007-10-18 2012-03-22
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000400-E000499
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372589372589
Occupation General surgeon Military surgeon
Details The nephew of John Gunning, Master of the Surgeons' Company (1789-1790). He began a distinguished career as a military surgeon by being appointed Surgeon's Mate on the Hospital Staff, not attached to a regiment, and on Nov 20th, 1793, was commissioned Staff-Surgeon under the command of the Earl of Moira. He received permanent rank as Staff-Surgeon on Sept 12th, 1799, and on Aug 13th, 1805, was superseded, having asked leave to resign on being ordered on foreign service. He was reinstated on June 9th, 1808, and on Sept 17th, 1812, rose to the rank of Deputy Inspector of Hospitals. In February, 1816, he was promoted Inspector of Hospitals (Continent of Europe only), and was placed on half pay on Oct 1st, 1816. His war service included the campaigns of Holland and Flanders (1793-1795), the Peninsular War, and Waterloo. Towards the close of the day at the Battle of Waterloo, Lord Raglan, Military Secretary to Wellington, was standing by the Duke's side, when he was wounded in the right elbow by a bullet from the roof of La Haye Sainte. The arm had to be amputated, and Gunning performed the operation. Raglan bore it without a word, and when it was ended called to the orderly: "Hallo! don't carry away that arm till I have taken off my ring" - a ring which his wife had given him. Gunning went to Paris with Wellington's army, and practised there after the conclusion of peace to the end of his life. He was nominally Surgeon to St George's Hospital from 1800-1823. On New Year's Day, 1863, he was having a dinner party. An attack of bronchitis prevented his receiving his friends on the day expected. His medical attendant thought it serious; but he got better, and on the Saturday was thought to be out of danger. On Sunday morning, Jan 11th, 1863, however, he expired in his arm-chair, without pain, and with scarcely any previous symptoms to denote his approaching end. His daughter, Mrs Bagshawe, the wife of the Queen's Counsel, and two of his grand-daughters were with him at the time of his death. He was then 90 years old, and was the senior member of the Royal College of Surgeons. He is noted by Lieut-Colonel Crawford as being one of the seven officers of the Army Medical Department on whom the CB (Mil) was conferred when medical officers were first made eligible for that honour in 1850.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000405
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

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

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

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

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/372591372591
Occupation General surgeon
Details Practised at Newport, Isle of Wight. He is described as ‘retired’ in 1858, and he probably died in that year. He was associated in his practice with his son, Robert William Bloxham (qv). He reduced the dislocation of the shoulder sustained by Sir Benjamin Brodie (qv), which many years later was followed by the new growth of which he died. The story is told by Sir William White Cooper (qv), who says: “About 1834 whilst staying in an hotel in the Isle of Wight I saw a carriage drive up, from which was lifted out a gentleman covered with mud and evidently in some pain, who was no other than B Brodie. He had been thrown from a pony and was suffering from dislocation of the shoulder. Mr Bloxham, a well-known practitioner of that day and place, came in and together we reduced the dislocation. Sir Benjamin said that he used to think lightly of dislocation of the shoulder, but he never should do so again.” Bloxham’s name occurs in an old notebook in which Brodie has preserved short notices of cases in his private practice which struck him as interesting. In March, 1844, Bloxham consulted Sir Benjamin in consequence of having temporarily lost the power of moving the muscles of one side of his face from having been close to a cannon when it was fired. The accident was exceptional, but it seems not to have entailed any permanent consequence.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000407
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

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

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

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

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

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 Robin, Ian Gibson (1909 - 2005)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

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 Banister, George (1819 - 1884)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

First Title value, for Searching Bankart, James (1834 - 1902)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

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

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

First Title value, for Searching Stell, Philip Michael (1934 - 2004)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

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/372319372319
Occupation Otolaryngologist ENT surgeon
Details Philip Stell had an outstanding career as a reconstructive surgeon, dealing with head and neck cancers, and went on to a successful second career in mediaeval history. He was born in Dewsbury, Yorkshire, on 14 August 1934, the son of Frank Law Stell, a tailor’s manager, and Ada née Davies. He was educated at Archbishop Holgate Grammar School, York, and Edinburgh University. After junior posts in Edinburgh and Liverpool, he won a fellowship to Washington University, St Louis, in 1956. He returned to Liverpool as a senior lecturer. In 1976 he wrote his masters thesis on skin grafting techniques, and in 1979 he became a professor. He dealt with all aspects of head and neck malignancies, and developed exceptional expertise in reconstruction, keeping detailed outcomes of his operations using a computerised database. He published some 346 articles in scientific journals, edited 12 books and contributed to a further 39. In 1975 he founded the journal *Clinical Otolaryngology* and set up the Otorhinolaryngological Research Society in 1978 (he was President from 1983 to 1986). He was President of the laryngological section of the Royal Society of Medicine, the Association of Head and Neck Oncologists of Great Britain and the Liverpool Medical Institution. He was Hunterian Professor of our College in 1976 and a regional adviser in ENT for the Mersey region. He was the recipient of numerous awards and medals, including the Yearsley gold medal, the Semon prize of the Royal Society of Medicine, the Harrison and the George Davey Howells prizes of the University of London, the Sir William Wilde gold medal of the Irish Otorhinolaryngolical Society in 1988, the Walter Jobson Horne prize of the British Medical Society in 1989, the gold medal of the Maria Sklodowska-Curie Memorial Cancer Center and the Institute of Oncology, 1989, and the gold medal of the German ENT Society in 1991. An associate member of the Institute of Linguists, he was fluent in Dutch, German, French and Spanish, and made it his practise to deliver overseas lectures in the local language, though his size (he was 6 feet 7 inches) made air travel uncomfortable. He translated 11 foreign language textbooks into English. In 1992, when he was only 57, he took early retirement due to ill health. He moved to York, the city he had grown up in, and began a second career in mediaeval history. He enrolled for an MA at York University, writing a thesis on medical care in late mediaeval York. He taught a speech recognition computer programme to recognise Latin, and set up unique databases for mediaeval Yorkshire wills and other documents, some going back to the 13th century, more than 300 years before parish registers began. For his contribution to history he was made a fellow of both the Society of Antiquaries and the Royal Historical Society. He married Shirley Kathleen Mills in 1959, by whom he had four sons and a daughter. Shirley predeceased him in April 2004. He died on 29 May 2004.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000132
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Barclay, Wilfred Martin (1863 - 1903)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

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

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

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

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

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

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-12-19
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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
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First Title value, for Searching Mangat, Teja Singh (1930 - 2004)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

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

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

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

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2007-11-08
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000400-E000499
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372600372600
Occupation Obstetrician and gynaecologist
Details George Bancroft-Livingston was a consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist at the Lister Hospital, Stevenage. He was born in Ross, California, on 13 October 1920, one of two children of Henry Livingston, a diplomat, and Barbara née Bancroft. He was educated at Stonyhurst College, Lancashire, from the age of eight, the second of three generations to attend the school. He went on to study medicine at Middlesex Hospital, qualifying in 1944. From 1946 to 1949 he served as a squadron leader in the RAF, based in Wales. Formerly a senior registrar and research assistant at the Middlesex Hospital, he moved to Belfast in 1953 and became the Barnett tutor in obstetrics and gynaecology in 1954, and subsequently lecturer in midwifery and gynaecology at Queens University, Belfast. He moved to England in 1958 to take up the post of consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist to the North Herts Hospital, Hitchin, and the Luton and Dunstable Hospital, before moving to the Lister Hospital in Stevenage. He was awarded his FRCOG in 1960, and went on to examine for the college, especially in Northern Ireland and Basra, Iraq. George married Stella Pauline Deacon in 1950. They had a son, Mark, who became a general practitioner, and four daughters. George upheld his Catholic faith during his professional life, steadfastly refusing to undertake any abortion work as a gynaecologist. He retired in 1985 and became a Brother of the Order of St John in 1996, receiving his ten-year medal of service posthumously at his funeral. He died suddenly on 16 April 2007 after a short illness.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000416
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
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First Title value, for Searching Barros D'Sa, Aires Agnelo Barnabé (1939 - 2007)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2007-11-08 2014-07-18
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Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000400-E000499
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372601372601
Occupation Trauma surgeon Vascular surgeon
Details Aires Barros D'Sa was a pioneering vascular and trauma surgeon in Belfast. He was born in 1939 in Nairobi, Kenya, into a Goan family. His father, Inaçio Francisco Purifcação Saúde D'Sa, was a civil servant. His mother was Maria Eslina Inês Barros. Aires grew up in Kenya and was educated at Duke of Gloucester School. He originally intended to study medicine in Bombay, but his plans changed following the Indian blockade of Goa, which heralded the end of Portuguese rule there. He went to Queen's University, Belfast, instead, on a scholarship, as one of only a handful of overseas students. He held a succession of junior posts across Northern Ireland, including at the Royal Victoria, Belfast City, Ulster and Lurgan hospitals. From 1975 to 1977 he was a senior registrar at the Royal Victoria Hospital, and then spent a year at Providence Medical Center, Seattle. In 1978 he was appointed as a consultant vascular surgeon at the Royal Victoria Hospital. He quickly stood out for his charm, warmth and humour, thirst for knowledge and superb clinical acumen. A loyal champion for his nurses and junior staff, he fought continually to ensure the best resources for them and for his patients, and had scant patience with red tape. He expected his own high standards to be met: lazy, incompetent staff were not tolerated and rude patients found terrorising nurses were simply wheeled off the ward, not to be readmitted. The Troubles in Northern Ireland reached their height in the 1970s and the Royal Victoria Hospital received the majority of victims. Many required treatment for horrific bomb blast, shrapnel and gunshot injuries. During this time, Aires gained an international reputation for his pioneering use of shunts in the management of complex limb vascular injuries. His surgical technique was unparalleled - his mentor, Sinclair Irwin, said Aires had the 'best hands' he had ever seen - and, aligned with his courage, stamina and coolness under pressure, he undoubtedly saved many lives and limbs. While Aires, along with colleagues, applied impeccable standards of care to all patients, he despised terrorists and had no time for extremists from either side. In recognition of his pioneering work in vascular trauma he was appointed Hunterian Professor of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1979. Over the next decades he travelled extensively as an invited lecturer, notably in 1983, when he was elected by the James IV Association of Surgeons to represent the British Isles as the 77th James IV Surgical Traveller to North America, Australia and South East Asia. Aires recognised clear advantages in developing vascular surgery as a distinct specialty. In 1978 he initiated the establishment of a dedicated regional vascular surgery unit at the Royal Victoria Hospital, only the third of its kind in the UK, and in 1979 instituted a clinical vascular lab. In 1996 he established a registry for vascular surgical patients in Northern Ireland, among the UK's earliest regional databases. It is still in use today. Despite increasing national and international commitments, Aires retained a love of teaching. Students learned from his expertise, not least his exceptional care and thoughtfulness towards patients in pain and anticipating major surgery. As a lecturer, his excellent knowledge of anatomy and dynamic delivery enlivened the driest subjects. Often he would arrive early for lectures and cover the blackboards with superb anatomical drawings. He designed crests for the Ulster Surgical Club and the Joint Vascular Research Group, one of five national and European societies of which he was a founding member. Hugely committed to vascular research, he published extensively, in particular on vascular trauma. He authored and edited three books, including *Emergency vascular and endovascular surgical practice* (London, Hodder Arnold, 2005). He sat on the editorial board of several vascular journals and was a reviewer on many more. The latter years of Aires' career brought many accolades. In 1999 he was made honorary professor of vascular surgery (personal chair) at Queen's University, and in 2000, in recognition of his services to the specialty, he was awarded an OBE. The following year he was president of the Vascular Society of Great Britain and Ireland, and hosted the annual conference in Belfast. In 2003 he became Deputy Lieutenant of County Borough of Belfast, and in 2005 the Royal Victoria Hospital honoured him by naming the laboratory he had founded 'The Barros D'Sa Clinical Vascular Laboratory'. Health problems prompted his premature retirement in 2001. His final operation was on a young man from South Africa with a large carotid body tumour. A recognised expert in this difficult field of surgery, Aires had one of the largest case series in Europe. He arranged a special weekend slot and successfully removed the tumour after eight hours of surgery. Aires was a true gentleman, a generous friend with an infectious joie de vivre, and a legendary host. His interests spanned politics, literature and the arts; he was an orchestra patron, an environmentalist, and a keen supporter of Irish rugby. Travel remained his foremost love; he and Libby had several global excursions planned for their retirement years. Above all, he was a passionate family man and believed that his life's greatest achievement was raising his four daughters. In his final year, the arrival of a grandson brought him enormous joy. Aires Barros D'Sa died on 29 January 2007 from bronchopneumonia a week after having cardiac surgery. He was 67. He was survived by his wife Libby, a retired anaesthetist, daughters Vivienne, Lisa, Miranda and Angelina, and grandson Tom Barnabé. Lisa Barros D'Sa Paul Blair
Resource Identifier RCS: E000417
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First Title value, for Searching Ainslie, Derek (1919 - 2006)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2007-11-08 2009-02-26
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000400-E000499
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372602372602
Occupation Ophthalmologist
Details Derek Ainslie was an ophthalmologist and a pioneer in the development of vision corrective surgery. He was born in Hereford on 19 September 1919, the third child and second son of Janet (née Rogers) and William Ainslie, a surgeon and a fellow of the Edinburgh College. Derek Ainslie was educated at Hereford Cathedral Preparatory School, Sherborne and Clare College, Cambridge, going on to complete his clinical training at the Middlesex Hospital. He subsequently joined the RAMC and was en route to the Far East when the war ended. He remained in the Army, working in Africa until 1948 and reaching the rank of major. He underwent training in ophthalmology at Birmingham Eye Hospital, the Middlesex Hospital, and as senior resident officer at Moorfields Eye Hospital. Soon after completing his training he was appointed consultant ophthalmologist to the Middlesex and Moorfields Eye hospitals, in 1962. His work in ophthalmology was remarkable: he was a pioneer in corneal refractive surgery, using a microkeratome and surgical cryolathe. He worked closely in parallel with José Barraquer, a Spanish surgeon, in what was then a contentious field of work, but which has developed into the laser refractive surgery of today. Derek wrote extensively on the use of antibiotics in ophthalmology, corneal grafting and refractive keratoplasty. Sadly his work was interrupted in 1975 with the onset of a severe illness compounded by deteriorating vision from glaucoma. He retired prematurely at the age of 55. He examined for the diploma in ophthalmology and was a member of the Court of Examiners for the FRCS in ophthalmology. He was an adviser to the Merchant Navy from 1953 to 1963, and ophthalmic surgeon to Chorleywood College for Girls, a school for the partially sighted and blind. He married Robina Susan Lock in 1960, a medical practitioner. They had one son and two daughters. He had a wide interest in music, was a keen salmon and trout fisherman, and an ardent supporter of Arsenal Football Club. He died on 1 August 2006, and is survived by his third wife, Diana, children and grandchildren.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000418
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First Title value, for Searching Fickling, Benjamin William (1909 - 2007)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

by Brian Morgan
Publication Date 2009-02-10
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Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000500-E000599
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372770372770
Occupation Oral and maxillofacial surgeon
Details Benjamin William Fickling was a distinguished oral surgeon and a past president of the British Association of Oral Surgeons. The son of Robert Marshall Fickling, a dentist, he was born in London on 14 July 1909, in a house in Sloane Street where there had been a dental practice since 1840. His mother was Florence Isobel née Newson. By agreement with the deans of St George’s and the Royal Dental Hospital, he studied both medicine and dentistry at St George’s Hospital, having won the William Brown senior exhibition by examination at St George’s and a senior entrance scholarship to the clinical teaching hospital. These paid all his fees until he qualified. He also received the Johnson prize in anatomy, the Pollock prize in physiology and passed the primary FRCS after three months leave of absence from dentistry – all before his 21st Birthday and under three years after entering medical school. In March 1932 he qualified LDS RCS and subsequently became house surgeon in the prosthetics department whilst starting dental practice using the second surgery in the family home. He said that he spent most time providing cheap dentures at £2 each. In 1934 he qualified MRCS LRCP and was appointed senior house surgeon at the Royal Dental Hospital, which had beds in Charing Cross Hospital. At the age of 36 he was appointed assistant dental surgeon at the Royal Dental Hospital and a year later assistant dental surgeon to St George’s Hospital. It was at this time that on the advice of Wilfred Fish he visited the established figures of the day in Vienna. He studied in the private surgery of Gottleib Bohler and the highly acclaimed Hans Pichler, who had treated Sigmund Freud’s oral cancer with a wide local excision that included the floor of the mouth and a large portion of the right mandible, all under local anaesthetic. He subsequently made an obturator, which Freud called his ‘monster’. In November 1938, Fickling returned to London and passed his final FRCS. The road to promotion and a successful career lay through research and so in 1938 he attended the Hampton Hill research laboratories to study salivary secretion, where he was the first to show that bacteriostatic drugs could be excreted in saliva and was rewarded with a publication in *The Lancet*. At that time discharging sinuses on the face persisted for years and osteomyelitis was not uncommon. In 1933 Wilfred Fish established the first periodontal department at the Royal Dental Hospital, but later (1937) he resigned to concentrate on his research at St Mary’s Hospital. Fickling was placed in charge of the department and continued this until well after the war. At the outbreak of war, he was drafted into the Emergency Medical Service (EMS) at St George’s Hospital and served there throughout the Blitz. An Army Council report in 1934 had recommended that in the event of war maxillo-facial injuries should be concentrated in specialist hospitals, and Fickling joined the plastic surgeon Rainsford Mowlem at Hill End Hospital in St Albans 1941. In 1939 there was no up to date English language text on facial injuries and so, with his senior colleague Warwick James, he wrote *Injuries of the jaws and face* (J Bale & Staples, London, 1940). After the war, Fickling returned to dental practice in London and remained part-time at Hill End hospital, which later moved to Mount Vernon, where he was joined by Paul Toller. Fickling was present at the introduction of the NHS and continued in part-time general dental practice. In 1957 he joined the board of the Faculty of Dental Surgery (FDS) of our College and was elected dean in 1968. He was a founder member of both the British Association of Oral Surgeons (president in 1967) and the International Association of Oral Surgeons in 1962. He was an examiner for the FDS (from 1959 to 1972) and in 1978 was appointed chairman of examiners for the Membership in General Dental Surgery (MGDS) and continued until 1981. In 1980 he retired from general dental practice after 58 years, handing over to his son Clive. His contributions to surgery were recognised by the award of the Charles Tomes lecture in 1956; the first Everett Magnus lecture in Melbourne in 1971 and the Webb Johnson lecture in 1978. He was awarded the Colyer gold medal of the Faculty of Dental Surgery in 1979 and his services to dentistry were recognised by the award of the CBE in 1973. He was a meticulous surgeon, devoted to detail. His Fickling forceps are still in standard use in most oral surgery sets today. He described a procedure for closing oroantral fistula and was instrumental in the development of the box frame and maxillary and mandibular rods and pins. He enjoyed travelling and skied until he was 75. In the third year of the war he offered a nurse from Bartholomew’s Hospital a lift home from a bus stop. They married soon after and Shirley (née Walker) was his companion for nearly seven decades and bore him three children (Julia Margaret, Paul Marshall and Clive Anthony). Benjamin Fickling died on 27 January 2007.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000587
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First Title value, for Searching Barker, John ( - 1884)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2009-11-11 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/372939372939
Occupation General surgeon
Details Received his professional training at the London Hospital and was the sixth John Barker in direct succession who practised at Coleshill, near Birmingham. One of these, a John Barker (1708-1748?) published a controversial paper, printed at Salisbury in 1743, "On the Nature, Cause and Cure of the Present Epidemic Fever", and, in 1747, "An Essay on the Agreement betwixt Ancient and Modern Physicians". The essay was translated into French by Ralph Schomberg, and published at Amsterdam (12mo) in 1749. A revised edition by M Lorry appeared at Paris in 1768. His medical and miscellaneous works were afterwards published in two volumes. John Barker, FRCS, died on or after Nov 1st, 1884. His only son, John Barker, was thrown from his pony and killed on Sept 10th, 1874. The name died out and the practice was carried on by Dr Venn G Webb. The College possesses an enlarged photograph of John Barker, FRCS presented by Dr Webb in 1926.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000756
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Quain, Richard (1800 - 1887)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-02-01 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/372381372381
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born in Fermoy, Co. Cork, in July, 1800, the third son of Richard Quain, of Ratheahy, Co. Cork, by his first wife - a Miss Jones. Jones Quain (1796-1865), the anatomist, was his full brother, and Sir John Richard Quain (1816-1876), Judge of the Queen's Bench, was his half-brother. Sir Richard Quain, Bart. (1816-1898) was his cousin. Richard Quain was educated at Adair's School in Fermoy, and after apprenticeship to an Irish surgeon came to London and entered the Aldersgate School of Medicine under the supervision of Jones Quain, his brother, for whom he acted as prosector. He afterwards went to Paris and attended the lectures of Richard Bennett, who lectured privately on anatomy and was an Irish friend of his father. Bennett was appointed in 1828 a Demonstrator of Anatomy in the newly constituted School of the University of London - now University College - and Quain acted as his assistant. Bennett died in 1830 and Quain became Senior Demonstrator of Anatomy, Sir Charles Bell being Professor of General Anatomy and Physiology. When Bell resigned the Chair Richard Quain was appointed Professor of Descriptive Anatomy in 1832, Erasmus Wilson (q.v.), Thomas Morton (q.v.), John Marshall (q.v.), and Victor Ellis (q.v.) acting successively as his demonstrators. He held office until 1850. Quain was elected the first Assistant Surgeon to University College - then called the North London - Hospital in 1834. He succeeded, after a stormy progress, to the office of full Surgeon and Special Professor of Clinical Surgery in 1848, resigning in 1866, when he was appointed Consulting Surgeon and Emeritus Professor of Clinical Surgery. At the Royal College of Surgeons he was a Member of the Council from 1854-1873; a Member of the Court of Examiners, 1865-1870; Chairman of the Midwifery Board, 1867; Vice-President, 1866 and 1867; President, 1868; Hunterian Orator, 1869; and Representative of the College at the General Medical Council, 1870-1876. He was elected F.R.S. on Feb. 29th, 1844, and was Surgeon Extraordinary to Queen Victoria. He married in 1859 Ellen, Viscountess Midleton, widow of the fifth Viscount, but had no children. She died before him. He died on Sept. 15th, 1887, and was buried at Finchley. The bulk of his fortune of £75,000 was left to University College to encourage and promote general education in modern languages (especially the English language and the composition of that language) and in natural science. The Quain Professorship of English Language and Literature and the Quain Studentship and Prizes were endowed from this bequest. Quain himself had received a liberal education, and one of his hobbies was to write and speak English correctly. Quain was a short and extremely pompous little man. He went round his wards with a slow and deliberate step, his hands deep in his pockets and his hat on his head. As a surgeon he was cautious rather than demonstrative, painstaking rather than brilliant, but in some measure he made up for his lack of enterprise with the knife by his insistence on an excellent clinical routine, and he was a careful teacher. He had a peculiar but intense dread of the occurrence of haemorrhage. He devoted especial attention to diseases of the rectum. "Even such a matter as clearing out the scybala had to be performed in his wards in a deliberate manner, under his own superintendence." He had certain stock clinical lectures which he delivered each year, and one of these was on the ill consequences attending badly fitting boots, which he illustrated profusely by the instruments of torture called boots devised by some shoemakers. He edited his brother's *Elements of Anatomy* (5th ed., 1843-8), and was author of a superbly illustrated work, *The Anatomy of the Arteries of the Human Body* (8vo, with folding atlas of plates, London, 1844), deduced from observations upon 1040 subjects. The splendid plates illustrating this were drawn by Joseph Maclise (q.v.), brother of the great artist, and the explanation of the plates is by his cousin Richard Quain, M.D. (afterwards Sir Richard). He also published *Diseases of the Rectum* (8vo, London, 1854; 2nd ed., 1855), and *Clinical Lectures* (8vo, London, 1884). He was an unamiable colleague, for he was of a jealous nature and prone to impute improper motives to all who differed from him. He quarrelled at one time or another with most of the staff of University College Hospital. In these quarrels he sided with Elliotson and Samuel Cooper against Liston and Anthony Todd Thomson. At the College of Surgeons he was strictly conservative, and apt to urge views on educational subjects which did not commend themselves to the majority of his colleagues. A life-size half-length portrait in oils painted by George Richmond, R.A., hangs in the Secretary's office at the Royal College of Surgeons, and in the Council Room is a bust by Thomas Woolner, R.A.; it was presented by Miss Dickinson in December, 1887.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000194
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Vellacott, Keith David (1948 - 2007)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2009-02-10
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000500-E000599
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372771372771
Occupation General surgeon
Details Keith Vellacott was a consultant surgeon at Royal Gwent Hospital, Newport. He was born in Tavistock, Devon, on 25 February 1948, the son of Douglas Hugh Vellacott, a surgeon and a fellow of the College, and Lorraine Freda Tibbs. From Kelly College, Devon, Keith followed his father and grandfather to the London Hospital, where he qualified in 1972. He was a house surgeon to John Blandy in the urology department at the London, and a house physician in paediatrics. He then became a casualty officer and a demonstrator in anatomy at Bristol Royal Infirmary, where he went on to the senior house officer rotation, from which he passed the FRCS. After a year as registrar in general surgery at Cheltenham, he spent two years in Nottingham, where he worked with Jack Hardcastle on the development of flexible fibreoptic sigmoidoscopy (publishing his results in 1981) and played a major role in the ground-breaking study of screening for carcinoma of the colon, for which he was awarded the Patey prize of the Surgical Research Society in 1980. He returned to Bristol as a senior registrar in 1981. After a period as locum consultant in Gloucester, he was appointed as a consultant surgeon to the Royal Gwent Hospital in Newport in 1986, becoming honorary senior lecturer in surgery there in 1997. By now an expert and accomplished endoscopist, Keith introduced flexible colonoscopy and endoscopic retrograde cholangiography to Newport, as well as laparoscopic cholecystectomy, and continued his work, now on a national basis, in the screening for colorectal cancer. He organised undergraduate teaching and was appointed clinical director. In 1973 Keith married Jinette, a nurse. They had two sons, Darren (who predeceased him) and Guy, and a daughter, Adele. Keith was, like his father, a man of quiet charm and serious demeanour, who was highly respected by his collegues. His hobbies included sailing, badminton, model-making and reading, and he played an active role in the St Woolos Rotary Club. By a strange irony, in 1999 he himself was found to have carcinoma of the colon, and over the next eight years underwent five successive resections, in spite of which he returned with undiminished energy to his work. His outstanding contributions were recognised by the award of the MBE in 2007, but sadly he died in harness, before he could be invested with his insignia.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000588
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Shields, Sir Robert (1930 - 2008)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

by N Alan Green
Publication Date 2009-02-10
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000500-E000599
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372772372772
Occupation General surgeon
Details Sir Robert Shields enjoyed a distinguished career in surgery and in academic and health service administration. He was professor of surgery and chairman of the department of surgery and honorary consultant to the Royal Liverpool University and Broadgreen hospitals from 1969 to 1996. His unit was internationally respected for its research, teaching and clinical practice. He was born in Paisley on 8 November 1930, the son of Robert Alexander Shields, an electrical engineer, and his wife, Isobel Shields née Reid. Educated at Paisley’s John Neilson School, he studied medicine at Glasgow University. Showing early promise in his clinical training, he passed pathology with distinction and won the Captain H S Rankin VC Memorial, MacLeod and Mary Margaret Isobel Ure prizes in surgery and the Asher-Asher medal in diseases of the ear, nose and throat. Following house appointments at the Western Infirmary in Glasgow, he served his National Service in the RAMC, as regimental medical officer with the First Battalion of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders in Berlin. There he met (Grace) Marianne Swinburn, a nursing sister at the British Military Hospital, whom he married in 1957. Over the years that followed he retained a Territorial Army connection as a major with the Seventh Battalion of the Argyll’s until 1962, later becoming an honorary colonel to the University of Liverpool Officer Training Corps. Demobilised in 1956, Robert returned to the Western Infirmary as Hall fellow at the University of Glasgow under Sir Charles Illingworth. This was followed by a year in the USA, where he worked as a research fellow to Charles Cooke and Jesse Bollman at the Mayo Clinic. There his research on intestinal absorption formed the basis of his MD (1965), which won the Bellahouston gold medal. For three years, from 1960, he was lecturer in surgery at Glasgow University. In 1963 he followed Sir Patrick Forrest as senior lecturer at the Welsh National School of Medicine in Cardiff, becoming reader in 1969, when he accepted the chair at Liverpool University in the same year. Here he encouraged the development of a transplant unit which opened in 1973 and, with his great friend, Richard McConnell established the country’s first dedicated gastro-intestinal unit that combined both medical and surgical expertise. Robert Shields had great administrative flair. A good listener to all points of view, he was meticulous in preparation of all paper work, in which he displayed military attention to what he called ‘staff work’. He was appointed dean of the Liverpool faculty of medicine in 1982 and in this position paved the way for new chairs in general practice and public health. He was active within the National Health Service at a national level, advising the Secretary of State for Health. He was chairman of a range of advisory and training committees, as well as working for his own local authorities, the Mersey Regional Health Authority and the Royal Liverpool University Hospital Trust. In addition to all his many commitments, he was in demand as an examiner in surgery to the universities of Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dundee, Leicester and Sheffield, as well as many others overseas. Robert Shields held many prestigious offices. He was president of the Surgical Research Society, the Society of Gastroenterology and the Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland, from which he received the Moynihan medal. After 30 years of ordinary membership, Bob was elected president of the Travelling Surgical Society of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (from 2002 to 2004) and was later made an honorary member. He was chairman of the British Liver Foundation, a member of the Medical Research Council and the General Medical Council, where he served on the education and professional conduct committees. In 1990 he became the first Glaswegian in nearly 500 years to be elected president of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. In our College, he was a member of the Court of Examiners and Zachary Cope lecturer in 1992. Shields published nearly 200 original articles and reviews in the field of gastroenterology, particularly liver problems and oesophageal varices and contributed to several textbooks including *Textbook of surgery* (Philadelphia/London, Lippincott, c.1983) and *Gastrointestinal emergencies* (London, W B Saunders) in 1992, as well as serving on the editorial boards of *Gut*, *British Journal of Surgery* and the international editorial board of *Current Practice in Surgery*. He was much sought after as a visiting professor in five continents. For the Travelling Surgical Society of Great Britain and Northern Ireland he gave many short papers at home and abroad. One notable one was delivered at the diamond jubilee meeting of the society in 1984: ‘Musings of a dean’ was a model of clarity and commonsense. He had what Dean Swift called “the true definition of style”, namely the capacity to use “proper words in proper places”. Many academic distinctions came his way, among them the award of doctor of science by the University of Wales in 1990 gave him particular pleasure. He received honorary fellowships of the Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland, the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow, the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, the College of Surgeons of Hong Kong, the American College of Surgeons, the College of Surgeons of South Africa, the American Surgical Association, the Association of Surgeons of India and the Academy of Singapore. In retirement, he continued to serve as a government adviser on issues relating to the restructuring of the NHS. In 1996 he reported to the Scottish Office on *Commissioning better health*, in which he recommended that the onus for maintaining a high-quality environment should fall more directly on hospital boards, which should focus on clinical outcomes and monitor clinical practice using data from clinical audit. Robert Shields was a quiet man and had great integrity: his natural reserve hid a determination to get things done. Throughout a busy life he continued to maintain a close interest in research and supported many doctors in their clinical and laboratory work. He was knighted in 1990 and became Deputy Lieutenant of Merseyside in 1991. The Shields’ main home was in the Liverpool, where he enjoyed walking his dog on the Wirral. He and Marianne relaxed in their retreat ‘north of the border’ around Lochgilphead in the west of Scotland, where they sailed and walked in the Argyll countryside. They had two girls and a boy: Jennifer Camm has been NHS regional commissioner for the South West since 2001. The younger daughter is a commissioning manager on the Wirral and Andrew is a director of Avis Europe, based in London and Paris. Sir Robert Shields died at his Liverpool home after a long illness on 3 October 2008 and is survived by Marianne, their three children and their families.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000589
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

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

First Title value, for Searching McKenzie, Evan Robert (1924 - 2005)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

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/372501372501
Occupation General surgeon
Details Evan McKenzie was director of surgery at Timaru Hospital, New Zealand. He was born on 18 February 1924 in the old gold mining town of Naseby, Central Otago, the seventh child of the Rev Duncan Norman McKenzie and his wife Sarah. During his childhood the family moved around various parishes in the South Island, but spent most time in Outram, near Dunedin. He had his secondary education at the John McGlashan College in Dunedin, and then went on to study medicine at the Otago Medical School. He was a junior resident at Dunedin Hospital and then a demonstrator of anatomy at the medical school. In 1952 he went to England to specialise in surgery. He was a senior house officer at the City General Hospital in Sheffield, being promoted to registrar when he passed the FRCS. Later, in 1954, he moved to the Sallop Royal Infirmary in Shrewsbury, where he was resident surgical officer. He married Sylvia Killick in the same year. In 1955 he returned to Dunedin, where he held the post of assistant lecturer in surgery at the Otago Medical School and senior registrar at Dunedin Hospital. There he became a popular trainer of young surgeons, a part he continued to play after being appointed visiting surgeon at Oamaru Hospital. From Oamaru he moved north, in 1961, as junior consultant surgeon at Timaru, where he remained until he retired as deputy superintendent and director of surgery in 1989. When the call for volunteers to go to Vietnam came in 1968 Evan served as the senior surgeon with the 1st New Zealand Services Medical Team, and returned in 1970. His leadership was not forgotten by the Department of Health, who seconded him as consultant to Western Samoa in 1976. In 1982 he accepted the position of team leader for the International Committee of the Red Cross surgical team in Peshawar, Pakistan. His contributions to the Rotary Community were recognised by the award of the Paul Harris medal. He provided medical services for the racing clubs in Timaru, Waimate, Geraldine and Ashburton, the South Canterbury Rugby Union, and the Boxing Association. He and Sylvia had three daughters and in due course six grandsons. He died on 2 October 2005.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000314
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Sheppard, James Pook (1787 - 1854)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

First Title value, for Searching North, John (1790 - 1873)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

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

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

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)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

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)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

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 Stevens, Hugh Edward George (1934 - 2006)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2007-11-08
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000400-E000499
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372609372609
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon
Details Hugh Stevens was an orthopaedic surgeon in New Zealand. He was born in Invercargill, on the South Island, where his father was a schoolmaster. The family eventually moved to Oxford, in North Canterbury, where Stevens was educated. He also went to school at Sumner and attended Christchurch Boys’ High School. He studied medicine at Otago University, graduating in 1958. He was one of the first house surgeons at the new Princess Margaret Hospital in Christchurch. In the early 1960s he went to the UK to specialise in orthopaedics, training in London, Southampton and at Oswestry. He gained his FRCS in 1964. In 1966 he returned to Christchurch as a full-time surgeon to the North Canterbury Hospital Board. Three years later he gained his fellowship of the Australasian College, and in 1970 spent three months at Melbourne’s Royal Children’s Hospital. In Christchurch he established the first paediatric clinic in the region for children with musculo-skeletal disorders, while also working as a consultant surgeon in the public hospital system. From 1970 he was a surgeon at the artificial limb centre. He was an orthopaedic examiner for the FRACS and then senior NZ orthopaedic examiner from 1991 to 1993. From 1989 to 1991 he was vice president of the New Zealand Orthopaedic Association, and president of the Paediatric Orthopaedic Society of New Zealand from 1995 to 1997. He was married twice. He had five children from his first marriage, which broke up in 1973. Three years later he married Marie South. In 1980 they moved out of Christchurch, to Prebbleton. He became interested in horses, and was a committee member of the New Zealand Metropolitan Trotting Club, and was the successful part-owner of a race horse. He also bred poll dorset sheep. He died in December 2006.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000425
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Bland, Nicholas Chandos (1932 - 2005)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2007-11-22
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000400-E000499
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372610372610
Occupation ENT surgeon
Details Nicholas Chandos Bland was a consultant ENT surgeon in Birmingham. He was born in Birmingham in 1932. His mother was Alice Harvey, Birmingham born and bred. He stayed in the city to study medicine, qualifying in 1956, and gaining his diploma in child health in 1959. After qualifying, he was resident at various Birmingham hospitals, including Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham Children’s Hospital and Birmingham General Hospital. He developed a great interest in audiology and was responsible for establishing the Centre for Hearing Impaired at Western Road, providing a hearing aid service and hearing tests for a vast number of patients. He played a very active part in the assessment of deaf children, both at Birmingham Children’s Hospital and aural services at Birmingham City Council. His interest in audiology was recognised by the British Association of Audiology, which elected him as their chairman. In 1967 he was jointly awarded the Alexander Wherner Piggott fellowship. He was a well-read man, with a passion for trivia, even remembering the timetable for rail services in Hong Kong! He was a member of the Edgbaston Convention Rotary Club and took an active part when able to do so. Following pancreatitis, he developed diabetes, which went out of control in the latter part of his life, giving rise to retinopathy, leading to early retirement as he could no longer carry out microsurgery. He was married to Hazel and they had two sons, Adrian and Symon. He died on 9 November 2005.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000426
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Andrew, Edwyn (1832 - 1887)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2009-10-02
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000600-E000699
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372872372872
Occupation General surgeon
Details Educated at University College Hospital. Held the offices of Resident Medical Officer, House Surgeon, and Physician’s Assistant, as well as President of the University College Medical Society. Practised in Shrewsbury, devoting himself especially to the treatment of diseases of the eye and the ear. He was appointed Surgeon to the Shropshire and North Wales Eye and Throat Infirmary. At that time the building was very small and inadequate, “but under his exertion, and with the aid of others, he lived to see a new hospital erected and completed in 1881, replete with every comfort and with ample accommodation”. The hospital cost £10,000 to erect. It is a fine building and may be regarded as his monument. Andrew was President of the Shropshire and Mid-Wales branch of the British Medical Association, 1883-1884; Hon Local Secretary and Treasurer to the Royal Medical Benevolent College; Surgeon to the Shropshire Eye, Ear, and Throat Hospital; Consulting Surgeon to the Montgomeryshire Infirmary; Certificated Factory Inspector; and Surgeon to Shrewsbury Royal Grammar School. He died at his residence, 12 St John’s Hill, Shrewsbury, on Jan 10th, 1887. Publications: “Extirpation of Lachrymal Gland in Obstruction of Nasal Duct.” – *Brit. Med Jour.*, 1877, ii, 256, 623. “Intestinal Obstruction.” – Ibid., 1878 ii, 470. “On the Extraction of Senile Cataract and its Capsule.” – Ibid., 1883, i, 41.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000689
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2009-02-20
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000500-E000599
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372776372776
Occupation ENT surgeon
Details Paul Abbey was a consultant ENT surgeon in the Windsor area. He was born on 6 January 1920 in Stoke Newington, London, the son of M Abbey, who had arrived in the UK in 1911 from Lodz in Poland. He was the youngest of four children – there were two older brothers and one older sister. The family lived in a two-bedroom flat until Paul was about 4½ years old, when they moved to Bethnal Green into rooms above a small factory in a converted pub. He attended primary school in Teesdale Street, where he was bullied, and in the evenings he went to Hebrew classes at the same school. At the age of 11, Paul started at the Central School, where his form teacher, Mr Jones, decided that he should try for a scholarship to Parmiter’s, the local grammar school, which was a successful move. Paul’s barmitzvah took place at Teesdale Street Synagogue when he was 13. He was an active member of the Jewish Boys Club and the Cambridge and Bethnal Green Club, taking part in swimming and gymnastics, as well as summer camps near Herne Bay. In the senior years at school Paul became a prefect, and became the school’s most successful sportsman, excelling at gymnastics, swimming and football. When Paul was 15, he bought himself a racing bicycle from James Goose in Holborn, which he paid off at 2/6 per week. He and his brother Manny would take off on camping holidays by bike, once as far as the Isle of Wight. In 1939, he passed his Senior County exams and was accepted as a student at Westminster Hospital. When war was declared, the Westminster was evacuated to Glasgow, but a friend told him about a vacancy at the London Hospital which was evacuating its medical college to Cambridge. He applied and started in October 1939. Paul qualified in 1944 and then became receiving room officer, house surgeon to A M A Moore and the gynaecological firm, and then house physician to A E Clarke-Kennedy. He joined the RAF medical service in February 1945 and was posted to India, where he spent two enjoyable years, rising to squadron leader. He made friends with the RAF transport pilots. He would wander out to the airfield and see whether a DC-3 was due to take off. “Hi doc”, the pilots would yell from the cockpit. “Just off to Jaipur. Want to come along for the ride? Hop on, old chap, we’ll list you as additional freight.” He eventually learnt to fly himself in Tiger Moth planes and kept his linen flying helmet and goggles as souvenirs. On demobilisation, he returned to the London Hospital for three years, at first as a supernumerary registrar to Clive Butler in the septic ward, where penicillin was effecting a radical change in the management of osteomyelitis. He then moved to the King George Hospital in Ilford, initially as a house surgeon for six months, followed by three years as a surgical registrar, during which time he passed the FRCS. In December 1954, Paul decided to specialise in ENT. He started work at the Royal National Throat, Nose and Ear Hospital, where he became a senior registrar and then moved to a similar post at St Mary’s Hospital in Paddington. In May 1961, Paul obtained his first ENT consultant appointment at Southampton General Hospital. Two years later he applied successfully for a more advantageous ENT consultant post with the Windsor group of hospitals, where he spent the rest of his career. When he arrived in the area, Wexham Park Hospital was being built, and Paul had a large hand in the design of the ENT department. A firm believer in the original values and mission of the NHS, he disapproved of the many bureaucratic reorganisations that began in the 1970s. He published numerous articles, delivered lectures and belonged to many committees and councils, including the ENT section of the Royal Society of Medicine and the British Association of Otolaryngologists. He was particularly proud of designing a new surgical instrument which bears his name. In 1985 he retired from the NHS, but continued in private practice for several more years and became a surgical member of the Medical Appeals Tribunal for Industrial Injuries. Outside medicine, Paul’s great love was sailing. In the days before mobile phones, it was the ultimate escape from the stress of hospital life – out on the water he was completely unreachable. For many years he had an Enterprise dinghy and would tow this boat down to Cornwall every year for family holidays. Later, he teamed up with two friends to purchase the *St Brigid*, a 32-foot sailing cruiser which they moored down at Lymington on the south coast. Paul spent a lot of his spare time on *St Brigid*, including two weeks sailing in the English Channel every summer. He studied for his yachtmaster’s qualification, joined the Royal Lymington Yacht Club and even bought a house in Lymington. The whole family was involved in Paul’s sailing. Paul married Joan née Singer in March 1952. Jocelyn was born in April 1956 and Bryony came along four years later, in May 1960. Joan took navigation courses and their two children were co-opted as deck hands during school holidays. Paul was a great wine enthusiast, and he and Joan travelled extensively around Europe, and visited Australia, the USA and South Africa. Above all, Paul loved being with other people – he liked having an audience, he was great company and always entertaining. This world will be a duller place without him.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000593
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Warrington, Alexander Joseph (1935 - 2008)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

First Title value, for Searching Common, John Dermot Ainslie (1948 - 2005)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

by Enid Taylor
Publication Date 2009-02-20
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000500-E000599
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372778372778
Occupation Ophthalmic surgeon
Details John Dermot Ainslie Common was a consultant ophthalmic surgeon at North Staffordshire Royal Infirmary. He studied medicine at Westminster Hospital, where he qualified in 1971. Following his house appointment at the King Edward VII Hospital, Windsor, he went to Sierra Leone, where he worked on and wrote about onchocerciasis or ‘river blindness’. His formal ophthalmological training began in 1976 as a registrar at the Western Ophthalmic Hospital, followed by a senior registrar post at Birmingham and Midland Eye Hospital. He was then appointed consultant ophthalmic surgeon to North Staffordshire Royal Infirmary in 1984, where he had an active interest in anterior segment surgery and ocular trauma. He retired in 2003 due to ill health. In retirement he maintained his sporting interests despite an above the elbow amputation of the left arm due to sarcoma – driving around the Nürburgring race track in Germany in less than nine minutes and big game hunting in Zambia using a rifle single armed. He married Terri, but was widowed. He died suddenly of a stroke on 8 April 2005.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000595
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Humby, Martin Douglas (1939 - 2007)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2009-02-26
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000500-E000599
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372779372779
Occupation General surgeon
Details Martin Humby was a surgeon at Lymington Hospital in the New Forest, Hampshire. An outstanding surgeon, dedicated family man, accomplished musician, sailor and furniture maker, he served his community well. He was born in Ashurst, in the New Forest, on 26 December 1939, the son of Lester Humby, an insurance agent, and Kathleen Anne Humby, a housewife. He was educated locally at Colbury and in Southampton, leaving at the age of 16 without any qualifications. He applied to join the Royal Navy, but failed to gain entry, so undertook casual labouring jobs, cutting hedges in the New Forest. His first hospital job was as a porter at Southampton General hospital, which was followed by becoming first a laboratory assistant and then a theatre technician at the age of 18. There he was so efficient and outstanding that Shackleton, the senior consultant anaesthetist at the hospital, urged Martin to attend evening classes at Southampton Technical College, to gain the necessary qualifications to try for medical school. He began his medical training at University College Hospital in 1966 at the age of 26. In 1970 he met Rosalind (‘Ros’), who was nursing at the Royal South Hampshire Hospital. They married just before he qualified at the age of 31 in 1971. He began his house jobs at Southampton General Hospital. He was then appointed as an anatomy demonstrator, rotating with a senior house officer post in the accident and emergency department, from which he passed the primary FRCS. He went on be a senior house officer at Salisbury District Hospital under Bonar Mackie. He was then appointed to the surgical registrar rotation post between Bournemouth and Southampton, during which he passed the final FRCS. He was then appointed to locum senior registrar positions in Basingstoke, Chichester and London, but had difficulty in obtaining a substantive senior registrar post, so in 1978 he began a GP training post in Lyndhurst, combining this with a temporary lecturer post at Southampton University in general surgery and urology, during which he carried out a review of the results of treatment of renal cell carcinoma. By now he had family responsibilities, and was advised to give up the quest for senior registrar posts. He began work as a part-time hospital practitioner at Lymington Hospital under Frank McGinn and Chris Smart, and combined this with a part-time general practice appointment at Lyndhurst. He was very successful in both posts: his patients loved him. He was so conscientious that he began extra fracture clinics and theatre lists in the hospital. He also became a local police surgeon and in 1993 became the hospital manager at Lymington. In 1994 new regulations obliged him to choose between general practice and surgery: he chose the latter, despite a reduction in salary, and he was appointed associate specialist surgeon at Lymington in general surgery and urology. He continued regular fracture clinics for the orthopaedic surgeons and performed cystoscopy and endoscopy lists. His general surgery included colectomies, cholecystectomies and thyroidectomies. He was chairman of the Lymington Hospital medical staff committee from 1991 to 1993. He took up the trombone in 1988 and this gave way to the drums in 1990. He had a natural musical talent and played regularly for the Foresters Jazz Band. He was a keen and skilful sailor, competing at Lymington and Cowes in his beloved, all-wooden sailing boat. Martin’s carpentry and furniture making was of a high standard and his chairs, drawers and dressers are fine testimonies to his skill and manual dexterity. Martin developed pain in the back in 1993 while antifouling his boat. X-rays revealed multiple myeloma with collapse of the atlas vertebra. Despite radiotherapy and two marrow transplants, during subsequent years he relapsed. Martin became part-time in 2005. His last operating list was performed three weeks before he died from pneumonia on 18 May 2007. He left his widow Ros, who is still working as a nurse at Lymington Hospital, three daughters, Ellinor (a GP in Bristol), Rebecca and Isabel, and two grandchildren. He is sorely missed at Lymington Hospital, where one of the two new theatres is named after him.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000596
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Smith, George Malcolm Ross (1936 - 2008)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

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

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

First Title value, for Searching Mayo, Charles (1788 - 1876)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2008-06-12
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000500-E000599
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372707372707
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born on Dec 29th, 1788, the third son of the Rev James Mayo, MA, Head Master of Queen Elizabeth’s Free Grammar School, Wimborne, and Rector of Avebury in succession to his father and grandfather. The Mayos may be described as a Wiltshire family, members of it having flourished there as clergymen and schoolmasters. To this Wiltshire family also belonged Thomas Mayo, MD, President of the Royal College of Physicians, Herbert Mayo, the distinguished physiologist, and others well known in literature. Charles Mayo received a sound education at the Grammar School under his own father. He became a good Latinist and Grecian and was taught French carefully by a French *émigré*, M Leprince, a man of good family compelled by the exigencies of the French Revolution, which had ruined him, to earn his living as a schoolmaster in England. The *émigré* lived nine miles from Wimborne at Ringwood, and was lent a horse by the head master in order to ride home half-way. “Young Mayo was sent to some appointed spot, whence he had to ride the horse back whilst Monsieur dismounted and finished his journey on foot. But it so happened that, some short time before, a frightful murder had been committed at Parley, a desolate village a mile or two to the south of the road between Wimborne and Ringwood, and the bodies of the two murderers were hung in chains from a gibbet on a heath within a very short distance from Parley, where, although the gibbet has vanished, the memory of the affairs surives to the present day (1876). On one occasion young Charles Mayo, when he was sent as usual to take the horse from the Frenchman, was tempted to leave the high road and go and inspect the remains of the murderers, whose bones and rags swung and creaked horribly in the wind, but when he returned to the high road, the Frenchman, not seeing him at the accustomed spot, had gone on towards Ringwood, and the truant did not return to Wimborne with the horse till long after the appointed time, and with no small fear of the consequences, for his father, amongst other accomplishments, was thought to excel in the use of the birch. Whether or not, however, this anatomical pilgrimage was considered to mark out his future destiny, the profession of medicine was chosen for him, and he began, at the age of fifteen, by being apprenticed to Mr Brown, a city apothecary, who flourished and kept a shop at the corner of Raven Row, Bethnal Green, just on the east of Bishopsgate Street. Mr Brown was a Member of the Society of Apothecaries - a body of men at that time of good culture and social position, amongst whom were many good botanists. The Society kept up the ancient and decent custom of examining the pupils of all its members in Latin at the beginning of their apprenticeship and gave them the opportunity, by means of herborising excursions, of cultivating a practical acquaintance with botany, a taste for which was preserved by the subject of this sketch up to a late period in life. In truth, the change from the life of the Wimborne schoolboy to that of the apprentice in Bishopsgate required some compensation. The business of an apothecary was a kind of compound between a trade and a profession, in which the professional skill supplied dignity, but the trading element supplied the means of living. Remuneration was obtained by supplying draughts, mixtures, and other forms of drugs, which were supplied profusely, and formed the items in a long bill of charges sent in at Christmas. That a medical practitioner shall supply his patients with medicine is reasonable and convenient, but that he shall make the medicine supplied the basis of remuneration, instead of his time and skill, is derogatory to himself and injurious to his patients. We have heard Mr Mayo describe the weak parts of this system, which were - the multiplicity of bad debts which crowded the ledger of the Bishopsgate apothecary, and the heavy cost of drugs, and particularly of bottles, which were taxed, in proportion to the receipts. “Meanwhile, the young apprentice’s life was not a cheerful one. The errand-boy slept under the counter, the apprentice had a bed in an adjoining closet, and the family lived in a dingy back-parlour; whilst a drawing-room upstairs, where the carpet and furniture were covered with brown holland, was used only about twice a year. “The apprentice had the recreation, if he chose, of accompanying the mistress once a week in a hackney-coach to hear a Calvinistic preacher at Clerkenwell. He had a book called ‘Tyrocinium Medicum; or, the Duties of Apothecaries’ Apprentices’, which will give some idea of the trade element amongst the general practitioners of the time (by William Chamberlaine, 1812, in the College Library). The dusting of shelves and bottles was held to be the chiefest of duties, and the writer enforces it on the medical apprentice in the terms in which Ovid excites the young men of his day to brush away the dust of the amphitheatre from off the clothes of the young ladies ‘Et si nullus erit pulvis tamen excute nullum’.” After some three years of this melancholy life young Mayo joyfully became a student at St Bartholomew’s Hospital, where, by contrast, the medical atmosphere was ‘elevated and dignified’ in a high degree. He studied anatomy with great ardour, and was for long dresser to Sir Charles Blicke, the founder of our College Library and at that time a leading London surgeon. He also came under the favourable notice of Abernethy, Lawrence, Stanley, and Wormald, as well as others on the high road to repute. After qualifying he went down to Winchester and was elected Surgeon to the County Hospital in 1811, and here till 1870 he gained a high professional reputation both in general surgery and as a lithotomist. Quite at first he met with some opposition at the hospital, and appealed to Abernethy to support him on the eve of his first operation for stone. The great Surgeon wrote as follows: “MY DEAR SIR, - If the Governors of any hospital entrusted me with the care of the patients, I would take care to do my duty to the best of my ability. I would not bleed and purge a patient repeatedly prior to an operation for lithotomy, to the extent you describe, at the suggestion of any man, if it did not appear to me proper. There is but one general rule for a man’s conduct: Do as you would be done unto. I would not defer the operation beyond that time when it seemed most conducive to the patient’s welfare to perform it. You know I use a gorget, which cuts as well as any knife that ever I tried, and has the advantage of being a conductor for the forceps. If I used a knife it should be such a one as Mr Cooper uses. I know not what to advise you to do. You represent your patient as much reduced, and if the subject were unfavourable for an operation, I would rather send him to a London Hospital than run the risk of his dying after an operation, however well you might perform it. This is the beginning of lectures; I have scarcely time to write. Had it happened at any other season I would have gone to Winchester. “Yours most sincerely, J ABERNETHY. *August*, 1812.” The operation was successful, and Mayo thereupon began a remarkable career. His success as a lithotomist reached a climax when he extracted without mishap, in December, 1818, one of the largest stones so far recorded, which weighed over 14 oz. In 1848 he performed two lithotomies in one day, but both proved fatal. His last was on a man of his own age (74) in 1861, which was successful. His procedure and implements, in imitation of Cheselden, were bold and simple. When he came to Winchester he found the best practice in the hands of long-established surgeons, who debarred him from ‘the Close’ and the ‘County’, but among lesser patients his vogue was very extensive. He exhibited in the strongest possible degree that incongruous combination of professional work which linked together Raven Row and St Bartholomew’s Hospital. At one time of the day he would be tying the subclavian artery or diagnosing an obscure fracture, whilst at another he would be busily superintending the dispensing of medicines for sick paupers or club patients, for he took all the practice that offered itself. He performed a number of capital operations for axillary and other aneurysms (some of which were published in the *Medico-Chirurgical Transactions*), cases of complete transposition of the viscera, deep encysted tumours of the neck (*Lancet*), and epispadias. At the age of 84 we find him entering his last case, one of obturator hernia, with a youth’s carefulness and clearness. The practice of the Winchester County Hospital was ‘homely but effective’ under Mayo. He set fractures with rough wooden splints in a manner which it would have been hard to outrival. A contributor to the *Medical Times and Gazette* (1876, ii, 638) wrote: “There was one thing which comes to the remembrance of the writer pretty vividly - the air of the Hospital: a compound of bad breath, unwashed skin, and ulcerated legs, which could be tasted as well as smelt the moment anyone entered the hospital door. Thirty or forty years ago people lamented the frequent deaths after operations from pleurisy or other apparently eccentric causes; but it is easy to see now (1876) that, in a purer air, Mr Mayo would have had a much larger percentage of successful lithotomy cases, whilst many a life might have been spared which was sacrificed to puerperal fever and erysipelas in the hospital and town.” Mayo loved his work, though much of it was beneath his talent. Winchester in his day became a centre of professional education and Mayo’s many pupils were deeply attached to him. In manner he outdid the great Abernethy, whom he is supposed to have copied: he was blunt, outspoken, and testy to the greatest degree, and when made angry, as he often was, he relieved himself and amused his hearers by a stream of half-humorous vituperative epithets of the quaintest and most original description. He was a man of exuberant health and activity, up early and late, and never seeming to feel hunger or fatigue - so, at least, some of his pupils used to think when he summoned them to make post-mortem examinations, dress compound fractures, and to do other unsavoury work at the hospital before breakfast. In 1870 this grand old lion of the ancient school resented the honour done him at his hospital when he was removed from the active to the consulting staff: in 1874 he grew blind, but fully believed himself fit to continue in practice. Latterly he grew less restless and consoled his dark hours by listening to the music of the daily cathedral services. In 1851 his fellow-citizens gave him a grand entertainment in honour of the fortieth anniversary of his hospital appointment. He was elected Mayor of Winchester. His memory remained vigorous almost to the last, and he delighted in telling of his early days. At the, very end of his life he talked of ‘going home’, and died painlessly in great old age at his residence in St Peter Street, Winchester, on Nov 27th, 1876. He married in 1835 Miss Dennis, the daughter of a clergyman, and of his two sons one was Dr Charles Mayo of Fiji, Fellow of New College, Oxford, the other the Rev James Mayo. There were two daughters of the marriage. Mayo was one of the last of those who had been “in practice prior to 1815”. PUBLICATIONS: “Successful Case of Lithotomy.” - *Med.-Chir. Trans.*, 1820, xi, 54. “Case of Aneurism in which a Ligature was placed on the Subclavian Artery.” - *Ibid.*, 1823, xii, 12. “Case of Axillary Aneurism Successfully Treated by Tying the Subclavian Artery.” - *Ibid.*, 1830, xvi, 359. “A Report on Lithotomy.” - *Prov. Med. Jour.*, 1846, 439. “Case of Strangulated Femoral Hernia Successfully Treated by Opium.” - *Ibid.*, 1847, 319. “Lithotomy and Hernia.” - *Prov. Med. Jour*., 1846-7. “Cervical Encysted Tumour.” - *Lancet*, 1847, i, 667.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000523
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Hollis, David George Hanbury (1924 - 2006)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

by Neil Weir
Publication Date 2008-06-19
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/372708372708
Occupation ENT surgeon
Details David Hollis was an ENT surgeon in south London. He was born in Northwood, Middlesex, on 16 June 1924, the elder son of Frederick James Hollis, a priest and university lecturer, and Christina Mary née Hanbury. Educated at Ovingdean Preparatory School, Brighton, and Lancing College, David Hollis read medicine at King’s College, London, and King’s College Medical School. Here he was influenced by those two ENT giants, Sir Victor Negus and Sir Terence Cawthorne, which, coupled with his own childhood experience of otitis media, led him to choose ENT as his specialty. He was a house surgeon and later a registrar in ENT at King’s College Hospital and senior registrar at the Royal National Throat Nose and Ear Hospital. He was subsequently appointed consultant ENT surgeon to the Lewisham, North Southwark and Greenwich Health Authorities. He married Barbara Moore, a radiotherapist, later to become a consultant, in 1947. They had two sons, one of whom became a child psychiatrist, and two daughters (the eldest of whom became a state registered nurse and later a chiropractor). His principal interests outside his work were campanology, horticulture and cycling. He died on 28 September 2006.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000524
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Jenkins, Terence Percy Norman (1913 - 2007)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

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
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First Title value, for Searching Selsnick, Frances (1917 - 2007)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2008-06-19
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/372710372710
Occupation General surgeon
Details Frances Selsnick, one of the most remarkable women of her generation, was the first female general surgeon in the United States and the first female American Fellow of our College. Frances was born in New York on 23 December, 1917, the daughter of Harry Selznick and Florence née Greenfield. Having been a child prodigy on the piano, performing ‘the Dance of the Hours’ at Carnegie Hall, Frances was educated at New York University and then went to the Anderson College of Medicine, Glasgow, to study medicine. She returned to New York to do a residency at the New York Infirmary for Women and Children in 1948 and then on to Sea View Hospital, Staten Island, and the Knickerbocker Hospital, New York, in 1953. After completing a fellowship at the New York Sloan Kettering Memorial Hospital for Cancer and Allied Diseases in New York, she returned to the United Kingdom in 1955, where she was a house surgeon at the Royal Marsden Hospital. This was followed by posts as a senior house officer in Stoke-on-Trent and registrar posts at the Royal Infirmary, Gloucester, St Luke’s and the Royal Infirmary, Bradford. She returned to the USA to work in the Veterans Administration Service, first at Martinsburg, West Virginia, in 1965, and then in Reno, where she became successively senior surgical coordinator for surgical services, and then assistant and associate chief of the surgical service. For these services she was awarded the John D Chase and Mark Wolcott awards for leadership skills and clinical care delivery. She continued to be an active surgeon right up until the week before she was admitted to hospital. Frances never married, but was an ever-popular member of an extended family, who nicknamed her ‘the General’ because of her fiesty manner: nobody enjoyed the joke more than she. She died of heart failure on 10 June 2007. Howard Amster
Resource Identifier RCS: E000526
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
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First Title value, for Searching Bennett, William Edward (1865 - 1927)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

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

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

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 Braithwaite, Francis (1804 - 1863)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

First Title value, for Searching Bramley, Lawrence (1807 - 1882)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

First Title value, for Searching Branfoot, Sir Arthur Mudge (1848 - 1914)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2010-05-06
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/373141373141
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born on February 27th, 1848, the son of Jonathan H Branfoot, MD. Educated at Epsom College and Guy’s Hospital, and entered the Madras Medical Service as Assistant Surgeon on March 30th, 1872. He was appointed Civil Surgeon at Cocanada, and afterwards became Resident Surgeon at the General Hospital, Madras, until he was appointed in 1879 Superintendent of the Government Maternity Hospital, and in 1881 Professor of Midwifery and Gynaecology at the Madras Medical College. His promotions were, Surgeon (July 1st, 1873); Surgeon Major (March 30th, 1884); Brigade Surgeon Lieut-Colonel (April 1st, 1895); and Colonel (March 1st, 1898). On promotion to Colonel he returned to military duty as Administrative Medical Officer. In 1901 he was Surgeon General to the Government of Madras, and for a short time he served as Principal Medical Officer of the Bangalore and Southern Districts. He retired on May 19th, 1903, and on New Year’s Day, 1904, succeeded Sir William Hooper at the India Office as President of the Medical Board, with the honorary rank of Surgeon General. He held office until February 28th, 1913, when he retired, having reached the age limit of 65. He was a Member of the Advisory Board for the Army and Medical Services and of the Army Hospitals and Sanitary Board from 1904-1913, and a Member of Council of the Lister Institute. He married: (1) Alice Stewart, daughter of Deputy Surgeon General G S W Ogg, by whom he had two daughters, and (2) Lucy Inns, daughter of H R P Carter, CE, by whom he had a son and a daughter. He died at Folkestone on Tuesday, March 17th, 1914. General Branfoot did excellent work in the Indian Medical Service, and was rewarded with a CIE on May 21st, 1888, and with promotion to KCIE on Dec 11th, 1911. He made a great reputation for himself in Madras, and maintained it in Burma, as one who was ever ready and generous in help given to his fellow-practitioners, though he himself steadfastly declined private practice. He was of a modest and retiring disposition, kindly, and humorous. Publications: *Annual Reports of the Madras Government Maternity Hospital*, 1879-1898.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000958
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Archer, William (1809 - 1891)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

First Title value, for Searching Brendon, Peter (1798 - 1883)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

First Title value, for Searching Brett, Frederick Harington (1803 - 1859)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2010-05-06
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/373144373144
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born Aug 12th, 1803, and was gazetted Assistant Surgeon, Bengal Army, on September 22nd, 1825; Surgeon on October 15th, 1840, and retired on January 23rd, 1844. Whilst he was in the service he acted as Surgeon to the Hospital of Surgery at Calcutta, to the Government Ophthalmic Institution, as Professor of Ophthalmic Surgery at the Calcutta Medical College, and as Surgeon to the Bodyguard of the Governor-General of India. He passed the College of Fort William in the Arabic and Persian languages, was a member of the Medical and Physical Society of Calcutta, and a Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society. He retired to the Crescent, Jersey, when he left the Bengal Army, but soon settled in London, first in Brompton Square, and before 1847 at 44 Curzon Street, Mayfair. He practised in London as a consulting surgeon, and was Surgeon to the Western Ophthalmic Institution at 22 Dorset Street, Portman Square. He was an unsuccessful candidate for the Assistant Surgeoncy at Westminster Hospital in 1846 when Benjamin Phillips (qv) was promoted, and Barnard Holt (qv) was elected on the retirement of Anthony White. Feelings ran high during the contest, and Brett challenged W R Basham, one of the physicians at Westminster Hospital, to a duel. He was bound over to keep the peace. In the same year Brett had been adjudged bankrupt, and these two incidents probably prevented his election as a Fellow of the Royal Medico-Chirurgical Society when he became a candidate. He was appointed Field Surgeon to the Army in the Crimea, but apparently never took up the duty or left England. He died on December 10th, 1859, having long lived in retirement. Publications: *A Political Essay on some of the Principal Surgical Diseases of India*, 8vo, 16 plates, Calcutta, 1840. *Washhouses, Baths and a due Supply of Wholesomely Cooked Food, at the Cheapest Possible Rate for the Poor*, 12mo, London, 1847. *A Lecture on the Eye* (pointing out a more rational practice and safer mode of operating, based on the experience of seventeen years’ practice in many thousands of operations and innumerable cases in India, to which is added an account of the first series of surgical operations performed on the eye without pain under the influence of the vapour of sulphuric ether), 8vo, London, 1847. *The Gems of Tuscany*, 1852. *Lecture on Ambulances, Barracks and Tents*, 8vo, London, 1855. *Letter to the Duke of Newcastle* (respecting his proposed mission to the seat of war to succour the sick and wounded), 8vo, 1855. Brett also translated Civiale on Lithotrity and contributed many papers to the *Lancet*, the *Indian Med. Jour.*, the *Trans. Calcutta Med. and Physical Soc.,* the *Trans. Roy. Med.-Chir. Soc.* (On tumours; the health of Europeans in India; lithotomy; lithotrity; leprosy; rhinoplastic operations; hare-lip; Dracunculus; camel litters for the sick of armies, etc.)
Resource Identifier RCS: E000961
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Arrowsmith, James Yerrow ( - 1866)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

First Title value, for Searching Arthur, John (1806 - 1876)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

First Title value, for Searching Ashby, Alfred ( - 1922)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

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/372887372887
Occupation General surgeon
Details Educated at Guy’s Hospital, and then became Surgeon to the Western General Dispensary. Appointed Medical Officer of Health to the united districts of Grantham, Newark, Sleaford, and Ruskington, and afterwards to Caversham, and to the Rural Districts of the Grantham, Newark, and Sleaford Unions. He came to Reading about the year 1882, and served the Borough for over forty years, being at the time of his death Consulting Medical Officer of Health to the Reading and Wokingham Union and Wokingham Rural Districts, Public Analyst, and Gas Examiner to the County Borough of Reading. He died suddenly at the entrance to the Reading Town Hall on Jan 7th, 1922. His official address had been at the Municipal buildings in Valpy Street, and his home address was at Ashdene, Argyll Road. Publications: *Grantham, Newark, and Sleaford combined Sanitary District*: Sec. 1. Precautions against the Spread of Infectious Diseases. Sec. 2. Directions for Disinfection. Sec. 3. Penalties for the Neglect of Precautions....Sec. 4. Directions for Rendering House Drainage free from Danger. Sec. 5. General Directions for the Preservation of Health. 8vo, Grantham, *n.d*. “Illustrations of Arrest of Infectious Diseases by Isolation of the Sick.” *Practitioner*, 1878, xxi, 300, and 1879, xxiii, 148. “Log-wood as a Re-agent.” *Analyst*, 1884. “The Fallacies of Empirical Standards in Water Analysis.” *Proc. Soc. M.O.H.*, 1884. “Powers of Local Authorities in respect of Dairies, Cowsheds, Milk Shops, etc.” * Ibid.*, 1886. “The Medical Officer of Health” in Stevenson and Murphy’s *Treatise on Hygiene*, 1893, ii. “The Detection of Methylated Spirits in Tinctures, Spirits or Ether.” *Analyst*, 1894, xix, 265. “Milk Epidemic of Diphtheria associated with an Udder Disease of Cows.” *Public Health*, 1906.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000704
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

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

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

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

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

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

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

First Title value, for Searching Aspland, Alfred (1816 - 1880)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

First Title value, for Searching Atherstone, William Guybon (1814 - 1898)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2009-10-07 2016-01-29
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/372893372893
Occupation General surgeon
Details Eldest son by his first wife of Dr John Atherstone, who married Elizabeth Damant, of Fakenham. He probably came from Atherstone in Warwickshire, she of a Flemish family settled in Norfolk after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. Commissary-General John Damant married into the Korsten family, of Cradock Place, Port Elizabeth, and induced John Atherstone and Lieut Damant, of Fakenham, in Norfolk, to emigrate in 1820 in the ss *Ocean* as one of the settlers whom the Earl of Bathurst was introducing into the Colony. John Atherstone had been House Surgeon at Guy's Hospital, and he brought his wife, William Guybon, and three daughters with him. In August, 1820, he became District Surgeon of Uitenhage for a year, and then went to Cape Town in 1828, where he practised successfully for five years. In 1828 he was District Surgeon at Grahamstown and practised there until he was killed by falling out of a cart in 1858. Two of his sons by a second wife, and therefore half-brothers to William Guybon Atherstone, also practised medicine in the Colony. William Guybon Atherstone, born at Sion Hill, Nottingham, on May 27th, 1814, accompanied the family to South Africa and was educated at Grahamstown School in the old 'Messenger House' and afterwards at Uitenhage. He went with his father to Cape Town, where he attended the natural history lectures given by Dr Andrew Smith (afterwards Sir Andrew Smith, who, many years later, as Director-General of the Army Medical Department, was made a scapegoat for the medical scandals of the Crimean War). In 1829 he returned to Uitenhage, where he attended the academy kept by Dr Rose Innes, and seems to have stayed there for two years, as he was apprenticed to his father in 1831. In 1834 he acted as staff medical officer under Sir Benjamin D'Urban on the outbreak of the second Kafir war, and in 1886 he received his certificate as a qualified medical man. He then went to Europe and attended the lectures of Stokes and Graves in Dublin during the year 1887, and qualified MRCS Eng in the following year after being one of Michael Faraday's pupils. He was joined by his friend Fred W Barber, spent a year in Paris, and took the degree of MD at Heidelberg in 1839. He then returned to England, and having on April 13th, 1839, married his cousin, Catherine Atherstone, sailed back with her in the Robert Small, a vessel of 1000 tons. He settled in practice with his father in Grahamstown in December, 1839, and spent the rest of his life in the Colony except for a short period in 1876, when he again visited England. He at first acted as Gaol and District Surgeon at Grahamstown, and in 1847 he performed an operation under ether which must have been one of the first administrations in South Africa. He also did some original work jointly with his father in investigating horse-sickness and tick-fever. In 1857 and again in 1866 he was keenly interested in the development of railways, urging the annexation of the Congo area so that a line might be carried from the Cape to Cairo, and in 1878 he tried to get a telegraph line carried overland to Egypt. Both projects were defeated, but he familiarized his contemporaries with these schemes, which were afterwards carried into effect. Although Cecil J Rhodes was in South Africa during his lifetime there is no evidence that the two kindred spirits ever met. He fostered, too, the infancy of ostrich-farming at Heathertown Towers and Table Farm. As a prospector with a sound working knowledge of geology he made many important journeys, visiting Namaqualand in 1854; Stormberg in 1870; Kimberley and the Lydenburg goldfields in 1871. In 1867 he identified the first diamond found at Colesberg Kop - now Kimberley - examining it under a polariscope and trying its hardness on glass. The window pane on which he experimented has been framed and preserved. In 1888 the Kimberley Companies clubbed together and presented him with a 4-carat diamond in recognition of his services. Atherstone maintained his interest in science to the end of his life, for he was much more than a prospector, being a good field botanist, an artist, and a very competent musician. He founded in 1855 the Medico-Chirurgical Society which afterwards became the Albany Museum, esteemed the second best in the Dominion. In 1887 he helped to found the Bacteriological Institute in Grahamstown, and in 1888 he initiated the South African Geologists' Association. He became a member of the Legislative Assembly for Grahamstown in 1881, and in 1884 he was elected to the Legislative Council (the Upper House) for the Eastern District, a position he retained until 1891. His eyesight having failed about 1887 he retired from practice, but in 1896 he consented to serve as President of the South African Medical Congress when it met in Grahamstown. He died at Grahamstown on June 26th, 1898, his family consisting of two sons and three daughters. Atherstone was a man brimful of original ideas, who must be looked upon as one of the great pioneers of South Africa. He was energetic to a marvellous degree and he had the knack of imparting his enthusiasm to all about him. No one excelled him in patriotic feeling; he loved South Africa and everything in it. Geology was his particular branch, and his observations were keen and practical. There were few persons at the Cape in the early seventies of the nineteenth century who understood the bearing of geology on economics; but Atherstone fully appreciated the importance of thoroughly unravelling the geological problems of the country and thus assisting in its development. He had often to battle against adverse influences, but his good work lives after him and science in South Africa owes him much. He received no great recognition:- The Royal College of Surgeons elected him a Fellow of twenty years' standing in 1888, and he was made an Honorary Corresponding Secretary of the Royal Colonial Institute and a Fellow of the Geological Society. He left behind him an account of his life and works in 155 closely written notebooks. They begin in 1843, have not been published, and are still in possession of the family.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000710
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Brown, George (1814 - 1874)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

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/373167373167
Occupation General surgeon
Details Educated at St George’s Hospital and at the Grosvenor Place School of Medicine, where he took an anatomical prize. He was a younger brother of Isaac Baker Brown (qv). Soon after qualifying he settled at St John’s Lodge, Kensal Green, where he practised for some thirty years. He was Medical Officer of Kensal Green District; St Luke’s, Chelsea; Surgeon to the Royal Humane Society; and Divisional Surgeon of the ‘S’ and ‘D’ Divisions of the Police in Harrow Road. Shortly after obtaining his MD degree in 1871 he retired from practice on a moderate fortune. He died at 20 Park Crescent, Brighton, after a tedious and painful illness, on August 2nd, 1874. Publications:- “Placenta Praevia.” – *Lancet*, 1845, ii, 694.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000984
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Hadfield, James Irvine Havelock (1930 - 2006)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2007-03-15 2014-07-24
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/372525372525
Occupation General surgeon
Details James Hadfield was a consultant general surgeon with a urological interest at Bedford Hospital. He came from a distinguished medical family: his father, Geoffrey Hadfield, was professor of pathology at the London School of Medicine for Women at the Royal Free Hospital. His mother was Sarah Victoria Eileen Irvine. His elder brother, Geoffrey John, became vice-president of our College and his elder sister, Esmé Havelock Hadfield, was an ENT surgeon at High Wycombe and Amersham hospitals. James was born at Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire, on 12 July 1930. He was educated at Winchester House School, Brackley, Radley College, and then Brasenose College, Oxford. He completed his clinical training at St Thomas' Hospital, qualifying in 1955 and winning the Clutton medal and the Beaney prize in surgery. At Oxford he rowed for his college and the Isis VIII, and gained an Olympic trial in 1952. He continued to row at St Thomas', becoming captain of the United Hospitals Boat Club in 1953 and of his hospital in 1954. James won the senior IV pairs sculls, and double sculls at the United Hospitals Regatta, competing in no fewer than ten races in one day. He was house surgeon at St Thomas' to R H O B Robinson, a general surgeon specialising in urology and one of the founder members of British Association of Urological Surgeons (BAUS). From 1962 to 1966 James was surgical tutor and first assistant in surgery, and George Herbert Hunt scholar to Oxford University in 1965. He was appointed consultant general surgeon at Bedford Hospital in 1966, and was medical director there for several years. In retirement he taught anatomy at Cambridge and was tutor to undergraduates at Jesus College. His main interests were in urology and the surgery of the parathyroid gland, and he had a great interest in training young surgeons from overseas. He examined for Oxford, Cambridge and the conjoint, as well as for the Royal College of Surgeons in Edinburgh. As an examiner he was fair, but sometimes a little fearsome in his approach to candidates. His publications reflected his surgical interests, including stone formation in the urinary tract, the management of bladder outflow obstruction and diseases of the parathyroid glands. He was an Arris and Gale lecturer at our College in 1973. James was a family man who enjoyed country pursuits, painting and collecting watercolours, as well as gardening. For a time he bred and trained gun dogs. In 1957 he married Ann Pickernell Milner, a sister-tutor at St Thomas', also from a medical family. They had three children. Esmé Victoria became a general practitioner in Birmingham, and married a consultant head and neck surgeon. Another daughter, Countess Helen Sarah Orsich, entered television as a producer, and their son Geoffrey Havelock became a translator. There were six grandchildren. He died on 17 May 2006 from carcinoma of the duodenum.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000339
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Seymour-Jones, John Anthony (1911 - 2008)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

by Neil Weir
Publication Date 2010-05-20 2012-03-09
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/373179373179
Occupation ENT surgeon
Details Tony Seymour-Jones was an otolaryngologist to the Portsmouth and South East Hants Health District. He was born in Edgbaston, Birmingham, on 7 April 1911, the son of Bertrand Seymour-Jones, a consultant otolaryngologist, and Hilda Katherine née Poole, the daughter of a mining agent. Educated at West House Preparatory School, Edgbaston, Birmingham, Seymour-Jones proceeded as an exhibitioner to Shrewsbury School and from there as a classics scholar to Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. Whilst at Cambridge he switched to natural sciences as he decided to pursue a career in medicine. He undertook his clinical studies at St Thomas' Hospital, London, where on qualifying he became a house surgeon and later a clinical assistant to the ear, nose and throat department. Here he was influenced by Walter Howarth, Geoffrey Bateman, and by the general surgeon Sir Heneage Ogilvie. After gaining his FRCS in 1940, Seymour-Jones joined the RAMC as a consultant otolaryngologist with the rank of temporary major and served in the Italian Campaign and at the Cambridge Military Hospital, Aldershot. He made a life-long friendship with a captured Italian surgeon. At the end of the Second World War, Seymour-Jones became a registrar to the Portsmouth, Southsea and Cosham Eye and Ear Hospital, before being appointed as a consultant otolaryngologist to the Portsmouth Group of Hospitals. He was also on the staff of King Edward VII Hospital, Midhurst. He served as chairman of the British Medical Association Portsmouth division and of the South Western Laryngological Association.He represented Wessex on the council of the British Association of Otolaryngologists and served on the council of the section of laryngology of the Royal Society of Medicine. He sailed, and became commodore of the Royal Albert Sailing Club. Musical evenings were a source of enjoyment, and he had a repertoire of songs which he sang in Italian, French and German. Tony Seymour-Jones met his future wife, Elizabeth Irving Pinches, daughter of H I Pinches, a physician at the Royal Masonic Hospital, whilst she was a staff nurse at St Thomas'. They were married on 15 June 1940. She predeceased him, in 2003, as did his son Nicholas, an architect. At the grand age of 97, Tony Seymour-Jones died on 28 June 2008 at Queen Alexandra Hospital, Portsmouth, shortly after a massive stroke and myocardial infarction. He is survived by his daughters Carole and Louise, six grandchildren, and four great-grand children.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000996
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Brown, Sir Robert Charles (1836 - 1925)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2010-05-26
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/373180373180
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born on October 2nd, 1836, in the house in Preston (27 Winckley Square) where his father had practised and where he himself died. His father was Alderman Robert Brown (1801-1858), (qv), for thirty-five years a leading Preston practitioner. Robert Charles Brown was educated at Preston Grammar School till the age of 17, when he became a pupil of his father’s colleague, Thomas Dixon. In 1855 he entered King’s College Medical School, and was afterwards House Surgeon at the General Lying-in Hospital, Lambeth. His father died on February 1st, 1858, shortly before the son had obtained his first qualifications. It was necessary for him to earn his own living at once, and he became House Surgeon to the old Preston Dispensary. He held this post till 1863, but from time to time was enabled to put in periods of study in London, Edinburgh, and Dublin. In 1863 he began private practice, and was appointed Hon Medical Officer to the Dispensary, having been previously Senior Medical Officer. On the opening of the Preston and County of Lancashire Royal Infirmary in 1870 he was transferred to its staff as House Surgeon, afterwards becoming Physician and Consulting Physician. He was thus identified with its fortunes, having at the time of his death been for a long time the sole survivor of his original colleagues there. During a lifetime of practice in Preston he held a number of other appointments, and was Certifying Factory Surgeon, Medical Officer to the Lancs. County Constabulary, local Medical Officer for fifty years to the LNWR and Lancs and Yorks Railway Companies. He was also Consulting Medical Officer to the Orphanage and Deaf and Dumb School, and in the sixties was Assistant Surgeon to the 3rd Royal Lancashire Militia. He often had it in mind to proceed to the MD degree, and worked hard in preparing for it, once when he was 27 and again at the age of 64. On the first occasion he failed in logic and moral philosophy, then obligatory subjects; on the second, “although I had put down my name and paid the fees, I took fright and returned to Preston two days before the examination commenced, intending to go up in 1901, but I could never muster up courage to do so.” He referred to these events as ‘stupidity’, but was able to console himself with the many honours received in after-years from other quarters, such as a knighthood, the election to the Fellowship of the Royal College of Physicians, the Cambridge Honorary Degree of MA, and the Freedom of Preston. This last honour was conferred upon him in recognition of his professional services and munificence to the Royal Infirmary and other institutions. He was also thrice elected by his local colleagues President of the Lancashire and Cheshire Branch of the British Medical Association, and was re-elected Chairman of the Preston Division for thirteen consecutive years. He had joined the Association in 1859, and at the Manchester Meeting of 1902 was Vice-President of the Section of Medicine. Sir Charles Brown’s benefactions in Preston were numerous and generous. He assisted in collecting funds towards the building of the original Royal Infirmary. After inspecting various operating theatres, writes Dr F W Collinson, Consulting Surgeon to the Infirmary, “He built, entirely at his own expense, a most up-to-date operating theatre, with all the necessary appurtenances. He also provided isolation wards, conservatories, and many other things, e.g., billiard tables for the comfort and welfare of the patients. When X rays were first introduced he defrayed the cost of an outfit, which was the best procurable at that time. From the year 1889 to the date of his death his gifts to the Infirmary amounted to more than £10,000. His great beneficence also showed itself in many other charitable organizations. Outside his native town he was ever ready to help in what he felt to be a good cause. Thus he generously supported the Cambridge Research Hospital.” From the first he had been intimately concerned in the work of the Cambridge Committee for the Study of Special Diseases, and his personal services to the hospital established by that committee in Hills Road, Cambridge, under the direction of Dr Strangeways, were unremitting. Besides a very complete X-ray installation, he provided a microphotographic apparatus of the latest type, and founded a studentship for pathological research. It was in recognition of these gifts that the University of Cambridge, on May 23rd, 1912, conferred on him the degree of Master of Arts *honoris causa*. The Public Orator, in presenting him for the degree, aptly described him as “medicus modestus, medicus munificus”. This honour from the University, of which his two brothers were members, gave him particular pleasure. On the following day the newly built Research Hospital was opened by him in the presence of a distinguished assembly of nearly five hundred people. After speaking with pride of the progress in the field of medicine which he had been privileged to see in his own lifetime, he said: “The future depends on research, and research into special diseases is not only important in itself for those diseases, but may throw new light and open new vistas everywhere.” Sir Charles Brown was somewhat of an ascetic. His self-discipline and self-denial, which arose from a religious conviction, were greatly to be admired. Yet he practised a delightful hospitality, and was most popular in his town and with his colleagues. He was full of interesting reminiscences of his early life, could remember the stage coach, and many professional changes. He was a keen lover of music, believing in its therapeutic value, and often woke his guests in the early morning with diapason notes of his organ. Much confined latterly to the house, which he only left now and then in a bath chair, he retained his mental clearness to the last, and died where he had lived on November 23rd, 1925. He never married. In his will he says: “I bequeath my body to the Directors of the Research Hospital, Cambridge, and authorize them to retain such parts of it as they consider may be suitable additions to their Pathological Museum.” Publications: Sir Charles Brown published some interesting reminiscences, at the age of 86, under the title, *Sixty-four Years a Doctor*. The work was dedicated to his old friend, exact contemporary, and correspondent Sir Clifford Allbutt, and the proceeds of its sale he gave to the Infirmary.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000997
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Brown, Samuel William (1805 - 1872)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

First Title value, for Searching Brown, William Henry (1809 - 1865)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

First Title value, for Searching Brownbill, Thomas Frederick George (1812 - 1863)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

First Title value, for Searching Browne, Cornelius Harrison ( - 1853)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

First Title value, for Searching Browne, James ( - 1880)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

First Title value, for Searching Browning, Benjamin ( - 1876)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

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

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2010-05-26
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001000-E001099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373187373187
Occupation General surgeon
Details Educated at Guy’s Hospital. He practised in London first in the neighbourhood of Dorset Square, and was at one time Surgeon, and then Senior Surgeon, to the Kilburn Dispensary. His death occurred at his residence, 25 Portsdown Road, Maida Vale, W, on November 1st, 1878. A photograph of him is in the Fellows’ Album. Publications: “Case of Successful Tracheotomy in Croup.” – *Med. Times and Gaz.*, 1858, ii, 34. “Case of Recurrent Encephaloid Disease of the Eyeball, with Secondary Deposits.” – *Ibid.*, 1859, i, 576. Contributions to *Lancet* and *Brit. Med. Jour.*, 1858.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001004
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Brownless, Anthony Colling (1815 - 1897)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2010-05-26 2013-08-07
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001000-E001099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373188373188
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born about the year 1815 and was the son of Anthony Brownless, Esq, a connection of the Maitland and Lauderdale families. He was educated at home by private tutor and then in the house of the Rev C E Smith, of Badlesmere, Kent. He was apprenticed to Mr Charles Wilks, surgeon, of Charing, Kent, and, while diligently continuing his classical studies, showed great aptitude for medicine and made himself thoroughly conversant with pharmacy and the structure of the human skeleton. While at Charing an accident happened which greatly handicapped his education: a horse fell on him and he received such an injury to the right knee that chronic disease of the joint was set up. In the summer of 1834 his health had so suffered that he was sent for a long voyage to St Petersburgh, Norway, and Denmark, and in 1835 he visited New York, other parts of the United States, and Canada. He was then able to return to Charing, where until October, 1836, he saw much of an extensive Poor Law practice. He became a student at St Bartholomew's Hospital in 1836. At the end of the session he was considered one of the best anatomists in the school, and, notwithstanding a severe attack of fever with delirium which kept him in bed for weeks before the examinations, he came out second in anatomy and physiology. Study and ill health had pulled the indomitable student down considerably, and issues around his knee-joint compelled him to limp on crutches during the greater part of the session. He now made another voyage in search of health to Portugal and Spain, and spent the summer at Malaga, Cadiz, and Seville. In the autumn of 1837, his knee being still very painful, he gave up his hospital work, hired a farm from his father at Goudhurst, and amused himself with agriculture and the study of diseases of animals. Returning, though still on crutches, to St Bartholomew's in 1839, he continued his studies there and at the Royal General Dispensary. He acted as Clinical Assistant in the out-patients' department of the hospital and made the post-mortem examinations. In 1840 he obtained a certificate of honour for midwifery and the first prize for forensic medicine at St. Bartholomew's. After qualifying in 1841 he began to practise in Islington in 1842, but soon became assistant to John Painter Vincent (qv) at his old hospital, and gave his whole time to the wards for the next two years. He prepared himself to become a consulting and operating surgeon, and after practising as such at 4 Albion Place, Lonsdale Square, from 1843-1845, repaired to Liège and entered the University, where he devoted himself to anatomy and pathology - subjects for which that university was famous. He made his mark at Liège and became the friend of the well-known Professor of Anatomy, Dr Spring. He returned to London early in 1846 and look a house in Charterhouse Square, continuing to study for the College Fellowship. Fearing, however, that it would be long before he obtained an appointment on a hospital staff, he took the MD degree of St Andrews, and in February, 1847, was elected Physician to the Metropolitan Dispensary in Fore Street. His rise was now rapid, for he was kind and attentive to patients, accurate in diagnosis, and successful in treatment. In September, 1847, he was elected Physician to the Royal General Dispensary, Aldersgate Street, with which he had been previously connected, and continued to hold his other post. He not only acquired a large practice, but was an admirable teacher of anatomy, pathology, and practical medicine. Dr Protheroe Smith retired from the office of Assistant Teacher of Practical Midwifery at St Bartholomew's Hospital in 1848, and the post was offered to Brownless, who, however, declined it. In August, 1849, in consequence of the refusal of the Committee of the Metropolitan Dispensary to reform the Apothecary's Depart¬ment, in which there had long been gross neglect of the patients, Brownless tendered his resignation of the office of Physician, and upon his leaving it almost all his patients followed him to the Royal General Dispensary. He resigned his post at the Royal General Dispensary in September, 1849, on account of ill health, and retired temporarily from private practice. His popularity at the Dispensary had been so great that the patients presented him with a testimonial at a public meeting of the subscribers, held at the Literary and Scientific Institution, Aldersgate Street, on October 9th, 1849. A large body of the Governors of both Institutions followed this good example, and voted 'a splendid testimonial' in acknowledgement of Brownless's public services. This was presented to him on May 7th, 1850, by the High Bailiff of Southwark, presiding over a public meeting at the Clarence Hotel, Aldersgate Street. The testimonial consisted of a finely illuminated memorial on vellum and a piece of plate, weighing upwards of 200 oz. Brownless afterwards went out to Australia, where he was elected Physician to the Melbourne Benevolent Asylum. In 1854 he was elected Physician to the Melbourne Hospital, and held that post until 1866, when he was appointed Consulting Physician and a Life Governor. He was a founder of the Medical School of the University of Melbourne and its first MD. For twenty-nine years in succession he was elected Vice-Chancellor of the University, and succeeded Dr Moorhouse, afterwards Bishop of Manchester, as Chancellor in 1887. He was a member of several important Government Commissions, and in 1870 was made a Knight of St Gregory the Great, and in 1883 a Knight Commander of the Order of Pius by successive Popes, who thus conferred on him papal nobility. At the time of his death, or not many years before, he was Medical Referee to the Victoria and Intercolonial Assurance Companies, and, besides his other offices, at one time held those of Physician to the Industrial and Reformatory Schools, to the Magdalen Asylum at Abbotsford, and to the Orphanage of St Vincent de Paul. His death occurred at Melbourne, where he had practised at 2 Victoria Parade, on December 3rd, 1897. He had married twice: (1) in 1842 to Ellen, daughter of W Hawker, MD, of Charing, and (2) in 1852 to Anne, daughter of William Hamilton, Captain, Rifle Brigade, of Eden, Co Donegal. Publications: "On the Treatment of Diseases of the Joints." - *Lancet*, 1846, ii, 241; 1847, i, 434. *The Merits of Mr. J. Painter Vincent: an Address*, 8vo, London, 1847. This pamphlet, which is in the College Library, is a eulogy of John Painter Vincent (qv), Surgeon to St Bartholomew's Hospital. *An Address delivered at a Public Meeting of the Subscribers to the Vincent Testimonial*, 8vo, London, 1847. *Addresses delivered in the University of Melbourne*.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001005
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

by N Alan Green
Publication Date 2009-06-23 2010-01-13
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000600-E000699
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372803372803
Occupation General surgeon
Details Hugh Davies was a consultant general surgeon with an interest in urology to the Hereford Hospital Group. Appointed in 1961, he continued work as a popular and well-loved surgeon, always being reticent about any personal achievements. In spite of his many sporting activities, he was a very self-effacing person. He was born in Swansea into a non-medical household on 25 March 1923. Hugh’s father, William Alfred Davies, owned a tin plate manufacturing firm and his mother, Florence (née Morris), was a housewife. From preparatory school in Malvern, he won a scholarship in 1936 to Marlborough College, where he continued to excel at sport. His excellence was seen in the school’s first teams at rugby football, hockey and cricket, and in his school work. He was awarded a scholarship to Caius College, Cambridge, to study natural sciences during the early years of the Second World War. Proceeding to St Thomas’ Hospital for his clinical studies, his sporting activities continued on the ‘rugger’ field and he gained a regular place in the United Hospitals XV. After house appointments at St Thomas’, he entered National Service as a major in the RAMC for 18 months. When his career veered towards surgery, he underwent general training at St Peter’s Hospital, Chertsey, and then in Portsmouth, before returning to his alma mater as a resident assistant surgeon. His wish to sub-specialise led him to travel north for higher training in the Newcastle urology unit. Hugh Davies obtained his definitive consultant post in Hereford as a general surgeon with an interest in urology, an area of the country he particularly enjoyed as it was close to his native Wales. He was a member of both the Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland and the British Association of Urological Surgeons. One former house surgeon and general practitioner wrote of him: “He was an excellent surgeon to work with and very careful. Perhaps this prolonged his surgery, but we knew he was a perfectionist.” “If asked to do a domiciliary visit, he would not leave it to the next day, but would come that day even if it was late. He would expect me to be there as it was important learning for a GP.” “Certainly we GPs had a high regard for Hugh and knew we would always have an excellent opinion and that our patient would always be very satisfied.” Apparently Hugh had a dry sense of humour: when his hat fell into the wound when operating, his assistants could hardly control their mirth. The surgeon merely raised his head and said “Another hat please, sister!” He married Shirley Peppitt, a general practitioner, in June 1961. Hugh and Shirley had a family of three: Jane, the elder daughter, became a personal assistant to the food critic Egon Ronay and later married; their son, Robert, became a GP and continues to practice in Ledbury, Hereford; the younger daughter, Katie, is a housewife. There are 11 grandchildren. Hugh Davies continued his sporting interests in any spare time by playing golf as a member of the local Worsley Golf Club and, in his earlier years in Hereford, was an active member of the Whitecross (Hereford) Tennis and Squash Club. He enjoyed collecting antiques and water colours and was knowledgeable in both. But above all he was a devoted family man. Shortly before his retirement Hugh he was involved in a road traffic accident and the injuries definitely stifled his latter years. His life continued to revolve around his immediate family, to whom he was very attached. William Hugh Davies died peacefully at Ledbury Cottage Hospital on 3 March 2008 and is survived by Shirley, their children and grandchildren. A service of thanksgiving was held at St Philip and St James Church, Tarrington, Herefordshire. One local general practitioner wrote of this final tribute to a much-loved man: “It was a lovely experience to come to the service and realise what a loving family he had, to hear the grandchildren read and run around the church, to hear of his exploits on the rugby field and to sing ‘Guide me, O thou Great Jehovah’ to the tune of Cwm Rhondda.”
Resource Identifier RCS: E000620
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

by N Alan Green
Publication Date 2009-06-23
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000600-E000699
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372804372804
Occupation Urologist
Details Paul Dawson-Edwards was appointed consultant surgeon to the United Birmingham Hospitals in 1957 and became a well-regarded urologist based at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital and a teacher at the University of Birmingham. His interest in urology was fired by Hugh Donovan, and he formed an excellent unit with his colleague Guy Baines and then, up to his own retirement in 1984, with Michael Hughes. Paul was born in Coventry on 28 October 1919. Albert John Edwards, his father, was an engineer who worked for many years with the ‘Alvis’ racing team and his mother, Gladys Dawson, was a milliner. He was educated at Centaur Road Junior School and then, from 1930 to 1938, at King Henry VIII School, Coventry. There he excelled at most sports and became the school’s leading sportsman. For his medical studies he entered Birmingham University, where he had a good academic record and obtained a clinical prize in surgery. Again he excelled in a wide variety of sports. As vice-captain of the University Rugby XV he played mainly as a wing-three quarter and was a valued member of the athletics team. He also played for both Coventry and Moseley first XV teams. After qualification and house appointments, Paul married (Elizabeth) Jean Button, a nurse, on 14 April 1944. For two years he was a resident surgical registrar at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, where he gained good general experience. At this time he became a flight-lieutenant in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, based at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital and later at RAF Northallerton, where he specialised in trauma and orthopaedics. He went abroad from 1946 to 1947 as a squadron leader (orthopaedic specialist) in charge of Surgical Unit No 10 General Hospital, Karachi. Returning to the UK, surgery was obviously his ambition and Paul Dawson-Edwards commenced higher training as a demonstrator of anatomy at Birmingham University for a year before returning to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital as a surgical registrar. This was followed by a four year rotating appointment at senior registrar level in Birmingham. On becoming a consultant in 1957, he obtained study leave for a year in Boston, Massachusetts at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, where he was an assistant in surgery and carried out research at Harvard University. An interest in renal transplantation was fired by Francis D (Franny) Moore. He did animal research work with Joseph Murray, a pioneer in this field, who was awarded a Nobel prize in 1990. Paul was fortunate to be under the wing of Hartwell Harrison, who became a lifelong friend. Returning to Birmingham, the kidney unit was set up as an offshoot of the urology unit. By 1962 a minicoil artificial kidney had been developed by Denys Blainey and permission was given to start renal transplantation at the end of 1967. Paul carried out his first renal transplant in May 1968. He was associated with dialysis and transplantation for many years, before returning to full time ‘general’ urological practice. He amassed a large series of patients with benign and malignant retroperitoneal fibrosis, publishing on this subject, as well as the minicoil artificial kidney and the clinical aspects of renal transplantation. Although he was a fine surgical technician and natural teacher, he was regarded by some as a hard task-master. Certainly he did not suffer fools gladly, but was more than happy when all the ‘team’ pulled together. Paul and his wife, Jean, hosted regular ‘firm’ parties: at one of these he told students that they were more staid than those of his generation. The Dawson-Edwardses woke the next morning to find the entrance to their drive had been bricked up. He was a member of British Association of Urological Surgeons (BAUS) and served on its council (from 1970 to 1974) and on that of the Urological Club of Great Britain and Ireland. He was a founder member of the Midlands Urological Group who met each year at different centres to learn what other urologists were doing. Sport and cars played an important part of his life, although he was not as adept at maintaining the latter as was his father. After giving up rugby, he took up squash and tennis seriously and also enjoyed sailing and mountain walking. All these activities were continued until his knees needed replacing. His love of mountain walking inspired him to set up the Vacancy Club: once a year a group of registrars persuaded their consultant bosses to climb a peak in Snowdonia, perhaps in the hope of creating a vacancy! Paul was a formidable mixed hockey player and always enjoyed the traditional Boxing Day match against the General Hospital. Retiring in 1984, Paul and Jean were able to spend more time at their cottage in north Wales. He was a keen photographer and took up painting late in life, no doubt tutored by his friend and colleague, Arnold Gourevitch. Predeceased by his wife, Jean, he lived in his old home until his health forced him to enter a nursing home. But he enjoyed hearing from his friends and chatting with them at length over the phone: his intellect and memory remained sound. Paul Dawson-Edwards died of heart failure on 6 December 2008 and is survived by his three children (Elizabeth ‘Liz’, a retired company director, John, a civil engineer, and Sarah, a consultant radiologist in Norwich) and by his four grandchildren.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000621
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2011-07-14
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/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 Chilver, Thomas Farquhar (1805 - 1875)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

First Title value, for Searching Chippendale, John (1805 - 1895)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2011-05-25
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001100-E001199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373351373351
Occupation General surgeon
Details Educated at University College, London, and in Paris. He practised before 1850 at 69 Queen Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields, WC, and was for seventeen years Surgeon to the Farringdon General Dispensary, and for six years Lecturer on Anatomy and Physiology at the Hunterian School of Medicine. For seven years of his life, probably after 1850, he was Surgeon in the Royal West India and Brazil Mail Service. During the last decades of his long life he practised at 16 Upper Phillimore Place, Kensington. He was the first Annual President of the Medical Society of University College, London, and was a Fellow, and at one time Member of Council, of the Medical Society of London. He died in Kensington on December 23rd, 1895, at which time the Lancet (1895, ii, 1659) describes him as "a venerable and well-known member of the Profession", but, after promising to publish an extended notice of his life, omitted to do so. Publications: Chippendale's writings prior to 1847 include the following contributions to the Lancet: "A Statistical Account of the Different Dispensaries of the Metropolis." "On Vivisection: a Defence thereof." "On the Non-contagiousness of Gonorrhoea." "On the Cause of Constipation in Hernia." "On an Operation for the Radical Cure of Prolapsus Uteri." "On Catheterism in Disease of the Prostate Gland." "On the Use of Tobacco in Neuralgia." "On a Flap Operation for the Removal of Tumours." "On Idiopathic Erysipelas"; etc.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001168
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Bloxham, Robert William (1808 - 1868)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

First Title value, for Searching Cooper, Sir Henry (1807 - 1891)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

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/373449373449
Occupation General surgeon
Details The son of Samuel Cooper, a merchant in the whaling trade; through his mother descended from the Priestleys, of which family the famous chemist, Joseph Priestley (1733-1804), was a member. Henry Cooper received his education at private schools, and at the age of 16 became a pupil of Dr Fielding, of Hull. He was a student of the University of London, as University College was then called, in its first session (1828), and gained several class prizes. After qualifying he spent a short time in Edinburgh and Paris, and then entered into partnership with William Joseph Lunn, of Hull. In 1840 he was appointed Surgeon to the Hull Infirmary, and after taking the MD in 1841 spent a further period of study both at home and abroad. Returning to Hull, he was elected Physician to the Infirmary in succession to Sir James Alderson, and became Lecturer on Materia Medica at the Hull School of Medicine. He took a prominent part in the sanitary survey of Hull in 1848, and in the subsequent official inquiry. In 1849 there was a virulent cholera epidemic in the town, and he was then made Superintendent of the Sculcoates District. At the British Medical Association Meeting in Hull in 1848 Henry Cooper read the Address in Medicine, and in 1853 acted as Joint Secretary to the Association, which again met in Hull. He was much interested in municipal affairs, and was one of the first elected Mayors of the reformed corporations. In 1854-5 he was Mayor of Hull, and was knighted in 1854 when Queen Victoria visited the Borough. He was several times President of the Literary and Philosophical Society and was warmly interested in this, and in the local model dwellings. Elected Chairman of the first Hull School Board, he held that post for six years. In 1874 he was elected Consulting Physician to the Infirmary on retirement from active duty, and was also chosen Chairman of the Board of Management. At the time of his death he was likewise Consulting Physician to the Hull and Sculcoates Dispensary. He died at his residence, 12 Albion Street, on May 21st, 1891. Publications: *Medical Topography and Vital Statistics of Hull*, 1849. This dealt with the local cholera epidemic. "Address in Medicine." - Hull Meeting of Prov. Med. Assoc., 1850; *Trans. Prov. Med. Assoc.*, 1851, N.S. vi, 125.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001266
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Bond, John ( - 1880)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

First Title value, for Searching Somervell, James Lionel (1927 - 2009)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2010-06-10
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001000-E001099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373198373198
Occupation General surgeon
Details James Somervell continued his family’s tradition of missionary work in India. He was born on 23 April 1927 in Kodaikanal, southern India. His father, Theodore Howard Somervell, was a surgeon and mountaineer, who took part in the ill-fated 1922 and 1924 Mallory expeditions to conquer Everest. He became superintendent of the Neyyor Hospital and of the South Travancore Medical Mission, and, in the later phase of his career, was based at Vellore Christian Medical College. James’ mother, Margaret Hope Simpson, was also from a missionary background. He was educated at the Downs School, Colwall, and then Peekskill High School, New York (during the Second World War). He then studied at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, going on to University College Hospital for his clinical studies. He qualified with the Trotter medal in surgery and the Yellowes medal in medicine. He became a house surgeon to R S Pilcher and then completed a house physician appointment at the North Middlesex Hospital. He was subsequently a casualty officer at the Royal Surrey Hospital. He then became a registrar at the Vellore Christian Medical College, southern India, under Paul Brand. In 1956, he joined the London Missionary Society, which sent him to work in the CSI Campbell Hospital in Jammalamadugu, southern India, where he stayed for the next 12 years. In 1968, he returned to England as a senior registrar at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham. He published on neonatal and infantile intestinal obstruction in India, on family planning by salpingectomy, with a record of 500 cases, and on leiomyosarcoma of the rectum. Like his father, his main interest outside medicine was mountaineering. In 1952 he married Mary Stapleton and they had two sons and one daughter. He died on 20 August 2009.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001015
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Wooler, Geoffrey Hubert (1911 - 2010)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

by Raymond Hurt
Publication Date 2010-06-10
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001000-E001099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373199373199
Occupation Cardiothoracic surgeon
Details Geoffrey Wooler was a consultant cardiothoracic surgeon at Leeds General Infirmary and a pioneer of open heart surgery. He was born in 1911, the son of a successful Leeds businessman. He was educated at Leeds Grammar School and Giggleswick School, before going up to Cambridge to read law. After two terms, he switched to medicine and went on to the London Hospital for his clinical studies. After qualifying in 1937, he was house surgeon to Tudor Edwards, who stimulated his interest in thoracic surgery and arranged for him to visit the Charité Hospital in Berlin, where the bold and pioneering surgery of Ernst Ferdinand Sauerbruch attracted visiting assistants from all over the world, even though Sauerbruch, who was both a Nazi and a bully, treated them abominably. Wooler had already joined the Territorial Army and, after passing the FRCS, became a graded surgeon and served in the 70th General Hospital RAMC in North Africa from the Algerian landings to Italy, rising to the rank of lieutenant colonel. He was mentioned in despatches after the battle of Casino. After the war, he returned to the London Hospital to become first assistant to Tudor Edwards and Vernon Thompson, meanwhile completing an MD thesis on his surgical experiences in the Middle East. Almost immediately Philip Allison invited him to join him as a consultant thoracic surgery at the General Infirmary in Leeds. When Allison moved to Oxford, Wooler was joined by John Aylwin. In 1957 he set up an open heart unit with one of the first heart lung machines, designed by Denis Melrose at the Hammersmith Hospital. For a time Leeds and the Hammersmith were the only two units doing open heart surgery in the United Kingdom. Later he was joined by Marian Ion Ionescu, a refugee from Romania, and together they developed the use of pig valves to replace damaged mitral valves, a technique which did not require post-operative anticoagulants. This new method established Wooler’s reputation in Leeds. His reputation was further enhanced when Lord Woolton collapsed at the Conservative Party conference in Scarborough. He was thought to have pulmonary oedema from heart failure, even though the sputum was pure pus. Wooler was called in. The X-ray showed an elevated left diaphragm. Wooler diagnosed a subphrenic abscess which had ruptured into the lung. He drained the abscess and Woolton recovered. Wooler and Aylwin both owned Rolls-Royces, the former being chauffeur-driven. Such was the thoracic social scene in the 1950s. Geoffrey retired in 1974, to run a restaurant. This turned out to be a disaster and after a year he sold it to the chef, though he continued to live next door. He was a born bon viveur and raconteur, and recorded his adventures in a delightful and amusing memoir entitled *Pig in a suitcase* (Otley, Smith Settle, 1999), which modestly left out any reference to his considerable achievements in surgery, not least of which were his development of biological tissue heart valves and his experience of 50 cases of drainage of subphrenic abscesses. He died on New Year’s Day 2010, in his 99th year.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001016
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Allamand, Pablo Juan Bautista (1909 - 2009)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2010-09-09
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001000-E001099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373200373200
Occupation General surgeon
Details Pablo Juan Bautista Allamand was the doyen of surgery in Chile. Born on 5 August 1909, he was made an honorary fellow of our College in 1972 during the presidency of Sir Edward Muir. He died on 27 July 2009.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001017
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Attard, Joseph (1932 - 2009)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2010-09-30
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001000-E001099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373201373201
Occupation General surgeon
Details Joseph Attard (known to all as ‘Pep’) was a consultant general surgeon in Malta. He was born on 14 September 1932 in Senglea, a town in the Grand Harbour area of Malta. His father was Caesar Attard, a general practitioner and junior surgeon at the main civil hospital of Malta in Floriana. His mother, Gabriella Tenaglia, was the theatre nurse at the private Blue Sisters’ Hospital. His education at St Joseph’s School, Valletta, was interrupted by the air raids of 1940, when the family was evacuated to Birkirkara, where part of the Jesuit College had been transformed into a hospital where Caesar Attard became the chief surgeon. Joseph completed his secondary education in the College and matriculated in 1948. He entered the medical school at the Royal University of Malta, graduating in 1955. He then did house jobs at St Luke’s University Hospital in Malta and went on to England to specialise in surgery, working in various hospitals in London, Gulson Hospital in Coventry and Southampton General Hospital. In 1961 he married Maureen Brown, a nursing sister at the Temperance Hospital in London. By the time they returned to Malta in 1970 they had two boys and one girl, none of whom followed in their parents’ footsteps. On settling down in Malta, Joseph set up in private practice, soon developed a large clientele and introduced cosmetic surgery to Malta. In 1974 Malta became a republic. The Royal Navy withdrew from the dockyard, and by 1977 there was turmoil. The two private hospitals were closed by the Maltese Government and Joseph worked abroad in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, and in various hospitals in England. Finally political stability returned and he was able to go home. He published on traumatic injuries of the pancreas. He was a keen violinist and enjoyed cooking. His wife, Maureen, died in 2006. He was still working when he developed a sudden homonymous hemianopia and was found to have a brain tumour from which, despite intensive treatment, he died on 11 April 2009.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001018
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Black, Sir James Whtye (1924 - 2010)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2010-09-30
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001000-E001099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373202373202
Occupation pharmacologist
Details Sir James Black was a distinguished pharmacologist who developed not only beta-blockers but also cimetidine, which transformed the management of peptic ulcer. He was born on 14 June 1924, in Uddingston, Strathclyde, the fourth of five sons of a mining engineer from whom he inherited a love of music and singing. He was educated at Beath High School, Cowdenbeath, where he at first studied music and then later mathematics. At the age of 15 he won the Patrick Hamilton residential scholarship to St Andrews University, and then followed an elder brother into medicine, qualifying in 1946. He then became an assistant lecturer in physiology, and a year later went to the University of Malaya in Singapore as a lecturer, returning as a senior lecturer to Glasgow Veterinary School in 1950. From 1958 to 1964 he worked for ICI Pharmaceuticals and then went on to Smith Kline & French Laboratories, before being appointed as professor of pharmacology at University College, London. He was director of therapeutic research at Wellcome Research Laboratories (from 1978 to 1984) and was then appointed as professor of analytical pharmacology at King’s College Medical School, a post he held until he retired in 1993. Between 1992 and 2006 he was chancellor of the University of Dundee. The university built the Sir James Black Centre in his honour. In 1988 he won the Nobel prize for physiology or medicine for his work on the discovery of beta-blockers. In 2004, he was awarded the gold medal of the Royal Society. He was knighted in 1981 and appointed to the Order of Merit in 2000. In 1993 he was awarded an honorary fellowship of our College. He married first, Hilary Vaughan, who predeceased him, and secondly Rona MacKie in 1994. He died on 22 March 2010, leaving his second wife and a daughter from his first marriage.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001019
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Brown, Michael Meredith (1918 - 2009)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

by Raymond Hurt
Publication Date 2010-09-30
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001000-E001099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373203373203
Occupation Thoracic surgeon
Details Michael Meredith Brown was a consultant thoracic surgeon at Midhurst Hospital. He was born on 1 May 1918 in Croydon, the first son of Bernard Meredith, an analytic chemist in the brewing industry, and Doris née Cortazzi, a bank clerk. He was educated at St Anselm’s Preparatory School, Croydon, Bradfield College, Berkshire, Jesus College, Cambridge, and then St Thomas’ Hospital, London, qualifying in 1942. Three years later, he obtained his fellowship of the College. He served in the RAF Volunteer Reserve as a squadron leader. After demobilisation and junior hospital posts, he was appointed as a consultant thoracic surgeon at Midhurst Hospital and to the Army at the Cambridge Military Hospital, Aldershot. His most important publication was a chapter on oesophagoscopy in Rob and Smith’s *Operative surgery* (London, Butterworth, 1978). He married a Miss Woodward in 1942. They had two sons and two daughters.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001020
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Clothier, John Guthrie ( - 2006)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

First Title value, for Searching Crouch, Muriel (1914 - 2010)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

by N Alan Green
Publication Date 2010-09-30
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001000-E001099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373205373205
Occupation General surgeon
Details Muriel Crouch was a consultant surgeon at the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Hospital, the South London Hospital for Women and Children and Mount Vernon Hospital. She was one of the early female surgeons whose faith as a committed Christian pervaded all that she did. Born in 1914 into a Christian household in Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire, her father, Ivor Crouch, was a company director and a leading figure in setting up Christian Fellowships in universities. Others involved in this evangelical movement were the anatomist Jack Aitken of University College London, J W Laing, the building ‘giant’, and Martyn Lloyd-Jones, the medically qualified minister of Westminster Chapel and the former chief assistant to Lord Horder. Her father was also secretary of the British and Foreign Bible Society. Ivor Crouch also used his influence in business circles to bring Jews from Germany before the Holocaust. Her great uncle, George Crouch, went to Australia in 1853 as part of the Victoria gold rush. Muriel was an undergraduate at the Royal Free Hospital, qualifying in the early part the Second World War. During her surgical training she worked at the Royal Free and Oster House emergency hospitals, and then as a senior registrar at the Royal Free and Elizabeth Garrett Anderson hospitals. She worked with Cecil Joll at the Royal Free Hospital, an international expert on thyroid surgery. Joll was of a slightly unpredictable temperament and was partial to female assistants; Muriel Crouch had a beneficial influence on him and he had great respect for her. She and others encouraged him to accept a more prominent role in the teaching of undergraduates. She enjoyed her work as a part-time demonstrator in the anatomy department at the Royal Free Hospital working under Ruth Bowden. It gave her added contact with students in the dissecting room and during tutorials. Her knowledge of the relevant clinical anatomy was appreciated by them. Always supportive of those in training, she was noted for giving generously of her time. She also gave a tenth of her income to support good causes and helped individuals whose circumstances she knew were difficult. She was very supportive of those doctors who wished to work abroad as missionaries. She was a founder member of Tyndale House, Cambridge, a residential Christian community dedicated to Bible study, research and the holding of conferences. It is ideally located within the university complex to aid undergraduate and postgraduate study, in addition to holding regular services of worship. She was also appointed to the London auxiliary committee of the Christian Medical College, Ludhiana, India, now known as the Friends of Ludhiana. Muriel was a fluent lecturer on matters that impinged on medicine and the Christian faith. In a lecture given in 1961, she argued “Specialisation is here to stay, not only in medicine but throughout the whole of our national life”. She emphasised the need to treat patients as individuals as she explored the expansion in knowledge, the increased difficulties in teaching, the influence of finance, increased litigation, and specialisation, with patients drifting from department to department. She ended on a positive note, advocating that patients be treated ‘as a whole’. She wrote on many other topics, including *Imparting ethics to medical students* (London, Christian Medical Fellowship). She expanded her influence as an invited speaker at many of the Bank of England’s Christian retreats. Muriel was a vice president of the Inter-Varsity Fellowship (now the Universities and Colleges Christian Fellowship or UCCF) and also served on the Nurses Christian Fellowship International executive council. For the latter body she went to Stavanger, Norway, in 1967 to give a series of five addresses under the heading ‘The spirit of service’. She was writing very thoughtful articles well into her eighties. In one, she explored the ethics of telling the truth to patients and whether lying was ever a valid option. In her final two years in a residential home in Hunstanton, Norfolk, she became a firm favourite with other residents and carers, and used her medical knowledge to tell her GP what was happening as the end approached. She looked forward to her future ‘afterlife’, free of the restrictions of her failing body. She died in her home on 12 January 2010 at the age of 95. A service of thanksgiving for her very full life which had touched so many was held at the Union Church, Hunstanton, on 19 March 2010, at which Marjorie Foyle and Peter May gave tributes. One of the many from varied backgrounds attending was Felix Kotoney-Ahulu from West Africa, a world expert on sickle cell anaemia, and a great friend and admirer of Muriel.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001022
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Dowse, David William James (1937 - 2009)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2010-09-30
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001000-E001099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373206373206
Occupation General surgeon
Details David Dowse was a general surgeon in Nova Scotia, Canada. He was born in Dublin on 17 January 1937, the son of Richard Victor Dowse, a gynaecologist and obstetrician, and Ellen née Heard. His parents moved to Ceylon, where his father was a physician in Colombo, and then, during the Second World War, moved to Kenya. David was educated at Michaelhouse, in Natal, South Africa, and then returned to Ireland, to study medicine at Trinity College, Dublin, where he graduated in 1962. As an undergraduate he won university and national titles for swimming and diving. He completed his junior posts in Dublin and in Northern Ireland, and then worked for a time in general practice before specialising in surgery. He did registrar posts at St Catherine’s Hospital, Tralee, at Greenwich District Hospital and at Queen Mary’s Hospital, Roehampton. After passing his FRCS, he emigrated to Nova Scotia, Canada, where he was appointed as a general surgeon to the Fishermen’s Hospital in Lunenberg (1972 to 1996) and to South Shore Regional Hospital, Bridgewater (1980 to 1996). He had many interests, chief of which was sailing in the waters of Nova Scotia. He died of Alzheimer’s disease on 23 September 2009, leaving his wife Heather née Stuart, two sons (Martin and Peter) and two daughters (Suzanne and Rosalie).
Resource Identifier RCS: E001023
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

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

First Title value, for Searching Fuller, Alan Pearce (1929 - 2010)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

by Geraint Fuller
Publication Date 2010-09-30 2013-10-11
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001000-E001099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373208373208
Occupation ENT surgeon
Details Alan Fuller was an ENT surgeon at St Bartholomew's Hospital, London. He was born in Swansea on 18 March 1929, one of three sons, but the only one to survive more than 24 hours. His mother, Sarah Ann (née Williams), was later an hotelier and his father Frank Austin, who died when Alan was five years old, was on the sales staff of a firm of furniture manufacturers. His mother remarried, but Alan's stepfather later died when Alan was 12 years old. He was educated at Swansea Grammar School and in 1946 won a major county scholarship to St Bartholomew's Medical College. Alan was in the first entry after the college returned from evacuation to Queens' College, Cambridge. The entry was mainly made up of ex-servicemen, and for the first time women were admitted to the college. As a student he worked on the Clifford Naunton Morgan firm at the time when Reginald Murley was chief assistant. After qualifying, he held house appointments in general and ENT surgery, and a senior ENT house surgeon post in Swansea. He was able to do his National Service in the RAMC (1953 to 1955) as a junior specialist in otology as he had obtained the DLO in 1953. He served with the British Army of the Rhine (BAOR), in Singapore and in Malaya during the Malayan emergency. Whilst in Singapore he, with a fellow Bart's student, Michael Pugh, co-founded the Rahere dining club. On return from National Service he completed his ENT training at the Royal National Throat, Nose and Ear Hospital, before returning to Bart's in 1959 as chief assistant (senior registrar). Here he was much influenced by F C W Capps and (Sir) Cecil Hogg. He was appointed to the consultant staff of St Bartholomew's in 1963 and was also on the staff of Ealing Hospital (1963 to 1985), the Mile End Hospital (1964 to 1968), and later the Queen Elizabeth Hospital for Children and the Royal Masonic Hospital. Fuller was an enthusiastic teacher who served St Bart's Medical College as assistant dean (1971), sub-dean in charge of discipline (from 1972 to 1978) and admissions dean (1981 to 1985). He was president of the student's union and a keen supporter of the Gilbert and Sullivan Society and the rugby club (he had played in the second row as a student). Fuller had once unwittingly won an informal competition held by junior doctors at Bart's for the 'loudest tie of the week', but he later adopted bow ties after he found normal ones were grabbed by playful children while he looked in their ears. In 1973 Bart's celebrated the 850th anniversary of its foundation. Among the events was an outdoor play. Alan Fuller's perceived resemblance, in stature and beard, to King Henry VIII caused him to be cast as the monarch who had given Bart's a Royal Charter. In November 1982, Alan Fuller was summoned to King Edward VII Hospital, London, to attend HM Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, who had choked on a salmon bone which she could not dislodge. He removed it under a general anaesthetic given by his colleague Bryan Gillet. The Queen Mother, a keen angler, declared: "The salmon have got their own back". Some 11 years later the same problem happened to her again. Alan Fuller examined in surgery for the University of London, was a member of the Court of Examiners (from 1984 to 1990) and an external examiner for the ENT fellowship examination of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (from 1990 to 1992). He served on the councils and was a vice-president of both ENT sections of the Royal Society of Medicine. A delightful companion and most clubbable man, he was secretary of the Rahere Lodge for years, an enthusiastic member of the 17th London General Hospital Territorial Army (TA), a member of the Savage Club, and a liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Barbers. As a painter in pastels and watercolour he belonged to the London Sketch Club and the Medical Art Society (president from 1993 to 1996). He also in late life enjoyed rough shooting and sailing his hand built dingy aptly named *Incus*. Allan Fuller met Janet Marina Williams (known as 'Nini'), a professional caterer, on New Year's Eve 1956, successfully proposed to her on St Valentine's Day 1957 and married her the following month. Their happy married life culminated in their golden wedding anniversary celebrated the year before Nini died after a short illness. Alan Fuller's last years were clouded by Alzheimer's disease. He died on 6 May 2010, and was survived by his son, Geraint, who is a consultant neurologist, and two daughters, Rowena and Charlotte.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001025
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Gordon, Walter (1916 - 2003)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2010-09-30
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001000-E001099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373209373209
Occupation Thoracic surgeon
Details Walter Gordon was a thoracic surgeon. He was born on 11 January 1916 in Modderfontein, South Africa, the third child and second son of Herman Gordon, a confectionery manufacturer and businessman, and Anna née Rabinowitz , a housewife. He was educated at King Edward VII School, Johannesburg, and then at the University of Witwatersrand, where he studied medicine, qualifying in 1939. He then served as a captain in the South African Medical Corps during the Second World War. Following his demobilisation, he travelled to the UK, where he was a senior registrar in the regional thoracic unit in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and then a first assistant in thoracic surgery at St George’s Hospital, London. He subsequently emigrated to the United States, where he was a surgeon at the Veterans Administration Hospital and associate professor of clinical surgery at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, City University, New York. He was a member of the executive committee of the Society for Cardiothoracic Surgery in Great Britain and Ireland. In the United States he was a member of the Union of Concerned Scientists and was certified as a specialist by the American Board of Anesthesiology. He wrote on thoracic surgery, particularly on haematoma, tuberculosis and carcinoma of the oesophagus and lung. He married Stella Beryl Girdy in 1943. They had three children – Heryl, a teacher, Nayvin, a medical practitioner, and Shale, a cardiologist. He enjoyed playing chess, skiing, tennis and swimming. He died on 10 February 2003.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001026
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Groves, Harry John ( - 2010)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

by Sarah Gillam
Publication Date 2011-12-20 2018-01-04
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001700-E001799
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373965373965
Occupation ENT surgeon
Details John Groves was a consultant ENT surgeon at the Royal Free, Hampstead General and New End hospitals in London. He studied medicine at St Mary’s Hospital Medical School, qualifying MB BS in 1947. He gained his FRCS in 1953. Prior to his consultant appointments, he was a house surgeon at St Mary’s Hospital, a senior house officer in the ENT department at Westminster Hospital, and a senior ENT registrar back at St Mary’s. He was a member of the British Association of Otolaryngologists and an examiner for the diploma in otolaryngology. With John Ballantyne he co-edited the second (1965), third (1971) and fourth (1979) editions of W G Scott’s *Diseases of the ear, nose and throat* (London, Butterworth). John Groves died on 12 July 2010.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001782
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2011-05-26
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001100-E001199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373357373357
Occupation General surgeon
Details Educated at St Bartholomew's Hospital. He practised at 22 Circus, Bath, and latterly was Consulting Surgeon to the Bath Lying-in Charity. Removing late in life to Weymouth, he practised for a time at 7 Victoria Terrace, and after his retirement resided at Rodwell Lodge, where he died on February 1st, 1886. His photograph is in the Fellows' Album.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001174
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2011-05-26
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001100-E001199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373358373358
Occupation General surgeon
Details Educated at Guy's and St Thomas's Hospitals. He was at one period Resident Surgeon on the Seamen's Hospital Ship *Dreadnought*, and then practised at Exeter, where he was in 1848 the first Surgeon-Apothecary (House Surgeon) to the Devon and Exeter Hospital. He petitioned soon after his appointment that he might be relieved of much of the book-keeping work to enable him to devote more time to professional work in the wards. He died at his residence, Southernhay Place, Exeter, on May 27th, 1888.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001175
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Boulter, Harold Baxter (1853 - 1916)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

First Title value, for Searching Boutflower, John (1797 - 1889)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2010-03-25
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/373105373105
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born on November 1st, 1797, in Greengate, Salford, Manchester, and was the descendant of an old Northumbrian family. One of his ancestors was at Christ’s College, Cambridge, with John Milton, whose constant friend he remained. John Boutflower’s father was John Boutflower, surgeon, of Salford, and his brother, born in 1796, was Henry Crewe Boutflower, Hulsean Essayist and a well-known divine. John Boutflower was educated at the Manchester Grammar School, and then entered as a student at St George’s Hospital, London, afterwards completing his medical studies in Paris, where he was a pupil of Dupuytren and Boyer. In London he had also attended the lectures of Abernethy and Sir Astley Cooper. In 1820 he was House Surgeon to the Manchester Infirmary, and was for some years Lecturer on Surgery at the Chatham Street School. He was twice a candidate for the office of Surgeon of the Infirmary, but was defeated owing to adverse local influences, and refused to put up a third time. Most of' his work lay among the poor, in connection more particularly with the Salford Dispensary, which, largely owing to his fostering care, latterly developed into a large hospital. He served faithfully and ungrudgingly for forty-four years as Surgeon to the Dispensary, and, on his retirement in 1870, was presented with £200 in plate, while his portrait by Measham was placed in the board room of the institution. After his retirement Boutflower devoted himself to the wants of the poor. At the time of his death he was Consulting Surgeon to the Salford and Pendleton Royal Hospital and Dispensary, and Senior Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons. He died at his residence, 118 Great Ducie Street, Strange-ways, Manchester, on March 20th, 1889, being then in his ninety-second year.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000922
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Dale, Frederic (1857 - 1913)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

First Title value, for Searching Dale, George Cornelius (1822 - 1897)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

First Title value, for Searching Dale, George Peckitte (1821 - 1893)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

First Title value, for Searching Cornish, Charles Henry (1807 - 1887)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

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/373461373461
Occupation General surgeon
Details Educated at the University of Edinburgh. He practised at Taunton and was first a Surgeon and then Senior Surgeon of the Taunton and Somerset Hospital. He died at Taunton on September 2nd, 1887. His portrait is in the Fellows' Album. Publications: "A Case of Successful Ovariotomy." - *Lancet*, 1850, ii, 680.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001278
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

by N Alan Green
Publication Date 2010-09-30
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001000-E001099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373212373212
Occupation General surgeon missionary
Details Charles Hartley served much of his professional life as a missionary and surgeon at Vom Christian Hospital, Nigeria. He later entered general practice in Falmouth. He was born in Newcastle, Staffordshire, on 22 January 1922. His father was Harold Hartley, a senior consulting surgeon at North Staffordshire Hospital, who had won a gold medal for his London MD in 1902. His mother was Janet Stuart née Laird, the second woman to gain the FRCS Edinburgh with the gold medal. Together with Elsie Inglis of the Scottish Women’s Hospital, she went to Serbia, to provide medical services for the White Russians. His mother died when Charles was 13, and he recalled being told by his housemaster “not to cry, as it was selfish”. His two older brothers went to Eton, but when it was time for young Charles to be educated, his father’s finances were somewhat constrained. He was educated first at Summer Field School, Oxford, and then went to Epsom College (from 1934 to 1939), where he was encouraged to enter medicine. As a rather shy bespectacled schoolboy, he had a good academic record before going to Peterhouse College, Cambridge, to study natural sciences in a foreshortened two year course. From 1939 to 1941, he captained the Peterhouse tennis team and was the only medical student in his year. In his first few days as an undergraduate he received an invitation to attend a ‘fresher’s squash’, a meeting for newcomers aimed at giving a Christian message. The speaker was ‘Jim’ (Charles Gordon) Scorer, a Cambridge graduate from Emmanuel College, who gave an evangelical talk that impressed at least one young undergraduate. Charles was also influenced in his early spiritual journey by a contemporary at Peterhouse, John Swinbank, later chaplain to Bradfield College. Charles went to St Bartholomew’s Hospital for his clinical training, but, because of the war, spent only three months in Smithfield, with much of his clinical training taking place at Hill End Hospital, St Albans and later at Friern Hospital. In his first year Charles Hartley lodged in St Albans and was provided with full board and lodging for performing regular Air Raid Precaution (ARP) duties. In the second year, he was billeted in Hill End Hospital, much liked by students, nurses and resident doctors because of the friendly and informal atmosphere, not apparent in Smithfield. The rather gloomy atmosphere at Friern Barnet in his final year was offset by excellent ‘digs’, run by a Miss Pepper, a staunch Congregationalist. She encouraged the students to attend the local church, run by one of the first female ministers in the UK, the Reverend Elsie Chamberlain, who was married to the local Anglican priest. Charles won the Brackenbury prize in surgery, the Matthews Duncan prize and gold medal in midwifery and gynaecology and the Walsham prize in surgical pathology. He was house surgeon to (Sir) James Paterson Ross and John Hosford at a time when Reggie Murley became chief assistant. He then became chief assistant in neurosurgery to John O’Connell and passed the primary FRCS. In 1947 Charles Hartley entered the RAMC as a surgical specialist in Graz and on trains from Trieste to the Hook of Holland. Towards the end of his National Service, he developed jaundice and was admitted to hospital for several weeks. Once he was demobilised, Charles felt he should go abroad as a missionary. As part of his training, he took a crash correspondence course with the London Bible College, did surgical locums and ironed out gaps in his knowledge, passed the final FRCS at the third attempt and the DTM&H after a course in tropical medicine. The Sudan United Missionary Society desperately needed a surgeon in northern Nigeria, and Charles set sail for Lagos in 1953. The Vom Hospital stood on a 4,000 foot high plateau. The work at this newly built hospital was demanding. On operating days he worked from dawn to dusk: caesarean sections were common emergencies, and he became adept at treating patients with vesicovaginal fistula. In quieter moments he explored the countryside, indulged in bird watching and added to his carefully annotated researches on the history of art. Despite poor health, he was determined to explore Africa and made the long journey to Lake Chad and then back along the river Benue. He left the mission field in 1966, after some 15 years of service. After extensive investigations at Bart’s, he was found to have contracted a rare form of leprosy. After treatment, he was left with a weak leg and decided to give up surgery. He became a GP in Falmouth. Charles loved the work as it brought new challenges. He retired from general practice reluctantly at the age of 60, but continued to work for the National Blood Transfusion Service across Cornwall until 1992, when he reached 70. He enjoyed golf and was an active member of the Falmouth Baptist church. He first met Ruth E A Doble, a nurse at Bart’s, in the sluice room of the operating theatre at Hill End Hospital. They married in February 1947, and had two daughters, Jane Deborah, born in 1948, who became a teacher, and Philippa Ruth, born in 1950, who became a solicitor. One of Charles’ hobbies during his time as a GP was collecting old Bibles. His was the second largest private collection and included first edition authorised versions and a psalter that had belonged to Mary, Queen of Scots. When his daughter Philippa sadly died of breast cancer in 2004, he lost heart for collecting and sold his collection at Sotherby’s for £250,000, with which he established the Bible Heritage Trust, a charity supporting Christian missions at home and abroad. Charles Hartley died on 6 October 2009, after four weeks of increasing weakness, but remained mentally alert to the last. He was survived by his daughter Jane, her husband, their three surviving children (Anna Grace, John Melville and Esther Ivy) and Philippa’s two children, Jonathan Hugh and Naomi Ruth.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001029
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Flint, Richard ( - 1869)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

First Title value, for Searching Atkinson, Leicester (1917 - 1993)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

by John Blandy
Publication Date 2009-07-24
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000600-E000699
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372816372816
Occupation Radiation oncologist
Details Leicester Atkinson was a consultant radiation oncologist. He was born in London on 25 May 1917, the son of Guy Christopher Leicester Atkinson and Agnes née Mingay. He was educated at King Edward VI School, Bury St Edmunds, and then studied medicine at the Middlesex Hospital, where after qualifying he completed junior posts. After National Service in the Royal Navy as a surgeon-lieutenant, he returned to the Middlesex Hospital to specialise in radiotherapy. In 1954 he emigrated to Sydney, Australia, as director of radiotherapy at St Vincent’s Hospital. Thirteen years later, in 1967, he moved to become director of the new institute of radiation oncology at the Prince of Wales Hospital. During this time he was a consultant radiation oncologist to the Women’s Hospital, the Royal Hospital for Women, and the St George Hospital. He collaborated with Noel Newton in providing a combined radiation and surgical service, and set up visiting consulting services to rural areas surrounding Newcastle, Wagga Wagga, Tamworth and Wollongong, with regular clinics staffed by visiting specialists. He was a stickler for accurate observation and documentation, illustrating his own records with clearly-labelled diagrams. He also insisted on reviewing the pathology of all his cases, an innovation at that time. Atkinson later became interested in the epidemiology of cancer, which took him to New Guinea and other countries, and motivated him to set up cancer registries. He was a keen golfer and a great supporter of the English cricket XI. He married Maria Jenvey in 1945 and they had one son. He died at Yass, New South Wales, on 9 August 1993 and is survived by his son, daughter-in-law and three grandchildren.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000633
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Flower, Sir William Henry (1831 - 1899)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2011-12-21
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001700-E001799
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373972373972
Occupation Museum director
Details The second son of Edward Fordham Flower and Celina, the eldest daughter of John Greaves, of Leamington. He was born at Stratford-on-Avon on November 30th, 1831. His father was founder of the brewing business known as Flower & Sons, which continued to be carried on at Stratford-on-Avon. The elder brother was the founder of the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, and his younger brother was Chairman of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trustees. William Henry Flower was educated at University College, and graduated MB at the University of London in 1851 after studying at the Middlesex Hospital. At University College he won the Sharpey Gold Medal in Physiology and the Grant Silver Medal in Zoology. He volunteered during the Crimean War in 1854, saw active service in the field, and held a hospital appointment at Scutari. On his return home he was elected Assistant Surgeon, Lecturer on Anatomy, and Curator of the Museum at the Middlesex Hospital. In 1861 he became Conservator of the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons of England in succession to John Thomas Quekett, holding the post until he was succeeded by Charles Stewart in 1884. He served the office of Professor of Comparative Anatomy and Physiology at the College from 1870-1873, the previous occupant of the chair being T H Huxley (qv); and a second time from 1876-1884, replacing William Kitchen Parker. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1864, served as a Member of the Council, was a Vice-President and was awarded a Royal Medal in 1882. When Sir Richard Owen (qv) retired from the Directorship of the Natural History Museum at South Kensington, Flower was appointed in his place in 1884, and held the post until 1898, when he resigned on account of ill health, and was succeeded by E Ray Lankester, FRS. He was elected to the Council of the Zoological Society in 1862 and served continuously until 1869; he became Vice-President in 1870 and acted as President for twenty years from Feb. 5th, 1879. He was also President of the Anthropological Institute from 1883-1885 and was more than once President of the Anthropological Section of the British Association. He was President of the British Association at the Newcastle-upon-Tyne Meeting in 1889. Flower was decorated CB in 1887 and was promoted KCB in 1892; he was a corresponding member of the Institute of France, and received the Prussian order 'Pour la Mérite'. He was also an Hon LLD of Dublin and Edinburgh and a DCL of Durham. He married in 1858 Georgiana Rosetta, daughter of Admiral William Henry Smyth (1788-1865), one of the founders of the Royal Geographical Society, and by her he had three sons and three daughters. He died after some months of ill health at Stanhope Gardens on July 1st, 1899, was cremated at Woking, and was buried at Stone, Buckinghamshire. A portrait by the Chevalier Schmidt, of Berlin, was given to Lady Flower, and there is a bust in the Natural History Museum at South Kensington. A small engraving representing Flower in middle life hangs in the Conservator's room at the College of Surgeons. An enlarged photograph by Messrs. Elliott and Fry was presented to the College in 1918. Urbane, easy of access, a good administrator, and an inheritor of his father's capacity for business, Flower was excellent as the Director of a large museum, whilst his scientific ability was of the greatest service to the two great institutions he was called upon to serve - the Hunterian Museum at the Royal College of Surgeons, and the Natural History Collection which was housed in the noble building at South Kensington. As guardian of a national collection he was successful in the difficult task of making it interesting to the general public without destroying its utility for scientific students, and he was thus justly pronounced to be "an originator and inventor in museum work". He was a morphologist and a comparative anatomist, as is shown by his *Osteology of Mammalia* published in 1870, by his work on the Monotremata and Marsupialia, and by his important contributions to the anatomy of the Cetacea, the outcome of which is to be seen in the 'whale room' in the College of Surgeons.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001789
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Hulme, Allan (1917 - 2008)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

by E C Hulme
Publication Date 2010-10-13
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001000-E001099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373213373213
Occupation Neurosurgeon
Details Allan Hulme was chief of neurosurgery at Frenchay Hospital, Bristol. He was born in June 1917 in Seaton Carew, but spent his childhood in Stockport, Lancashire. He was educated at Manchester Grammar School, where he was in receipt of a scholarship. In 1935, he won an exhibition to St John’s College, Cambridge, to read agricultural science. A year after going to Cambridge, he decided that his true vocation lay in medicine, and the university and college authorities allowed him to switch courses. In 1939, he graduated BA in medicine. Allan Hulme returned to Manchester, to pursue his medical training at the Manchester Royal Infirmary as a house surgeon under the tutelage of Sir Geoffrey Jefferson, newly appointed professor of neurosurgery at the University of Manchester, a mentor for whom he developed the utmost regard and admiration. In 1942, Allan Hulme gained his BChir. He also married Christine Annie Pepper, whom he had met in Cambridge whilst she was nursing at Addenbrooke’s Hospital. Their marriage lasted for 59 years. In 1942, Allan Hulme joined the Royal Army Medical Corps, serving first in East Africa (Nigeria), then being transferred to India, and finally Burma. While in India, his interest in neurosurgery was kindled by having to deal with combat-related traumatic head injuries. During this highly formative period, he was strongly influenced by a second mentor, Gordon Paul, a surgeon from Bristol, who informed him of the possibility of obtaining a position in Bristol after the war finished. After his demobilisation in 1946, Allan returned briefly to Manchester, but influenced by this advice, applied for and obtained a post in neurosurgery at Frenchay Hospital in Bristol. This had been developed as an Emergency Medical Services hospital, housed in a series of single-story brick buildings, by the US forces during the Second World War, and it was during this period that neurosurgery was established. After the war, when the hospital was handed back to the newly-formed NHS, Frenchay became the south-western regional centre for the specialty of neurosurgery. In 1947, shortly after starting work at Frenchay, Allan obtained his FRCS. At the time of his appointment, the chief of neurosurgery was George Alexander, another strong influence. He was acknowledged in an important paper which Allan Hulme published in 1960 on the surgical approach to thoracic intervertebral disc protrusions, which is still being cited more than 40 years later (*J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry*. 1960 May;23:133-7). Allan was promoted to senior registrar then full consultant by the early 1960s. The third consultant was Douglas Phillips. Work in the unit was arduous and demanding, with long and frequently unsocial hours. He showed paramount devotion to the welfare of his patients, often making the journey from his home in Long Ashton in the western suburbs of Bristol, even when not on duty, to check on the progress of patients in person. Because of his wide geographical coverage of the Frenchay neurosurgical unit, he also held regular clinics in Taunton and Exeter. On the retirement of Douglas Phillips in the late 1960s, Allan became chief of neurosurgery. Arising from his surgical work, he developed a strong interest in the mechanisms of control of intracranial pressure. He initiated and undertook pioneering research into this with colleagues at the Burden Neurological Institute, particularly Ray Cooper. They studied the control of intracranial pressure during anaesthesia, after traumatic head injury, and before and after surgery for intracranial space-occupying lesions. These studies involved the implantation of miniaturised subdural pressure transducers into the skull, along with other intracranial monitoring devices such as oxygen electrodes and thermistors to monitor local blood flow. Allan retired from his post as chief of neurosurgery in 1979, and retired to Balquhidder in Perthshire, where he passed a long, productive and happy retirement amongst his beloved Scottish hills, which he loved to paint and photograph to the very end of his life. He died on 29 December 2008 and was survived by his three children, Edward, Martin and Catherine.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001030
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Dalton, William Russell (1813 - 1882)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

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

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

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

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

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

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2010-11-11
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001000-E001099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373266373266
Occupation General surgeon
Details Eldest son of Robert Burrows, silversmith, of Ipswich, by his wife Elizabeth, daughter of James Cordy, of London, was born at Ipswich on August 5th, 1813. He was educated at the Ipswich Grammar School and apprenticed to William Jeffreson, surgeon, of Framlingham. He completed his medical education at the United Borough Hospitals, and directly after he qualified acted as assistant to Edward Dix at Brighton from 1837-1839, and then commenced practice in Old Steine on his own account. He soon began to take part in the public life of Brighton, and in 1841 he projected with Dr Turrell the Royal Literary and Scientific Institute. He also took part in founding the Brighton Mechanics Institute, of which he was Secretary from 1841-1857 and afterward Treasurer. In 1849 he was one of the Town Committee who bought the Royal Pavilion from the Commissioners of Woods and Forests for the sum of £53,000; and when a Charter was granted to Brighton he was returned at the head of the poll for Pavilion Ward. His services were recognized on October 13th, 1871, when his fellow-townsmen presented him with a handsome carriage and a pair of horses. Two years later, on February 5th, 1873, he received the honour of knighthood as a result of a petition that his great services to Brighton might receive some recognition. Burrows was Brigade Surgeon of the Brighton Artillery Corps and Chairman of the Lifeboat Committee. He was one of the two promoters of the Extramural Cemetery, and at his own personal expense he obtained the order for discontinuing burials in the churches, chapels, and graveyards of the town. He also directed attention to the sanitary condition of Brighton, and under his advice the Health of Town Act was adopted. In 1846 he raised money for erecting a fountain on the Steine, and there laid out and planted the enclosures near it entirely at his own cost. His pet aversions were street-organ players and itinerant hawkers. He died at 62 Old Steine, Brighton, on March 25th, 1876, and was buried in the Extramural Cemetery. He married on October 19th, 1842, Jane, daughter of Arthur Dendy, of Dorking. She died in 1877, leaving one son, William Seymour Burrows, who succeeded his father in practice.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001083
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

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

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

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

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

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

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

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

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

First Title value, for Searching Ford, Charles George Edwin (1816 - 1864)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

First Title value, for Searching Bushell, Richard ( - 1891)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

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

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

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

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

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

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2011-12-21
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001800-E001899
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373983373983
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born on April 22nd, 1810, at Holywell, a small Bedfordshire village near Hitchin. His father was a yeoman farmer sprung from long generations of Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire farmers, some of whom had been close personal friends of John Bunyan, the earlier generations being Puritans, the later Unitarians. John Foster, father of Michael, had antiquarian tastes and left to the British Museum a collection of coins found in his neighbourhood. Michael Foster was apprenticed in 1826 to Mr Peck, surgeon, of Kimbolton, and entered University College, London, in 1831, where he won many medals; he afterwards received his medical education at the North London Hospital. He then went to Huntingdon, first as assistant and afterwards in partnership with Jonah Wilson. He became Medical Officer to the Huntingdon County Hospital and Surgeon to the County Gaol, practising in partnership with Morriston Davis and Herbert Lucas. He married Mercy Cooper, and had a family of three sons and seven daughters : the eldest son and the only one that survived his father was Michael Foster (1836-1907), the physiologist. Publications:- "Trifolium in Foeno (the Common Clover Hay) in Pertussis." - *Med. Times and Gaz.*, 1861, I, 561. "Nitrite of Amyl in Tetanus." - *Lancet*, 1870, I, 533.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001800
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Davenport, Cecil John (1863 - 1926)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2011-09-14
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/373566373566
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born in Adelaide, South Australia, in 1863, the son of Robert Davenport, of Adelaide, and his wife, Dorothea Fulford, daughter of John Fulford, of London; he was the grandson of George Davenport, of Oxford. He was educated at St Bartholomew's Hospital, where he was House Surgeon. After taking the Fellowship he went to China as a medical missionary of the London Missionary Society. He established a medical mission in Chungking, and after some years of pioneer work there was moved to Wuchang. Here he carried on the medical work till the time of the Boxer Rising, when he was invalided home. In 1905 he received the appointment of Medical Superintendent of the Chinese Hospital, Shantung Road, Shanghai, and held this post for the rest of his life. Originally this was a mission hospital, but, under the control of local committees, in 1905 the hospital was in straits from lack of a qualified staff. Under Davenport's superintendence it rose to a high standard of efficiency, many thousands of poor Chinese being treated yearly in the wards and out-patient departments, and many doctors and nurses being trained. The hospital was founded in 1846 by Dr William Lockhart and is under the London Missionary Society, from whose missionaries its staff is derived. In 1925, owing to local disturbances, the hospital went through a revolutionary period, many of the Chinese staff and patients deserting. Davenport's report for 1925 gives an interesting account of the work done during this troublous crisis, and contains also curious details, furnished by Dr Agnes Towers, of 'women opium suicides'. During 1926 the hospital, which with the help of Davenport and others had continued to hold its own against all odds, received a vast accession of fortune under the terms of the will of Henry Lester, merchant, and an old resident in Shanghai. This magnificent gift was in the form of £350,000 in money and land. With these funds it was proposed to reconstruct the hospital on modern lines, to build a convalescent home, and to form an endowment fund. Davenport's retirement had been planned to take effect in 1927, but he was now urged to stay in China to help and advise in the rebuilding of the hospital and the founding of its medical school. He was therefore fain to stay and take up administrative duties so heavy that he had with regret to give up much of his surgical work. Doubtless he overstrained his capacities, for he died quite suddenly in the midst of his labours on September 4th, 1926. He had no wish for personal advancement or distinction, but as a President of the China Medical Missionary Association and the recipient of a decoration from the Chinese Government, he was shown some formal recognition. Davenport's life was given up entirely to the forwarding of his work; his keenness, upright character, and kindliness endeared him to the many of all nationalities with whom he was brought into contact. The chaotic state of the China he loved, and the events of the few years prior to September, 1926, were causes of much anxiety and grief to him, but his efforts to improve the conditions of medical work in that country were maintained to the end. In 1890 he married Miss A Miles, at one time 'Sister Martha' of St Bartholomew's Hospital. She was one of the first fully trained British nurses to go to China, and was from the beginning one of her husband's chief helpers. The children of the marriage were two daughters and a son, Robert Cecil Davenport, FRCS, ophthalmic surgeon.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001383
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2010-11-24 2013-08-07
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001100-E001199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373293373293
Occupation General surgeon
Details Robert Ceely, the elder brother of James Henry Ceely (qv), was born in 1797, and received his medical education at Guy's, at the London Hospital, and at Edinburgh. After qualifying he at once settled in practice at Aylesbury. Some years later he had contemplated entering the East India Company's service when, in 1882, Aylesbury became involved in the cholera epidemic, and Ceely displayed notable qualities in contending with the outbreak. It is reported that Lord Hardinge, then Commander-in-Chief, in admiration of Ceely's conduct, gave his nephew a commission in the 42nd Regiment. In 1833 he interested himself in the establishment of the Buckinghamshire County Infirmary at Aylesbury, and served on the staff until his death. Soon afterwards he began his "Observations on the Variolae Vaccinae", which was published in 1840. John Simon said of him that he "has done more to advance the natural history of vaccination than any other individual since the days of Jenner". He thus became the chief authority, and was involved in the various controversies for the rest of his life. Three months before his death, at the Cambridge Meeting of the British Medical Association, in the course of the discussion on August 13th, 1880, on the different methods of collecting, preserving, and employing animal vaccines, Ceely, aged 83, exhibited drawings of: (1) (a) Casual vaccinia on the cow; (b) In the same animal, the pock declining and the secondary after-pock; (c) The secondary or after-pock on the dog and on children. (2) Casual vaccinia on the hands of milkers in various stages. (3) False cow-pox in the cow. (4) Casual transference of false cow-pox to the hands of milkers. (5) Its inoculation on man. (6) Variolation of the cow, then vaccination of the same animal on the 10th day. (7) Variolation only of the cow in all stages. (8) Lymph from the variolated cow, transfer to children exhibiting identity with vaccinia developed in the cow .casually or after vaccination. (9 and 10) Drawings of sheep-pox. Taking into consideration the undeveloped stage of inoculation experiments and the complexities of the vaccination question, Ceely's observations were of extraordinary accuracy. In 1865 he was a member of the Royal Commission on the Cattle Plague, and made contributions to the Royal College of Surgeons Museum. In the College Library are the author's copy both of the 1840 and the 1842 publications with MS notes. He died at Aylesbury on November 28th, 1880, and his funeral took place on December 3rd amid evidences of sincere respect and affection. Publications:- Ceely's authoritative works on vaccination, etc., include the following: "Observations on the Variolae Vaccine as they occasionally appear in the Vale of Aylesbury, with an Account of some Recent Experiments in the Vaccination, Retrovaccination and Variolation of Cows: interspersed with incidental remarks," 8vo, 35 plates, Worcester, 1840; reprinted from *Trans. Prov. Med. and Surg. Assoc.*, viii. (The Library possesses the author's copy with his corrections in MS.) Translated into German, "Beobachtungen uber die Kuhpocken," etc., Stuttgart, 1841. "Further Observations," 8vo, 6 plates, Worcester, 1842 (author's copy). *Account of Contagious Epidemic Puerperal Fever*, 1835. "Health Officers, their Appointment, Duties, and Qualifications: being a Reprint of Official Documents long out of print": with Prefatory Remarks by R C, 8vo, London, 1873.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001110
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Clarke, William Fairlie (1833 - 1884)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2011-05-31
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001100-E001199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373372373372
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born at Calcutta, the third son of William Fairlie Clarke, an officer in the Bengal Civil Service. He was educated at the High School, Edinburgh, and entered Rugby on September 29th, 1850. He matriculated from Christ Church, Oxford, on June 2nd, 1852; graduated BA in 1856; MB and MA in 1862, and MD in 1876. He was intended for the Bar, but finding medicine more to his taste he entered King's College, London, as a student in 1858. He was elected Assistant Surgeon to Charing Cross Hospital in 1871 and held the post until 1877. A learned author, but disappointed by the slow advent of a surgical practice, and with an increasing family to support, he left London and settled in general practice at Southborough, near Tunbridge Wells, in 1877, where a drinking fountain commemorates his good work in the village. He married in 1870 and was the father of four sons. He suffered from a severe attack of typhoid fever in 1881, and in the early part of 1884 he showed cerebral symptoms of an obscure nature. He retired to the Isle of Wight, and died at Bonchurch on May 8th, 1884, being buried near the grave of his mother at Elvington, York. In London his name is perpetuated by the 'Fairlie Clarke Conversazione', an annual meeting for medical students begun by himself some years before his death and continued by the Medical Missionary Society. William Fairlie Clarke had deep religious convictions and was especially interested in medical missions and temperance questions. He wrote much on the medical charities of London, on the abuse of the out-patient system at hospitals, and on provident dispensaries. There is a photograph of him in *Leaders in Medicine and Surgery*, and there is also one in the Fellows' Album. Publications: *A Manual of the Practice of Surgery*, London, 1865. *A Treatise on the Diseases of the Tongue*, London, 1873.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001189
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

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/373475373475
Occupation General surgeon
Details Was Surgeon to the Parochial Infirmary of St Luke's, Middlesex. He died at his house, 16 Artillery Place, Finsbury Square, on or before April 26th, 1854.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001292
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Clark, William Gladstone (1868 - 1916)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

First Title value, for Searching Clayton, Sir Oscar Moore Passey (1816 - 1892)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2011-06-02
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001100-E001199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373378373378
Occupation General surgeon
Details The eldest son of James Clayton, of Percy Street, Bedford Square, by Caroline, daughter of Edward Kent, of Kingston, Surrey. He was educated at Bruce Castle School, Tottenham, and proceeded thence to University College and to the Middlesex Hospital, in which institution he remained greatly interested throughout life. He first practised at 3 Percy Street, Tottenham Court Road, WC, but for the greater part of his life he is identified with No 5 Harley Street. A courtier as well as a fashionable physician, at the time of his death he had been for many years the personal attendant of the younger members of the Royal Family, and received numerous honours in recognition of his services. He was amongst the first to realize the nature of the illness when HRH The Prince of Wales, afterwards King Edward VII, sickened with typhoid fever in 1872. The disease was contracted at Scarborough, and Clayton was in attendance upon some of the Prince's fellow-guests at the house party. He was thus able to confirm the diagnosis made by Dr John Lowe, of King's Lynn, the private medical attendant at Sandringham. Sir Oscar Clayton was Extra Surgeon-in-Ordinary to the Prince of Wales and Surgeon-in-Ordinary to the Duke of Edinburgh. He was a Knight of the Order of Leopold of Belgium and a Deputy Lieutenant for Middlesex and the Tower Hamlets. He was Surgeon to the Police, to the St Pancras School for Female Children, to the Charity of St George-the-Martyr, and to the London Philanthropic Society. He died on January 27th, 1892, and his will was proved at upwards of £150,000. His country house was Grove Cottage, Heathbourne, Bushey Heath, Herts. A characteristic portrait by 'Ape' (A Pellegrini) appeared in *Vanity Fair*. It is dated September 12th, 1874, and bears the legend 'Fashionable Surgery'. A copy is preserved in the College Library. The successful career of Sir Oscar may have aroused some jealous comment amongst his contemporaries, but he was a staunch friend, a good colleague, and a supporter of the medical profession. Publication: "Account of a Hysterical Affection of the Vocal Apparatus with several cases." - *Med.-Chir. Trans.*, 1843, xxvi, 115.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001195
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

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

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

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

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

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)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

First Title value, for Searching Beaman, George (1803 - 1874)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

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/372976372976
Occupation General surgeon
Details Apprenticed to Peter Holland, of Knutsford, Cheshire, the father of Sir Henry Holland, and became a student at Guy’s and St Thomas’s Hospitals, where he attracted the attention of Astley Cooper. Subsequently he acted as Demonstrator of Anatomy under Grainger at the Webb Street School. He then joined in partnership with Thomas Ansaldo Hewson, practising at 8 Henrietta Street, Covent Garden, later at 32 King Street, and acquired a lucrative practice, which reached £3000 to £4000 a year. Unfortunately, during the railway mania he speculated and became involved in a large debt which was only cleared off a few months before his death. There were then living in the neighbourhood many rich traders as well as visitors to the chief London hotels of the time. This brought Beaman in contact with consultants, Sir Astley Cooper, Frederick Tyrell, Sir Charles Clark, and others, about whom he had many anecdotes. As Medical Officer to the Strand Union and to the Parish of St Paul, Covent Garden, he was called upon to examine the body of an Italian boy, Carlo Ferrier, brought to the dissecting room of King’s College for Richard Partridge (qv), the Lecturer on Anatomy. The teeth had all been extracted after death and over the left eyebrow there was a wound penetrating to the bone without fracturing the skull. But the real injury was not apparent until after exposure of the back of the neck, when a quantity of extravasated blood was found superficial to the spinal column, with coagulated blood in the spinal canal, whilst the bones of the spine were uninjured. The boy had been killed by blows on the back of the neck by Bishop, Williams, and May, the resurrectionists, on Nov 5th, 1831. Beaman and Richard Partridge were the principal witnesses at the Old Bailey trial on Dec 2nd. In later life he was much engaged in official duties as Medical Officer to the South Western Railway from its commencement, and as Medical Adviser to the Board of Inland Revenue. He was also active with Thomas Wakley, senr, in founding the new Equitable Insurance Company, of which he became Chairman. On a visit to Paris he watched Civiale perform lithotrity and became strongly opposed to the operation as rough and inefficient. One of his patients was operated upon by Heurteloup for calculus by lithotomy and survived Beaman. One of his children suffered from epilepsy, and he was hopeful that he had almost discovered the remedy. In his book *Epilepsy and its Cure*, 1868, 4th edition, 1872, his enthusiasm led him to overrate the power of the means he employed, principally bromide of potassium. He rightly discountenanced the prevalent enfeebling measures, blood-letting, purging, blistering, and insertion of setons. His health was failing for two years before his death in 1874.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000793
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

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

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2011-11-09
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001500-E001599
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373730373730
Occupation General surgeon
Details Was at one time Surgeon to the South Staffordshire General Hospital, and then practised at Wolverhampton. He was a Fellow of the Royal Medico-Chirurgical Society, and contributed various papers to the Lancet and Provincial Medical Journal. He died of diphtheria at Wolverhampton on May 29th, 1859.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001547
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Edwardes, Thomas ( - 1896)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2011-11-09
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001500-E001599
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373731373731
Occupation General surgeon
Details Educated at St Bartholomew's Hospital. He practised at Llansaintffraid, Oswestry, was Medical Officer of the 1st District of the Llanfyllin Union, and also Surgeon to several Friendly Societies. In 1875 he was Public Vaccinator and Medical Officer of Health to the 2nd District of the Llanfyllin Union. He was Medical Referee to the Star Assurance Company. Later he practised at. Yaxley, Peterborough. His death occurred on March 9th, 1896. Publications: "Cases of Cholera in Wales." - *Lancet*, 1842, ii, 814. "Extraction of Large Calculus from a Child." - *Ibid*, 1863, I, 131.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001548
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Coates, John (1878 - 1911)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

First Title value, for Searching Davies, Peter ( - 2007)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

by Tina Craig
Publication Date 2011-11-10 2014-03-10
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001500-E001599
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373735373735
Occupation General surgeon
Details Peter Davies was a general surgeon who practised in Belgium throughout his career. He qualified MB, BS from Manchester University in 1974 and passed the fellowship in 1980. In the 1998 Medical Register he is listed as living in the town of Overijuse in Belgium and his wife notified the College of his death on 14 August 2007.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001552
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Coates, William Henry (1771 - 1853)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

First Title value, for Searching Davies, David Graham Leighton (1923 - 2006)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

by Sarah Gillam
Publication Date 2011-11-10 2015-06-19
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001500-E001599
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373737373737
Occupation General surgeon
Details David Graham Leighton Davies was a consultant general surgeon at East Glamorgan General Hospital, Pontypridd, and an honorary clinical tutor in surgery at the Welsh National School of Medicine. He studied in Cardiff, gaining a BSc degree with a distinction in anatomy, in 1943 and at Guy's Hospital Medical School. He qualified MB BS in 1946. Prior to his consultant appointment, he was a house surgeon and house physician at a Guy's Hospital unit based in Orpington and a senior registrar in surgery at the United Cardiff Hospitals. He also served as a surgeon commander in the Royal Naval Reserves and was awarded the Reserve Decoration (RD) in 1967. He was a tutor in surgery for the Royal College of Surgeons, and a fellow and former member of the council of the Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland. His widow Felicity informed the College of his death on 15 September 2006.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001554
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2011-02-10
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001100-E001199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373311373311
Occupation General surgeon
Details Eileen Busby was an associate specialist at the Royal Marsden Hospital, London. Born in Clapton, London, on 5 December 1930, she was the daughter of William Francis Busby, a house painter and decorator, and Rose Harriet née Stephenson, a dressmaker. Eileen was educated at various schools during the Second World War, before entering Tiffin Girls' School, Kingston-upon-Thames, where she excelled, ending as head girl. She then went on to Bedford College, London, to read zoology and botany, and did her medical education at Charing Cross Hospital. There she gained prizes in anatomy, physiology, pathology, surgery, orthopaedics and applied pharmacology and therapeutics. She qualified with the Llewellyn certificate of merit. After serving as a house physician, house surgeon and casualty officer, she became an anatomy demonstrator and a research assistant in physiology at Charing Cross. In 1957 she went to the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital as a senior house officer for a year. For the next three years she held posts at Ealing, Bromley, East Ham Memorial and St George's hospitals. In 1964 she began her training in radiotherapy as a registrar at the Royal Marsden Hospital, becoming a senior registrar in 1967 and finally a medical assistant and associate specialist in 1969, a post which she retained until 1994. She published extensively on experimental carcinogenesis in the mouse bladder, and on tumours of the head and neck. Eileen never married. Her many outside interests included knitting, needlework, music and gardening.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001128
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

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

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

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

First Title value, for Searching Daws, Reginald Alex (1922 - 2009)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

by T T King
Publication Date 2011-02-10
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001100-E001199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373314373314
Occupation Neurosurgeon
Details Alec Daws, neurosurgeon at Royal Preston Hospital, was born on 26 July 1922 at Goadby Marwood, Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire, the son of Walter Arthur Daws, a severely disabled Canadian war pensioner, and his wife, Ruth Anne. His early school days were spent at the Victoria School, Montreal, but he returned to England with his parents in 1934 and attended the Church of England School, Ashford, Middlesex, and Kingston Technical College. He entered King's College, University of London, in 1941 and the medical faculty in 1942. His medical school was St George's Hospital, London, where he won the Brackenbury prize for medicine. He qualified in 1946, doing his house appointments at St George's and its country branch in Wimbledon. In 1947 he was a resident medical officer at Atkinson Morley's Hospital, Wimbledon, under Sir Wylie McKissock and Valentine Logue, and became a registrar, and later acting first assistant, in the same unit in 1948. His National Service, starting in 1949, was in the Army at the neurosurgical centre at Wheatley, Oxfordshire, under Sir Hugh Cairns and J B Pennybacker. He obtained the fellowship of both the English and Edinburgh Royal Colleges of Surgeons in 1953, before being appointed as a senior neurosurgical registrar to Charles Langmaid at the Cardiff Royal Infirmary and also at Swansea, with Norman Whalley. He was appointed as a consultant neurosurgeon to the Royal Preston Hospital in 1958, at a time when it had neither beds nor operating theatre of its own. With his colleague, Kenneth Tutton, he developed the department into a subregional neurosurgical unit. He had a special interest in the treatment of subarachnoid haemorrhage and intracranial aneurysms and wrote on this subject, as well as on intraspinal dermoid cysts, hypopituitarism due to sarcoidosis and carotid thrombosis in head injury. He was a member of the Society of British Neurological Surgeons, a founding member of the North of England Neurological Association, an active member of the BMA, and was involved in administrative committees in the National Health Service. He married, in 1954, June Hawkins, a nurse. They had two sons, Christopher Mark and Andrew Peter. His outside interests included music and he was a keen yachtsman. He died on 29 September 2009, having suffered from Alzheimer's disease for some time.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001131
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Hames, George Henry ( - 1909)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-07-20 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/372194372194
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born in Lincolnshire; entered St Bartholomew's Hospital in 1871 and distinguished himself there, gaining the Foster Prize in 1872, being Brackenbury Medical Scholar in 1875, and Kirkes' Scholar and Gold Medallist. He was House Surgeon to G W Callender (qv) in 1875 and House Physician to Reginald Southey in 1876-1877. Meanwhile in 1873-1874 he was Prosector at the Royal College of Surgeons and for some years Hon Secretary of the Abernethian Society. After leaving St Bartholomew's he studied at the Rotunda Hospital, Dublin, was Chloroformist at the Cheyne Hospital for Children, and Surgeon to the Western General Dispensary. He became a well-known practitioner in Mayfair at 29 Hertford Street, 125 Piccadilly, 113 Sloane Street, and died at 11 Park Lane on May 28th, 1909. Publication:- Hames was a contributor to the *Saturday Review*.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000007
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Vincent, John Painter (1776 - 1852)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-07-20 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/372198372198
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born at Newbury, Berkshire, where his father, Osman Vincent, was a silk merchant and banker, living at Donnington. Captain Richard Budd Vincent, CB (1770?-1831), was John's elder brother. Vincent was apprenticed to William Long (d 1829), Surgeon to St Bartholomew's Hospital and the Bluecoat School, and as an apprentice he had occasion to attend Leigh Hunt, then a schoolboy. Hunt says of Long, "he was dark like a West Indian and I used to think him handsome, but the sight of Mr Long's probe was not so pleasant, I preferred to see it in the hands of Vincent". He was one of the last Members admitted by the Company of Surgeons on March 20th, 1800. Two days later, on March 22nd, 1800, the College Charter was granted and Vincent was again examined. There were thirty-nine candidates for the diploma, many of whom were 'referred'. John Smith Soden (qv) and Richard Spencer (qv) were amongst those who satisfied the examiners. Vincent was elected Assistant Surgeon to St Bartholomew's Hospital on August 13th, 1807, on the resignation of his master, William Long, whose house he took in Lincoln's Inn Fields. At the election he received 154 votes and his opponent, William Wadd, obtained 56. He became Surgeon on Jan 29th, 1816, and resigned on January 21st, 1847, when he was elected a Governor. At the Royal College of Surgeons Vincent was co-opted a Member of the Council in 1822 and held office till his death. He was a Member of the Court of Examiners from 1828-1851, Hunterian Orator in 1829, Vice-President in 1830, 1831, 1838, and 1839; and President in 1832 and 1840. He was not in favour of establishing an order of Fellows of the College. He married: (1) On May 28th, 1812, Maria, daughter of Samuel Parke, of Kensington and Lysonby Lodge, near Melton Mowbray, by whom he had six children, of whom three sons survived him. She died in October, 1824, and he then married (2) Elizabeth Mary Williams, who outlived him. He died of paralysis after several years of ill health at Woodlands Manor, near Sevenoaks, Kent, on July 17th, 1852, and was buried in the church he had built at Woodlands. A three-quarter-length portrait in oils, sitting, by E U Eddis hangs in the Great Hall at St Bartholomew's Hospital. It was painted by subscription for his pupils and represents Vincent as a frail-looking man. The likeness was said to be good. It was presented to the Hospital on Sept 10th, 1850, and an autographed engraving from it by Henry Cousins was issued to the subscribers. Sir James Paget, writing from personal knowledge, said that he remembered him, "as a very practical surgeon, shrewd in diagnosis and always prudent and watchful, but apparently shy and reserved and not at all given to teaching even in the wards. He never taught in the school - never even, I think, gave a clinical lecture." Luther Holden (qv), writing in greater detail on January 11th, 1897, tells of his recollections in the following words: "At last, after much delay, which I regret, here are a few items which I have gathered from the mouldy memories of my respected friend and teacher, John Painter Vincent. All that I tell you is limited to the estimation in which we students held him. "We used to call him 'Old Vinco'. He was very popular with us - always kind, always ready to help a fellow in distress, a man of few, but always gentle, words. He lived in Lincoln's Inn Fields, and always walked to the Hospital. His walk bespoke a character about which there was no mistake. He came shuffling along with short steps, his hands never in his pockets, never behind him, but always clasped in front, as if ready to do handy work. He was very careful of his hands, and well he might be, for they were his best instruments, not that we thought him a good operator in the usual sense of the word. He 'operated' best without instruments. He had a natural dexterity and fine surgical touch. This was best seen when he 'set' a fracture or reduced a dislocation or when he was examining the nature of a tumour, but best of all when he was reducing a hernia. Many a time I have seen him reduce a hernia which had baffled his house surgeon and dressers. 'Old Vinco' would come down, grasp the hernia with his magic hands, give it a bit of a shake, and tuck it up, much to the disappointment of the 'boys', who wanted an operation. In this matter of 'legerdemain' we all agreed that he was far more dexterous than his colleagues. Unfortunately for us, Vincent did not explain to us how to do the trick, for he was a man of very few words, and never, so far as I know, gave a clinical lecture. He was certainly a conservative surgeon, disposed to avoid operations, unless obviously necessary. His highly educated surgical teaching was probably appreciated by his colleagues. In doubtful cases it was their wont to instruct their respective house surgeons to request Mr Vincent to give his opinion. In his time there were no special days, as now, for surgical consultations. "As regards Vincent's personality, there is an admirable likeness of him in the Great Hall of St Bartholomew's Hospital. He was exceedingly modest, quiet, unobtrusive. I am not aware that he ever published much, if anything, but I believe there is a very good memoir of him by his son in our library. He wore a brown wig, which never altered in colour as he grew older. Eventually he died paralytic, after a very long confinement to bed, [still] Senior Surgeon to St Bartholomew's. "The above is all that I can fairly remember of 'old Vinco'. Even this little has given me pleasure to recall. Do what you like with it." "Always sincerely yours, "Luther Holden." PUBLICATIONS: - *The Hunterian Oration*, 8vo, London, 1829. *Observations on Some of the Parts of Surgical Practice*, 8vo, London, 1847. *An Address to the Council of the College of Surgeons,* 1841.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000011
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching White, Anthony (1782 - 1849)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

First Title value, for Searching Cooper, Samuel (1781 - 1848)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

First Title value, for Searching Lawrence, Sir William (1783 - 1867)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

First Title value, for Searching Travers, Benjamin (1783 - 1858)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

First Title value, for Searching Brodie, Sir Benjamin Collins (1783 - 1862)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-07-28 2012-07-19
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000000-E000099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372203372203
Occupation Anatomist General surgeon
Details Was the fourth child of the Rev. Peter Bellinger Brodie, M.A., of Worcester College, Oxford, Rector of Winterslow, Wilts, by Sarah, daughter of Benjamin Collins, Banker and printer, of Milford, near Salisbury. The Brodies were originally a Morayshire clan, and the family was fortunate in relations. Dr. Denman, then the accoucheur, had married Brodie's aunt; Sir Richard Goff ['Goff' is crossed out, and the following added: Croft (Lady Croft & Mrs Baillie were Dr Denman's daughters)] had married a cousin; and Dr. Baillie, nephew of William and John Hunter, had married another cousin. Dr. Denman's son afterwards became Lord Chief Justice, and was well known as one of the advocates at the trial of Queen Caroline, whilst Peter Brodie, Benjamin's eldest brother, held a high position as a conveyancer. In 1797 Brodie and his brothers raised a company of volunteers at a time when a French invasion was much dreaded. He was privately educated by his father, and at the age of eighteen went up to London, devoting himself from the first to the study of anatomy. Brodie joined the medical profession without any special liking or bent for it, and in after-days he said he thought those best succeeded in professions who joined them, not from any irresistible prepossession, but rather from some accidental circumstance inducing them to persevere in their selected course either as a matter of duty or because they had nothing better to do. He rose to be the first surgeon in England, holding for many years a position similar to that once occupied by Sir Astley Cooper. Brodie had always a philosophical turn of mind. He learnt much at first from Abernethy, who arrested his pupils' attention so that it never flagged, and what he told them in his emphatic way never could be forgotten. Brodie used to say "that he had always kept in mind the saying of William Scott [afterwards Lord Stowell] to his brother John [subsequently Lord Eldon], 'John, always keep the Lord Chancellorship in view, and you will be sure to get it in the end.'" And a similar aim and distinction were Brodie's. In 1801 and 1802 he attended the lectures of James Wilson at the Hunterian School in Great Windmill Street, where he worked hard at dissection. It was about this time that he formed what proved a lifelong friendship with William Lawrence (q.v.). In 1803 Brodie became a pupil of Sir Everard Home at St. George's Hospital, and was successively appointed House Surgeon and Demonstrator to the Anatomical School, after which he was Home's assistant in his private operations and researches in comparative anatomy, and he did much work for him at the College Museum. "The latter employment," says Mr. Timothy Holmes (q.v.) in his *Life of Brodie*, "was of critical importance for Brodie in several ways - chiefly because it obliged him to work on scientific subjects, and thus prevented a too exclusive devotion to the pursuit of practical surgery. We cannot be wrong in attributing to this cause mainly his connection with the Royal Society, and the many-sidedness of his intellectual activities." At the College he came into contact with Clift, and, through Home, became an intimate in the learned coterie of Sir Joseph Banks, President of the Royal Society, and the chief link between distinguished men of science of two centuries. Brodie still diligently pursued his anatomical studies at the Windmill Street School, where he first demonstrated for, and then lectured conjointly with, James Wilson until 1812. In 1808, before he was twenty-five, he was elected Assistant Surgeon at St. George's, thus relieving Home of some part of his duties. Brodie remained in this position fourteen years, and his "regular attendance at the hospital was an immense improvement, in the interests both of the patients and the students, on the practice obtaining in the metropolitan hospitals of that day". All through life Brodie was consumed with the rage for work which his father had originally instilled into him. So devoted was he to every phase of his duties that he found no time to travel, only once visiting France for a month and often going without a summer holiday. His very recreations were arduously intellectual. Thus he took a leading part in the life of various learned societies - the Academical Society, banished to London from Oxford in the French revolutionary epoch, the Society for the Promotion of Medical and Chirurgical Knowledge, the Royal Medico-Chirurgical Society, of which he was President in 1839 and 1840. He contributed several valuable papers to the last-named society, and at its meetings he stimulated discussion, and had always something of interest to say. Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1810, he soon communicated a paper "On the Influence of the Brain on the Action of the Heart and the Generation of Animal Heat", and another "On the Effects produced by certain Vegetable Poisons (Alcohol, Tobacco, Woorara)". The first paper, the subject of which he doubtless derived from John Hunter, formed the Croonian Lecture: the two papers taken together won him the Copley Medal in 1811, an honour never before bestowed on so young a man. In 1809 Brodie entered upon private practice, and in 1822 became full Surgeon at St. George's Hospital, from which time forward his career was one of ever-increasing success. He became a Member in 1805, a Fellow in 1843, and from 1819 to 1823 he was Professor of Anatomy, Physiology, and Surgery at the College. He lectured upon the Organs of Digestion, Respiration, and Circulation, and on the Nervous System, the most interesting of his discourses being upon "Death from Drowning", a subject which Hunter had investigated without hitting upon the scientific explanation of that form of asphyxia eventually brought out by Brodie. While Professor at the College, Brodie was summoned to attend George IV, and with Sir Astley Cooper, who was the operator, and a formidable array of medical men of that time, assisted at an operation for the removal of a small sebaceous cyst from the king's scalp. He became Surgeon to George IV, and attended him during his last illness, when he went every night to Windsor, slept there, and returned to London in the morning. "His habit", says Mr. Timothy Holmes, "was to go into the king's room at about six o'clock, and sit talking with him for an hour or two before leaving for town." The king became warmly attached to him. He was Surgeon to William IV, and in 1834, when he was made a Baronet, he was appointed Serjeant-Surgeon. In this capacity he became examiner by prescriptive right in the College, a privilege abolished by the Charter of 1843, which Brodie was largely instrumental in obtaining. He was a Member of Council from 1829-1862, Hunterian Orator in 1837, Vice-President in 1842 and 1843, and President in 1844. He retired from St. George's Hospital in 1840, but for some time continued his activity at the College, which owes to him the institution of the Order of Fellows. The object of this institution, he maintained, was to ensure the introduction into the profession of a certain number of young men who might be qualified to maintain its scientific character, and would be fully equal to its higher duties as hospital surgeons, teachers, and improvers of physiological, pathological, and surgical science afterwards. The Fellowship may be said to have been largely instrumental in raising the college to what it now is - "the exemplar of surgical education to the whole kingdom". Brodie was the first President of the General Medical Council, having been elected in 1858. Within a week after receiving this honour he became President of the Royal Society, an office which he filled with great dignity and wisdom till 1861. He died, nearly blind following double cataract for the relief of which he had been operated upon by Sir William Bowman (q.v.), at Broome Park, Betchworth, Surrey, on Oct. 21st, 1862. Of the immediate cause of his death, Holmes says: "It seems that nearly thirty years [see BLOXHAM, THOMAS] previously he had suffered from a dislocation of the right shoulder. I am not aware that he ever made any complaint of the part after the dislocation had been reduced, but it was in this same joint that in July he began to complain of pain accompanied by much prostration; and this was succeeded in September by the appearance of a tumour, doubtless of a malignant nature, in the neighbourhood of the shoulder." It thus happened that he who had spent his life treating diseased joints died of a joint disease. He married in 1816 Anne, the third daughter of Serjeant Sellon by his wife Charlotte Dickinson, his brother-in-law being Monsieur Regnault, the French physicist. Three children survived to maturity: Sir Benjamin Collins Brodie F.R.S. (1817-1880), who became Professor of Chemistry at Oxford; a daughter who married the Rev. E. Hoare; and another son, the Rev. W. Brodie. [His granddaughter Mary Isabel married Sir Herbert Warren K.C.V.O. President of Magdalen College Oxford - 1885-1928] Brodie was distinguished as a surgeon with the bent of a physician. He was not a great operating surgeon, nor did he regard operations as the highest aim of surgery. His power of diagnosis was great, and he was a distinguished teacher with an elegant and clear deliverance. He attained high success by the legitimate influence of a lofty order of intellect, by his great stores of surgical knowledge, and the sound decided opinions he based upon them. He was single-minded and upright in character and free from all affectations. He knew his duty and did it well. He lived for a great end, the lessening of human suffering, and for that he felt no labour was too great, no patience too long. As a scientific man his object was truth pursued for its own sake, and without regard to future reward. He recognized the great traditions of wisdom, benevolence, and self-denial as the everlasting bases on which true medicine and surgery rest, and he was in truth a master of medicine. Of Brodie's manner as a lecturer, Sir Henry Acland says: "None who heard him can forget the graphic yet artless manner in which, sitting at his ease, he used to describe minutely what he had himself seen and done under circumstances of difficulty, and what under like circumstances he would again do or would avoid. His instruction was illustrated by the valuable pathological dissections which during many years he had amassed, and which he gave during his lifetime to his hospital." Mr. Timothy Holmes says: "It was Brodie who popularized the method of lithotrity in England, and by so doing chiefly contributed to the ready reception of an operation which has robbed what was one of the deadliest diseases that afflict humanity of nearly all its terror. This will remain to all time one of Brodie's greatest claims to public gratitude." Brodie used to tell that he once prescribed for a fat butler, suffering from too much good living and lack of exercise. Sir Benjamin told him "he must be very moderate in what he ate and drank, careful not to eat much at a time or late at night. Above all, no spirituous liquors could be allowed, malt liquor especially being poison to his complaint." Whilst these directions were being given the butler's face grew longer and longer, and at the end he exclaimed, "And pray, Sir Benjamin, who is going to compensate me for the loss of all these things?" Brodie's personal appearance is admirably portrayed in the picture by Watts. He was not, perhaps, strictly handsome, but no one can deny that the features are striking. A fine forehead, keen grey eyes, a mobile and sensitive mouth, and facial muscles which followed all the movements of one of the most active minds, lent to the countenance a charm and an expressiveness to which no stranger could be insensible. His frame was slight and small; but there was nothing of weakness about it. Those who knew him only as a public man would little suspect the playful humour which sparkled by his fireside - the fund of anecdotes, the harmless wit, the simple pleasures of his country walk. The following is a list of portraits of Brodie: (1) A bust by H. Weekes, R.A., in the Royal College of Surgeons. (2) A portrait in middle life, which appeared in the Medical Circular (1852, I, 817). The copy in the College is accompanied by a strikingly picturesque and vivid appreciation of Brodie as a teacher making his round of the wards. (3) A half-length by G. F. Watts, R.A., painted in 1860, which is reproduced in Timothy Holmes's *Life of Sir Benjamin Collins Brodie*, 1897. (4) A medal presented to Sir Benjamin Brodie in 1840 when he retired from office as Surgeon to St. George's Hospital. There is a bronze replica in the Board Room at St. George's Hospital, and an illustration of it in the *British Journal of Surgery* (1918-19, vi, facing p.158). PUBLICATIONS: - As an author Brodie achieved fame by his treatise on *Diseases of the Joints*, 1818, which went through five editions and was translated into foreign languages. He wrote also on local nervous affections, diseases of the urinary organs, the surgery of the breast, lighting-stroke, besides an important work, published anonymously in 1854, under the title of *Psychological Enquiries* [Times 21 Jan 1938. BRODIE - On Jan. 20, 1938. at Brockham Warren, Betchworth, Surrey, of pneumonia, SIR BENJAMIN VINCENT SELLON BRODIE, Bt., M.A. (Oxon), D.L., J.P., aged 75. Funeral at Betchworth Church, 3 p.m. Monday, Jan. 24. SIR BENJAMIN BRODIE. Sir Benjamin Vincent Sellon Brodie, Bt.,. died at his home, Brockham Warren, Dorking, yesterday at the age of 75. He succeeded as third baronet on the death of his father in 1880. Educated at Magdalen College, Oxford, and a barrister at Lincoln's Inn, he was a county councillor and then a county alderman for Surrey, High Sheriff in 1912, and a member of the Surrey Education Committee. He owned about 1,000 acres in Surrey. Sir Benjamin married in 1887 Caroline, daughter of the late Captain J. R. Woodriff, R.N., his Majesty's Serjeant-at-Arms, and they had one son and two daughters. Lady Brodie died in 1895. The heir is Captain Benjamin Colin (amended to Collins) Brodie, who was educated at Eton and Magdalen College, Oxford. He served throughout the War with the Surrey Yeomanry and the 4th Battalion, The Gordon Highlanders, winning the M.C. and bar. Later he became a captain in the Army Educational Corps. He is married and has two sons and one daughter.] [SIR BENJAMIN BRODIE Captain Sir Benjamin Collins Brodie, MC, the fourth baronet, died on Monday. He served with the Surrey Yeomanry at Gallipoli, with the Gordon Highlanders and the 1st Highland Brigade, British Army of the Rhine, in the First World War. He was joint headmaster of Holyrood School, Bognor Regis, from 1927 to 1940. He was twice chairman of the governors of Tonbridge School; and from 1945 to 1960 of Judd School, Tonbridge. He was twice Master of the Skinners' Company. Brodie succeeded his father in 1938 and the heir to the baronetcy is Brodie's son, Benjamin David Ross Brodie.]
Resource Identifier RCS: E000016
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Arnott, James Moncrieff (1794 - 1885)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-08-10 2016-01-29
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/372204372204
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born at Chapel, near Ladybank, Fife, March 15th, 1794; educated at the High School and at the University of Edinburgh. Began his medical studies in Edinburgh, and continued them in London, Vienna, and in Paris under Dupuytren. He attached himself to the Middlesex Hospital, where he was for many years Surgeon, and was one of the founders of the Medical School of the Middlesex Hospital. He afterwards occupied the chairs of Surgery at King's and University Colleges. [1] He was an active member of the Royal College of Surgeons, being made one of the original Fellows in 1843; he was a Member of Council in 1840, and a Member of the Court of Examiners from 1847-1865. Became four times Vice-President and twice President, in 1850 and 1859, and in 1843 he delivered the Hunterian Oration. This oration is remarkable in that the orator had to commemorate Sir Astley Cooper, Sir Charles Bell, and Baron Larrey, who had recently died. He was instrumental in obtaining a grant of £15,000 from the Government to rebuild the Museum. [2] In 1865 he retired from practice and lived for a long time in Fifeshire. He died in London, May 27th, 1885. [3] His bust by H. Weekes, R.A., ordered by the College, is in the College house. The [4] portrait in the Secretary's office [5] is by an unknown painter, and was bequeathed by Miss Moncrieff Arnott in May, 1907. There are several [6] other portraits (engravings) in the College Collections. [7] [8] PUBLICATIONS: - Eight papers in *Med.-Chir. Trans.*, the chief of which was on "Secondary Effects of Inflammation of the Veins" (1829, xv, 1). [9] [Amendments from the annotated edition of *Plarr's Lives* at the Royal College of Surgeons: [1] Professor of Surgery, King's College 1836-40 (Lyle's *King's & some King's men*, p.19); at University College 1848-50 (information from Charles Marmoy, Thorne ? Library UCL, 1967); [2] in 1852; [3] aged 91; [4] oil; [5] 'Secretary's office' is deleted and 'College' added; [6] 'several' is underlined and a question mark added; [7] He bequeathed (subject to his daughter's life-interest) £1000 to found a demonstratorship on the contents of the Hunterian Museum; [8] watercolour by Daniel Maclise RA (see *Cat. Of Portraits*); [9] The rest are case-reports. He was President of the Royal Medico-Chirurgical Society in 1847; The annotations also include a family tree: James Moncrieff Arnott P.R.C.S. - - Arnott, Canon of Rochester - Scott Arnott, senior partner in Freshfields, solicitors - James Arnott MRCS (and) Phyllis m. John Kilmaine, Baron]
Resource Identifier RCS: E000017
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Cooke, Thomas (1841 - 1899)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2011-06-07
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001200-E001299
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373424373424
Occupation Anatomist General surgeon
Details Born in the United States of America in 1841, the only son of John Hawley Cooke and Jane, daughter of the Hon Richard Hawley. His parents took him to Paris as an infant, where he had no regular education. At the age of 13 Cooke was left to make a private arrangement with a schoolmaster. Starting as a medical student, he gained at the age of 21 the B es L and B es S of the University of Paris. He served as Extern and Interne at the Bicetre, Sainte-Eugenie, Saint-Louis, Lariboisiere, and Le Midi Hospitals, and for some years was Demonstrator of Anatomy in the Ecole Pratique de la Faculte de Medecine. In 1870 he graduated MD and received a Mention Honorable, Faculte Medicale de Paris, for his "Esquisse d'une Anatomie Operatoire - Considerations generales: Region parotidienne, Cavite buccale, Regions soushyoidienne et sterno-mastoidienne" (8vo, plates, Chartres, 1870). His financial position had been poor and became worse with the Siege of Paris in the autumn of 1870. He came over to England and passed the MRCS examination in January, 1871, and the FRCS in the following June. He was thereupon appointed Demonstrator of Anatomy and Physiology at Westminster Hospital Medical School, and in August, 1871, was elected Assistant Surgeon to the Hospital. An appointment which promised advantages both to the Hospital and Medical School on the one hand, and to Cooke on the other, turned out a dismal failure. Cooke's training and experience had been entirely in the Paris of the Third Empire. He could not adapt himself to the hospital outpatient practice; the surgery he attempted was pre-Listerian. Curiously he failed to adapt his wonderful knowledge of anatomy to the practice of surgery. Hence he gained no private practice from his hospital appointment. He could only get a livelihood by his remarkable talent as a demonstrator of anatomy to students who had failed to profit by the teaching at their own medical school. He held the post of Demonstrator of Anatomy at the Hospital Medical School with increasing friction until 1875. When vacancies occurred on the senior surgical staff he was not promoted. Later he was relieved of all hospital duty, but remained nominally Surgeon to Out-patients at the Westminster Hospital until his death. Cooke started the London School of Anatomy and Physiology with one or two pupils, and developed the last of the private medical schools of London, based on its recognition as a school which a student referred in anatomy might attend for individual instruction. Courses on operative surgery on the dead body were also given. Cooke was engaged in demonstrating in his dissecting-room from early morning until night. He taught with the greatest energy and enthusiasm what he published in his *Tablets of Anatomy and Physiology*, the first part of which was issued in 1873. Anatomical instruction underwent changes; the study of frozen sections increased in importance as abdominal and thoracic surgery developed; and morphology and embryology made greater demands upon the attention of students. Cooke was a determined advocate for anatomy by dissection, and published *A Plea for Practical Work in Anatomy* in 1893, *Specialism in Teaching and Examining* in 1896, and *The Old and New School of Anatomy* in 1897. The School of Anatomy was entered from Handel Street, Brunswick Square, through a small gate in Henrietta Mews, a notice over the door bearing the words 'Anatomy, Physiology, and Surgery'. There was a large dissecting-room, and an anatomical tank in which as many as seventeen cadavers could be preserved. The grounds included part of an old graveyard with tombstones remaining. A small cottage, and a shed used for storing books and papers were attached. Cooke lived at 40, Brunswick Square, in the immediate neighbourhood. Cooke's Medical School at its acme numbered more than one hundred students a year. Sir John Bland-Sutton related that in 1878 he took an extra six months' course of anatomy there owing to the facility for dissecting during the summer months. Cooke's objective methods of teaching appealed to him; with intense enthusiasm, by vivid and inspiring demonstrations, he exhibited the chief anatomical points on the dissected subject in strict relationship during a three months' course, assuming his class to be already familiar with the elementary details of anatomy. He was so engaged, demonstrating in his dissecting-room, when he died suddenly from aneurysm on Feb 8th, 1899, and was buried in Kensal Green Cemetery. His son, Dr F G Hamilton Cooke, had assisted him and had collaborated in the preparation of the 11th edition of the *Tablets*. The school continued with the assistance of Edward Knight, but changes in the curriculum and improvements in the Schools of Medicine caused it to decline; the war of 1914-1918 hurried on its end. Cooke married in 1871 Aglae, daughter of the 21st Comte de Hamel de Manin, Officier of the Household of Louis XVIII, Knight of the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour, who survived him. He had issue: three sons - one, Francis Gerrard Hamilton Cooke, assisted his father and later, after practising at Westcliff-on-Sea, was appointed assistant medical officer to the Madras Railway Company; a second, Granville Cooke, poet and inventor, died under tragic circumstances in 1925 - and two daughters, one of whom married Mr R R Garratt, Secretary to the Royal Free Hospital, and the other Mr Herbert Wilson. Publications:- *Tablets of Anatomy and Physiology*, first part, 1873; 11th ed in three 4to vols., 1898. *Aphorisms in Applied Anatomy and Operative Surgery*, 8vo, 1891. *Dissection Guides*, 1892. *A Plea for Practical Work in Anatomy*, 8vo, 1893. *Specialism in Teaching and Examining*, 1896. *The Old and New School of Anatomy*, 1897.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001241
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Cookson, Henry (1833 - 1921)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

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

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

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

First Title value, for Searching Reece, Michael William (1925 - 2008)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

First Title value, for Searching Duncan, James (1810 - 1866)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

First Title value, for Searching Duncan, Robert (1811 - 1876)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

First Title value, for Searching Duncan, William Archdeckne (1857 - 1917)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2011-11-02
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001400-E001499
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373657373657
Occupation General surgeon
Details Educated at St Thomas's Hospital, where his career was brilliant, for he won the Tite Scholarship in 1877 and took successively the Musgrove Scholarship in 1878 and 1879, the Grainger Testimonial Prize in Anatomy and Physiology in 1879, the Cheselden and Treasurer's Gold Medals and the Solly Medal and Prize. He was Prosector of the Royal College of Surgeons, and was awarded a first-class Certificate of Honour. He was appointed Resident Accoucheur at St Thomas's Hospital, and very shortly afterwards was elected Assistant Obstetric Physician and Lecturer on Obstetric Medicine at the Middlesex Hospital Medical School, with which he henceforth completely identified himself. In 1889 he became full Obstetric Physician, and held this position till 1908, when he was elected Consulting Physician. He was also at one time Consulting Physician to the Chelsea Hospital for Women and Senior Physician to the Royal Hospital for Children and Women, and in 1909 was appointed an Examiner in Midwifery and Diseases of Women for the Conjoint Board, and was also Examiner in Obstetric Medicine at the Victoria University, Manchester, the University of Glasgow, and the Society of Apothecaries of London. He was a Vice-President of the Obstetrical Society. Duncan is described as a good operator, particularly gentle in handling tissues. His results were good, in spite of the fact that he did not fully adopt the modern aseptic technique. Had his entire energies been applied to his professional work he would have accomplished far more than he did, but his conviction that national defence was the first concern of all men led him to devote much of his time to voluntary military service. He was awarded the Territorial Decoration in 1909, and for the following five years served as Lieutenant-Colonel Commanding the Middlesex Hussar Yeomanry. Comparatively late in life he was made a freemason, but worked with such enthusiasm at the craft as to become a Grand Officer in 1907. He was a Founder of the Middlesex Hospital Lodge and the Middlesex Yeomanry Chapter. Duncan was devoted to the country life. He lived at Shenley for some years before and after his retirement, and was popular with villagers and farmers alike. He died at his residence in Oakwood Court, Kensington, on October 18th, 1917. Publications:- "Report of the Obstetrical Department of St Thomas's Hospital for 1881-82-83." - *St Thomas's Hosp. Rep.*, xii, xiii. *On the Commoner Accidents attending Parturition, their Immediate and Remote Effects; with Treatment*, 8vo, London, 1886. "On the Extirpation of the Entire Uterus," 8vo, 8 charts, London, 1880; reprinted from *Trans. Obst. Soc. Lond.*, 1885, xxvii, 893. *Clinical Lecture on Extra-uterine Gestation*, 8vo, London, 1890. "A New Treatment for the Vomiting of Pregnancy." - *Lancet*, 1887, ii, 754. "On Chronic Disease of the Uterine Appendages. With a Table containing Short Notes of Thirty Consecutive Cases treated by Abdominal Section," 8vo, illustrated, London, 1891; reprinted from *Trans. Med. Soc.*, xiv, 214.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001474
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Dunkerley, Enoch (1806 - 1854)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

First Title value, for Searching Dunn, John (1792 - 1857)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2011-11-02
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001400-E001499
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373659373659
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born in 1792, about 1809 and 1810 was a Surgeon's Assistant in the Royal Cumberland Militia, and in a General Military Hospital. In 1819 he went to Scarborough and from 1821 was in partnership with William Fraser for thirty years. Both died within a few weeks of one another - Dunn on February 4th, 1857. He was an honorary member of the Yorkshire Philosophical Society, and was the author of several publications, including remarkable cases. Publications: *Suggestions on the Relief of the Sick Poor*, 1817. *Vital Statistics of Scarborough*, 1840. "Case of the Presentation of a Bag of Water after Delivery unconnected with Plurality of Children." - *Med.-Chir. Trans.*, 1819, x, 896. The child was delivered normally; half an hour later a bag presented at the os externum, from which, on being ruptured, a pint of fluid escaped; the placenta was then detached and removed, but no anatomical description is given. "On Compound Fractures." - *Ibid.*, 1823, xii, 167. He followed Hippocrates in cutting off the projecting ends of the bones before reducing compound fractures. "Case of Ruptured Uterus during Parturition followed by Internal Abscess and Eventual Recovery, so as to bring forth another Full-grown Child Fifteen Months afterwards." - *Edin. Med. and Surg. Jour.*, 1833, xl, 72. The uterus ruptured during labour; after delivery of the child, the hand was passed through the rent into the peritoneal cavity, so that the kidney was felt. Recovery followed after suppuration, and fifteen months later the woman was safely delivered of a full-term living child, both doing well. "Account of a Case in which a Child was expelled from the Womb after the Interment of the Mother." - *Ibid.*, 1838, 1, 533. A woman, age 39, in labour was found to be the subject of cancer of the cervix. After discharge of the liquor amnii, the cervix remained rigid, and only by pushing one finger through the diseased mass could the scalp of the child be felt. Further dilatation was impossible unless by using unwarrantable force. The woman died on the third day of labour. The nurse noted the foetus in the woman's abdomen seven hours after death. The woman was buried the next day, but in consequence of reports that she had not been properly treated, was disinterred twenty-four hours later. A foetus of eight months was then found between the thighs, one foot still in the vagina, the placenta attached to the fundus uteri which was not contracted; the head of the uterus was occupied by extensive cancer. The expulsion was attributed to gas formation in the intestine, and the jury gave a favourable verdict. In a note, references to a considerable number of similar cases are given. "Case of Dislocation of the Left Femur on the Pubes." - *Lond. Med. Gaz.*, 1839, xxiv, 275. A man, age 43, suffered dislocation from a fall of earth. The case was of such rarity that none of the practitioners called into consultation had seen a case either in hospital or private practice. But following the course laid down by Sir Astley Cooper, the man was depleted by bleeding to 25 oz., and by 6 gr of tartar emetic in divided doses; reduction was successfully made seven to eight hours after the accident. Seven weeks later the man was seen walking very well and able to rotate the injured limb as readily as the other.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001476
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Ewen, Henry (1804 - 1869)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

First Title value, for Searching Faircloth, John Marlborough Cowell ( - 1879)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

First Title value, for Searching Faircloth, Richard (1810 - 1899)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

First Title value, for Searching Fairley, James Fairbairn (1888 - 1915)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2011-11-30
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001600-E001699
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373854373854
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born in Victoria in 1888 and had a brilliant career both at school and at Melbourne University, where he took honours throughout the course of his medical education. He then held house appointments at the General and Children's Hospitals, Melbourne. Proceeding to England he took his Fellowship while acting as Senior House Surgeon at St Peter's Hospital for Stone. He enlisted the day war was declared and joined the RAMC as Temporary Lieutenant on August 16th, 1914, and in France was for some months on duty with the 31st Heavy Battery. Later he was transferred to the Base Hospital as operating surgeon for cerebral cases, and was making observations on this subject when he developed paratyphoid fever, and so far recovered as to be invalided to England, whence he returned to his post in France as soon as possible and was hard at work when he died suddenly on November 9th, 1915, the cause of death - cerebral vascular trouble - being possibly a sequela of the paratyphoid. He had been promoted Captain in the previous August. Fairley is described as an excellent athlete and an enthusiast in art and music, and, above all, thorough and scientific in his surgical work, which he loved. His portrait accompanies his biography in the *Lancet* and also appears in the *St Bartholomew's Hospital Journal*, and his name figures in the Roll of Honour of the Royal College of Surgeons (*Calendar*, 1919).
Resource Identifier RCS: E001671
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Du Pasquier, Claudius Francis (1811 - 1897)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

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

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2011-11-02
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001400-E001499
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373663373663
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born at Northampton, where his father lived to within two or three years of his son's death. He was for a time an employee in a bank, but disliked the work and decided to enter the medical profession. He entered Guy's Hospital as a student at the age of 22. Walter Moxon entered with him in the year 1855, and continued his strong competitor till they both joined the staff of the hospital. As the favourite pupil of John Hilton, Durham did many elaborate dissections to illustrate the nerve-supply of joints referred to in *Rest and Pain*, and Hilton alludes to these painstaking labours in a preface to the first edition of the book. In an early research on the physiology of sleep, Durham trephined the skulls of dogs and inserted glass into the opening so as to observe as far as possible the cortical circulation during life. Observations made after this procedure convinced him that the cortex of the brain was anaemic during sleep, and not congested, as had been generally supposed. He published the result of these researches in the *Guy's Hospital Reports* (1860), and also an excellent paper on "Movable Kidneys". As a surgeon Durham showed a keenly artistic sense. He was bold, prudent, and skilful; he particularly excelled in operations for rectovaginal fistula, harelip, lithotomy, and abdominal surgery. His remarkably long fingers, that seemed to have eyes in their tips, his flexible wrist and sinuous movements of the hand made him powerful, searching, and graceful in all his manipulations, while his invention of the lobster-tail tracheotomy tube has proved of great value. Durham held the following appointments and offices: Demonstrator of Anatomy at Guy's Hospital, and unrivalled as a teacher; Assistant Surgeon in 1861, full Surgeon in 1872, and Consulting Surgeon in 1894. At the Royal College of Surgeons he was elected to the Council in 1884 and continued in this office till the time of his death in 1895, having been Vice-President in 1892-1893, but never an examiner. He has been described as a painstaking practitioner, quick in diagnosis, prompt in treatment, an artist in the neat adjustment of dressings. He early adopted what was then the new Listerism, and was rewarded by the success of his cases. "I think he was the kindest man I ever knew", said Dr Hilton Fagge, who visited Durham shortly before his death and was co-editor with him of the *Guy's Hospital Reports*. Durham was never a strong man, and for many years suffered from attacks of vomiting, the cause of which was not traced. He was very deaf, but in his private practice was greatly assisted by his brother, Frederic Durham (qv), who acted presumably as his 'hearer'. He died on May 7th, 1895, and the body was cremated at Woking. He left a widow, and of his two surviving sons, one was already distinguished in the profession. His surviving brothers were Frederic (qv) and Francis Durham. His portrait appears in the Council Group by Jamyn Brooks, and near it, in the hall of the College, hangs a wax medallion of him by his daughter, Miss Durham, the Albanian traveller. There is an admirable likeness of him inset in his biography in the *British Medical Journal*. A copy of the photograph from which it is taken is in the Council Album. A number of instruments used by Arthur Durham are preserved in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons (see Conservator's Report in the *Calendar*, 1919). Publications: From 1867-1874 Durham was editor of *Guy's Hospital Reports*, and there published: "Physiology of Sleep." - *Guy's Hosp. Rep.*, 1860, 3rd ser., vi, 149. "Mobility and Displacement of the Kidneys." - *Ibid.*, 404. "Hermaphroditism." - *Ibid.*, 421. "On Certain Abnormal Conditions of the Bones: Mollities Ossium and Osteoporosis." -*Ibid.*, 1864, 3rd ser., x, 350. "Cases of Operations on the Larynx." - *Ibid.*, 1866, 3rd ser., xii, 540. "Case of Popliteal Aneurysm." - *Trans. Med.-Chir. Soc.*, 1864, xlvii, 25. "Case of Cyst of Epiglottis." - *Ibid.*, 7. "On Section of Laryngeal Cartilages for Removal of Morbid Growths." - *Ibid.*, 1872, lv, 17. "Case of Abdominal Aneurysm cured by Compression of the Aorta" (with WALTER Moxon). - *Ibid.*, 213. Articles on "Injuries of the Neck," "Diseases of the Nose," and "Diseases of the Larynx, and the Laryngoscope" in Holmes's *System of Surgery*, 2nd ed. Articles in Quain's *Dictionary of Medicine*, including "Intestinal Obstruction." "Dangers and Difficulties of Tracheotomy." - *Practitioner*, 1869, ii, 212.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001480
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Dickinson, Nodes (1776 - 1855)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2011-09-28
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001400-E001499
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373605373605
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born on August 2nd, 1776. He entered the Army as a Surgeon's Mate on the Hospital Staff, not attached to a regiment, on October 17th, 1795, and was gazetted Surgeon to the 8th West India Regiment on June 25th, 1798. He was transferred to the 1st Battalion of the 1st Foot on March 29th, 1801, and was appointed Surgeon to the Garrison of Grenada on July 19th, 1804. During twenty years' service in most of the West Indian Colonies he made a special study of yellow fever. He joined the Staff on April 6th, 1809, was put on half pay on November 25th, 1815, and returned to England probably in 1818. He practised at 17 Wigmore Street, and devoted part of his leisure to his yellow fever inquiry. He found that angry controversialists might be divided into two main camps: those who traced yellow fever to 'marsh miasmata', and those who traced it to 'animal contagion' and believed it to have been introduced into the West Indies from abroad. His own view was that the fever was inflammatory endemic, and that it attacked plethoric young strangers from temperate climates. No word is said of the bite of the mosquito in his whole review of the subject. He died on May 31st, 1855. Publications: *Remarks on Burns and Scalds, chiefly in reference to the Principle of Treatment at the Time of their Infliction : suggested by a Perusal of an Essay on Burns by Edward Kentish, M.D.*, 8vo, London, 1818. *Observations on the Inflammatory Endemic, incidental to Strangers in the West Indies from Temperate Climates, commonly called the Yellow Fever*, as this disease occurred to the author during a public service of twenty years in a majority of the West Indies Colonies, with notes and illustrations, to which is added an appendix containing abstracts of Official Reports upon West India fevers, addressed to the Head of the Army Medical Department, 8vo, London, 1819.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001422
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Crompton, Dickinson Webster (1805 - 1894)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2011-09-02 2018-02-20
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/373515373515
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born on September 30th, 1805, the eldest son and second child of Jonathan William Crompton, a merchant living in Edgbaston, by his wife Martha Webster, of Penns. He was sent at an early age as a pupil to G E Male, Physician to the General Hospital at Birmingham from 1805-1816. He was afterwards apprenticed to Richard Wood, who was Surgeon to the hospital from 1808-1852. He went to Paris at the end of his apprenticeship in 1829 and studied under Dupuytren, and travelled afterwards to Bonn. In 1834 he won the Jacksonian Prize with an essay on "Injuries and Diseases of the Nose and Nasal Sinuses", the other prizeman being Thomas Blizard Curling (qv), who submitted a dissertation on "Tetanus". Crompton was elected Surgeon to the General Hospital, Birmingham, in succession to Bowyer Vaux (qv) in September, 1843, and resigned after twenty-five years' service. He lived at 59 Harborne Road, Birmingham, and practised at 17 Temple Row. He married in 1833 Catherine Elizabeth Woolley (d.1864), daughter of the Rector of Middleton, Warwickshire, by whom he had one son. He died at 40 Harborne Road on March 31st, 1894, and was buried in Witton Cemetery, Birmingham. An oil painting of Crompton dated March, 1872, hangs in the Hall of the Birmingham General Hospital, and there is also an expressive photograph in the Fellows'Album. He contributed the following "Reminiscences of Provincial Surgery" to the *Guy's Hospital Reports* (1887, xliv, 137), at the request of Thomas Bryant: "You ask me to give some account of myself. I was apprenticed to the late Mr Richard Wood, himself an old Guy's man and personal friend of Sir A Cooper, in 1823. He was Senior Surgeon at the Birmingham General Hospital, and a noted operator, especially for stone. Joseph Hodgson was much his junior, and, some would say, a superior man, but certainly not in operations. I dressed at the General Hospital during four whole years as Mr Wood's dresser, living in his house and going with him to nearly all his private operations. I entered Guy's in 1828, and lived in the house with Mr Dodd, then Demonstrator of Anatomy; Dr William Guy, still I think alive, being also house pupil at Mr Dodd's. "After one year spent there my relative, Mr John Morgan [qv], late Surgeon to Guy's Hospital, took me into his house in New Broad Street, where I was treated as a friend and became as intimate as a boy could be with Drs Addison and Hodgkin, Thomas Bell, and other naturalists, Morgan being himself a good naturalist, as perhaps you may remember. "I passed one summer in Paris, the year after Dr Blundell removed the uterus through the vagina. I must tell you this story. One day I was standing at the lecture-room door at La Pitié, when Dr Blundell, not recognizing me, though I was very regular at his lectures, gave me his card to give to Lisfranc who was lecturing; on receiving it Lisfranc turned, bowed, and rushed at Blundell, kissing him on both cheeks! Then, turning to the class, Lisfranc introduced Blundell as the distinguished Englishman who had immortalized himself by that operation. A patient was brought in and laid on the table to have a large fungoid-looking os uteri removed, an operation which Lisfranc was then doing freely and fond of. While the woman's uterus was being pulled down by large hooked forceps, Lisfranc kissed her on her cheek, upon which little Blundell thought he ought to do likewise. There were at least half a dozen English pupils in the room, and you may imagine Blundell's face when we simultaneously clapped our hands, and cried, 'Well done, Blundell!' The story fled to Guy's in a very short time. Nevertheless, we were proud of him, for he gave the class, at Lisfranc's request, an excellent lecture in the French language. "When I had passed the college I came to Birmingham and began practice soon, and first as a dispensary surgeon, whose chief duties were attending operation cases of midwifery. On the retirement of Hodgson from the Eye Infirmary he had founded here I succeeded him, and my first surgical operation on a living person was for cataract in both eyes by the lower section, using both hands, of an old woman of eighty, who recovered with good sight, to my intense delight. "After eight years of this practice I became (1843) Surgeon to the Birmingham General Hospital, as colleague with Mr Wood and Hodgson among others, giving up the Eye Hospital because according to hospital laws I could not hold both; and here I am now, in my eighty-second year, and expecting to be operated on for cataract myself; retributive justice, I suppose! "I think this is quite enough about myself. I never had any ambition for notoriety, but only to be as good a surgeon as my wits and naturally great talent for idleness could make me. "I cannot think the notes I send with this or those you already have can be worth being placed in our dear old Guy's *Reports*." Dickinson Crompton's charming autobiography prefaces his vivid account of his surgical practice on many difficult occasions. The writing of this long paper extending over nearly twenty pages was undertaken despite his total blindness. "I send you the accompanying 'Surgical Reminiscences'", he says, addressing Mr Thomas Bryant, "under rather unusual circumstances, and I write them under peculiar circumstances, for I am now getting cataracts in my eyes, and at the present moment do not see what my hand writes, but hope it forms the words my mind would dictate. It is a curious sensation, and is new to me within the present year. As I cannot read I suppose my mind goes back more easily and perhaps more clearly into the past than it has had time to do before. This must be my excuse for writing, and it is a pleasant occupation. I have depended upon a friend for corrections necessary, for if I take my pen from the paper I do not know what or where I have written."
Resource Identifier RCS: E001332
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Harrison, William Anthony (1801 - 1873)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

First Title value, for Searching Harston, Alfred Dew ( - 1896)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

First Title value, for Searching Hartigan, Thomas Joseph Patrick (1861 - 1909)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2012-04-04
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E002000-E002999/E002100-E002199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/374332374332
Occupation Dermatologist
Details The son of an Army officer stationed in India, his father and mother both being Irish. He began at the age of 17 to study medicine at Galway, then at Dublin, and in 1883 at Edinburgh. Having qualified, he became Resident Clinical Assistant at the Richmond Hospital, Dublin; next Resident Medical Officer at the Fever Hospital, Netherfield Road, Liverpool; he then went many voyages as surgeon on the P & O and other mail-boats, and began general practice in Shropshire. He afterwards moved to East Grinstead, Sussex, where he established a large connection and took a leading part in local politics. In 1894 he was appointed Medical Officer of the East Grinstead Workhouse and Urban District. Whilst studying for the FRCS he went up daily to St Bartholomew's, yet continuing his East Grinstead practice. Engaging in local politics, he was elected in 1899 to the East Grinstead District Council, and in 1901 he was its Chairman. He became also the member of the East Sussex County Council for East Grinstead, and of its Sanitary Committee. In 1903, after studying diseases of the skin in Vienna, he set up at 94 Harley Street as a dermatologist, and was appointed Pathologist and Medical Officer of the Light Department of the Hospital for Diseases of the Skin, Blackfriars Hospital, also Dermatologist at the Alexandra Hospital for Hip Disease, Queen Square. At the end of six years he was prospering, when his somewhat sudden death occurred on January 25th, 1909, in Devonshire Street, Portland Place, and he was buried at the cemetery of the Franciscan Monastery, Crawley, Sussex. He was survived by his widow and two young children. Publications:- Hartigan published dermatological papers concerning the use of radium and of ionization.
Resource Identifier RCS: E002149
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Hartle, Robert (1775 - 1860)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

First Title value, for Searching Hartley, John (1857 - 1914)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

First Title value, for Searching Hartridge, Gustavus (1850 - 1923)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

First Title value, for Searching Harty, John Percy Ingham (1881 - 1928)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2012-04-04
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E002000-E002999/E002100-E002199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/374336374336
Occupation ENT surgeon
Details Educated at Queen's College, Cork, and spent several years in general practice at Halifax. He then decided to specialize in the treatment of diseases of the nose and throat, and studied in Leeds and in London. He received the diplomas of Member and Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England on the same day in 1912, held resident appointments in London and Cardiff, and went to Bristol as House Surgeon to the Ear, Nose, and Throat Department at the Royal Infirmary, subsequently becoming Registrar and developing a successful private practice. During the European War he was mobilized with the 3rd South Midland Ambulance in 1915, being attached to the 6th General Hospital at Rouen as throat specialist, and was transferred to the Royal Air Force until 1919. He then returned to Bristol, and in 1921 was appointed Surgeon in Charge of the Ear, Nose, and Throat Department at the Royal Infirmary and Clinical Lecturer on Laryngology in the University. He was also Consulting Surgeon to the Southmead Hospital, and Aural Surgeon to the Education Committee. He died on March 10th, 1928, after an operation for duodenal ulcer. Harty was a noted Rugby footballer, having played twice for the South of Ireland, and was endowed with a magnificent physique. He was a typical cheery Irishman with a never-ending fund of good stories and jokes; the best of companions, he was beloved alike by his colleagues and patients. He married in 1916 Helen Dorothy, daughter of Dr Clarke,' of Kensington, who survived him with two sons.
Resource Identifier RCS: E002153
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

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

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2012-04-04
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E002000-E002999/E002100-E002199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/374338374338
Occupation General surgeon
Details Educated at Guy's Hospital; after a few years in general practice he restricted his attention to aural disease, being contemporary with Joseph Toynbee and James Yearsley. He was Aural Surgeon to the Royal Dispensary for Diseases of the Ear, to the Freemasons' Asylum for Female Children, and to the Great Northern Hospital. Harvey is remembered as giving rise to the 'banting' system of reducing corpulence. William Banting (1797-1878), undertaker, of St James's Street, 5 ft 5 in in height, before sixty could not stoop to tie his shoe without pain and difficulty, and was obliged to go downstairs backwards to avoid the jar. He had been advised to take more exercise; he walked long distances, rowed for hours, which improved his appetite and added to his weight. Fifty Turkish baths and gallons of physic failed to diminish his weight of 202 lb. He was in his sixty-sixth year when he consulted Harvey for deafness. Harvey, believing that his deafness and fatness were connected, cut off farinaceous foods and prescribed a diet of flesh meat, fish, and dry toast, which reduced his weight by 48 lb. and bettered his health. Banting published a pamphlet which attained world-wide notoriety, but only in the third edition mentions Harvey by name. Harvey published his own view, *On Corpulence in Relation to Disease, with some Remarks on Diet*, in 1872. He practised at 2 Soho Square, and later at 3 George Street. After suffering for many months from a tumour of the thigh, he died on December 5th, 1876. Publications:- *New and Improved Synoptical Table of the Diseases of the Human Ear* (with THOMAS BUCHANAN), 1848. *Excision of the Enlarged Tonsil and its Consequences in Cases of Deafness*, 1850. *Rheumatism, Gout and Neuralgia affecting the Head and Ear in connexion with Deafness*, 1852. The work related to the treatment of disorders of hearing by management of the general health. *On Corpulence in Relation to Disease*, 1872. *The Ear in Health and Disease, with Practical Remarks on the Treatment of Deafness*, several editions.
Resource Identifier RCS: E002155
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

First Title value, for Searching Haslam, Arthur Charles (1873 - 1927)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

First Title value, for Searching Haslehurst, Thomas (1800 - 1866)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

First Title value, for Searching Hastings, Thomas (1819 - 1897)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

First Title value, for Searching Hatton, John ( - 1871)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

First Title value, for Searching Havers, John (1815 - 1884)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

First Title value, for Searching Haward, Edwin (1815 - 1902)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

First Title value, for Searching Gibb, James Glenny (1874 - 1912)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2012-02-08
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001900-E001999
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/374160374160
Occupation General surgeon Missionary Ophthalmic surgeon
Details Born on August 1st, 1874, the eldest son of James Gibb, insurance broker and underwriter at Lloyd's, who was MP (Lib) for the Harrow Division of Middlesex. His mother was Helen, daughter of the Rev David Nimmo, Congregational minister. Gibb was educated at the City of London School and served for six years in his father's office. He entered St Bartholomew's Hospital in 1900 and won the two-mile steeplechase open to all hospitals in 1901, his time being 11 min 50 secs. He entered the University of Durham in 1902 and won the three-mile race in 1903. He served as House Physician at Westminster Hospital in 1906 and was appointed House Surgeon to Sir D'Arcy Power at St Bartholomew's Hospital in April, 1907. He was elected Ophthalmic House Surgeon to W H H Jessop (qv) and to Holmes Spicer in April, 1908. At the end of his term of office he married 'Sister Coborn' (Miss Henman), of Islip, Oxon. He started at once for Pekin as Surgeon to the Union Medical College, where a staff of brilliant and earnest teachers had already been collected under the London Missionary Society. An outbreak of bubonic plague in 1910 sent him to Harbin, as he had already made a study of its bacteriology under Dr Emanuel Klein. He worked heroically with the help of his colleague, Dr Wu Lien Te, and received the thanks of the Imperial Government, but declined, with characteristic modesty, the high decoration offered him as well as any personal emolument. The Government, therefore, sent the salary he had earned as a donation to the funds of the Union Medical College. He was called upon by the Chinese to organize the work of the Central Red Cross Society when the Revolution broke out in 1911, and again showed administrative ability of a very high order. He died at Pekin of amoebic dysentery on October 2nd, 1912, when he was on the eve of returning to Europe with his wife and two children, and was buried in the British Cemetery. One of his sons, aged 3 years, died a week after his father. Gibb was shy and somewhat reserved in manner, a man of fixed religious principles, which were never obtruded, though they guided every action of his life. His motto was 'Thorough', his first care was for his patient; of himself he took no thought. Harold Pace Gibb, FRCS, is the younger brother of James Glenny Gibb.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001977
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Holthouse, Carsten (1810 - 1901)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2012-04-18
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E002000-E002999/E002200-E002299
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/374439374439
Occupation Anatomist General surgeon Ophthalmologist
Details Born at Edmonton on October 14th, 1810. He was the eldest son of Carsten Holthouse, and at the age of 14 was apprenticed to Le Gay Brewerton, at Bawtry, Yorkshire. He was released from his articles before the customary period had elapsed, and studied at St Bartholomew's Hospital. He was Dresser to (Sir) William Lawrence, and Clinical Clerk to Dr Latham. After qualifying he studied in Paris, and then started practice in 1836 at his father's house in Keppel Street. He assisted in the Out-patient Department of St Bartholomew's and was attracted to eye and ear affections. But in 1843, being appointed Lecturer on Anatomy and Physiology at the Aldersgate School of Medicine in succession to Frederick Skey (qv), who had been appointed Lecturer on Anatomy at St Bartholomew's, he subordinated surgery to anatomy for some years. In 1849 began his connection with Westminster Hospital: the Medical School had come to a crisis, and in June, 1849, a new staff of lecturers was collected - Drs Radcliffe and Basham, Messrs Charles Brooke and Holthouse, the last as Lecturer on Anatomy. Owing to the inadequacy of the museum, particularly in anatomical preparations, the Royal College of Surgeons suspended its recognition of the school until Holthouse had, with great energy, reorganized the museum. The difficulty of the school centred on the claims of the senior staff of the hospital to the pupilage fees, irrespective of the increased need for expenditure. The medical student was held as primarily a pupil of one or other member of the senior physicians and surgeons. After five years Holthouse refused to continue to lecture without payment, the scanty fraction of the pupils' fees having been exhausted by the expenses. The result was that Holthouse was appointed Assistant Surgeon to Westminster Hospital on March 12th, 1853, and Surgeon on January 17th, 1857. At the same time he was allowed to put the school on a surer footing, the physicians resigning much of their primary claim to the pupilage fees, the surgeons holding on for another thirty years to what they called their rights. For some months during the Crimean War Holthouse served on the staff of the Civil Hospital at Smyrna, among his colleagues being Sir Spencer Wells and J Whitaker Hulke (qv). On his return he settled at 2 Storey's Gate, Westminster, and remained there for many years. He developed a practice in ophthalmology, and in 1857 took part in founding the Surrey Ophthalmic and Eye Dispensary, which afterwards became the Royal Eye Hospital, Southwark. He paid special attention to squint, was conservative as regards the tenotomy so much in vogue, aiming to improve by use the vision in the deviating eye; the systematic use of spectacles for the common convergent squint had not become general. Thus as a surgeon Holthouse ranged too widely; at the same time he had great confidence in his own powers of diagnosis and treatment, which gave less than sufficient heed to the knowledge of others. These characteristics were naturally a serious bar to success. In 1875, at the age of 65, he became Consulting Surgeon to Westminster Hospital, and then took up a fresh practice - that of the treatment of habitual drunkards in a home - which resulted in anxiety and financial loss, but perhaps served experimentally to forward development on that question. Holthouse enjoyed vigorous health until about two years before his death. He underwent an operation for cataract, upon which followed an apoplectic seizure with temporary recovery, then further attacks rendered him helpless for months before his death on July 18th, 1901, within three months of completing his ninety-first year. He had been the Senior Fellow of the College after the death of Sir Rutherford Alcock, Chairman of Westminster Hospital, in 1897, and was the last but one of the 300 original Fellows, Spencer Smith (qv) dying a few months later on November 29th, 1901.
Resource Identifier RCS: E002256
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Grose, Samuel ( - 1919)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2012-03-14
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E002000-E002999/E002000-E002099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/374252374252
Occupation General surgeon
Details Studied at St Thomas's Hospital and then entered the Royal Navy. He was Assistant Surgeon at the Royal Naval Hospital, Cape of Good Hope, and to the Royal Marine Artillery, Eastney. He retired with the rank of Staff Surgeon on August 19th, 1870, and practised at Melksham, Wiltshire, where he was Surgeon to the Cottage Hospital. He died at Bishop's Teignton on December 12th, 1919.
Resource Identifier RCS: E002069
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Grosjean, James Keith Jeanneret (1839 - 1884)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2012-03-14 2022-09-08
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E002000-E002999/E002000-E002099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/374253374253
Occupation General surgeon
Details Practised in Kensington and in Alexandria, dying about the year 1886. **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** James Keith Jeanneret Grosjean was a surgeon and barrister who practised in Alexandria, Egypt. He was born in 1839 in Marylebone, London, the eldest son of Pierre Frederic Jeanneret Grosjean, a military outfitter and merchant, and Elizabeth Grosjean née Keith. He attended St Mary’s Hospital Medical School and the University of Erlangen in Bavaria, where he gained an MD in 1867, the same year he became a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. He was called to the Middle Temple as a barrister on 7 June 1873. He practised in Alexandria, Egypt, where he died on 5 February 1884. He was unmarried. Sarah Gillam
Resource Identifier RCS: E002070
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching France, John Frederick (1818 - 1900)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

First Title value, for Searching Franklin, George Cooper (1846 - 1919)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

First Title value, for Searching Franklin, Henry (1787 - 1875)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

First Title value, for Searching Franklin, Sir Richard ( - 1845)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

First Title value, for Searching Franks, George (1799 - 1887)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

First Title value, for Searching Fraser, Forbes (1871 - 1924)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2012-01-25
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001900-E001999
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/374090374090
Occupation General surgeon
Details The younger son of Henry Fraser, of Arbroath. He passed the London University Matriculation Examination at the age of 16, and later began the study of medicine at St Bartholomew's Hospital, where he gained an Entrance Scholarship in 1889. His student career was exceptional. He won the Junior Scholarship in Anatomy and Physiology in 1890, the Harvey Prize in 1892, and the Brackenbury Surgical Scholarship in 1894. He was House Surgeon to Henry Butlin (qv). A tale is told of his remonstrating against the sharp stings of C B Lockwood's (qv) sarcastic wit, and getting the characteristic reply: "Fraser, you know whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth". But the chastening process came therewith to an end. After leaving St Bartholomew's he was for three years in practice at Tarporley, Cheshire. Here he rose early and worked late, and thus found time to go hunting, and to win prizes in point-to-point races. He settled in Bath in the year 1900 in partnership with T Pagan Lowe, MRCS; in 1903 was appointed Assistant Surgeon to the United Hospital. He became full Surgeon in 1909, and at the time of his death was Senior Surgeon. He was also at that time Consulting Surgeon to the Ministry of Pensions Hospital, Bath, Visiting Surgeon to the Royal Mineral Water Hospital, Bath, and Consulting Surgeon to the Hospitals at Chippenham, Frome, Malmesbury, and Shepton Mallet. During the War (1914-1918) he joined the Duchess of Westminster's Hospital as Surgeon in May, 1915, and did much active work at Le Touquet till 1917, when he took up special work at No 10 Casualty Clearing Station at Rémy Siding. This centre was used as a research station to test the methods of primary suture of wounds. Fraser was placed in charge with the rank of Captain, and the immediate and decisive success which attended his organization and conduct of the research opened a new and happier chapter in the history of wounds of the war. As director of the research at his CCS he embodied the results obtained by him and his colleagues under the title of "Primary and Delayed Primary Suture of Gunshot Wounds", which appeared in the *British Journal of Surgery* (1918-1919, vi, 92). These results were afterwards published in the first volume of *The Official Surgical History of the War* in connection with the excision of infected wounds associated with gunshot fractures. He worked at various Casualty Clearing Stations before returning to Le Touquet in 1918. The advent of his surgical team was always welcome where active fighting was in progress. The strain of battle surgery never ruffled him; in a tired, overworked operating theatre he radiated energy, good temper, and contentment. These qualities, combined with a sound knowledge of surgery and rare judgement, led to his appointment as Consulting Surgeon to the Second Army. After the Armistice, in 1918, he was with this force in Germany, and became Consulting Surgeon to the Army of the Rhine. Here he was able to criticize without giving offence and to do valuable work as a consultant. Back once more in Bath, he devoted himself to linking up well-equipped cottage hospitals and hospitals in the smaller towns with the Royal United Hospital. Only lack of funds retarded the carrying out of his plan, but none the less, on May 16th, 1924, HRH the Duke of Connaught was able to declare open the Royal United Private Hospital and the Orthopaedic Hospital, built on the site of the Bath War Hospital at Coombe Park, Bath - a site that was acquired by the Managing Board of the Royal United Hospital, which afterwards carried out the intention of transferring the whole hospital there. The buildings gave hospital accommodation for paying patients who could not afford nursing-home fees, and a ward for the treatment of crippled children. The first patient was admitted to the Orthopaedic Hospital on the day of Forbes Fraser's death. In order to commemorate Fraser's work as virtual founder of the Hospital at Coombe Park, Bath, it was decided in June, 1924, by the committee of the hospital, that the institution should in future be connected with the name of Forbes Fraser, and that an X-ray Department, such as he desired, should be started there when the necessary funds had been subscribed. He founded various surgical clubs, such as the Country Surgeons' Club and the Bath and Bristol Surgical Club, and thus worked assiduously in the cause of professional union. He had been President of the Bath Clinical Society, and was a member of the Committee of the Bristol Medico-Chirurgical Society. During the two years before his death he had arranged courses of post-graduate instruction at the Royal United Hospital, which were well attended. In 1912-1913 he was Chairman of the Bath Division of the Bath and Bristol Branch of the British Medical Association, and had been recommended by his colleagues as President-elect of the Bath Meeting of 1925, a recommendation approved by the Central Council. In appearance Forbes Fraser was tall and spare, with clear blue eyes and a ruddy complexion. His manner was unassuming, so that his modesty sometimes passed for diffidence, but behind this lay great self-reliance and unswerving determination to get the best out of himself and everyone round him. The enhanced repute of Bath owed not a little to his powers of organization and straightforward dealing. In the War, as the testimonies of his numerous eulogists show, he proved a born leader. He was a good physician as well as surgeon, and outside his profession a keen salmon-fisher and motorist, a witty raconteur, and a man of much charm. He died on May 28th, 1924, after a long and painful illness beginning in December, 1923, when he pricked his thumb at an operation for osteomyelitis. He was survived by his widow - his second wife - and her daughter, and by two sons and three daughters of his first marriage. His elder son was at the time a student at St Bartholomew's Hospital. Publications: In addition to the work mentioned above, Fraser also wrote: Article on "Gunshot Wounds of Joints" in Barling and Morrison's *Manual of War Surgery*, 1919. "Acute Osteomyelitis of the Vertebral Column" (with Thomas McPherson). - *Lancet*, 1911, ii, 1543. "Volvulus Coincident with Strangulated Hernia." - *Ibid.*, 1912, I, 573. "Successful Operation for Strangulated Epigastric Hernia in a Centenarian." - *Ibid*, 1913, ii, 799.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001907
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Frean, Henry George (1884 - 1922)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

First Title value, for Searching Freeman, William Thomas ( - 1918)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

First Title value, for Searching Freer, Walter Carless ( - 1911)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

First Title value, for Searching French, John Gay (1839 - 1885)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

First Title value, for Searching French, John George (1804 - 1887)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2012-01-25
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001900-E001999
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/374095374095
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born at Bow, Middlesex, on October 13th, 1804, the son of the Rev William French, Rector of Vange, Essex. He received his early education at Christ's Hospital and was then apprenticed to Mr Morrell, a well-known medical practitioner at Worthing. Later he was entered as a student at Guy's Hospital, where his teacher in surgery was Sir Astley Cooper. In 1827 he was for a brief period engaged in practice in Henrietta Street, Brunswick Square, and in 1827 was appointed Surgeon to the Workhouse Infirmary of St James's, Westminster. He held this post for forty-two years. For a great part of the time his duties not only embraced the charge of the workhouse and its infirmary, the latter including some sixty or eighty beds, but he had also, on the order of the relieving officer, to attend and provide drugs for the sick poor dwelling in various parts of the parish. The entire medical charge of the paupers was in his hands. French, at once able and energetic, thus gained a very wide experience, and added greatly thereto during the cholera epidemics which swept London from 1831 onwards. From 1830-1842 he lived in Marshall Street, Golden Square, and in the latter year removed to 41 Great Marlborough Street, where he continued to reside until he resigned his post in 1872. The year 1831 marked the first outbreak of cholera in England. In October of that year the disease arrived in Sunderland from Hamburg. When the epidemic spread to London, cholera hospitals were formed in many parishes, and French was appointed medical officer of the hospital in St James's. He threw himself into the duty with ardour, and employed the opportunities for the clinical study of the disease to such good purpose that a book published by him on the subject in 1835 attracted much attention from the philosophical style in which he had treated it. In the autumn of 1848 the disease reappeared and persisted during 1849. Again appearing in 1853, the disease was signalized by an outbreak in the Soho district in the summer of 1854, which from its sudden and terrible mortality exceeded all experience of epidemic fatality in the metropolis since the time of the Great Plague. During this visitation French became acquainted with John Snow (*Dict Nat Biog*), whose discovery of the conveyance of cholera by drinking-water, noted in 1849 in reference to epidemics in South London, was confirmed by Snow's investigations in the Soho outbreak, which he traced with unerring sagacity to a pump in Broad Street. French, who at first, like everyone else, was very sceptical as to the soundness of the proposition, became completely convinced by the demonstration afforded in this epidemic, and a most ardent promulgator of Snow's views. French was viewed as an authority on cholera, a subject which greatly attracted him to the last; but he was also an able and popular family practitioner and a good surgeon. He had many opportunities for operating in his public appointment, and was among the first to excise the hip-joint, in accordance with the teaching of his friend Sir William Fergusson (qv) and of Mr Jones, of Jersey. In 1862 he proposed at the Royal Medico-Chirurgical Society to treat carbuncle by a subcutaneous incision of its base, a plan from which, though little recognized by his colleagues, he obtained very good results. French grew very deaf in advanced old age, but retained a certain air of the old regime. To the day before he died he was in full possession of his mental and most of his physical faculties. He was bright and genial, a great reader of philosophical as well as medical literature, a lover of music and art, a keen sportsman. His tall, well-set figure, endowed as it was during the greatest part of his career with a quite exceptional activity, was a familiar object for many years in the hunting field, where he was amongst the most fearless of riders' and a great lover of horses. He overflowed with animal spirits and possessed much humour; consequently his circle of friends was large, till, as he grew to a great age, death began inevitably to isolate him. He died suddenly on December 4th, 1887, at his residence, 10 Cunningham Place, NW, and was buried at Paddington Cemetery, Willesden Lane. He never married. Publications: *A Letter addressed to the Central Board of Health, written with the view of establishing rational principles for the Treatment of Cholera: and showing the danger of the mode of practice at present generally followed*, 8vo, London, 1882. *The Nature of Cholera Investigated*, 8vo, London, 1885; 2nd ed, "With a Supplemental Chapter on Treatment, addressed to Junior Practitioners", 8vo, London, 1854. *On Contagion in reference to Typhus Fever and Asiatic Cholera*, 8vo, London, 1848. (Reprint.) "On the Subcutaneous Treatment of Boils and Carbuncles." - *Proc Roy Med-Chir Soc*, 1862, iv, 129.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001912
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

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

First Title value, for Searching Guy, Tom (1819 - 1868)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

First Title value, for Searching Gwynn, Samuel Betton (1822 - 1880)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

First Title value, for Searching Hacon, Edward Dennis (1819 - 1902)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

First Title value, for Searching Hadduck, Edward ( - 1887)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2012-03-22 2012-04-04
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E002000-E002999/E002000-E002099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/374262374262
Occupation General surgeon
Details Studied at the Birmingham Hospital and at University College Hospital, London, and was House Surgeon at the Wolverhampton Hospital. He practised successively at Dudley, at Kidsgrove, Staffordshire, at Oucham, Isle of Man, and at Biddulph, Congleton, Cheshire. He died in or before 1887.
Resource Identifier RCS: E002079
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Haden, Sir Francis Seymour (1818 - 1910)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2012-03-22
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E002000-E002999/E002000-E002099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/374263374263
Occupation General surgeon
Details Son of Charles Thomas Haden, MD (1786-1824); born at 62 Sloane Street, London, on September 16th, 1818. His father's *Practical Observations on the Management and Diseases of Children* was published posthumously in 1827, with a biographical notice by Dr Thomas. His mother was the daughter of Samuel Harrison, vocalist, and was herself an excellent musician. Haden was educated at Derby School, Christ's Hospital, University College Hospital, and studied later at the Sorbonne, Paris, and at Grenoble, where he acted as prosector in 1839; later he lectured on anatomy at the Military Hospital, and subsequently qualified MRCS. After that, in 1843-1844, he travelled in Italy. He settled in practice in 1842 at his father's house, 62 Sloane Street, moving in 1878 to 38 Hertford Street, Mayfair. From 1851-1857 he was Hon Surgeon to the Department of Science and Art, and was elected FRCS. He served on Juries of the International Exhibition of 1851 and 1862, in connection with which he championed the operation of ovariotomy. He was Consulting Surgeon to the Chapel Royal, and one of the principal movers in the foundation of the Royal Hospital for Incurables. Whilst he attacked prevalent methods of burial, he vigorously opposed cremation as being an incentive to crime; he advocated an earth-to-earth burial in a coffin of papier mâché. Whilst carrying out a large practice, including obstetrics, he became a Vice-President of the Obstetric Society. He had from the first artistic inclinations. In Paris he spent much time in the art schools; consequently he was a staunch advocate of the use of drawing in training the hand and eye of the surgeon. He pursued particularly from 1858 the art and study of etching, alongside his professional work as a surgeon, until 1887. Most of 250 etchings were done during the years of his greatest professional activity. He married in 1847 Dasha Delano Whistler, half-sister of James Abbott McNeil Whistler, and the etchings of Whistler and Haden bear traces of a mutual influence. He founded in 1880 the Society (later the Royal Society) of Painter-Etchers, whose President he remained until his death. On retiring from practice as a surgeon in 1887 he went to live at Woodcote Manor, Alresford, Hampshire, where he died on June 1st, 1910. Lady Haden had died in 1908. They had three sons, the eldest Francis Seymour Haden, CMG, and one daughter. There is a portrait in the Council Album, also other small portraits, but not the portrait etched by himself. Publications: *The Disposal of the Dead. A Protest against Cremation: Earth to Earth*, London, 1875. *Cremation an Incentive to Crime*, 2nd ed., 1892.
Resource Identifier RCS: E002080
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Haines, John William ( - 1912)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

First Title value, for Searching Hainsworth, John (1804 - 1883)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

First Title value, for Searching Hale, Frederick Howe ( - 1863)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

First Title value, for Searching Halford, Edward (1819 - 1901)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

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

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

First Title value, for Searching Good, Samuel ( - 1850)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2012-02-09
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001900-E001999
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/374182374182
Occupation General surgeon
Details Was gazetted Assistant Surgeon in the 3rd Fusilier Guards on Feb 20th, 1806, and rose to Battalion Surgeon - a title in the Foot Guards dating from 1805 - on December 25th, 1813. He was present at the Battle of Waterloo. He became Surgeon Major on February 24th, 1837, was retired on half pay on July 25th, 1845, and was appointed Surgeon in Ordinary to the Prince Consort. He died at his house in the London Road, Worcester, on January 22nd, 1850.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001999
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

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

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

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

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

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

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

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

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

by Sarah Gillam
Publication Date 2012-04-13 2014-03-28
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E002000-E002999/E002100-E002199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/374377374377
Occupation General surgeon
Details Mohammed Abdul Wahed was a surgeon in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Resource Identifier RCS: E002194
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

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

First Title value, for Searching Goodwin, Robert Docksey ( - 1882)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

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

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

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

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

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

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

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

First Title value, for Searching Langshaw, James Pearson (1814 - 1896)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

First Title value, for Searching Mouat, Frederic John (1816 - 1897)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2012-08-22
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E002000-E002999/E002700-E002799
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/374944374944
Occupation Chemist General surgeon
Details Born at Maidstone on May 18th, 1816, the second son of Surgeon James Mouat, King's Hussars, 13th Light Infantry, and 15th Dragoons. Surgeon General Sir James Mouat, VC, KCB, FRCS his elder brother (qv) survived him for about a year. Frederic John Mouat studied in Paris with the intention of entering the Army, then turning to medicine he attended University College, London, and Edinburgh University, where he graduated MD in 1839. He was appointed Assistant Surgeon in the Bengal Army on January 3rd, 1840, and was sent successively to the 21st Fusiliers at Fort William, to the 4th Bengal Native Infantry, and to the 1st Battery of Artillery at Dum Dum. He was for a year Deputy Apothecary and Assistant Opium Examiner to the Government, at the same time conducting experiments on some dye-yielding lichens. Having drawn up a detailed memorandum on Indian Industrial Products, he was appointed by Lord Auckland Professor of Chemistry and Materia Medica, also Secretary and Treasurer of the New Bengal Medical College, in 1841. He was the Resident Principal Officer in control of the College from 1841-1853, and obtained for it recognition by the RCS and by the University of London. He remodelled the system of clinical teaching in the wards and rendered into Hindustani an Anatomy for the use of the medical class, also the London Pharmacopaeia. As Chemical Examiner to the Government he served on the Select Artillery Committee and experimented on percussion caps. In conjunction with Colonel Edward Ludlow he invented a waterproof glaze to prevent rapid deterioration of the caps in a tropical climate. Some of the percussion caps having failed at the Battle of Inkerman, Mouat investigated the cause, and on the Chinese Expedition the muskets of the Cameronians, the 49th and 65th Foot were supplied with percussion caps filled according to Mouat's instructions so as to be damp-proof. He and Colonel Ludlow also experimented in the laboratory of the Medical College on field rockets. Mouat also submitted rubber to chemical analysis. Appointed Secretary to the Council of Education of Bengal on April 12th, 1843, he produced in 1846 a scheme, on the lines of the University of London, for Indian Universities, and in 1854 Sir Charles Wood recommended what was essentially Mouat's scheme, which was adopted by the Council of Education and by the Indian Government. From the Professorship of Chemistry Mouat passed in 1845 to that of Medical Jurisprudence, and in 1849 to the Professorship of Medicine, including charge of the Medical Wards in the Hospital. He was gazetted Inspector-General of Jails in Bengal on December 18th, 1855, and advocated remunerative prison labour as a way to reform prisoners and make prisons self-supporting. The outbreak of the Mutiny caused Mouat to be made President of a Committee in November, 1857, to explore the Andaman Islands in search of a suitable site for a convict settlement; his report was published in 1859. In a fight with the Andamanese he was wounded in the mouth and had two ribs broken. A harbour was discovered on the west coast of the Great Andamans and named Port Mouat. He twice reported to the Government on coolie emigration and its dangers. He founded the Bethune Society of Calcutta, so named after John Elliot Drinkwater Bethune, Indian Legislator (1801-1851). Mouat retired on December 3rd, 1870, and on this occasion the Mohammedan and Hindu communities presented addresses recapitulating the good work done by him as the developer of the idea of Indian education, which had been inaugurated by Lord Macaulay under Lord William Bentinck's administration. Although no Knighthood or Companionship of an Order recognized it, the name of Mouat stands alongside those of Macaulay and Bentinck, Wood and Canning, in the spread of English education and the origin of the Universities in India. Mouat was a fluent speaker in French and Hindustani, as well as in English, and he presented a valuable library to the Calcutta Medical College. On retirement he had the rank of Deputy Inspector-General. On his return to England he was appointed one of the Local Government Inspectors until 1887. He contributed much to the *Lancet*, also to Blue Books on Prison Reforms, Opium and Alcohol, Organization of Medical Relief, Hospital Construction and Management, and Repression of Crime. He was President of the Royal Statistical Society from 1890-1892. He visited and reported on the Ambulances in the north of France in 1871. On November 9th, 1876, he was present, as the representative of the Local Government Board, in the Tower of London during the removal of the pavement in the chancel of the Church of St Peter ad Vincula when the skeletons of Anne Boleyn, the Duke of Monmouth, and others were found and identified. He founded and endowed a Scholarship for Medical Students at the University of Edinburgh. He died at 12 Durham Villas, Kensington, on January 12th, 1897, and was cremated at Woking. He married (1) in 1842 Mary Rennards Boyes, and (2) in 1889 Margaret Key, daughter of John Fawcus, JP, who survived him. A good portrait accompanies his biography in the *Medical Reporter* of Calcutta (1894, iii, 314), and a small reproduction is in the College Collection. His bust by H Thornycroft, RA, he left to University College, London. Publications:- *Observations on the Nosological Arrangement of the Bengal Medical Returns, with a few Cursory Remarks on Medical Topography and Military Hygiene*, 8vo, Calcutta, 1845. *Elements of Anatomy: compiled from the Most Recent Authorities and translated into Hindustani*, 8vo, illustrated, Calcutta, 1848. *An Atlas of Anatomical Plates of the Human Body, with Descriptive Letterpress in English and Hindustani*, published by order of Government, fol, 50 coloured plates, Calcutta, 1849. *Reports on Jails Visited and Inspected in Bengal, Behar, and Arracan*, 8vo, 2 plans, Calcutta, 1856. *The Andaman Islands; with Notes on Barren Island* (Report of the Committee appointed Nov 20, 1857, to select a Site for the Establishment of a Penal Settlement), 8vo, 6 plates and a plan, Calcutta, 1859. *Selections from the Records of the Government of India (Home Dept)*, No XXV. *The British Soldier in India*, 8vo, London, 1859. *On Prison Statistics and Discipline in Lower Bengal*, 8vo, 1860? *Report on the Diet of Prisoners in the Jails of the Lower Provinces of the Bengal Presidency* (with Appendix No II, showing in detail the strength, admissions, deaths, dietary, and cubical space of the three quinquennial periods of 1839-1843, 1844-1848, and 1852-1856, in the Jails of the Lower Provinces, with Abstracts of the same), 4to, Calcutta, 1860. *Report on the Classified Dietary of 1862 for Prisoners in the Jails of the Lower Provinces of the Bengal Presidency* (with Appendix showing the results of the new dietary, as exhibited by the weights of the prisoners subjected to it, on admission and discharge; the sickness and mortality that prevailed among them; and the cost of the measure during the continuance of the experiment, viz, from the 1st of May to the 31st of October, 1862), 4to, Calcutta, 1863. *Adventures and Researches among the Andaman Islands*, 8vo, London, 1863. "Special Report on Wounds and Injuries received in Battle," 8vo, 1865?; reprinted from the *Medical and Surgical History of the New Zealand War*, by Sir James Mouat, VC (qv). *Memorandum on the Duties, etc, of Inspectors of Sanitary Arrangements*, fol, 1868. *A Visit to Some of the Battlefields and Ambulances of the North of France*, 8vo, London, 1871. "Medical Statistics, with Especial Reference to Cholera and Syphilis," 8vo, London, 1874; reprinted from *Trans Epidemiol Soc Lond*, 1866-73, iii, 376. *Note on the Statistics of Child-birth in the Lying-in Wards of the Workhouse Infirmaries of England and Wales for the Ten Years* 1871-80, 8vo, nd. *The Death Tribute of England to India*; being an examination of the deaths and invaliding of officers of HM British Forces serving in India, from 1861-1870 inclusive, considered with special reference to the question of the present value of European life in India, 8vo, London, 1875. *Repression of Crime; Address delivered before the Social Science Congress at Dublin*, Oct 4, 1881, 8vo, London, 1881. *Memorial to the Right Honourable the Secretary of State for India, in Council*, 8vo, nd. *Hospital Construction and Management* (with H SAXON SNELL), 4to, 52 plates and map, London, 1883-4. He added a note on dry sewage to W R Gilbert Hickey's *The Carbonization or Dry Distillation System*, 8vo, Darjeeling, 1869. He published a Persian translation, with Appendix, of Spilsbury and Samachurn Dutt's *Hindustani Version of the London Pharmacopoeia*, ed 1836, 8vo, Calcutta, 1845. He wrote extensively on prisons and their discipline (*see* his *International Prison Statistics, International Prisons Congress*, 1890). *A History of the Statistical Society of London*, 1885. *Origin and Progress of Universities in India*, 1888. Much of his work in Blue Books, etc, had to do with the condition of the English poor. Lieut-Colonel Crawford, IMS, adds to the foregoing list (Crawford's *History of the Indian Medical Service*, 1914, especially vol ii, p. 177). *Rough Notes of a Trip to Mauritius, Réunion, and Ceylon*, 1853. *Value of European Life in India*, 1873.
Resource Identifier RCS: E002761
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Gosse, William (1813 - 1883)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

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

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2012-03-29
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E002000-E002999/E002100-E002199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/374290374290
Occupation Ophthalmic surgeon
Details William Ilbert Hancock ('Bertie Hancock') was born at Wiveliscombe, Somersetshire, the ninth of ten brothers - two of whom became international Rugby football players, and the rest fine athletes - sons of William Hancock. He was educated at Dulwich College and Guy's Hospital, which he entered in 1891. He was a fine athlete, of splendid physique, a first-class cricket, football, and lawn-tennis player, as well as a good shot. He played for his County and represented Guy's in all three sports whilst a student; at cricket having a bowling average of 8.89 and a batting average of 41.22. He was Captain of the Guy's football team in 1893-1894, when the International Cup was won, but missed international honours by tearing a knee cartilage just before the match in two succeeding years. He began the study of ophthalmology in 1899 at Moorfields, and continued at the Royal London Hospital except for six months in 1902 spent in assisting Richardson Cross at Clifton, and as Clinical Assistant at the Westminster Ophthalmic Hospital. In 1903 he was elected Ophthalmic Surgeon to the East London Hospital for Children, Shadwell, and in 1906 Ophthalmic Surgeon to the Bolingbroke Hospital. At the Royal London Ophthalmic Hospital he was successively Pathologist and Clinical Assistant, and after ten years' work was appointed Assistant Surgeon in April, 1909. Concurrently he had developed a successful private practice at 27 Queen Anne Street, and distinguished himself as an operator. Five days before his death he underwent an apparently uncomplicated operation for appendicitis, but pulmonary embolism and thrombosis suddenly caused death on January 26th, 1910. He married Miss Margaret Hay Sweet Escott in 1899, who survived him with four young children. Publications: Hancock published a number of Ophthalmological Papers in the *Roy. Lond. Ophthal. Hosp. Rep.* and other journals.
Resource Identifier RCS: E002107
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2012-03-29 2012-04-04
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E002000-E002999/E002100-E002199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/374291374291
Occupation General surgeon
Details Practised as a surgeon at 4 New Road, Euston Square. By 1861 he had settled at Swansea, when he is described as Surgeon to the Eastern District of the Gower Union and late Staff Assistant Surgeon to the 31st Depôt, Pembroke. He died in or before 1891. [His name is spelt HANCORNE in the *Medical Directory* 1861. The name remains in the List of Members in the *Calendar* after the date of the Fellowship. It is probable, therefore, that he had not paid the Fellowship fees]
Resource Identifier RCS: E002108
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2012-07-04
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E002000-E002999/E002500-E002599
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/374751374751
Occupation General surgeon
Details The son of Dr R Haynes Lovell, who practised in Hans Crescent, SW. He was educated at Cheltenham and at St Mary's Hospital, where he was Clinical Assistant in the Ear, Nose, and Throat Department at the time of his death, and had been House Surgeon. He was at one time Surgical Registrar at the London Temperance Hospital, and during the European War was Resident Medical Officer at the King Edward VII Hospital for Officers in Grosvenor Gardens. He practised at 37 Clarges Street, W, and died of septicaemia about the year 1919. Publications: "Synovial Membranes with Special Reference to those related to the Tendons of Foot and Ankle" (with H H TANNER). - *Jour of Anat and Physiol*, 1908, xlii, 415. "Vaccine Treatment of Hay Fever." - *Lancet*, 1912, ii, 1716. "Hay Fever." - *Practitioner*, 1914, xeii, 266. "Actinomycosis, witn Special Reference to Involvement of Bone, and Account of Case Primarily Involving Inferior Maxilla." - *Proc Roy Soc Med* (Surg Sect), 1912-13, vi, 121.
Resource Identifier RCS: E002568
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Macauley, Thomas ( - 1861)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2012-07-06
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E002000-E002999/E002500-E002599
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/374770374770
Occupation General surgeon
Details Was at one time Surgeon to the Lincoln County Hospital, later Surgeon to the Leicester Infirmary and to the Leicestershire and Rutland Lunatic Asylum. He died on October 4th, 1861.
Resource Identifier RCS: E002587
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Matthews, Thomas Leman (1798 - 1861)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

First Title value, for Searching Hill, Matthew Berkeley (1834 - 1892)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2012-04-13
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E002000-E002999/E002200-E002299
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/374409374409
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born on June 12th, 1834, at the Vale of Health, Hampstead, the youngest son of Matthew Davenport Hill, Recorder of Birmingham, and later Bankruptcy Commissioner in Bristol. He was educated in part at Bruce Castle, Tottenham, a school belonging to the Hill family, previously to one uncle, Sir Rowland Hill, and then to another uncle, Arthur Hill. He resembled his uncle Sir Rowland Hill, both physically and in tenacity of purpose, resource, and public spirit. Hill also attended University College School, London, under Mr Key. He next entered Bristol Medical School in 1852, with the intention of becoming an analytical chemist, and studied chemistry under Thornton Herapath, Lecturer on Chemistry, but he also attended a course of lectures on descriptive and surgical anatomy, which led him to change over to surgery and to proceed to University College Hospital, with which he was to remain connected for the rest of his life. After qualifying he was for a year House Surgeon at the Children's Hospital, Great Ormond Street, in 1861 he went to study in Berlin under Virchow, later in Vienna, and then in Paris, where Ricord determined him in the direction of the study of venereal disease. After further travel in Italy, at the end of 1862 he was appointed Demonstrator of Anatomy at University College, and soon after Assistant Surgeon to the hospital. In 1863 he acted as deputy in the absence of Sir Henry Thompson when he was operating upon the King of the Belgians. In 1867 he was appointed upon the staff of the Lock Hospital. In 1864, 1866, and 1869 he took a great part in the controversy over the Contagious Diseases Acts which ended in their abrogation in 1870. Berkeley Hill along with Curgenven had acted as Secretary to the Society for the Extension of the Contagious Diseases Acts to the civil population, and he spared neither strength, time, nor professional prospects. All the abuse showered on him never caused him for a moment to swerve from what he thought right in the attempt to restrict venereal disease. Looking back, we can now see that the methods of diagnosis and treatment were defective. The compulsory measures adopted on the Continent to an extent exceeding that proposed for this country had failed to diminish the incidence of venereal disease. Berkeley Hill turned his attention from attempts to prevent the condition to the improvement of the diagnosis of 'syphilis and local contagious disorders'. For this purpose he recommended the development of endoscopic examination as better than attempting Holt's forcible dilatation of urethral stricture, which was often followed by external urethrotomy. He was for three years in succession Dean of the Medical Department of University College, and was elected as the representative of his colleagues when Professors first gained seats on the Council of University College. Having become full Surgeon in 1874, and as Professor of Clinical Surgery and Teacher of Practical Surgery, he took a full share in the growth of the Medical School, also in the movement for rebuilding University College Hospital. He was elected a Member of the Council of the College of Surgeons in 1886, and became a Vice-President in 1891; he also served on the Court of Examiners from 1886 until his death. He died at his house, 66 Wimpole Street, on January 7th, 1892. At the funeral in Finchley Cemetery wreaths were placed on his grave, some from men who, young and careless, had been in danger of wrecking their lives, had not the wise counsel and the timely help of the older man arrested them. The pleasure he felt when such a young man gave evidence that the exertion had not been in vain was indeed keen. He married in 1868 Alice Campbell (d1929), the youngest daughter of Sir Thomas Howell, of the War Office, by whom he had six children, five of them surviving him. His portrait appears in the Council Portrait Group by Jamyn Brookes 1884. His photograph is in the Council Album. Publications: *The Essentials of Bandaging, including the Management of Fractures and Dislocations*, 1867; 2nd ed, 1869; 6th ed, 1887. *Treatment of the Sick and Wounded, illustrated by Observations made at the Seat of War*, 1870. "Foreign Opinions on Syphilis." - *Brit. Med. Jour.*, 1862, ii, 407, etc. *Syphilis and Local Contagious Disorders* (with ARTHUR COOPER), 1868; 2nd ed., 1881. *The Students' Manual of Venereal Diseases* (with ARTHUR COOPER), 1877; 4th ed 1887. *Statistical Results of the Contagious Diseases Act*, 1870. "Illustrations of the Working of the Contagious Diseases Act." - *Brit. Med. Jour.*, 1867, ii, 583; 1868, 1, 21, etc. "A Clinical Lecture on the Treatment of Incipient Stricture by Otis's Operation." - *Lancet*, 1876, i, 522. *Chronic Urethritis and other Affections of the Genito-urinary Organs*: Three Lectures delivered at the Royal College of Surgeons, June, 1889, 1890. "Should the Principle of the Contagious Diseases Act be applied to the Civil Population?" - *Trans. Nat. Assoc. for Promotion of Social Sci*., 1869, London, 1870, 428. *A Few Remarks on the Errors in the "Westminster Review" on Prostitution: Govern¬mental Experiments in Controlling it by John Chapman, MD*, London, 1870.
Resource Identifier RCS: E002226
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Hill, Samuel (1811 - 1874)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2012-04-13
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E002000-E002999/E002200-E002299
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/374410374410
Occupation General surgeon
Details Studied at St Thomas's Hospital and was for a time Superintendent of the Surrey County Lunatic Asylum, then of the North and East Ridings Lunatic Asylum, Clifton, Yorkshire. He died at Wambrook, near Chard, Somerset, on August 20th, 1874.
Resource Identifier RCS: E002227
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Maurice, James Blake (1839 - 1912)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2012-08-01
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E002000-E002999/E002600-E002699
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/374869374869
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born on October 2nd, 1839, at Lloran House, Marlborough. He was the son of David Pierce Maurice (qv), who in turn had succeeded his father, other members of the family practising as contemporaries at Reading. He went to Cheltenham School in August, 1856, then to St Mary's Hospital, where he was House Surgeon, but declined the offer of the post of Surgical Registrar, leading up to the Staff of St Mary's, in order to join his father at Marlborough. Marlborough had been the well-known market town where the coaches stopped on the way to Bath, but it became isolated when they ceased to run, and the Great Western Railway passed through Swindon, miles to the west. Years after, the branch through Theale to Newbury was joined up with the branch from the west to Devizes, but that again passed Marlborough miles to the east, and supplied only a terminal branch into Marlborough. For years the Bath Road was deserted except by local traffic. The by-roads around Marlborough continued impassable in the winter. James Blake Maurice's daily round to villages and farmhouses was done on horseback in his early days, his groom meeting him with a second horse about midday. But towards the latter end of his life motor traffic revived the Bath Road, passing through the Market Place, in front of Lloran House, and incidentally both the main and side roads were enormously improved. Maurice was the happy possessor of a highly developed clinical instinct which often enabled him to arrive at a general conclusion as to the patient's condition by what appeared to be hardly more than a cursory glance. To this must be added that he understood the country people and their way of expressing themselves. Among other successes he noted that he had learnt from his father to treat injuries to the elbow-joint in the flexed position and not extended on splints, as had been advocated by some authorities. The famous old coaching house at the west end of the town had been taken over and developed as Marlborough College, and Edward Penny, the Medical Officer for a quarter of a century, was in the habit of consulting Maurice in times of difficulty. Maurice for thirty years served in the Royal Wiltshire Yeomanry. For forty-five years he was a Member of the Corporation, and four times Mayor, a Borough Magistrate for thirty-five years and a County Magistrate for thirty. On his farm at Preshute he not only found opportunity for his country tastes, but it gave him a knowledge of the interests which absorbed the attention of the great section of his patients engaged in farming. He took a large share in founding Savernake Cottage Hospital at a time when the only alternatives existed in distant towns - Bath, Salisbury, or Reading. In addition he held minor posts - Certifying Factory Surgeon; Medical Officer to the Somerset Hospital, Froxfield, and to the Great Western Railway Provident Society; Referee to the Railway Passengers Accident Assurance Company. He died at Lloran House, Marlborough, on February 14th, 1912, and his funeral in Preshute Churchyard was the largest and most representative within living memory. He married the daughter of Nathaniel Kindersley, of the Indian Civil Service, and was survived by her and by twelve out of a family of thirteen children. Nine of his sons were educated at Marlborough College. At his death four sons were members of the medical profession. The third son, Oliver Colley Maurice, MRCS, who had joined his father in practice, died a few months later, and was buried beside his father. A younger son, Walter Maurice, continued his father's practice in still another generation.
Resource Identifier RCS: E002686
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Maurice, Thelwall Blissett (1794 - 1867)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

First Title value, for Searching Mawdsley, John (1795 - 1869)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

First Title value, for Searching Mawhood, Reginald Hawksworth (1885 - 1926)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

First Title value, for Searching Leyson, William (1790 - 1854)

2026-06-17T03:23:20Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2012-06-27
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E002000-E002999/E002500-E002599
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/374704374704
Occupation General surgeon
Details Educated at St George's Hospital, where he was entered as a six-months' surgical pupil to John Griffiths in 1810, and in August, 1815, took out a further course of six months. He was a Surgeon in the Royal Navy, and then practised, or resided only, at Neath, Glamorgan, dying at his residence near that town on November 3rd, 1854.
Resource Identifier RCS: E002521
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset