Search Results for

First Title value, for Searching Canton, Edwin (1817 - 1885)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

First Title value, for Searching Cantrell, William (1801 - 1876)

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First Title value, for Searching Cape, Henry (1817 - 1866)

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First Title value, for Searching Cardell, John Magor (1832 - 1875)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

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

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

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

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

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

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

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

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

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

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

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

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

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

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

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://scp.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 Berry, Titus (1779 - 1868)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

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

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

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

First Title value, for Searching Gabriel, Anthony (1925 - 2007)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

by N Alan Green
Publication Date 2010-04-28
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000900-E000999
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373110373110
Occupation General surgeon
Details Tony Gabriel was formerly the senior surgeon at the Cancer Hospital, Maharagama, Colombo, Sri Lanka. He was born in London on 10 January 1925 and died in Colombo on 21 December 2007 after a short illness, a few days before his 83rd birthday. He was described by one writer ‘as a person who loved the wilds as much as he loved people’. This emphasised two facets in the life of a most remarkable man: he had a love of Sri Lanka and its natural beauty, and was a surgeon who was proud of his connections with our college. What had been a one-way traffic of doctors coming from Ceylon to the United Kingdom to train was reversed in Tony’s case: many trainees went from this country to learn the finer points of facio-maxillary surgery from him. He was the only son of a distinguished ‘Ceylonese’ surgeon, Vrasapillai Gabriel, who undertook part of his training at the London Hospital. His father married Florence Mary McColloch, a nursing sister at the London, who was ‘a gentle Irish lady’. Vrasapillai Gabriel came from a well known northern family who were hereditary administrators at the time of the British Raj and was the first Ceylonese to gain the membership of the Royal College of Physicians. Tony’s parents made sure that their son imbibed everything Sinhalese: many holidays were spent in various parts of the country mixing with local people. He and his father travelled the country from Galle to Jaffna, where Tony received part of his education during the Second World War at St Patrick’s College. They often camped under canvas and shot their own food. This acquaintance with rural life helped him to understand the problems of many of the population who later came to him for professional advice. Tony entered medical school in Colombo with 60 others, including eight females. He studied anatomy under the stern but amiable P K Chanmugam, physiology with Columbine and A C E Koch, and biochemistry with A A Hoover. During his clinical studies Anthony Gabriel forged many friendships, but developed a particularly strong connection with Ananda Soysa and his future wife Priyana (now emeritus professor of paediatrics at the University of Colombo). One surgical clerkship these friends undertook was under Anthony’s father, Vrasapillai Gabriel, who was an early exponent of gastric and biliary surgery and pioneer of spinal anaesthesia in Colombo. Gabriel senior was a hard task master who demanded high standards from all his students. Tony always addressed him as ‘Sir’ and in return was called ‘Mr Gabriel’. He qualified in 1950 with first class honours, the Van der Straten silver medal in public health, and the Dadhabhoy gold medal in obstetrics and gynaecology. He was house surgeon to Milroy Paul, assistant lecturer in anatomy at the Ceylon Medical College and passed the primary FRCS in Colombo, when an examining team came from Lincoln’s Inn Fields for the purpose. Tony completed his FRCS in the United Kingdom at Edinburgh and in London, and in 1955 returned to Ceylon as a resident surgeon at the General Hospital in Colombo. He later undertook consultant posts in Badulla, Jaffna and Galle. He was a conscientious surgeon with an impeccable technique who developed a special interest in maxillo-facial work. He won a fellowship to Berlin to expand his repertoire in this and soon became widely recognised for his expertise in head and neck cancer. From 1971 at Maharagama he transformed the outlook of the institution into a dynamic centre, with surgery and radiotherapy working side by side. As chairman of the board of study in surgery he was instrumental in getting oncology recognised as a specialty by the Postgraduate Institute of Medicine. In the UK he was recognised as an excellent tutor by many trainee oral and facio-maxillary surgeons, for which he was made an honorary fellow of the British Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons (BAOMS) in 1993. Anthony Gabriel produced many publications, was much in demand as a lecturer and gave several eponymous orations. He was president of the Sri Lanka College of Surgeons in 1986 and served on the Ceylon Medical Council, the Health Council, Cancer Control Council and the Postgraduate Board of Surgical Studies. He examined for the MS in surgery and in dental surgery. He married Jeevamany Kadirgamar in 1957 and they celebrated their golden wedding in May 2007. They had two sons, Sanjeev and Harin, both of whom studied at the University of Hull. The elder obtained a masters degree in law and the younger, a business degree. He had many interests outside medicine. He was an active and practising Roman Catholic. A natural athlete, in his early days he swam for his school, and played cricket and tennis. Later he became a golfer and was president of the Royal Colombo Golf Club. He was active in the Wildlife Society. He was a fine actor, with a commanding presence. He was commanding officer of the Sri Lanka Army (Volunteer) Medical Corps during its centenary year, with the rank of full colonel. In retirement, he bought a coconut plantation north-west of Colombo, which gave him much pleasure until his death in 2007. He is survived by his wife and their two sons.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000927
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Coals, John (1930 - 2009)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2010-04-28 2010-05-13
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000900-E000999
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373111373111
Occupation General surgeon
Details John Coals was a consultant surgeon in accident and emergency surgery at Chester Royal Infirmary. He was born in Highbury, London, on 8 February 1930, the son of John Rueben Coals, a shipping agent, and Alice Maud Beatrice née Ensor. He was educated at St Andrew’s Church School and Enfield Grammar School, before entering the London Hospital Medical College in 1948. After graduating, he was a house surgeon at Hillingdon Hospital and a house physician at the Royal Northern Hospital. He then joined the RAFVR for his National Service. On demobilisation, he completed various registrar posts, mainly in the London area and passed the FRCS in 1961. In 1964, he moved with his family to Manitoba, Canada, where he worked as a general practitioner surgeon at first, became a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Canada, and was then appointed as associate director of emergency services at the Health Sciences Centre in Winnipeg. In 1980, he returned to the UK as a consultant in accident and emergency surgery at the Chester Royal Infirmary. There he supported, trained and examined ambulance crews in basic and advanced cardiopulmonary resuscitation, thus predating the paramedics. He was predeceased by his wife Iris née Woolston in 2000. He died in July 2009, and was survived by his children, Alison, Christopher and Jacqueline.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000928
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Boycott, Thomas (1816 - 1886)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

First Title value, for Searching Boyd, James Stanley Newton (1856 - 1916)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

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://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373126373126
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born in Shrewsbury on May 18th, 1856, the son of Major James Boyd, 86th Regiment, and Emma, daughter of Henry Newton, a burgess of Shrewsbury. He spent his boyhood with his parents at St Heliers, Jersey, where he was educated in a private school. “I can go back to the charm of his Jersey home at St Heliers”, says one of his oldest friends, Dr Harrington Sainsbury, in the *Lancet* (1916, i, 378), “and recall happy memories of a visit there when the circle was still complete, Major and Mrs Boyd, a younger sister and brother forming that circle; and I can see there, in the simplicities and integrities and unaffected enjoyment of life which prevailed, the natural source of the qualities which characterized and adorned him. It was a military home where duty figured largely and cheerfully, and it has always seemed to me that in consequence Boyd retained much of the soldier’s outlook all through life.” Stanley Boyd, having entered University College Hospital as a student in 1872, and thus living in London, came under the influence of his uncle, Henry Newton, a distinguished retired Anglo-Indian judge. Newton regarded his nephew almost as a son, and through him Boyd came much into contact with the Society of Friends. Through William S Tuke at University College he came to know Dr Hack Tuke and his family, of long-established Quaker origin and traditions. Others of his University College fellow-students were Victor Horsley (qv), Charles Stonham (qv), C T Bond, of Leicester, Dawson-Williams, Alfred Pearce Gould (qv), A J Pepper, Arthur Quarry Silcock (qv), Amand Routh, F W Mott, and Montague Murray, the last three eventually becoming his colleagues at Charing Cross Hospital, and all in time occupying high positions in the profession. He himself was a distinguished student. He was House Physician to Wilson Fox and House Surgeon to John Marshall (qv). Boyd, like others of his generation, owed much of his subsequent success to that disciple of Lister and Billroth, Marcus Beck (qv), whose teaching of the science and the art of surgery was an outstanding feature of University College Hospital. After graduating with high honours, Boyd became Demonstrator of Anatomy and then of Practical Surgery in the Medical School of his hospital. Later he was Surgical Registrar to the hospital. By conscientious devotion to the duties of this office he laid the foundation of his thorough knowledge of pathology and of its important bearings on surgical practice. It enabled him to describe precisely the details of an operation, and also of any subsequent microscopic investigation. In later life he would often refer to the great value of such an appointment to a young surgeon. He was elected Assistant Surgeon to Charing Cross Hospital in 1882, and was soon regarded as an acquisition to the hospital’s anatomical and surgical teaching. In 1891 he became full Surgeon and was Senior Surgeon from 1905 to the time of his death. He held most of the important posts at Charing Cross Hospital, being Lecturer in Anatomy (1888-1897), Pathologist (1886-1888), Dean (1890-1895), Lecturer on Operative Surgery (1899-1901), and on Surgery (1890-1905). His lectures were remarkable for their thoroughness, and as an operator he was brilliant. He was bold but always careful. He was keenly interested in the operative treatment of malignant disease, especially where the breast or mouth or fauces were involved, and his success in radical operations for these conditions was in some measure due to his sound anatomical knowledge. Boyd was Treasurer to the School of Charing Cross Hospital from 1906-1911, holding this post during a transition period. He was also a zealous Chairman of the Medical Committee of the Hospital and of the School Committee and laboured in the interest of both. He was a great believer in athletics as a means of improving the *moral* of a school. It was a critical period through which his hospital was passing. The slums to the east of it, north of the Strand, were being cleared away; one of the two adjacent hospitals was no longer needed; and King’s College Hospital moved to the south side of the river. Charing Cross Hospital got more work, for by its situation it constitutes the casualty station for that region of Central London, where its service is as much in demand by night as by day. Boyd, the foremost among the medical staff in advocating improvements, only lived through the commencement; in particular the new operating theatre was due to him. From being almost overwhelmed by debt, the hospital has come to have funds in hand; it has been largely rebuilt and has taken over the site of the older Westminster Ophthalmic Hospital. Despite his responsible position at Charing Cross Hospital, Boyd found time for much work outside its walls. Thus, at the time of his death he was Surgeon to the Hospital for Consumption at Brompton, Consulting Surgeon to the Paddington Green Hospital for Children, and to the New Hospital for Women. He was also on the honorary staff of certain hospitals in the home counties and suburbs, such as the Norwood Institute for Jews, etc. At the beginning of the Great War (1914-1918), in addition to his arduous hospital and private work, he operated daily at the 4th London General Hospital, with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel RAMC (TF). In July, 1914, he was elected upon the Council of the Royal College of Surgeons, having been previously a Member of the Court of Examiners. He was also Examiner in Surgery at the University of Cambridge. He warmly advocated the medical education of women. In the early days of the Women’s School of Medicine he was a lecturer on anatomy, and much of the success of that school was due to him. He had the courage of his convictions, and never failed to advocate the claims of women to be admitted to the examinations of the colleges and universities. Like all pioneers in this movement, he became for a time unpopular. On the difficult subject of the proper development of the University of London he had very definite views. He was among those who held that the best way to reorganize the University of London as a teaching centre, as far as medicine is concerned, would be to concentrate in a few centres the instruction in the preliminary sciences, and much of the success which has now come to Charing Cross Hospital Medical School by its amalgamation for that purpose with King’s College could have been effected years ago had the counsels of Stanley Boyd been adopted. He married in 1889 Florence Nightingale Toms, MD, from a family well known and much respected in Chard, Somerset, who had been one of his pupils at the London School of Medicine for Women and had distinguished herself in gynaecology. He died, after a short illness from previously latent gall-bladder disease, on February 1st, 1916. A funeral service, with a military escort, was held at St Pancras Church. His London address was 134 Harley Street. Publications: “Reports of Surgical Cases in University College Hospital, 1880, 1881.” Article on “Hospital Mortality and Hospitalism,” etc., in Heath’s *Dictionary of Surgery*. Article on “Diseases of the Mouth, Tongue and Veins” in Quain’s *Dictionary of Medicine*. “Reports on Surgery.” – *Year Book of Treatment*, 1891-4. “Injuries of Bones.” – Treves’ *System of Surgery*, 1895. “Aneurysm.” – *Encyclopoedia Medica*, i. Editor of Green’s *Pathology and Morbid Anatomy*, 7th ed., 1889. Editor of Druitt’s *Vade-Mecum*, 12th ed., 1887. Translation of Koch’s *Etiology of Tuberculosis* in Watson Cheyne’s “Recent Essays on Bacteria,” New Sydenham Society, 1886. “The Bhaau Daji Treatment of Leprosy,” 8vo, 1893, reprinted from *Brit. Jour. Dermatol*., 1893, v. 203. “On Enterorrhaphy by Invagination (Maunsell’s Method).” – *Trans. Med.-Chir. Soc.*, 1893, lxxvi, 345. “Oöphorectomy in Cancer of the Breast” (with W. H. Unwin). – *Brit. Med. Jour.*, 1897-1900. “On a Series of Cases of Cancer of the Tongue” (with W. H. Unwin). – *Practitioner*, 1903, lxx, 626. “On a Series of Cases of Cancer of the Mouth and Fauces.” – *Ibid*., 1904, lxxii, 397.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000943
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Boyd, Sprott ( - 1902)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

First Title value, for Searching Boyes, William Robert (1816 - 1857)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

First Title value, for Searching Parsons, Howard Michael (1918 - 2010)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

by Neil Weir
Publication Date 2012-01-11 2013-05-23
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001800-E001899
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/374030374030
Occupation ENT surgeon
Details Howard Michael Parsons was an ENT surgeon in Lewisham and then Croydon. He was born in Paddington, London, on 14 April 1918, during a Zeppelin raid, the third child of John Parsons, a master builder, and his wife Maude Parsons née Percival. He was educated at St Andrews Prep School, Eastbourne and then Radley College. He then read medicine at University College Hospital Medical School, London, where he was 'fast tracked' through medicine during the Second World War. On qualifying in 1942, he was soon recruited into the RAMC as a medical officer with the rank of captain, serving with the Long Range Desert Group in North Africa and Italy. His daring rescue of his commanding officer, who had been severely injured in a parachute drop into the occupied Albanian mountains, speaks of his courage and adaptability. Having diagnosed a fractured spine and encased his boss' back in plaster, he then escorted him via mountainous mule tracks to the coast and to repatriation to Brindisi. On the journey he treated numerous wounded partisans, often operating on kitchen tables lit by oil lamps. After his wartime exploits, Michael Parsons returned to civilian life and trained as an ear, nose and throat surgeon. He served as a consultant to the Lewisham Hospital Group for 16 years, and then to the Croydon Group for 17 years. He was also the assistant director of the speech and hearing centre (audiology unit) and a consultant surgeon at the Royal National Throat, Nose and Ear Hospital, Gray's Inn Road and Golden Square in London for three years, and a senior consultant otologist to London County Council for four years. Having retired in 1983, he nevertheless continued in private practice until the age of 72. His practice was general ENT, with a particular interest in head and neck cancer. He was an experienced and popular medical manager, who chaired many committees in Croydon and led the development of Shirley Oaks, Croydon's first private hospital, becoming the first chairman. In 1942 he married Sarah Muriel Foley, a staff nurse at University College Hospital, who served with Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service during the war. She landed in Normandy shortly after D-Day and was nursing in Caen while it was being bombed by the Allies. They shared an enthusiasm for motor racing; in the 1950s this led to annual trips to watch the Le Mans 24 Hours race. Later this experience was replicated at home by owning a succession of Jaguars and Aston Martins. Michael Parsons died on 21 September 2010 at the age of 92, leaving his wife, son Christopher, daughter Luise, a general practitioner, and four grandchildren.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001847
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Patel, Jashbhai Nathabhai (1927 - 1992)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

by Tina Craig
Publication Date 2012-01-11 2014-11-25
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001800-E001899
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/374031374031
Occupation General surgeon
Details Jashbhai Patel was a general surgeon who practised in India, the UK and the USA. He was born on 30 November 1927 in Dharmpuri in the Baroda District of Gujarat State, the second son of a farmer, Nathabhai Ukabhai Patel and his wife Chanchalben. After initially attending local schools he won a scholarship to study at the Baroda Science College and then to attend B J Medical College in Ahmadabad to study medicine from 1949 to 1953. His first appointments were in India, partly in private practice and then he moved to the UK in 1957 to become house officer in general surgery to the Stockton and Thornaby Hospital. Various short term locum posts followed in the North of England, London and the Midlands before he moved to New York in 1969 to work at the New York Infirmary. Finally he settled in Indiana. In 1967 he married Dashreath Mathur, an artist, and they had a son and daughter. He was interested in playing indoor games and was fond of music. He died in 1992, aged 64 or 65 years.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001848
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Shephard, Reginald Harry (1918 - 2010)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

by Tina Craig
Publication Date 2012-01-12 2014-05-14
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001800-E001899
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/374032374032
Occupation Neurosurgeon
Details Reginald Harry (Dick) Shephard was consultant neurosurgeon to the Derby Royal Infirmary. Born in 1918 he was one of 10 children and spent much of his younger days helping out on the family farm in Hampshire. Enrolling at University College London with a scholarship, he won a Rockefeller scholarship to study at Yale and passed his MD there in 1943. During the second world war he served in the RAMC. Early posts were at University College Hospital, the London Hospital and Maida Vale Hospital for Nervous Diseases. It is said that his interest in neurosurgery was influenced by Sir Hugh Cairns at Oxford and by working under Valentine Logue at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery in Queen Square. In 1958 he was appointed to the consultancy at Derby Royal Infirmary, working for a time with George Clark-Maxwell, and he remained there until retirement. He died on 24 December 2010 aged 92 and was survived by his wife of 65 years, Dorothy, whom he met at UCH, five children and 14 grandchildren.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001849
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Shephard, Edmund (1914 - 2006)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

by Tina Craig
Publication Date 2012-01-12 2014-05-14
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001800-E001899
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/374033374033
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon
Details Edmund Shephard was consultant orthopaedic surgeon at the West Kent General Hospital in Maidstone. Born on 14 May 1914, he studied medicine at Oxford University and St Bartholomew's Hospital qualifying BM BCh in 1942 and passing the fellowship of the College in 1951. He became chief assistant in the orthopaedic department at Bart's and then house surgeon to the Orthopaedic Hospital at Oswestry. In the RAMC he served as a surgical specialist with the rank of major. He was a fellow of the British Orthopaedic Association and of the Royal Society of Medicine. He died on 18 December 2006, aged 92 years. His wife, Molly, predeceased him and he was survived by his sons, Patrick and Edmund Peter, who practiced as a consultant physician in Harley Street. Publications: Tarsal movements *Jl bone and joint surg* 1951 Multiple epiphysial dysplasia *Ibid*1956 Simultaneous posterior dislocation of both shoulders *Ibid*1960
Resource Identifier RCS: E001850
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Adlington, Peter (1932 - 2011)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

by Alan Bracewell
Publication Date 2012-01-12 2012-12-20
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001800-E001899
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/374036374036
Occupation ENT surgeon
Details Peter Adlington was an ear, nose and throat surgeon to the West and East Dorset Health Authorities between 1969 and 1997. He was born in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, on 8 April 1932. His father Basil was an ear, nose and throat surgeon and a general practitioner, and also a fellow of the College. His mother was Katherine Adlington née Williams. Peter went to school at Worcester Royal Grammar School and then attended Epsom College from 1945 to 1950, where he was captain of rugby. His family had a strong connection with King's College Hospital. His father had trained there, his aunt was a nurse at King's, as was Peter's future wife, Margaret. Peter went to King's College Hospital Medical School in 1950 and qualified in 1956. After pre-registration house officer posts he joined the Parachute Regiment to carry out his National Service and later transferred to the SAS and saw active service in Malaya and Oman. On returning to civilian life, he was Leverhulme research lecturer in the department of anatomy at the Royal College of Surgeons and, between 1976 and 1982, was examiner in part one of the diploma in otolaryngology. He held various training posts in London, before becoming a senior registrar in the ENT department at King's College Hospital. There he worked for Sir Terence Cawthorne, William Daggett and Roland Lewis. He was appointed to his consultant post in Dorset in 1968. Until his arrival the consultant at West Dorset was single-handed and Peter's time was split between Weymouth and Poole General Hospital. After about 10 years another full-time consultant was appointed in West Dorset and Peter then spent all his time centred on Poole Hospital. He took part in all aspects of the ENT department's work at Poole, taking a particular interest in education and the training of the junior staff. He specialised in reconstructive nasal surgery, and his colleagues referred this work to him. He undertook research projects throughout his career, publishing 12 papers. In 1967 he investigated the ultrastructure of the saccus endolymphaticus at a time when surgical decompression of the saccus was thought to be helpful in the management of Ménière's disease (*J Laryngol Otol* 1967 Jul;81[7]:759-76). He carried out a controlled study of adenotonsillectomy in children, which was published in 1967 (*J Laryngol Otol* 1967 Jul;81[7]:777-90) and subsequently, with consultant colleagues and senior registrars, investigated the bacteriology and virology of secretory otitis media (*J Laryngol Otol* 1969 Feb;83[2]:161-73, (*J Laryngol Otol* 1980 Feb;94[2]:191-6). As part of his interest in reconstructive nasal surgery he investigated the effect of the preparation of cartilage grafts on their long-term survival by implanting differently prepared grafts in laboratory animals. When he first moved to Dorset he lived in the village of Horton, which was conveniently situated for the road journey to Weymouth and Poole. In Horton he had a large garden, which he continued to develop during his time there. He was always keen on sport, played rugby at school and for the United Hospitals team when he was a student. He was a good tennis player and went on playing almost to his retirement. He took up cycling in retirement, undertaking several of the long distance national routes and made cycling tours in Thailand, Italy and regular trips to France He retired in 1997 and moved to Wootton St Lawrence to be closer to one of his daughters. He developed a rare, slowly degenerative neurological illness and died on 29 September 2011. He was survived by his wife Margaret née Jefferies, whom he married in 1968, and their two daughters, one of whom is a consultant in genitourinary medicine.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001853
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Thomas, John Alun Beynon (1912 - 2006)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

by Neil Weir
Publication Date 2012-01-12 2014-06-06
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001800-E001899
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/374039374039
Occupation ENT surgeon
Details John Alun Beynon Thomas was a consultant ENT surgeon to the University Hospital of Wales, Cardiff, and consultant otologist to the Medical Research Council's Institute of Hearing Research (Welsh section). Thomas was president of the South Western Otolaryngological Society and in 1973 he was elected president of the section of laryngology of the Royal Society of Medicine. He died peacefully at home on 10 October 2006 at the age of 93, having been predeceased by his wife Doreen. He left his children - Janet, Roger and Robert.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001856
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Thomas, William Robert Griffith (1935 - 2009)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

by Sarah Gillam
Publication Date 2012-01-13 2014-04-09
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001800-E001899
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/374041374041
Occupation General surgeon
Details William Robert Griffith Thomas was a consultant general surgeon at Glangwili General Hospital, Carmathen, Wales. He studied medicine in Wales, qualifying in 1957, and gained his FRCS in 1965. He died on 30 January 2009, aged 73. He was survived by his wife Jenny and children Ruth, Edward, Kate and Casper.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001858
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Farrar, Derek Adrian Trickett (1921 - 2007)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2010-04-28
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000900-E000999
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373112373112
Occupation ENT surgeon
Details Derek Farrar was one of the few who brought ENT surgery to Tasmania. He was born in Southsea, England, on 27 December 1921, the son of a naval officer. He was educated in Hong Kong and Plymouth, before going to St Bartholomew’s Hospital to study medicine. After graduating, he did six months as an orthopaedic house surgeon at Bart’s, before joining the RNVR, where he served mainly on the destroyers Velox, Meteor (on Russian convoys, for which he was mentioned in despatches) and Sole Bay. After the war, he returned to Bart’s as a demonstrator of anatomy and was then in Birmingham under Sir Solly Zuckerman. He then did general and thoracic surgical jobs and was a casualty officer and deputy resident surgical officer at Queen Mary’s Hospital in the East End, where he was influenced by Alan Small. Having passed the final FRCS, he returned to Bart’s as a registrar to Rupert Corbett, Alec Badenoch and Geoffrey Keynes. After another year as a registrar in Halifax, he decided to specialise in ENT at the Royal Free, Hampstead General and Elizabeth Garrett Anderson hospitals, and then returned to Bart’s as a senior registrar to Capps, Jory and Cecil Hogg. In 1956 he emigrated to Tasmania to join the private ENT practice of Mills Bates in Launceston, and became an honorary ENT surgeon to Launceston Hospital, later moving to Hobart, where he worked at the Royal Hobart and Repatriation hospitals, and served in the Hobart and Launceston branches of the Peter MacCallum clinic. He was an enthusiastic teacher of medical students and registrars and published on otological subjects. Derek was an enthusiastic sailor. He was commodore of the Cruising Yacht Club of Tasmania and was a co-author of D’Entrecasteaux waterways, a book of maps and local guidance for cruising yachts. After he retired he continued to sail, usually to northern Queensland, until 1997, when his yacht sank under him, probably due to hitting a submerged container. He died of pneumonia on 14 February 2007 leaving his widow Rhonwen and two sons, Alan and Nigel.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000929
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Bovill, Edward (1846 - 1908)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

First Title value, for Searching Bowden, Stephen ( - 1896)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

First Title value, for Searching Bowen, Essex (1829 - 1890)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

First Title value, for Searching Bowen, Robert (1817 - 1895)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

First Title value, for Searching Bower, Robert (1803 - 1873)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

First Title value, for Searching Bowes, Richard (1810 - 1892)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

First Title value, for Searching Bowes, William Henry (1861 - 1922)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

First Title value, for Searching Bowker, Richard Ryther Steer (1815 - 1903)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

First Title value, for Searching Bowman, Sir William (1816 - 1892)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

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://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373121373121
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born at Nantwich on July 20th, 1816, the third son of John Eddowes Bowman, banker, and Fellow of the Linnean Society, by Elizabeth, daughter of William Eddowes, of Shrewsbury. His father was a good artist, drawing the illustrations for his scientific papers, whilst his mother had some talent as a draughtsman. He was educated at Hazelwood School, near Birmingham, then kept by Thomas Wright Hill, father of Sir Rowland Hill (1795-1879), the inventor of penny postage. He was apprenticed in 1832 to Joseph Hodgson (qv), who was Surgeon to the General Hospital, Birmingham, and came to London in 1837 to join the medical department at King’s College. There he served the office of Physiological Prosector, and was admitted a MRCS after returning from a visit to the hospitals in Holland, Germany, Vienna, and Paris. In October, 1839, he was appointed Junior Demonstrator of Anatomy and Curator of the Museum at King’s College, and in the following year he was elected Assistant Surgeon to King’s College Hospital, then situated in the slums of Clare Market, having Richard Partridge (qv) as his senior. Bowman became full Surgeon in 1856, but he had by this time devoted himself to ophthalmic surgery and acquired so large a practice that he soon resigned. Elected Professor of Physiology and of General and Morbid Anatomy at King’s College in 1848, he became an Hon Fellow of King’s College in 1855 and a Member of the Council in 1879. He was appointed Assistant Surgeon to the Royal London Ophthalmic Hospital, Moorfields, in 1846, becoming full Surgeon in 1851, and retiring under an age limit in 1876. He was elected FRS in 1841, and was awarded the Royal Medal in 1842 for his work upon the minute anatomy of the liver. He afterwards served on the Council and was one of the Vice-Presidents of the Society. In 1886 he was elected a Fellow of the Linnean Society. Bowman became the leading ophthalmic surgeon in England after the death of John Dalrymple, FRS (1804-1852), and for this position he was eminently fitted both by his knowledge and by his manual dexterity. He was amongst the first to become expert in the use of the ophthalmoscope, which had been invented by Helmholtz in 1851 after Wharton Jones had failed to appreciate its possibilities a few years earlier. He employed and advocated strongly von Graefe’s treatment of glaucoma in 1857, and he was busy during the years 1864 and 1865 in devising new methods of treating detached retina and cataract. He suggested improvements in the treatment of epiphora, and the probes used in this affection are still known as ‘Bowman’s probes’. In 1880 he was elected the first President of the Ophthalmological Society of the United Kingdom, a post he held for three years. His services were so highly valued that the Society established an annual oration in his honour called ‘The Bowman Lecture’. He was created a baronet in 1884. Bowman took a great interest in the welfare of his hospital patients, and, in conjunction with Robert Bentley Todd (1809-1860) and others, established the St John’s Home and Sisterhood, an institution which provided trained nurses for the sick poor. A few years later he was able to help Florence Nightingale (1820-1910) by sending her out trained nurses during the Crimean War, and he remained a member of the Nightingale Fund till his death. Bowman’s work divides itself sharply into two periods – one of pure scientific investigation, the other concerned with the practice of ophthalmic surgery. His scientific and literary work was chiefly carried out between the years 1839 and 1842. It included original investigations on “The Structure of Striated Muscle”, read before the Royal Society (1840-1841); on “The Structure of the Mucous Membrane of the Alimentary Canal”, which appeared in Dr Robert Todd’s illustrated *Cyclopoedia of Anatomy and Physiology*; and on “The Structure of the Kidney”, read before the Royal Society in June, 1842. This classic research is still borne in mind when ‘Bowman’s capsule’ is mentioned. It is a clear exposition both of the minute structure and of the function of the kidney, and entitled Bowman to so high a place as a physiologist that he was unanimously chosen as an Hon Member of the Physiological Club (now Society) in 1882. He was associated in 1839 with Dr Todd in the production of Todd and Bowman’s *Cyclopoedia* (1836-1859, 5 volumes), and he also co-operated with Todd in producing *Anatomy and Physiology of Man* (1843-1856), the first physiological work in which histology was given a place. Both works contain numerous illustrations by Bowman, whose drawings were made directly upon the block without the intervention of an artist. The first important communication made by Bowman in connection with the eye was read before the British Association at the Oxford meeting in 1847. It was entitled “On some Points in the Anatomy of the Eye, chiefly in Reference to the Power of Adjustment”. This paper, like that on the kidney, is a classic, for it demonstrates, simultaneously with, but independent of, Ernst Wilhelm Brücke (1819-1892), the structure and function of the ciliary muscle. Bowman died of pneumonia at Joldwynds, near Dorking, which he had built in 1870 from designs by Aston Webb and William Morris as a country house, on March 29th, 1892, and was buried in the neighbouring churchyard of Holmbury St Mary. He married on December 28th, 1842, Harriet, fifth daughter of Thomas Paget (qv), of Leicester, by whom he had seven children. She died at Joldwynds on Oct 25th, 1900. He was succeeded in the title by his eldest son, Sir William Paget Bowman, who was for many years Registrar of the Clergy Orphan Corporation. Sir William Bowman was the ‘Father of General Anatomy’ in England, and the brilliant results of his investigations into the structure of the eye, of the kidney, and of the striped muscles were of themselves sufficient to establish a reputation of the highest order. But Bowman had other and equal claims to distinction, for his practical gifts were as great and as fruitful as his scientific attainments. He enjoyed a unique position as an ophthalmic surgeon, and his evolution from science through general surgery to his speciality was interesting. Unrivalled in his knowledge of the ocular structures, fortunate in time as regards the invention of the ophthalmoscope, and trained in manipulation and observation by his histological work, he was equally good in the theory, in the clinical, and in the operative parts of ophthalmic practice. He was gentle, patient, and thoughtful: alive to and quickly seizing the salient points of every case, he was yet very reserved, giving his opinion in a few words, but decisively both as to forecast and treatment. He was possessed of a singularly pleasing and modest disposition, and no one who had the honour of his acquaintance could fail to hold him in affectionate regard. A kit-cat portrait of Bowman at the age of 48 was painted by G F Watts, RA. A photograph of it is reproduced as a frontispiece to the first volume of the Collected Papers. A presentation portrait by W W Ouless, RA, was painted in 1889 for the Bowman Testimonial Fund. It was engraved by John Clother Webb and is an excellent likeness. A lithograph by Maguire represents him as a younger man. His photograph in the Council Album. Copies of each portrait are in the possession of the College. Publications: Bowman’s *Collected Papers*, with a prefatory memoir by Henry Power (qv), were edited for the Committee of the Bowman Testimonial Fund by Sir John Burdon Sanderson and J W Hulke (qv), and published in two quarto volumes in 1892. Bowman himself took an interest in their preparation. He revised every proof sheet and added many notes.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000938
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Bowring, George (1818 - 1902)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

First Title value, for Searching Boxall, Henry (1817 - 1877)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

First Title value, for Searching Thompson, John Douglas ( - 2003)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

by Tina Craig
Publication Date 2012-01-13 2013-02-14
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001800-E001899
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/374043374043
Occupation General surgeon
Details John Douglas Thompson was a general surgeon living in Sunderland at the time of his death. He served as a temporary surgeon commander in the Royal Navy Voluntary Reserve during the second world war. In March 2003 his widow, Marjorie, notified the College that he had died.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001860
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Collis, John Leigh (1911 - 2003)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-09-23
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000000-E000099
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372229372229
Occupation Thoracic surgeon
Details Jack Collis was a pioneering thoracic surgeon. He was born in Harborne, Birmingham, on 14 July 1911, the son of Walter Thomas Collis, an industrial chemist, and Dora Charton Reay. His choice of medicine was greatly influenced by his local GP and his two medical uncles, one of whom was a professor of medicine at Cardiff. He was educated at Shrewsbury School and studied medicine at Birmingham. There he was a member of the athletic club and captained the hockey team. He was equally outstanding as a scholar, winning the Queen’s scholarship for three years running, and the Ingleby scholarship and Priestley Smith prize in his final year, together with gold medals in clinical surgery and medicine. He graduated in 1935 with first class honours. He was house physician to K D Wilkinson at Birmingham General Hospital and then house surgeon to B J Ward at the Queen’s Hospital. He went on to be surgical registrar to H H Sampson at the General Hospital, before becoming a resident surgical officer at the Brompton Chest Hospital in London under Tudor Edwards and Clement Price Thomas. The outbreak of war saw him back in Birmingham as resident surgical officer at the General Hospital. By July 1940 he was surgeon to the Barnsley Hall Emergency hospital, which received Blitz casualties from Birmingham and Coventry. He was in charge of the chest unit for the next four years, during which time he wrote a thesis on the metastatic cerebral abscess associated with suppurative conditions of the lung, where he showed the route of infection via the vertebral veins. This won him an MD with honours, as well as a Hunterian professorship in 1944. In February 1944 he joined the RAMC to command the No 3 Surgical Team for Chest Surgery, taking his team through Europe into Germany shortly after D-day, for which he was mentioned in despatches. From Germany he was posted to India to receive the anticipated casualties in the Far East. He ended his war service as a Lieutenant Colonel. At the end of the war he applied to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham, from his posting in India, with a glowing reference from Tudor Edwards. He was appointed initially as a general surgeon, though he was soon engaged mainly in thoracic surgery, especially thoracoplasty for tuberculosis, and spent much time travelling between sanatoria in Warwick, Burton-on-Trent and Malvern. With the advent of cardiac surgery, Jack was responsible for a successful series of mitral valvotomies and was one of the first to remove a tumour from within the cavity of the left atrium, using a sharpened dessert spoon and a piece of wire gauze. Later he withdrew from open heart surgery to concentrate on the surgery of the oesophagus. He became celebrated for three advances in the surgery of the oesophagus – the Collis gastroplasty for patients with reflux, the Collis repair of the lower oesophagus and, above all, a successful technique for oesophagectomy. In this his mortality and leakage rates were half those of his contemporaries. He attributed his success to the use of fine steel wire: his assistants attributed it to his outstanding surgical technique. He was Chairman of the regional advisory panel for cardiothoracic surgery, an honorary professor of thoracic surgery at the University of Birmingham, and was President of the Thoracic Society and the Society of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgeons. He was Chairman of the medical advisory committee at the Birmingham United Hospitals from 1961 to 1963, and Chairman of the planning committee from 1963 to 1965. He trained a generation of thoracic surgeons whose friendship he retained, along with those medical orderlies who served with him during the war. Vehemently proud of Birmingham, he devoted much of his retirement to promoting the city. He married Mavis Haynes in 1941. They had a holiday bungalow in Wales, where he enjoyed walking, gardening and fishing. They had four children, Nigel, Gilly, Christopher and Mark, two of whom entered medicine. He died in Moseley, Birmingham on 4 February 2003.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000042
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

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

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

First Title value, for Searching Darné, Francois Xavier ( - 2003)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

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

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-09-23 2012-03-22
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000000-E000099
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372234372234
Occupation General surgeon
Details Will Davey wrote the first textbook on surgery in tropical countries. He was born on 28 February 1912 in Dunmurry, near Belfast, in Northern Ireland. His father, Robert, was a minister of religion. His mother was Charlotte née Higginson. One of a family of five, he studied medicine at Queens University, graduating in 1935. During his studies his mother gave him a copy of *For sinners only*, which led to his involvement in Moral Rearmament, an international movement for moral and spiritual renewal. During the second world war he joined up, but was given time to complete his exams, and became a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland. He was then assigned to the RAF as a medical officer to a number of operational squadrons. In early 1944 he was part of a medical team assisting the Normandy landings. After the war he trained in gastroenterology at St James's Hospital, Balham, and subsequently became a consultant at the Whittington Hospital, where he ran a gastroenterological unit covering the whole northern area of London. In 1958 he was a Hunterian professor at the College. He ran courses to prepare students for the FRCS. His skills as a teacher led to an invitation from London University to go to Nigeria to become professor of surgery at University College, Ibadan, an offshoot of the British University. The first 14 doctors ever to graduate in Nigeria were among his students. Returning to London, Will wrote *Companion to surgery in Africa, etc*, (Edinburgh and London, E & S Livingstone, 1968), the first textbook on surgery for tropical countries. In 1969 he decided to settle in Australia, and set up as a surgeon in general practice in Portland, where he was also the port and quarantine officer, and medical officer to the town's large meatworks. In his later years he made several visits to India and four to Papua New Guinea, where he was pleased to find his book on tropical surgery being used. He was a past President of the Australian Provincial Surgeons Association. He retired in 1984. He played tennis into his 80s, took on computers at 90 and, latterly, the intricacies of digital cameras. He married Gill née Taylor in Reading, in 1950, after meeting her in the hospital laboratory where she worked. They had five children, ten grandchildren and a great grandson. He died on 30 May 2004 in Altona in Melbourne, Australia.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000047
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Davis, Abram Albert (1904 - 2003)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

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

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

First Title value, for Searching Dinning, Trevor Alfred Ridley (1919 - 2003)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-09-23 2010-01-27
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000000-E000099
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372237372237
Occupation Neurosurgeon
Details Trevor Dinning, known since childhood as ‘Jim’, was the architect of neurosurgical services in South Australia and the creator of a very successful research foundation. He was born in Dulwich, Adelaide, on 16 February 1919, the second child of Alfred Ernest Dinning, a school inspector and later headmaster of Adelaide Boys High School, and Maud Isabel née Ridley, who died two years after his birth. He was educated at his father’s school and then went on to study medicine at the University of Adelaide, qualifying in 1942 in the top three of the year after completing a shortened wartime course. In 1943 he joined the Army, serving as a captain in the Northern Australia Observer Unit and then in the 2nd 17th Australian Infantry Battalion. He developed pulmonary tuberculosis, which incapacitated him for some two years. He was discharged from the Army in 1946. It was at this time that he decided to make a career in neurosurgery. After his recovery, he took an appointment as lecturer in anatomy at the University of Adelaide, under the brilliant neuro-anatomist Andrew Abbie. During this time he wrote a paper on healed fractures in aborigines, based on the collection of skeletons in the South Australian Museum. Work as an anatomist doubtless contributed to his success as a surgeon: as an operator he was at his best in procedures demanding exceptional anatomical skill. At that time, it was virtually impossible to train as a specialist neurosurgeon in Australia, so, on a grant from the Royal Adelaide Hospital, Jim went to the UK. He entered neurosurgical training at Guy’s Hospital under Murray Falconer. During this appointment he was first author of a paper on ruptured intracranial aneurysm as a cause of sudden death, the work being based on forensic cases. Falconer had been a pupil of Sir Hugh Cairns, who was a pupil of the pioneering American neurosurgeon Harvey Cushing. Jim was to exemplify the best qualities of the Cushing/Cairns school – great interest in the neurosciences, unhurried and meticulous operative technique and total commitment to the welfare of patients. Jim returned to Australia in 1953 and took up an appointment in the Royal Adelaide Hospital, where he was to work for the next 30 years under a variety of titles – first as a member of the honorary staff, then from 1970 as full-time director of neurosurgery. After his resignation in 1979 he remained as a visiting consultant until 1983. He was also chief of neurosurgery in what is now the Women’s and Children’s Hospital. In both hospitals he rapidly established modern neurosurgical units, with rigorous attention to quality control and case audits. He was not the first neurosurgeon to serve these two hospitals – he was preceded Sir Leonard Lindon, one of the founders of Australian neurosurgery. Sir Leonard welcomed and supported Jim, but it is true to say that the development of an integrated state-wide neurosurgical service was very largely Jim’s achievement. He gave special attention to the needs of South Australians living in country areas, and in the 1960s persuaded the then minister of health to equip country hospitals with instruments to care for head injuries. Although he was happiest in his work in public hospitals, he ran a well-organised private service, chiefly at the Memorial Hospital, where after his retirement he treated cases of intractable pain. As a consultant neurosurgeon, Jim was liked and trusted by his colleagues, and admired as a superb diagnostician. As a doctor, he was warm and compassionate. Jim planned his unit with research in mind. When he had promising trainees, he placed them in overseas units with good research facilities, where they learned the skills that have since helped to make Adelaide a leader in head injury research. Most imaginatively, he created in 1964 what is now the Neurosurgical Research Foundation (NRF) to raise funds to sustain research work. The foundation received support because community leaders knew Jim and trusted him, and it received donations from those who knew him as a good doctor. In 1988, when Jim was president of the NRF, fundraising for an academic chair in surgical neuroscience was initiated, and in 1992 the University of Adelaide established a chair of neurosurgery research. This very productive chair is one of Jim’s greatest achievements. Jim was a master of bedside teaching, and he also taught by example. No one who worked with Jim could fail to know that he practised medicine according to the highest ethical standards and expected that his pupils would do the same. His teaching was fruitful. Today, Adelaide’s neurosurgeons are all in a sense his pupils. Some were directly recruited and trained by him. Others came to him trained elsewhere but are proud to have learned from him. Even those who came after his retirement were taught by his trainees and worked in the environment that he made. On a national level, Jim was a major force in the creation of neurosurgical training systems in Australia, which began around 1970, when he was president of the Neurosurgical Society of Australasia. Outside Australia, some of Jim’s pupils now hold distinguished neurosurgical positions in Scotland, England and New Zealand. One of his earliest interns, J K A Clezy, was the first professor of surgery in Papua New Guinea, and brought neurosurgery to that country. Jim married Beatrice Margaret née Hay in 1943 and they had one son, Andrew, and three daughters – Anthea, Josephine and Nadia. He had many interests outside his profession, including photography, farming, stock-breeding, bee-keeping and sailing. He died on 22 September 2003 from chronic renal failure after a long illness. He has many memorials. He is commemorated by the Dinning Science Library at the Royal Adelaide Hospital, which is appropriate – he was a very scholarly man. He is remembered in the research foundation that he created. And, lastly, his example and his teaching have entered into the fabric of Australian neurosurgery.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000050
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Doey, William David (1922 - 2004)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

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://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372238372238
Occupation ENT surgeon
Details Bill Doey was a consultant ear, nose and throat surgeon at the Royal National Throat, Nose and Ear Hospital in London. He was born in Bessbrook, county Armagh, Northern Ireland, on 22 February 1912, the son of Rev Thomas Doey, a Presbyterian minister. His mother was Charlotte Chesney née McCay, the daughter of a minister and farmer. Bill was educated at the Academical Institution, Coleraine, Derry, and at St Catharine’s College, Cambridge. He then completed his clinical studies at the London Hospital, where he did house jobs until the outbreak of the second world war. From 1940 to 1946 he served in the RAF Volunteer Reserve, as a squadron leader and ENT specialist, in mobile field hospitals in France, Belgium and Holland. After the war, he was appointed as a consultant ear, nose and throat surgeon to the Royal National Throat, Nose and Ear Hospital, and as a lecturer at the Institute of Laryngology and Otology. He also held appointments at St Albans City Hospital and the Hemel Hempstead Hospital. He had a particular interest in medical history, especially that of the fatal illness of Crown Prince Friedrich, Queen Victoria’s son-in-law, who had been treated by Sir Morell MacKenzie. He lectured on the subject at the Kopfklinikum, Wurzburg, Germany. Bill’s lifelong interest in fishing went back to his boyhood days in Northern Ireland, and throughout his life he and his wife, Audrey Mariamné née Newman, whom he married in June 1940, enjoyed many fishing holidays. He retired to Llandeilo, where they renovated an old farmhouse and landscaped a garden out of a former paddock. He enjoyed music, languages, photography and driving – he was a member of the Institute of Advanced Motorists. He died from a heart condition on 12 January 2004, leaving three daughters, Virginia, Louise and Angela, and four grandchildren, Mariamné, Corinna, Sibylle and Niklas.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000051
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Drew, Alfred John (1916 - 2004)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

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://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372239372239
Occupation General surgeon
Details Alfred John Drew, known as ‘Jack’, was a former consultant general surgeon in Walsall. He was born in Ceylon on 17 February 1916, the son of the chief pilot for the harbour at Colombo. He was educated at Nuwara Eliya, and was then sent to Ipswich School at the age of 11. He became head boy and rugby captain. He went on to study medicine at Guy’s, qualifying in 1939. At medical school he swam and played rugby for the first XV. After house appointments at Guy’s and with the south east sector of the Emergency Medical Service during the war, he went to Preston Hall, Maidstone, as a surgical trainee. He then moved to Pembury, where he became a senior lecturer in anatomy, living in a baronial house with many others from Guy’s. After obtaining his FRCS in 1941, he moved to Sheffield as resident surgical officer to Sir Ernest Finch. Drew then joined the Navy, initially as a specialist with the First Submarine Flotilla in the Eastern Mediterranean, managing to survive the sinking of the *Medway*. He was transferred to *HMS Zulu*, and ended up in Beirut. He then spent a long period at the Massawa Naval Base on the Red Sea. He returned to the UK, as a senior surgical specialist at Chatham, having asked to be posted to the Pacific, where the fighting was continuing. Following demobilisation, he returned to Guy’s as a senior surgical registrar, working under, among others, Brock, Slessinger, Ekhof, Grant-Massey, Stamm, Wass and Kilpatrick. He also worked at St Mark’s as a clinical assistant to Gabriel. In 1951 he was appointed general surgeon to the Walsall Hospitals (the Manor and the General), where he worked for the next 30 years. A true general surgeon, he taught trainees from all over the world, spending time visiting them during his retirement. He loved to sail, and, once he had retired to Lymington in 1981, he was able to devote more time to sailing along the south coast and to France. He was also able to tend his garden and watch rugby on television. He died in Lymington on 29 February 2004, and is survived by his wife, Patricia, his daughter, Sally, and his sons, Richard and Peter.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000052
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Weaver, Edward John Martin (1921 - 2003)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

First Title value, for Searching Eddey, Howard Hadfield (1910 - 2004)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-09-23 2012-03-22
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000000-E000099
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372240372240
Occupation ENT surgeon
Details Howard Eddey was a former professor of surgery at Melbourne University. He was born on 3 September 1910, in Melbourne. His father was Charles Howard Eddey, a manager, and his mother was Rachel Beatrice née Hadfield, the daughter of a teacher. He was educated at Melbourne High School, where he was captain of boats and featured in many winning crews. He was also in the school lacrosse team. He went on to the University of Melbourne, where he won a university blue. He was subsequently a resident at the Royal Melbourne Hospital for two years. He then went to the UK, where he studied for his FRCS, winning the Hallet prize in the process. During the second world war he served in the Australian Imperial Force with the 2/13 Australian General Hospital, becoming a Major in the Australian Army Medical Corps. He was captured by the Japanese and spent time in prisoner of war camps in Changi and then in North Borneo. While he was captured he was involved in 'kangkong' harvesting and the treating of a local wild vegetable, to produce a drink that was rich in vitamins. Howard made sure the soldiers drank this frequently, as it reduced the incidence of beriberi and pellagra. During his time in captivity Howard also wrote notes on anatomy on scrap paper. This later became a key anatomy text, used by generations of medical students. He returned to the Royal Melbourne Hospital after the war as an honorary surgeon. He was dean of the clinical school there from 1965 to 1967. As a clinician he gained an impressive reputation as a head and neck surgeon. In particular his parotid gland surgery and cancer work with radical neck dissection gained considerable prominence. In 1966 the University of Melbourne decided to establish a third clinical school at the Austin Hospital and Eddey was invited to become the foundation professor of surgery. He had no background in research, but recruited a team of young surgeons with research skills and the research reputation of the department of surgery was rapidly established. In 1971 Eddey became dean and held this position until 1975. He was a member of the board of management from 1971 to 1977, and was vice-president from 1975 to 1977. In honour of his contribution to the development of Austin as a clinical school, the new operating theatres and library have been named after him. Eddey was regarded as an outstanding teacher and, through his role with the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (RACS), helped surgical education in South East Asia. He made many visits to Asian hospitals and was involved with examinations and giving lectures. The RACS created the Howard Eddey medal in recognition of his work in Asia. He was a member of the board of examiners at the RACS from 1958 to 1973, and was chairman from 1968 to 1973. He was a member of council from 1967 to 1975 and served as honorary librarian from 1968 to 1975. He served on many other bodies, including the Cancer Institute and the Anti Cancer Council. His service to the community was recognised by his appointment as honorary surgeon to Prince Charles and he was made a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George. He was married to Alice née Paul from Kew, Victoria, for 30 years. They had three children - Robert Michael, Peter and Pamela Ann. Eddey died on 16 September 2004.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000053
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Keane, Brendan (1926 - 2005)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

First Title value, for Searching Watson, Neil Alexander (1944 - 2009)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

by David K C Cooper
Publication Date 2012-01-23 2013-09-06
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001800-E001899
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/374066374066
Occupation Artist Hand surgeon Orthopaedic surgeon
Details Neil Watson was a hand surgeon in Oxford and Milton Keynes, and later a successful artist. He was born on 13 February 1944 at the Radcliffe Infirmary in Oxford. Neil's father, John Stuart Ferra Watson, and paternal grandfather were both Guy's-trained doctors. As his father served in the Royal Army Medical Corps, Neil's parents were overseas for most of his childhood, and, after the age of five, he saw them during only one school holiday each year. The other holidays he would spend with his grandparents or with various great aunts in the UK. With the help of a British Army bursary, Neil was educated at St Edward's School in Oxford, which proved 'a marvellous experience' for him. Although he already had an interest in the arts, probably inherited from his 'extremely creative' mother Rosemary (née Underhill), St Edward's exposed him to art and music on a greater scale. He played the violin in the school orchestra and greatly enjoyed the chapel organ and choir. He described these formative years 'as if I was in paradise'. He also developed a love of rowing but, because of the extremely high standard at the school at the time, he had to be content with being a member of the second or third VIII. He originally planned a career in architecture but, through the influence of a biology teacher, he finally chose medicine. Although offered a place at St John's College, Cambridge, he chose to go straight to Guy's, a decision he later regretted as he 'missed out on the Cambridge experience'. First, however, he spent several months in Florence and Rome, developing his drawing and painting, and learning Italian. In 1962, Neil entered Guy's Hospital Medical School, and found the next five years 'immensely exciting'. Rowing became very important to him and, in the summer of 1963, he represented the boat club at Henley Royal Regatta. He was also an active member of the arts club and the theatre club, for which he designed sets. He bought 'beer and petrol' and even 'a fiercely fast car' by selling etchings and paintings. One of his pen and ink drawings of the hospital featured on the cover of *Guy's Hospital Gazette*. In his clinical years, he was greatly influenced by the senior orthopaedic surgeon, Tim Stamm, who he described as 'an absolutely phenomenal surgeon'. After graduating in 1967, he was appointed orthopaedic house surgeon at Guy's, during which period he married, and followed this by a series of house appointments in Truro in Cornwall. He then returned to Guy's on the junior surgical registrar rotation (when Sir Hedley Atkins was handing over to Lord McColl as professor of surgery). He found working with the urologists, F R Kilpatrick and Hugh Kinder, and the neurosurgeon, Murray Falconer (at the Maudsley), especially valuable. After two years as a registrar in Guildford (becoming an FRCS in 1971), he was appointed orthopaedic registrar at Oxford under Robert Duthie, one of the most influential orthopaedic surgeons in the UK. In 1977, a travelling fellowship from the Worshipful Company of Scientific Instrument Makers enabled him to spend time with several innovative hand and plastic surgeons in Melbourne, Australia, where he learned microsurgery and wrote several research papers. He returned to Oxford as a senior registrar. His first consultant position was a joint appointment between the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre and Banbury, where he acquired an operating microscope, and started carrying out peripheral nerve surgery and teaching microsurgery courses. Unfortunately, at Oxford, Duthie was of the opinion that 'we're all generalists here', and Neil's efforts to expand his work in nerve surgery met with resistance. Sadly, during this period, his marriage broke up, but he was able to maintain a close relationship with his three children. When the post of clinical reader in orthopaedics at Oxford became vacant, he was appointed and also elected to a fellowship at Green College. He specialised in surgery for rheumatoid arthritis, which he found particularly rewarding, but he was disappointed that his planned research projects were not fully achieved. After two or three years, a new hospital opened in Milton Keynes, and the opportunity of developing a new type of consultant-led service was so appealing that he accepted a position there and began to specialise in hand surgery. During these years at Oxford and Milton Keynes, he wrote about 50 scientific communications and three books on hand surgery. As a registrar, he had written *Practical management of musculo-skeletal emergencies* (Oxford, Blackwell Scientific, 1985), and as a consultant, *Hand injuries and infections* (London, Gower Medical, 1986). He then co-edited *Methods and concepts in hand surgery* (London, Butterworths, 1986). At a surgical conference, he met an American woman who ran a hand and rehabilitation centre in North Carolina. Neil soon made the momentous decision to relocate to the US, with the intention of obtaining a license to practise hand surgery there. However, the medical board of North Carolina made it so difficult for him that he made the even more momentous decision to abandon his surgical career and revert to his first love, drawing and painting. Even though he was thereafter relatively financially insecure, he never regretted the decision to begin his new career as a 'creative person'. For the next 20 or more years he painted, taught workshops in drawing and painting, and made several CDs of his own improvisational music. These endeavours went well, and he found he was earning $45,000 to $50,000 a year selling paintings in galleries. The highlight of his artistic career was when he held an exhibition of his work, 'Architecture observed', in Venice in 1996. For three months he exhibited 135 of his works, which were viewed by almost 10,000 people. One visitor was a Venetian writer, Renato Pestriniero, and together they published a book of Neil's paintings with commentaries by Pestriniero, *Seeking Venice* (Vianello Libri, 2001), which became available in Italian, French and English. Neil also found time to learn to fly, partly by using simulation, which gave him the idea of developing a simulator for microsurgical techniques. He received a grant of $250,000 from the US National Institutes of Health, with which he developed realistic layered replications of the rat femoral artery, vein and sciatic nerve. He became co-director of the Microsurgical Training Institute in Santa Barbara, California, where surgeons came from all over the world. When his second marriage was dissolved, he decided to move to the San Francisco bay area, where he continued painting and, for periods, was more active in teaching and in writing about art. He taught intermittently at Cal Poly and at the Academy of Art College in San Francisco (now the Academy of Art University). His painting evolved from being realistic and conventional to more abstract, eventually combining images with the written word, a form of art he termed 'diagraphica'. He brought out several CDs, including *The drawing spirit: developing the art of your drawing hand* (2003) and *Trigraphica: a drawing trilogy* (2007?), and a book *Drawing - developing a lively and expressive approach* (Neil Watson, 2007). He also rekindled his early interest in music. In late 2008 he became engaged again, but the development of a brain tumour curtailed this plan and, having returned to Oxford to be near two of his children, he died there on 4 October 2009 at the age of 65. He was survived by his three children, Ben, Anita and Hugh, and his two former wives.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001883
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Barton, Rex Penry Edward (1944 - 2006)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

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://scp.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
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First Title value, for Searching Langstaff, Joseph (1778 - 1856)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

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

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2008-03-07
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000400-E000499
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372641372641
Occupation General surgeon
Details Graham Bryce was born in Southport, Lancashire, the son of Elizabeth Dodds and Alexander Graham Bryce who was the managing director of a calico printing firm. He went to school at the Southport Modern School for Boys until the age of 11 when he proceeded to complete his secondary education at the Bickerton House School until he was 16. When he was 16 he matriculated and went very early to the Manchester University Medical School so that he graduated at what was a very tender age, at 21. He proceeded to the Degree of MD in 1913, and to the Diploma of Public Health in 1915. He gained his Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons of England in 1923. At the University of Manchester, he was a diligent and successful student, obtaining distinctions and exhibitions in anatomy, physiology, pharmacology and medicine, and a host of prizes and medals. As house physician to Dr E M Brookbank, a cardiologist of high national repute, he was early acquainted with diseases of the heart. This served him well later in life when he entered the practice of thoracic surgery. His subsequent years of postgraduate study indicated that he practised what he subsequently preached, namely that hard experience in general medicine and surgery is an essential basis for later devotion to a specialty; as a house officer in medicine, he studied the problem of cancer of the stomach, to form the basis of his thesis for a doctorate which he obtained in 1913. Further postgraduate experience was gained as a resident medical officer at the Manchester Children's Hospital, and in 1914 as senior resident in the Manchester Tuberculosis Hospital. Like so many surgeons of his generation he served in the RAMC in artillery, infantry, and cavalry medical units, from 1915 to 1919. During this period he decided to enter the practice of surgery and held surgical house appointments from 1919 to 1921 at the Blackburn Royal Infirmary. He journeyed south to work as senior house surgeon at the Royal Dock Hospital for Seamen and subsequently at St George's Hospital. In 1923, having obtained his English Fellowship, he returned to Manchester as senior surgical registrar at the Royal Infirmary, where subsequently he was appointed resident surgical officer, holding the post for two years. At that time a galaxy of surgical stars, known throughout the world, held appointments on the staff of the Manchester Royal Infirmary, and fierce competition for places existed. His potential was recognized by his election as surgical tutor until 1927 when he moved to the Manchester Victoria Memorial Jewish Hospital as a consultant surgeon. An additional appointment as honorary assistant surgeon at Salford Royal Hospital placed him in the company of men as distinguished as Geoffrey Jefferson and J B Macalpine. Although in private practice, he found time and energy to commence a study of thoracic surgery and obtained appointments in sanatoria in the Manchester area. He published several papers on general surgery in 1913-1932 and in 1934, together with James E H Roberts, Sir Clement Price Thomas and a spontaneous pneumothorax and pulmonary lobectomy. In those early days of thoracic surgery, like many men of that era entering this specialty, he visited surgical centres in Great Britain and overseas; he studied in Berlin, Montreal, Toronto, Chicago, and during these tours he made abiding friendships amongst thoracic surgeons. In 1934 he achieved a cherished ambition when appointed to the honorary staff of the Manchester Royal Infirmary. His quiet, gentle and self-deprecatory manner did not decieve his many friends, as underneath a gentle exterior was a dogged determination to pursue the craft and science of surgery successfully. He established thoracic surgery in his district; at a meeting of the Association of Surgeons in Manchester in 1934, together with the late J E H Roberts, Sir Clement Price Thomas and a few others, he formed a small club over a drink in the Midland Hotel. He was the first secretary of this club which rapidly became known as the Society of Thoracic Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland. For many years he held this post and the large and flourishing present day Society of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgeons owes much to him. Young men of the generation just behind his, know how much they are in debt to him. To them in particular he showed a real sympathy and encouragement which is not easily forgotten. Graham Bryce was happy in his family life. His wife Isabel Bryce was the daughter of the distinguished Professor James Lorrain Smith, FRS and she herself achieved success and fame, particularly in the field of sociology, with particular reference to medicine. At the time of his death, she was chairman of the Oxford Regional Hospital Board. For her work in the field of hospital administration she was awarded the DBE in 1968. To many thoracic surgeons her friendliness and human sympathy are widely recognised. It was always pleasant to think of her working in her garden while her husband attended to his main hobby, namely bee-keeping. Surgery owes much to both of them. Bryce died suddenly at his home in Upper Basildon near Reading, on 24 October 1968, leaving a widow and two sons.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000457
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2008-03-07
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000400-E000499
URL for Files https://scp.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 Williams, Henry Thomas Gee (1925 - 2006)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

First Title value, for Searching Beck, Alfred (1912 - 2006)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2007-07-25
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000300-E000399
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372551372551
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon Trauma surgeon
Details Alfred Beck was a consultant trauma and orthopaedic surgeon in Cardiff. He was born in Uhersky Brod, Moravia (now in the Czech Republic), on 28 January 1912. His father, Ignaz, was a wholesale merchant and councillor, from a prominent family in the Jewish community which included rabbis and businessmen. His mother was Rose Fürst. Alfred qualified at King Charles’ University, Prague, in 1935 and, after six months as a house surgeon at Ruzomberok, he completed two and a half years in the Czechoslovakian Army, before becoming a surgical registrar in Benesov, near Prague. A year later the Germans occupied Czechoslovakia and Alfred secretly crossed the border into Poland, where he joined a volunteer unit. He first went to France and then to England, where he was accepted at St George’s. He then worked as a doctor at Colindale Hospital, and narrowly escaped death in a bombing raid. After the war he found that his parents, two brothers and several other relatives had been killed by the Germans in Aüschwitz. He specialised in orthopaedic surgery, was for many years a registrar at St Mary Abbott’s Hospital, and then at Cardiff, where for over 20 years he was consultant in charge of the accident unit at St David’s Hospital. After retirement from the NHS he joined an independent medical group in the City of London, where he continued to work until he was 80. He published on stress fractures, devised an instrument for extracting the femoral neck, and a way of measuring disuse atrophy. A man of exceptional patience and modesty, he was a keen gardener, specialising in cacti. He died on 24 October 2006, and is survived by his wife Martha, whom he married in 1953, and his son Richard. His daughter Linda predeceased him.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000365
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Bell, David Millar (1920 - 2006)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

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

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2008-03-07
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000400-E000499
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372644372644
Occupation Dental surgeon
Details Born in London on June 6th, 1846, the eldest son of Sir John Tomes (q.v.). He was educated at Radley College during the Wardenship of the Rev W Sewell and rowed in the School Eight in 1863. He matriculated at Oxford from Christ Church on May 27th, 1863, rowed in the Trial Eights in 1865, and graduated BA in 1866 after gaining a 1st class in the honours school of Natural Science. His name appeared in one of the shortest honours lists ever issued at the University, for he was alone in the first class, there were two names in the second, and none in the third or fourth classes. He became a student at the Middlesex Hospital, where his father was Surgeon Dentist, in October, 1866, and also attended at the Dental Hospital. He gained prizes in medicine and surgery in 1869. The Natural Science School at Oxford, in which he had been educated, was a school of biology under Professor George Rolleston; and histology, then a new science, was being taught by Charles Robertson. Tomes immediately showed the effects of their training and published in rapid succession a series of remarkable papers on the structure and development of the teeth in the Batrachia, Reptilia, Ophidia, and Pisces, as well as one on the enamel organ of the armadillo. The papers contained much that was original, and in 1878 he was elected FRS. He practised at 37 Cavendish Square, at first in partnership with his father, later with E G Bett and Sir Harry Baldwin. He lectured on anatomy and physiology at the Dental Hospital, where he was afterwards Surgeon and Consulting Surgeon. In 1898 he was appointed Crown representative on the General Medical Council when the Dental Board was established, and he acted as Treasurer of the General Medical Council from 1904-1920. At the Royal College of Surgeons he was an Examiner in Dental Surgery, 1881-1895, and in 1920 he presented to the Museum the microscopic preparations of teeth made by himself and by his father. The collection thus presented consists of more than 1300 specimens of ground, or otherwise prepared, sections of the teeth of vertebrate animals. The dental anatomy of all forms of mammalian teeth is depicted more fully than in any other collection. The ‘Tomes Collection’, which is thus accessible at the Royal College of Surgeons to students of dental anatomy, proves of the utmost use to those who are investigating problems in dental structure. Many of the specimens used by Sir Richard Owen in the preparation of his Odontography are also preserved in the Museum of the College. The oldest microscopic preparations of teeth in the College collection are those made by Hewson in the later part of the eighteenth century. During the European War Tomes served as Chairman of the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital and was Inspector for the Norfolk Red Cross. For his services he was gazetted Knight Bachelor in 1919. He married in 1873 Lizzie Eno, a daughter of Charles D Cook, MD, of Brooklyn, New York, who with one daughter survived him. He died at his home, Mannington Hall, Aylsham, Norfolk, on Oct 24th, 1928. Like his father before him Tomes was a pioneer in the scientific advancement of dentistry, by which means alone it could attain the status of a learned profession. Less concerned with the political aspect of the movement to advance dentistry, he showed by his high character and hard work that there was such a scientific side which might be usefully investigated and profitably applied to the advancement of orthodontics. Publications:- “On the Development of the Teeth of Newt, Frog, Slowworm and Green Lizard.” — *Phil. Trans.*, 1875, clxv, 285. “On the Structure and Development of Teeth of Ophidia.”— *Ibid.*, 297. “On the Development and Succession of Poison-fangs of Snakes.” — *Ibid.*, 1876, clxvi, 377. “On the Development of the Teeth of Fishes.” — *Ibid.*, 257. “On the Structure and Development of Vascular Dentine.”— *Ibid.*, 1878, clxviii, 25. Tomes edited the 4th, 5th, and 6th editions (1894-1904) of *A Manual of Dental Anatomy, Human and Comparative*, and *A System of Dental Surgery*, 4th and 5th editions (1897-1906), originally written by Sir John Tomes (q.v.).
Resource Identifier RCS: E000460
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Travers, Benjamin junior (1808 - 1868)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

First Title value, for Searching Skey, Frederic Carpenter (1798 - 1872)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-01-25 2012-03-09
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Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000100-E000199
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372376372376
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born at Upton-on-Severn on Dec. 1st, 1798, the second of the six children of George Skey, a Russian merchant in London. He was educated at one or two private schools in early life, the last being that of the Rev. Michael Maurice, the Unitarian preacher, father of Frederick Denison Maurice (1805-1872), whose friendship he retained through life as they had been schoolfellows. A visit to his father's cousin, Dr. Joseph Skey, Inspector of Army Hospitals at Plymouth, was the beginning of Skey's professional education. During this visit Napoleon was brought to Plymouth in the Bellerophon, and Skey often referred in later life to the fact that he had seen the great Emperor on this occasion. From Plymouth he went to Edinburgh to begin his medical education, stayed there for a year or two, and then spent some months in Paris. He was apprenticed to John Abernethy on April 15th, 1816, paying the ordinary premium of 500 guineas. Abernethy had so high an opinion of his pupil's ability that he entrusted Skey with the care of some of his private patients whilst he was still an apprentice. By the interest of Abernethy, Skey was appointed Demonstrator of Anatomy at St. Bartholomew's Hospital in 1826. The appointment provoked considerable jealousy, more especially in the breast of William Lawrence (q.v.), and when other arrangements were made after the death of Abernethy, Skey resented them as unjust, and resigned in 1831. Associating himself with Hope, Todd, Marshall Hall, Pereira, and Kiernan, he reopened the Aldersgate Street School of Medicine, which had previously been a Cave of Adullam for discontented members of St. Bartholomew's Hospital. The school soon became famous, one of the largest in London, and a thorn in the side of its neighbour. In this school Skey lectured on surgery for ten years, his lectures proving very attractive to students, many of whom became his staunch personal friends. His bearing towards them showed a frankness and cordiality which drew into intimate and enduring friendship not only his own private pupils, but also the great body of students, over whom he exercised an amount of influence larger perhaps than that of any other contemporary teacher. When fresh arrangements had been made in the Medical School at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, Skey was elected Lecturer in Anatomy in 1843, a position he resigned on Jan. 5th, 1864. Although the work of St. Bartholomew's Hospital was completely severed from the proprietary Medical School attached to it, Skey was nevertheless elected Assistant Surgeon on Aug. 29th, 1827, after an unsuccessful contest in 1824 when Eusebius Arthur Lloyd (q.v.) was chosen. He did not become Surgeon until May 10th, 1854, and retired under a newly established age limit at 65 on Jan, 18th, 1864. He was then appointed Consulting Surgeon and continued for some time to give clinical lectures. Skey was appointed Consulting Surgeon to the Charterhouse in 1827; on April 10th, 1837, he was admitted a Fellow of the Royal Society; and in 1859 he acted as President of the Royal Medico-Chirurgical Society. At the Royal College of Surgeons he was a Member of the Council from 1848-1867 and gave the Hunterian Oration in 1850. He was Arris and Gale Professor of Human Anatomy and Surgery, 1852-1854, when he lectured on "Muscular Action, Dislocations, and the Treatment of Disease"; a Member of the Court of Examiners, 1855-1870; Chairman of the Midwifery Board in 1862, and of the Dental Board in 1865. He served as Vice-President in 1861 and 1862, and was elected President in 1863. In 1864 his friend Benjamin Disraeli caused him to be appointed Chairman at the Admiralty of the first Parlimentary Commission to inquire into the best mode of dealing with venereal diseases in the Navy and Army. The report of the Committee led to the framing and passing of the Contagious Diseases Act which was afterwards repealed. For his services Skey was decorated C.B. He practised at 13 Grosvenor Street, but failing health led him to move to 24 Mount Street, Grosvenor Square, where he died on Aug. 15th, 1872. There is a bust of Skey in the Crystal Palace at Sydenham, of which there is a copy in the Royal Society of Medicine. A fine lithograph of J H Maguire's is in the College Collection. It was published in 1850 and is said to be a striking likeness, not only of his countenance and expression, but also of the very air and manner of the man. Skey was a man of great intelligence, energy, courage, candour, and good nature, a charming companion, with a genial disposition, full, even in advancing years, of youthful buoyancy. Sympathetic to all, he had in a special degree a fondness for animals. He was a good writer, a clear lecturer, and an excellent teacher. He concerned himself with the broad principles of his subject rather than with details. As a surgeon he was an able operator, and his great ability was conspicuously shown in his treatment of exceptional cases, for he was skilful and ingenious in diagnosis and, in the face of unusual difficulties, fertile in resource. PUBLICATIONS:- "On Structure of the Elementary Muscular Fibre of Animals and Organic Life." - *Proc. Roy. Soc.*, 1837, iii, 462. A creditable performance considering that abstract scientific research was not encouraged by the surgeons of his day and that he had to borrow the use of a microscope. *On a New Mode of Treatment employed in the Case of Various Forms of Ulcer and Granulating Wounds*, 8vo, London, 1837. The remedy was opium in small doses. He employed it with success in chilblains, and afterwards proposed to use it for troops on night duty in the Crimean trenches. *A Practical Treatise on Venereal Disease*, 8vo, London, 1840. The substance of his lectures at the Aldersgate Street School of Medicine in 1838-9. *On a New Operation for the Cure of Lateral Curvature of the Spine: with Remarks on the Causes and Nature of the Disease*, 8vo, London, 1841; 2nd ed., 1842. He divided the tendinous sheath of the longissimus dorsi subcutaneously. Pamphlets and a series of letters in *The Times* on the dangers of over-training. *Operative Surgery*, 8vo, Lond., 1850; 8vo, Phil., 1851; 2nd ed., Lond., 1858. This is a work of much merit, influenced throughout by the author's energetic protest against the use of the knife except as a last resource. He advocated the value of tonics and stimulants in preference to the bleeding and leeching which were still in use. His great energy of thought and action rendered him incapable of steady, constant labour, and it is reported that, when he undertook to write this work, incited by a friend who offered to publish it, he set about it forthwith without previous preparation or any special attention to the literature of his subject. He wrote chapter after chapter right off, mostly in the middle of the night or very early morning, for he slept but little. He lost one of the chapters between his house and hospital, and vehemently declared that he neither could nor would rewrite it, and that the work must either be given up or published without the missing portion. It was recovered by advertising in *The Times*. In his lectures on *Hysteria*, 8vo, London, 1867: 3rd ed., 1870, he maintains the advantages of the 'tonic' mode of treatment by 'bark and wine'.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000189
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Hodgson, Joseph (1788 - 1869)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-01-25 2012-03-22
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000100-E000199
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372377372377
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born at Penrith, Cumberland, the son of a Birmingham merchant. He was educated at King Edward VI's Grammar School and was apprenticed to George Freer, who was Surgeon to the Birmingham General Hospital from December, 1793, to the day of his death in December, 1823. Hodgson thus had much experience at the hospital, but, his father having fallen on evil days, owed the completion of his education to an uncle, who gave him £100. He entered St. Bartholomew's Hospital, and in 1811 gained the Jacksonian Prize for his essay on "Wounds and Diseases of the Arteries and Veins". The essay was expanded and was published in 1815 with a quarto volume of illustrative engravings from drawings made by the author. It was well received and was translated into French by M. Breschet. The drawings show that Hodgson was no mean artist. He practised at King Street, Cheapside, and eked out his scanty resources by taking pupils and acting as editor of the *London Medical Review*. He also served at the York Military Hospital, Westminster, where he remained for some time in comparatively comfortable pecuniary circumstances, but insufficient practice and a desire to marry his future wife, who was a sister of J. F. Ledsam, took him back to Birmingham in 1818, where he was welcomed and elected Surgeon to the Birmingham General Hospital in December, 1821, on the death of Samuel Dickenson. He soon attained a good practice, and had amongst his patients Sir Robert Peel and many members of his family, who were living at Drayton Hall, near Tamworth. Many years later - in 1850 - he was in personal attendance when the Prime Minister, who had just resigned his office, fell from his horse in Constitution Hill and received the injury which proved fatal. Hodgson resigned his post of Surgeon to the Hospital in April, 1848, and the Governors presented him with the portrait which now hangs in the Committee Room. In the autumn of 1823 he started a movement to establish an Eye Infirmary in Birmingham. It was successful, and the Charity was opened for the reception of patients on April 13th, 1824. He acted as sole Surgeon until May, 1828, when at his request Richard Middlemore (q.v.) was elected as his colleague. He was asked in 1840 to become Surgeon to the Middlesex Hospital and Professor of Surgery at King's College, but declined both offers. It was not until 1849, after having made a considerable fortune in Birmingham, chiefly by lithotomy, that he gave up his house in Hagley Road and returned to Westbourne Terrace, Hyde Park. He was elected a Member of the Council of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1849 and held office until 1868, being elected to the Court of Examiners, 1856-65; Chairman of the Midwifery Board, 1863; Vice-President, 1862 and 1863; and President, 1864. He delivered the Hunterian Oration in 1855. He was admitted F.R.S. on April 14th, 1831, and was President of the Medico-Chirurgical Society in 1851. He died on February 7th, 1869, twenty-four hours after his wife, and left one daughter. With the exception of Joseph Swan, Joseph Hodgson was the first provincial surgeon to become a Member of the Council of the Royal College of Surgeons, and he was the first surgeon from the provinces to be elected President. He was chosen because his reputation was not confined to the locality of a country town, but was great even in London. He was not brilliant as an operator, and, like most provincial and many London surgeons his contemporaries, he acted as a family practitioner. He was celebrated for the accuracy of his diagnosis, but his caution and his pessimistic prognosis did something to limit his practice. He was a good teacher and was fortunate in his pupils; in Birmingham he taught D. W. Crompton, S. H. Amphlett, Alfred Baker, and Oliver Pemberton; in London, William Bowman and Richard Partridge. Born a Conservatice, he had some lively passages at arms with his Radical fellow-citizens, but his benevolence and kindness of manner made him respected and beloved. He was consistently opposed to all reforms and steadfastly opposed the formation of a School of Medicine in Birmingham. The presentation portrait by John Partridge, painted in 1848, was engraved by Samuel Cousins in 1849. A proof, 'for subscribers only', is in the College Collection.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000190
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Partridge, Richard (1805 - 1873)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-01-25 2012-03-13
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Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000100-E000199
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372379372379
Occupation General surgeon
Details The tenth child and seventh son of Samuel Partridge, of Ross-on-Wye, Herefordshire. He was born on January 19th, 1805, and was apprenticed in 1821 to his uncle, W. H. Partridge, who practised in Birmingham. During his apprenticeship he acted as dresser to Joseph Hodgson (q.v.) at the Birmingham General Hospital. He entered St. Bartholomew's Hospital, London, in 1827 and attended the lectures of John Abernethy, acting afterwards as Demonstrator of Anatomy at the Windmill Street School of Medicine. He was appointed the first Demonstrator of Anatomy at King's College, London, when the medical faculty was instituted in 1831, and held the post until 1836, when he was promoted Professor of Descriptive and Surgical Anatomy in succession to Herbert Mayo (q.v.). John Simon (q.v.) became Demonstrator in his place two years later, in 1838. On November 5th, 1831, occurred the 'resurrectionist' case in London which was instrumental in causing the passing of the Anatomy Act in 1832. Bishop, Williams, and May brought the body of Carlo Ferrari, an Italian boy, to King's College asking nine guineas for it. Partridge, being on the alert owing to the Burke and Hare case in Edinburgh in 1830, suspected foul play and delayed payment until the police were informed, saying that he only had a £50 note for which he must get change. Bishop and Williams were hanged, May was respited and sentenced to transportation for life. On Dec. 23rd, 1836, Partridge was elected Visiting or Assistant Surgeon at Charing Cross Hospital; he was promoted to full Surgeon on January 8th, 1838, and resigned the office on April 13th, 1840, when he was appointed Surgeon to the newly established King's College Hospital in Clare Market. He remained Surgeon to King's College Hospital until 1870. In 1837 he was elected F.R.S. He held all the chief positions at the Royal College of Surgeons, serving as a Member of Council from 1852-1868; he was a Member of the Court of Examiners from 1864-1873; Chairman of the Midwifery Board in 1865; Hunterian Orator and Vice-President in the same year; and President in 1866. He filled many offices at the Royal Medico-Chirurgical Society, where he was elected a Fellow in 1828; he was Secretary from 1832-1836; a Member of Council 1837-1838, and again in 1861-1862; Vice-President, 1847-1848, President, 1863-1864. Partridge succeeded Joseph Henry Green (q.v.) as Professor of Anatomy at the Royal Academy in 1853. He had himself some skill in drawing, having taken lessons from his brother John, the portrait painter. In the autumn of 1862 he went to Spezzia, at the request of Garibaldi's English friends, in order to attend the general, who had been severely wounded in the right ankle-joint at the Battle of Aspromonte. Having no previous experience of gunshot wounds, he unfortunately "overlooked the presence of the bullet", which Nélaton afterwards localized by his porcelain-tipped probe, and it was subsequently extracted by Professor Zanetti. This failure did him much harm professionally, though Garibaldi himself always wrote to him in the kindest terms, and he died a poor man on March 25th, 1873. Partridge has been described as a fluent lecturer, an admirable blackboard draughtsman, an excellent clinical teacher, and one who, though he operated nervously, paid close attention to the after-treatment of his patients. He was a painstaking but not a brilliant surgeon; minute in detail and hesitating in execution - a striking contrast to the brilliant performances of his colleague, Sir William Fergusson. He was somewhat of a wit, and it is recorded of him that, being asked the names of his very sorry-looking carriage-horses, he replied that the name of one was 'Longissimus Dorsi', but that the other was the 'Os Innominatum'. This was to a student. He wrote very little, and his copiously illustrated work on descriptive anatomy was never printed. There is a portrait of him by George Richmond, R.A., which was engraved by Francis Holl. There are in addition a lithograph by Maguire, dated 1845, and a photograph of a picture by an unknown artist representing Partridge attending the wounded Garibaldi; it is reproduced in the centenary number of the Lancet (1923, ii, 700, fig. 10).
Resource Identifier RCS: E000192
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-02-01 2012-03-09
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Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000100-E000199
URL for Files https://scp.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 Halton, John Prince (1797 - 1873)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

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://scp.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 Franklin, Sir Richard ( - 1845)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

First Title value, for Searching Bond, Charles John (1856 - 1939)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2008-03-07
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000400-E000499
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372646372646
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born at Bittersby, Leicestershire, the second of the three children and the only son of George Bond, gentleman farmer, and Elizabeth Higginson, his wife, on 27 October 1856. He was educated at Repton from January 1871 to 18 April 1873, was engaged in farming for a few months, and entered as a pupil at the Leicester Infirmary in February 1875. He went to University College, London, in October 1875, where he won the gold medals in physiology and anatomy, the silver medals in surgery, midwifery, and forensic medicine, and was an assistant demonstrator of anatomy. Here he formed a close and lasting friendship with Victor Horsley. At Bedford General Infirmary he was house surgeon from 1879 until he was appointed resident house surgeon at the Leicester Royal Infirmary in 1882. Here he was surgeon from 1886 to 1912, when he resigned and was appointed consulting surgeon and vice-president. From 1925 to 1932 he acted as chairman of the drug and medical stores committee of the infirmary. He retired from private practice in 1912 but retained his hospital appointment, and visited Australia in 1914. During the war of 1914-18 he was gazetted temporary honorary colonel on 31 May 1915, was appointed consulting surgeon to the military hospital in the Northern command and was the representative of the Medical Research Council on the inter-allied committee on the treatment of war wounds. The meetings of the committee were held at Paris from 1916 to 1918. He married Edith, daughter of George Simpson, JP, of Hazlebrow, Derbyshire on 7 August 1890. She survived him with a son and a daughter. He died on 23 November 1939 at 10 Springfield Road, Leicester, and left £1,000 to Leicester Royal Infirmary. Bond was a man of many interests and of great energy. As a surgeon he introduced with Sir Charles Marriott aseptic methods at the Leicester Royal Infirmary, and at the meeting of the British Medical Association there in 1905 he delivered the address in surgery on Ascending currents in mucous canals; he spoke on Septic peritonitis at the Toronto meeting of the Association in 1906. He was president of the Leicester Medical Society, and as vice-president took a keen interest in the progress of the Leicestershire and Rutland University College. He served on the Leicester city council for two years; was a member of the Leicester health insurance committee from 1918 to 1920 and on the advisory council of the National Insurance Committee, and was president of the Literary and Philosophical Society in 1901 and again in 1935. For his civic work he was rewarded in 1925 with the freedom of the city of Leicester, and in 1924 he became a Fellow of University College. Always interested in biology, he kept cocks and hens to study problems in breeding and in 1932 he delivered five William Withering lectures at Birmingham, taking as his subject Certain aspects of human biology; in 1928 he gave the Calton memorial lecture on Racial decay. During the latter years of his life his friendship with Charles Killick Millard, MDEd, who was for many years medical officer of health for Leicester, led him to take an active part in launching the voluntary euthanasia legalisation society. Its object was to seek the passing of a law permitting a doctor under safeguards to bring about easy death for incurable persons suffering prolonged agony who wished their sufferings ended. Bond was chairman of the society's executive committee from its inception. For eight years he was a member of the Industrial Fatigue Research Board; of the Departmental Commissions on cancer and blindness, and the Trevithin committee on the prevention of venereal disease. He contributed a chapter on “Health and healing” to *The great state* by H G Wells and others, and collaborated with Wells in *The claims of the coming generation*. In 1949 his admirers placed a memorial to Bond in the Leicester Royal Infirmary and endowed in his memory travelling and research scholarships in biology at Leicester University College. They presented a complete collection of his writings to the Royal College of Surgeons Library. *Other publications*: *The leucocyte in health and disease*. London, 1924. *Biology and the new physics*. London, 1936. *Recollections of student life and later days, a tribute to the memory of the late Sir Victor Horsley.* London, 1939.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000462
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Freebody, Douglas Francis (1911 - 2005)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2007-07-25
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000300-E000399
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372556372556
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon
Details Douglas Freebody was a consultant orthopaedic surgeon at Kingston Hospital. He was born in Woolwich, London, on 19 April 1911, the son of a successful tailor, and attended the City of London School, before entering Guy’s Hospital Medical School, which he represented at hockey and boxing. After qualifying he filled a number of junior surgical posts around London, and in the early part of the war worked for Burns and Young at the major casualty hospital at Botley’s Park, so beginning an orthopaedic career. In 1946 service with the RAMC took him to Egypt and Palestine, where he ran the orthopaedic services at Fayid and Bir Yaacov respectively. On his release from the Army in 1948 Douglas was mentioned in despatches for distinguished service, and was soon appointed consultant orthopaedic surgeon to Croydon General Hospital, East Surrey Hospital Redhill, and later the Kingston and Richmond Area Health Authority. There he concentrated his activities and made a major contribution to orthopaedic surgery, devising an anterior transperitoneal approach for fusion of the lower lumbar spine. This he demonstrated widely at home and abroad and was the subject of his contribution to the third edition of *Contemporary operative surgery* in 1979 and of an educational film awarded a silver medal by the BMA. He was a founder member of the International Society of the Lumbar Spine. Douglas Freebody was a dignified man with a great sense of humour, devoted to his family, his dogs and his garden, where he was an expert on orchids. He died from heart failure on 12 October 2005 at the age of 94, and is survived by his wife, Yvonne, a former physiotherapist at Middlesex Hospital whom he met in Egypt during the war, and their children.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000370
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

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://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/374092374092
Occupation Physician
Details Educated at St Bartholomew's Hospital. He then became House Surgeon of the Brighton and Hove Hospital for Women and Children and Lying-in-Hospital, afterwards going into practice at Pangbourne, where he was Medical Officer at Bradfield College. From 1890 onwards he practised at Reading, where he was Senior Assistant Physician and Physician for Diseases of the Skin, and then Full Physician, at the Royal Berkshire Hospital, Medical Officer to the Prison, and Medical Referee to the Provident Life and other Assurance Companies. He practised at 30 Portland Place, Camden Road, Reading, and took an active part in the affairs of the local branch of the British Medical Association. In 1898-1899 he was President of the Reading Branch, and in 1912-1913 of the Oxford and Reading Branch. He was also Vice-President of the Reading Pathological Society. He was commissioned Lieutenant-Colonel RAMC (T) on March 31st, 1908, in the Third Southern General Hospital, and served in that capacity at Oxford at the beginning of the Great War (1914-1919). When No 1 War Hospital was opened at Reading he was appointed officer in charge of the Medical Division, and took command of the Redlands War Hospital. He was also President of the Officers' Medical Board at the Reading War Hospitals. He died suddenly from heart failure at Reading on December 23rd, 1918, leaving a widow, a daughter, and one son in the Royal Air Force. Freeman was a keen sportsman and wrote several papers on shooting and fishing. He was joint editor of the *Transactions of the Dermatological Society of Great Britain* for 1897, 1899, and 1900. Publications: "Some Post-vaccinal Eruptions." - *Brit Jour Dermatol.*, 1902, xiv, 186. "Treatment of Psoriasis." - *Edin Med Jour*, 1903, n.s. xiii, 309. "Treatment of Enuresis and Polyuria by Epidural Injections." - *Brit Jour Child Dis*, 1905, ii, 352. "Uncommon Causes of Skin Irritation." - *St Bart's Hosp Jour*, 1896, iii, 85. "Eczema and Allied Diseases." - *Lancet*, 1900, ii, 398. "About a Separate Creation of Species." - *Westminster Review*, 1897.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001909
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

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

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

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

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2007-07-25
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000300-E000399
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372559372559
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon Trauma surgeon
Details Peter Wilson was a consultant orthopaedic and trauma surgeon at Coventry and Warwickshire Hospital. He was born in Deptford, London, on 16 October 1932, the son of Joseph Henry Wilson, a housing administrative officer for Bermondsey Borough Council, and Sarah Heaton, a teacher of physical training whose father had owned a brewery. The first of his family to go into medicine, his younger sister also eventually became a doctor. He was educated at several schools, including Upholland Grammar School and Newcastle-under-Lyme High School, where he gained colours in hockey, cricket and rugby, before going on to St Thomas’ Hospital in 1950. After junior posts he did his National Service in the Royal Navy and then specialised in orthopaedics, becoming a registrar at the Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Hospital, Oswestry and then a senior registrar at the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital Birmingham under Peter London and J H Hicks. He was appointed consultant orthopaedic and trauma surgeon at Coventry and Warwickshire Hospital in 1970. Peter was particularly interested in the treatment of multiple and major injuries and was a pioneer in the operative fixation of fractures. Having been chairman of the regional junior hospital staff committee from 1968 to 1970 and a member of the BMA junior group council (from 1969 to 1970), he went on to chair the regional senior hospital staff committee from 1970 onwards, and was medical director of the trust board. He was active in the St John Ambulance Brigade. He retired in 1994, and continued to play golf, cricket and cultivate his garden. He was married twice. In 1951 he married Sheila Patricia Hansen, who predeceased him. They had three children, a daughter (Sallie Anne) and two sons, Michael John, a solicitor, and David Ian, a plastic surgeon. In 2002 he married Anne Elizabeth Mary Stott née Binnie. Peter Wilson died on 19 November 2006.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000373
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2007-07-25
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000300-E000399
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372560372560
Occupation Businessman
Details Lord Kindersley was born in 1899, the son of the first Lord Kindersley and Gladys Margaret Beadle. Educated at Eton he served in the first world war in the Scots Guards, where he won the Military Cross in 1918. During the second world war he rejoined his old regiment and served with the 6th Airborne Division with the rank of Brigadier, and won the MBE and CBE (military. After the war he succeeded to his father in 1951, became chairman of Rolls Royce (from 1956 to 1968) and a director of Lazard Brothers (1967 to 1971). He was chairman of the Review Body on Doctors’ and Dentists’ Remuneration from 1962 to 1970, and President of the Arthritis and Rheumatism Council. In the College he was a very successful chairman of the Appeal Committee, from 1958, with Sir Simon Marks as his vice-chairman: together they collected £3.6 million in the next 15 years, by which means the College was rebuilt. During this time old fellows were invited, and new fellows obliged, to make an annual subscription. A valued and highly respected member of its Court of Patrons, the College acknowledged his services with their honorary gold medal in 1975. He died on 6 October 1976.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000374
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

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

First Title value, for Searching Friedmann, Allan Isadore (1916 - 2005)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

by Enid Taylor
Publication Date 2008-10-24
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000500-E000599
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372749372749
Occupation Ophthalmic surgeon
Details Allan Isadore Friedmann was a consultant ophthalmologist at the Royal Eye Hospital. He was born in Bloemfontein, South Africa, on 15 June 1916 to Joseph and Matilda Friedmann. His father was a pharmacist. He was educated locally at Grey College School in Bloemfontein, matriculating with first class honours. His undergraduate medical education was at Witwatersrand University, Johannesburg, and he then held house jobs in the General Hospital, Johannesburg, including the department of ophthalmology. He served the rest of the war in the South African Medical Corps, attaining the rank of captain. After going to England, he was initially senior lecturer to the College from 1963 to 1966 and was subsequently reader to the department of ophthalmology. At the same time, in 1963, he was appointed consultant ophthalmologist to the Royal Eye Hospital. His work was greatly influenced by two London ophthalmologists – A Sorsby and H B Stallard. He was interested in and wrote about the causes of blindness in children. He played tennis most of his life and was also interested in music and photography. He married twice. He married Marion Bernstein in 1940 and they had one son, who was “non-medical”. He died on 20 November 2005 and is survived by his second wife, Shu Qi Zhang.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000566
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Higgitt, Alan Carstairs ( - 2005)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

by Enid Taylor
Publication Date 2008-10-24
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000500-E000599
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372750372750
Occupation Ophthalmic surgeon
Details Alan Higgitt was an honorary consultant ophthalmologist at Charing Cross Hospital, London. He qualified at University College Hospital. After junior posts he joined the RNVR as a surgeon lieutenant, ophthalmic specialist, on a hospital ship which was on active service in the Indian Ocean. After the end of the Second World War, he returned to start his formal ophthalmic training as a registrar at University College Hospital, working for Shapland and Neame. He worked in several hospitals, being first appointed as consultant ophthalmologist to St Mary Abbott’s Hospital, Kensington, and then to Ashford Hospital, Middlesex, and the South Middlesex Hospital. He was then appointed to Fulham Hospital, west London, which evolved into Charing Cross Hospital and he was honorary consultant ophthalmologist to this hospital until he retired in 1986. There he established a contact lens department and was involved in the treatment of diabetic eye disease. He had two great interests – sailing and music. This enjoyment extended to repairing early pianos and he also built two harpsichords and a spinet by hand. In July 2005 he had a fall, fractured some ribs and developed pneumonia, from which he died on 24 July 2005. He is survived by his wife Joan, a daughter who is a consultant psychiatrist, and two sons.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000567
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Frogley, Ralph Allen (1784 - 1864)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

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://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/374096374096
Occupation General surgeon
Details The son of a surgeon at Hounslow; received his Medical education at the Windmill Street School and at St George's and Westminster Hospitals. On account of his father's failing health, he entered into active practice at once after qualifying. So great was his energy and determination of character, it is said, combined with rare professional knowledge and skill, gentlemanly manners, and an address which inspired confidence, that he speedily established himself in a lucrative and extensive practice, which he carried on alone until the year 1889. Among his pupils who distinguished themselves were Samuel Lane, and Christopher B Emmott of Egham. He took the latter into partnership, and on Emmott's retirement was associated with Thomas Warburton Benfield, afterwards Surgeon to the Leicester Infirmary. From 1849-1854 his partner was Dr Alfred Hall, of Brighton, succeeded by F R A Douglas and Henry Bullock, who carried on Frogley's practice after his death. Frogley was well known as a skilful accoucheur and operator. He tied the carotid and femoral arteries, cut for stone, and on one occasion amputated the thigh close to the hip-joint, the patient suffering from an enchrondroma. The amputated limb weighed four stone, upwards of a third of the patient's body, but the patient survived for years. He published this case and another like it in the *Medico-Chirurgical Transactions*, xxvi, 133. He was widely sought after in consultation. He was at different times Medical Officer to the Parishes of Feltham, Bedfont, Norwood, Hanworth, Heston, Cranford, and Harlington, to the School of St George's and St Giles's Bloomsbury, at Heston; and was also Surgeon to the 'T' Division of Police, and to Curtis and Harvey's large powder mills. Frogley is described as one of the most able of the hard-working surgeons who have devoted their time and energies to practice in what was then a country district - a position in which all the capabilities of the physician and operative surgeon may at any time be called into requisition. He stood well with his socially important patients and was noted for his great kindness to the poor. Despite his hard professional labours he cultivated a large farm for many years and was known as a good judge of stock. He was instrumental in obtaining the erection of Hounslow Town Hall. He died at Brighton on March 15th, 1864, and was buried at Hounslow.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001913
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

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://scp.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 Shukri, Aziz Mahmood (1923 - 2004)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

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

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

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

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

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

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

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

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://scp.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)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

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

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

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

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

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

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

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

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

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://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372482372482
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon
Details Timothy Walter Scannell was an orthopaedic surgeon in the north-east. He was born in Cork on 9 July 1940, the fourth son of Frederick Joseph Scannell, an accountant, and Esther Katherine née Harley, the daughter of a merchant tailor. He was educated at the Christian Brothers’ College, Cork, and University College, Cork. After qualifying he held junior posts in Cork, at the South Infirmary, Bantry Hospital and St Stephen’s Hospital, and at Birmingham Accident Hospital. He trained in orthopaedic surgery at the Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital, Oswestry, and at Liverpool Royal Infirmary. He was appointed as a consultant orthopaedic surgeon to the North East Health Board. He married Maureen Daly, a nurse, in 1968. They had two daughters and a son. He died after a long illness on 9 March 2006.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000295
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-11-30 2007-12-12
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000200-E000299
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372483372483
Occupation Urological surgeon Urologist
Details ‘Kwashie’ Quartey had an international reputation for his work on the surgery of urethral stricture, and was one of the father figures of surgery in his home country, Ghana. He was the sixth of the seven children of Peter David Quartey snr, headmaster of the Government Junior School in James Town, and Elizabeth Abigail Quartey (née Marmon). He was educated at the Achimota Secondary School, where he was senior prefect, and won colours for cricket and hockey. In 1942 he was awarded a Gold Coast Government medical scholarship to Edinburgh, travelling there in convoy at the height of the U-boat war. At Edinburgh he captained the hockey team, became involved with the Student Christian Movement and graduated in 1948. After junior posts, which included a spell at Wilkington Hospital, Manchester, and passing the Edinburgh and English fellowships in 1953, he returned to the Gold Coast. On the ship home to the Gold Coast he met his future wife, Edith Sangmorkie Saki, who was a nurse. Quartey then worked in Ministry of Health hospitals in Kumasi, Tamale and Accra, returning to do a course in tropical medicine in London in 1954 while Edith returned to England to study theatre work. They married in 1955. He was appointed a surgical specialist in 1958 and in 1961 he was awarded a Canadian Government fellowship in urology at Dalhousie University, Halifax, where he is remembered with respect and affection, and where strenuous attempts were made to arrange a full residency for him. On his return Kwashie set up the urology unit at the Korle Bu Hospital in Accra. The following year, 1963, he set up the anatomy department of the new Ghana Medical School, in the absence of any basic medical scientists. He was extremely active in the work of the surgical department, fostering its department of plastic surgery. In April 1978 there was an order for his arrest on charges of treason and he went into exile in Lome, Togo, for six months, during which time it was arranged that he should become a WHO consultant in surgery to the Government of the Gambia. He returned home after the palace coup in which General Acheampong was ousted. In 1981 he described his method of urethroplasty based on his own careful anatomical studies that used a pedicled flap of penile skin, which had the advantage of being non hair-bearing. The method was widely publicised and earned him an ChM from Edinburgh University. He travelled widely and was a visiting professor in Iran, Johannesburg and Mainz. He was a founding member of the Ghana Medical Association and of the West Africa College of Surgeons, of which he became president, and was the recipient of numerous honorary distinctions, including the unique posthumous award of the St Paul’s medal by BAUS. He was still busy with the Operation Ghana Medical Mission at the age of 82, and it was when returning from one of these outreach visits that he was involved in a fatal head-on road collision on 27 August 2005. Only two of the 10 occupants of the two vehicles survived. A state funeral was held in the State House in Accra in the presence of the President. Kwashie had an ebullient, irrepressible personality, which won him friends throughout the world of surgery and urology. He left a son (Ian Malcolm Kpakpa), daughter (Susan Miranda Kwale) and six grandchildren (Alexis Naa Kwarma, Smyly Nii Otu, Arthur Nii Armah, Nana Akua, Obaa Akosua and John Nii Kwatei).
Resource Identifier RCS: E000296
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Brough, Michael David (1942 - 2004)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-09-14
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000000-E000099
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372216372216
Occupation Plastic surgeon Plastic and reconstructive surgeon
Details Michael David Brough was a consultant plastic surgeon at the Royal Free Hospital, London. He was born on 4 July 1942 in London, where his father, Kenneth David Brough, was chairman of Metal Box Overseas Ltd. His mother was Frances Elizabeth née Davies, the daughter of Walter Ernest Llewellyn Davies, a general practitioner in Llandiloes, Montgomeryshire. Michael was educated at the Hall School in Hampstead and then Westminster. He went on to Christ’s College, Cambridge, and completed his clinical studies at the Middlesex Hospital. After graduating he continued his training in Birmingham, Salisbury and Manchester. His first consultant appointment was at St Andrew’s Hospital, Billericay, which was followed by appointments at University College, the Royal Free and the Whittington Hospitals. He became celebrated for his work after the fire at King’s Cross underground station on 18 November 1987, which killed 31 people and caused many severe burns. Michael led the team treating these casualties, an experience which caused him to realise the need for expertise from other specialties (no fewer than 21 consultants from 11 specialties were involved in this instance), as well as ongoing psychological support, especially for those with disfiguring injuries. He urged that all major burns units should be sited in or near teaching or large district general hospitals, and equally, that all major trauma centres should include a plastic surgery and burns unit. He set up the Phoenix Appeal with the Duke of Edinburgh as patron and raised £5m to establish the first academic department of plastic and reconstructive surgery in the UK. In 2002 he set up the Healing Foundation, a national charity chaired by Chris Patten, to champion the cause of people living with disfigurement and to fund research into surgical and psychological healing techniques. Beginning with £500,000 from the British Association of Plastic Surgeons this foundation has raised £4.5m and is setting up a chair of tissue regeneration at Manchester University. He was a former President of the British Association of Plastic Surgeons and also a member of the NHS Modernisation Agency’s Action on Plastic Surgery team. Despite being a non-smoker, he developed lung cancer and died on 18 November 2004. He leaves his wife Geraldine, two daughters and two sons.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000029
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-09-14 2015-09-04
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000000-E000099
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372217372217
Occupation General surgeon
Details Charles Burgess, known as Terence, was born in Hoylake, the Wirral, Cheshire, on 10 January 1913, into a medical family. His father, Charles Herbert Burgess, was a general practitioner, as was his grandfather, Robert Burgess. His mother was Meta Jeanette née Leitch. Terence was educated at Haileybury, and then in 1931 went on to Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. He completed his clinical training in Liverpool. After junior posts, he served in the RAMC and was awarded an MBE for his part in the rescue of wounded servicemen from a hospital transport ship when it was mined and sunk off the Normandy beaches shortly after D-day. He returned to Liverpool to specialise in surgery, training at the David Lewis Northern Hospital. In 1950, he was appointed as a consultant surgeon at Ormskirk District General Hospital and, the following year, to Southport Infirmary. He retired from both positions in 1978. He kept up his links with the RAMC, retiring from the 8th Liverpool Unit in 1963 with the rank of Colonel. He served on the Southport bench as a magistrate from 1971 to 1983, and after retirement became involved with the movement to found the Queenscourt Hospice in Southport, of which he was first chairman of the committee. The hospice education centre is named after him. He wished to be remembered for the good quality, compassionate care he gave to patients and as an enthusiastic educator of medical and nursing staff. Outside medicine, he was involved with his church, St Cuthbert's in Southport, serving as a churchwarden. He played golf, and was interested in cartography and local history. He was a lifelong supporter of Everton Football Club. He married Stella née Smith in 1951 and they had two daughters, Catherine and Priscilla, an ophthalmologist. There are two grandchildren. He died on 29 January 2004, following a stroke.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000030
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

by Robin Burkitt
Publication Date 2005-09-14 2014-07-18
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000000-E000099
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372218372218
Occupation General surgeon
Details Robert Townsend Burkitt, known as 'Robin', was a highly respected consultant general surgeon at Ashford Hospital. He was born in Enniskillen, County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland, on 28 September 1912. His father, James Parsons Burkitt, was an engineer and County Surveyor, and also a distinguished ornithologist, an interest which Robin inherited from his father. His mother was Gwendolyn Burkitt née Hill. Robin and his elder brother Denis, were educated at Dean Close School in Cheltenham and he followed his brother to Trinity College, Dublin (TCD), in 1930. At TCD he studied modern languages, anticipating a career as a diplomat, then decided to change to medicine. Denis also decided on a career in medicine and he carried out pioneering research into the cause of a particular form of cancer ('Burkitt's lymphoma'), work for which he achieved world-wide recognition. After qualifying as a doctor, Robin took up a post as a senior house officer at the Royal Cornwall Infirmary, where he met his future wife, Violet, a nurse. They were married shortly after the Second World War broke out. He joined the Army at the end of 1939 and was sent to France, where he was stationed on the Normandy coast until the German advance forced them to retreat in haste. Robin managed to reach Boulogne and take passage back to England. He was then posted as a battalion medical officer to the 9th Battalion, the Seaforth Highlanders. After a period of training in Scotland, he was sent to West Africa, where he worked in hospitals and outlying stations in the Gambia and Nigeria. He returned to England in October 1944 to qualify as a surgical specialist. Early in the following year he was sent to India to join a beach medical unit that was preparing for a planned invasion of Malaya. Returning to England at the end of the war, he joined Ashford Hospital as a surgical registrar and during his time there gained his FRCS. Due to the post-war backlog, there were few opportunities to obtain a consultant post in the UK, and he was persuaded by an old colleague to join his medical practice in Nairobi, Kenya. In 1951, he and his wife sold the family home and most of their possessions and took passage to Africa with their three young children. However, their time in Kenya was not a great success: the medical practice did not grow as anticipated and various other aspects of life, particularly the Mau Mau rebellion, meant it proved an insecure environment for his wife and young children. In 1954 they returned to the UK and Robin took up a post as a senior registrar at Upton Hospital, Slough, which he always considered the most rewarding part of his professional career. During this time he was proud to have played a major role in transforming the reputation of the hospital. When he joined no GP would think of referring a patient to the hospital: when he left they would not consider any other. In 1963 Robin took up a consultant post at Ashford Hospital, which became vacant on the retirement of Norman Matheson. He worked at various hospitals in the area and also treated patients in London. He was highly regarded, not only because of professional skills as a surgeon, but also for his great gifts of communication, which he used to reassure and comfort patients and their families. He worked tirelessly for the Slough branch of the Multiple Sclerosis Society, acting as treasurer for nearly 20 years and then as welfare officer. He did much to help and improve the quality of those suffering from the disease. Robin's own wife died in 1997, having suffered poor health since the early 1970s. Right to the end he continued to visit local people, offering sympathies, advice and comfort, drawing from his great knowledge and experience. Robin was a devout Christian with a very strong faith. He worshipped at the United Reform Church in Beaconsfield for many years and his death was a great loss to the members of the congregation. He died on 19 April 2005, aged 92, and was survived by his three children, Robin, Andrew and Beth, their families, as well as the many people who had enjoyed his friendship.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000031
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

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

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2009-08-21 2013-08-06
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000600-E000699
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372845372845
Occupation General surgeon
Details Apprenticed to Francis Bennett at the Dispensary, Gateshead, Durham, and entered as a matriculated student at King's College, becoming a student at the hospital as soon as it was opened. He was one of the Surgeons of the Royal South London Dispensary until "the dignity of the profession" required that the staff, Messrs Osborn, Johnson, Berrell, Wood, and Alexander, should resign in a body. He was also Surgeon to the Board of Guardians of St Mary's, Newington, whose sick poor he attended, on the death of the regularly appointed surgeon, during an epidemic of typhus fever from which he himself suffered severely. He practised first at 12 Brunswick Street, Dover Road, SE, and afterwards at 45 Trinity Square, Borough, SE, where he died Jan 27th, 1887.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000662
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-09-14 2006-12-21
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000000-E000099
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372220372220
Occupation General surgeon
Details Alexander Cameron, known as ‘Alistair’, was a consultant surgeon at Norfolk and Norwich Hospital. He was born in Tranent, East Lothian, on 1 August 1933, the son of Alexander Cameron, a miner who became vice-president of the National Union of Mineworkers for the Scottish area, and Margaret née Hogg, a shop assistant. He was educated at Tranent Public Primary School and then Preston Lodge School, where he gained a distinction in literature and was *dux* of his class. He studied medicine in Edinburgh and then did house jobs at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary. From 1957 to 1959, he served as a surgeon lieutenant, first in Portsmouth, and then as a medical officer aboard HMS *Torquay* and then HMS *Scarborough*, part of the Fifth Frigate Squadron of the Mediterranean fleet, visiting Malta and Syracuse. In July 1958, he was present at the nuclear test explosions on Christmas Island. His meticulous medical records of this and his formal instructions for decontamination and cleansing remain intact for safe keeping with his wife. He then sailed back to the UK via Samoa, Auckland, Sydney, Perth, Sri Lanka and the Suez Canal. Returning to civilian life south of the border as senior house officer at the North Middlesex Hospital, he gained his FRCS in 1962. An appointment as research assistant to Leslie Le Quesne and Michael Hobsley from 1964 to 1967 was followed by a rotating registrar post to the Middlesex and Central Middlesex hospitals, where he fell under the influence of Sir Rodney Sweetman, P Newman, Sir Thomas Holmes Sellors and Peter Gummer. He became senior registrar to O V Lloyd Davies from 1967 to 1970, followed by his appointment as senior lecturer with honorary consultant status in 1970. Gaining his masters degree in 1973, he went to Sweden and Germany to learn the techniques of the Koch continent ileostomy, which he went on to popularise in the UK. Appointed consultant surgeon to the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital in 1973, he was the first person with a specialist colo-proctological interest: the unit is now much expanded. It was usual in those days for the ‘junior’ surgeon in Norwich to have a paediatric interest, so Alistair spent some time at Great Ormond Street to help him in his new venture. He was surgical tutor from 1976 to 1979, and was a popular and outstanding teacher at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. A series of myocardial infarcts obliged him to retire early in 1988. He was operated on at Papworth in 1981 and 1989 by J Wallwork, using a procedure pioneered by his own boss, Sir Thomas Holmes Sellors. Distancing himself from medicine, he was able to continue his interests in astronomy, botany, microscopy, modern languages (French, German, Spanish and Italian), together with his passion for philosophy, poetry, history and politics. It was in these areas he was a formidable opponent in debate. An earlier interest in classical Greek and Latin was rekindled and, with an outstanding knowledge of computer technology, he managed to fill his life restricted by cardiac disability. An article on his experiences as a cardiac patient ‘Reflections in a glass box’, showed true and amusingly thoughtful insight into the NHS, its staff and his own condition. He met Elizabeth (‘Widdy’) neé Padfield when she was a surgical ward sister at the Middlesex. They married in 1970 and had four sons, Duncan, Angus, Hamish and Dougal. Alistair died on 20 February 2004.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000033
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

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

First Title value, for Searching Percival, William ( - 1849)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

First Title value, for Searching Norman, George (1783 - 1861)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2008-03-27
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000400-E000499
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372653372653
Occupation General surgeon
Details The son of a surgeon in good practice in Bath. After a short stay in London he returned to Bath and began professional life as his father’s assistant in the year 1801. On the death of an elder brother, a surgeon, he began to practise on his own account. In 1817 he succeeded his father as surgeon to the Casualty Hospital, and in 1826 was the first surgeon appointed to the Bath United Hospital, then newly formed by the Union of the Casualty Hospital and the City Dispensary. He continued to hold office till 1857, discharging his duties with the utmost attention. This long period of service was the more honourable to him because, during the greater part of it, from the wide extent of his private practise, the calls upon his time were so incessant that his gratuitous labours must have entailed upon him sacrifices which few are found willing to make. In his private practice he took the highest position in Bath, and while he was at his zenith his practice probably exceeded that of any other provincial surgeon. For a long period his receipts verged upon, if they did not exceed, £4,000 a year. On his retirement from the hospital he was at once made one of its Vice-Presidents, and his bust, executed in marble by the then popular sculptor Behnes, was set up in the hall of the institution. After this honour had been paid him the working men of Bath presented him with a handsome testimonial to mark their sense of his services to the public. His professional character stood very high, and he has been described as the very type of an English gentleman – simple, unaffected, perfectly self-possessed. In politics he was a strong Liberal and was an active politician. For forty years he was a member of the Bath Corporation and twice Mayor of the City. He was also Deputy Lieutenant of the County. At the time of his death he was Consulting Surgeon to the United Hospital, Surgeon to the Puerperal Charity, Vice-President of the British Medical Association, and Fellow of the Royal Medico-Chirurgical Society. He died of pleuropneumonia after a few days’ illness on Jan 17th, 1861, at his residence, 1 Circus, Bath. Norman contributed three papers to the *Medico-Chirurgical Transactions*, of which the first (1819, x, 94) on aneurysm, contains the history of two hospital patients in whom he had successfully tied the external iliac artery. In a second paper (1837, xx, 301) he described the dissection, twenty years afterwards, of one of these men. In a third paper (1827, xii, 348) he describes a remarkable case of extra-uterine foetation, which, in the ninth month of pregnancy, the foetus was extracted by means of an incision through the posterior wall of the vagina. He communicated also some three or four other papers, dealing with remarkable cases, to the Bath and Bristol Branch of the British Medical Association. A numerous and valuable series of preparations made by him for the Museum of the United Hospital, of which they constituted the first nucleus, must not be omitted form the list of his scientific labours. A fine mezzotint portrait of Norman is in the Young Collection (No 59). It was published by Henry Benham on Oct 16th, 1840, and is engraved after the painting by W O Geller. It represents a seated figure in the typical professional costume of the period.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000469
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

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

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

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

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

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

First Title value, for Searching Harris, John (1803 - 1861)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

First Title value, for Searching Pichlmayr, Rudolf (1932 - 1997)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-10-19 2012-03-13
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000100-E000199
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372299372299
Occupation Transplant surgeon
Details Rudolf Pichlmayr was a pioneering German transplant surgeon. He was born on 16 May 1932 in Munich, Germany. He graduated from the University of Munich Medical School in 1956, and in 1959 started his career in medicine at the same university. He qualified as a surgeon in 1964. In 1967, he presented his postdoctoral thesis to the medical faculty of the University of Munich for qualification as a privatdozent, and in the same year became an assistant professor. In 1968 he and Hans George Borst moved to the Medizinische Hochschule in Hanover to develop the new department of surgery. A year later, Pichlmayr was appointed as professor of transplantation and special surgery, and in 1973 he was endowed with the first chair of abdominal and transplantation surgery. He served his faculty as dean for education from 1974 to 1978, as deputy head for research from 1989 to 1991, and as chairman of the ethical committee from 1984. Pichlmayr carried out the first kidney transplantation in Hanover in 1968, and the first liver transplantation in 1972. He subsequently initiated and supervised a large number of experimental and clinical research programmes in the field of transplantation surgery and biology. Together with his wife Ina Pichlmayr he established the Foundation for Rehabilitation following Organtransplantation in Dolsach, Austria. Aside from transplantation, Rudolf Pichlmayr was an internationally recognised expert on abdominal surgery, particularly liver surgery and surgical oncology. He was President of numerous national and international scientific societies and organisations, including the German Medical Association and the department of health of the federal government in Bonn. As President of the German Association for Surgery, Rudolf Pichalmyr organised the 113th annual congress in Berlin in 1996. He was a member of many surgical societies, including the European Society for Surgical Research and received prestigious awards and honours, including honorary Fellowships of the College and of American College of Surgeons. He published a number of books and was also on the editorial boards of several surgical and transplantation journals. Pichlmayr died on 29 August 1997, during the 37th World Congress of Surgery in Acapulco, Mexico, while taking a morning swim. He had five children with his wife Ina.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000112
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

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

First Title value, for Searching Fuge, John Hele (1781 - 1871)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

First Title value, for Searching Fuller, Charles Chinner ( - 1902)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

First Title value, for Searching Furley, Edward (1812 - 1892)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

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

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2008-03-27 2014-04-08
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000400-E000499
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372661372661
Occupation General surgeon
Details Adrian Cousins was a consultant surgeon in Sydney, Australia. He was born in Sydney, New South Wales, on 20 July 1928. His father, Gordon James Cousins, was a doctor, and his mother, Yvonne Effie Matild Zani née de Ferranti, a housewife. He was educated in Sydney; at Belmore Primary School, the Erskinville Opportunity Class for Gifted Children (from 1938 to 1939) and then Sydney Boys High School. He then studied medicine at Sydney University. He undertook surgical training in England as there was no surgical training in Australia after the Second World War. He was a surgical resident at Haymeads Hospital, Bishop's Stortford. He studied anaesthetics at St George's on Hyde Park Corner, orthopaedics under Tommy Sergeant at Nuneaton, thoracic and plastic surgery at Hyde Park Corner in 1954. In 1955 he studied accident and emergency surgery under Lionel Jones at Nuneaton and general surgery under Trevor Berrill in Coventry. In 1956 he studied general surgery under Sir Rodney Smith at St George's. The friendships he made during his postgraduate training were enduring. In December 1957 he returned to Australia. In 1959 he was appointed as a consultant surgeon to the Canterbury Hospital, Sydney, a post he held until 1962. He was then a consultant surgeon at the Sutherland Hospital, Sydney, until 1976. From 1976 to 1988 he was director of surgical services at the Sutherland Hospital. He retired in 1988. He was a member of the Australian Medical Association, the Australian Association of Surgeons, and the sections on colon rectal surgery and general surgery at the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons. He was a member of the Society for Growing Australian Plants and the Australian Stock Horse Society. He enjoyed skiing, tennis, rugby union, squash, swimming, farming (sheep, cattle and horse breeding) and cultivating Australian native plants. He was a member of the Volunteer Bushfire Brigade in Bungonia, New South Wales. He married Helen Collier Southward in 1953 in London. They had two sons (Peter Gordon Ziani, now deceased, and Timothy James Ziani) and two daughters (Penelope Joy and Hilary Jane). He had six grandchildren. He died on 12 May 2006 in Canberra, in a nursing home, of respiratory failure.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000477
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

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

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2009-09-18 2013-08-06
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000600-E000699
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372849372849
Occupation General surgeon
Details Third son of the Rev Samuel Alford, of Queen's College, Oxford, who graduated BA in 1797 and MA in 1800. He was born at Curry Rivel, near Taunton. The Alford family had held property in West Somerset from the middle of the sixteenth century, and son had succeeded father in the church for several generations. Henry Alford (1810-1871), Dean of Canterbury, and Bishop Alford were cousins of Henry Alford, FRCS. Alford became a house pupil at the Bristol Infirmary in 1822, and five years later came to London to complete his medical education at St Bartholomew's Hospital. After qualifying, he practised at Ilminster until he was appointed Surgeon to the Somerset and Taunton Hospital in 1830, when he settled in Taunton. He resigned his office in 1859 and was appointed Consulting Surgeon. He was Bailiff of Taunton, a churchwarden of St Mary's Church, a keen politician, and a hearty supporter of Sir Robert Peel in his policy of repealing the Corn Laws. He died at South Road, Taunton, in his 92nd year on June 29th, 1898. He married twice, and by his first wife left four children. His son, Henry J Alford, MD MRCS, was also educated at St Bartholomew's Hospital, and was Medical Officer of Health for Taunton.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000666
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2009-09-18 2013-08-06
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000600-E000699
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372850372850
Occupation General surgeon
Details Son of the Rev Samuel Alford, of Curry Rivel, and younger brother of Henry Alford (qv). Educated at University College. Practised at Tewkesbury, where he was Surgeon to the Dispensary, and removed to Weston-super-Mare in 1855, continuing to practise there until 1886. He was one of the founders of the old Dispensary which developed into the Weston-super-Mare Hospital. He acted as Surgeon to the Dispensary and as Consulting Surgeon to the Hospital. He died at 6 Ozil Terrace, Weston-super-Mare, on March 30th, 1893. Publications: "A Case of Spasma Glottidis." - *Prov. Med. and Surg. Jour.*, 1847, 625. "A Case of Jugular Vein Opened by Ulceration: Death." - Quoted in Liston's *Practical Surgery*, 6th ed. "A Case of Mortification from Head of Fibula to Crest of Ilium; Recovery." -* Assoc. Med. Jour.*, 1853. "Induction of Premature Labour by Ergot of Rye and Puncturing the Membranes." - *Lond. Med. Rev.*, 1861-2, ii, 511.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000667
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2009-09-18 2013-08-06
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000600-E000699
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372851372851
Occupation General surgeon
Details Educated at University College, London, and acted as House Surgeon to the North Staffordshire Infirmary. He moved to London, becoming Surgeon to the North St Pancras Provident Dispensary, Surgeon to the Keepers and Helpers at the Zoological Gardens, Hon Surgeon to the Asylum for Infirm Journeymen Tailors, Medical Officer to the Orphan Workhouse School at Haverstock Hill, and Surgeon-in-Ordinary to the North St Pancras Provident Dispensary. He lived at 7 Park Place, Haverstock Hill, and died on July 5th, 1881, as the result of a railway accident. Alford was an active supporter of the British Medical Association, and throughout his life was interested in the treatment of dipsomania. At the time of his death he was Hon Secretary to the Society for the Promotion of Legislation for the Control and Cure of Habitual Drunkards. Under the auspices of a Committee of the British Medical Association he had organized a home for that purpose near his house, 61 Haverstock Hill, which he had hoped to supervise. Publications: *A Few Words on the Drink Craving, showing the Necessity for Legislative Power as regards Protection and Treatment*. *Dipsomania, its Prevalence, Causes and Treatment.* *The Habitual Drunkards Act, with an Account of a Visit to the American Inebriate Homes.*
Resource Identifier RCS: E000668
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

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

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

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

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2009-09-18 2016-01-22
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000600-E000699
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372854372854
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born March 2nd, 1818; educated at St Bartholomew's and St George's Hospitals and at Paris. Joined the Cape Mounted Riflemen as Assistant Surgeon, June 30th, 1843, and served in the field with this regiment during the Kaffir War of 1846-1847 (medal). He joined the Staff on Jan 12th, 1849, was transferred to the 6th Foot on March 16th, and to the 3rd Dragoon Guards on April 25th, 1851. He was promoted Staff Surgeon (2nd Class), March 28th, 1854, rejoining the Dragoons May 12th, 1854. Surgeon Major, 3rd Dragoon Guards, June 30th, 1863. He was again placed on the Staff on March 13th, 1866, and was transferred to the 7th Dragoon Guards on Aug 7th, 1867. He retired on half pay with the rank of Deputy Inspector-General of Hospitals, July 31st, 1869, and died at Welbourn Hall, Grantham, Lincolnshire, on March 17th, 1893. [1] [Amendments from the annotated edition of *Plarr's Lives* at the Royal College of Surgeons: [1] Portrait in College Collection.]
Resource Identifier RCS: E000671
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2009-09-18
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000600-E000699
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372855372855
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born Sept 23rd, 1834; educated at University College. Entered the Bengal Army as Assistant Surgeon, Feb 10th, 1859; promoted Surgeon Feb 10th, 1871, and Surgeon Major July 1st, 1873. Retired Nov 5th, 1884, and died at Romford on May 15th, 1885.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000672
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2009-09-18 2013-08-06
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000600-E000699
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372856372856
Occupation General surgeon
Details Educated as an Associate Scholar at King's College, London, and professionally at King's College Hospital, where he served as House Physician. After qualifying in London in 1861 he spent some time in Edinburgh, where he acted as Dresser and Clinical Clerk in the Edinburgh Infirmary, and then proceeded to Paris. He practised in partnership with Dr J Heckstall Smith at St Mary Cray, and took an active part in founding the Chislehurst and Cray Valley Hospital. He was Medical Officer and Public Vaccinator of the 3rd District of the Bromley (Kent) Union, Surgeon to the Governesses' Benevolent Institution, Chislehurst, and District Surgeon to the Metropolitan Police. He left Chislehurst in 1890 for St Leonards-on-Sea, where he practised as a physician. He was elected Assistant Physician to the East Sussex Hospital in 1892, and was Consulting Physician at the time of his death. He served on the Town Council for many years, and was active as Chairman of the Sanitary Committee at the time of the establishment of the Isolation Hospital. He was also a JP and Chairman of the South-Eastern Branch of the British Medical Association. In politics he was a Conservative. He died on April 16th, 1912, suddenly, whilst walking on the parade at St Leonards. Publication: *Sanitary Reports on Chislehurst and Cray Valley*, 1875.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000673
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Furner, Edmund Joseph (1805 - 1899)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

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://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/374103374103
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born at Brighton on December18th, 1805, the son of John Furner, member of an old Sussex family. His elder brother was a Judge of the County Court, and another brother, Robert Furner, was the donor to Brighton of the Furner Collection of Prints. Edmund Joseph Furner was educated at St George's Hospital and attended lectures in the Windmill Street School. He then went on a voyage to India as Surgeon in charge of a sailing-ship, and on his return to England succeeded his cousin, Benjamin Valiance, as House Surgeon to the Sussex County Hospital (1831). He became Surgeon to the institution subsequently, and held this post for thirty-two years. He retired in 1876, when the Committee of Management passed a resolution recording his surgical ability and his extreme and unwearied kindness to patients. His colleagues at the same time presented him with a most complimentary address. He was then appointed Consulting Surgeon, remaining so till the time of his death, when his connection with the hospital had lasted nearly sixty years. Furner practised at 47 Brunswick Square, Brighton, and he took great interest in local matters, particularly charitable institutions. In Freemasonry he became Deputy Provincial Grand Master of Sussex. He died at Brighton on January 2nd, 1899, and was buried in the Extramural Cemetery. He married in 1837 Arabella, eldest daughter of John Lawrence, senr, at one time Surgeon in the Grenadier Guards (qv). This lady died in 1897. Of his two sons and a daughter, who survived him, one son, Willoughby Furner (qv), was in practice in Brunswick Square at the time of his father's death, and was his successor in the hospital surgeoncy. Besides being a Consulting Surgeon to the Sussex County Hospital, Furner, at the time of his death, held the same position at the Brighton and Hove Lying-in Hospital and at St Mary's Hall, Brighton. It was in great measure owing to his exertions that the Library and Museum of the Sussex County Hospital were founded in 1833, and the hospital recognized for medical instruction in 1834. Nathaniel Paine Blaker, in his Sussex in Bygone Days, 1919, thus writes of Furner: "There were a good many preparations in the Museum which had been brought into being by Mr Furner, when House Surgeon, many years before. He put these up fresh and re-wrote the histories. I well recollect almost my first interview with him: I was in the Museum cleaning some preparation jars when he came in. I was about to retire when he stopped me, and from that time till his death was my guide, teacher and friend. It was his custom on his admission week to come to the Hospital punctually at 9 am and take histories of his cases, which were written down at his dictation by his clinical clerk, whom he took great pains to instruct in the examination of patients, in the ordinary clinical testings and in morbid anatomy whenever an opportunity occurred. As soon as he could, he made me his clerk and also taught me how to work with the microscope, and advised me what books to read. I shall always remember him with the greatest gratitude and affection." (See also Tayler, Robert, and Vallance, Benjamin.) Publications: "Case of Transfusion." - *Lond Med Gaz*, 1835, xvi, 480. "Aneurism of Femoral Artery - Ligature of the External Iliac." - *Ibid*, 1836, xvii, 687. "Successful Case of Ligature of both Subclavian Arteries for Axillary Aneurism." - *Med. Times and Gaz*, 1868, I, 456, and *Med-Chir Trans*, li, 163. This, says his *Brit Med Jour* biographer (1899, I, 183), was "a wonderful case in those pre-antiseptic days".
Resource Identifier RCS: E001920
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Amphlett, Edward (1848 - 1880)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2009-09-25
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000600-E000699
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372860372860
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born on Oct 20th, 1848, the second son of Samuel Holmden Amphlett (qv), by Mary Georgiana, his wife. He was nephew of Sir Richard Amphlett, of Wychbold Hall, near Droitwich, at one time Lord Justice of Appeal. Edward Amphlett was the grandson of George Edward Male, an early nineteenth century authority on medical jurisprudence. He was educated for the sea, and served as midshipman in the Royal Navy for several years, seeing many parts of the world and acquiring great interest in nautical matters. At the time of his death he was Surgeon to the Naval Artillery Volunteers, with whom he had recently been a cruise on board HMS *Esk*. He suffered so severely from asthma that he was invalided out of the service. Determining to enter the medical profession, he first graduated at Cambridge from Peterhouse as a Junior Optime in the Mathematical Tripos (his uncle, Sir Richard Amphlett, who died in 1883, had been Sixth Wrangler). He is thus one of the first Cambridge man on our record. Entering at Guy’s Hospital, he was House Surgeon and Resident Obstetrician. After qualifying and passing the Fellowship examination he was appointed Assistant Surgeon to Charing Cross Hospital, and began to devote himself to practice and more particularly to diseases of the eye, which he had studied at Vienna. At the time of his death, besides being Assistant Surgeon, he was also Demonstrator of Surgical Pathology in Charing Cross Hospital Medical School and Assistant Surgeon at the Central London Ophthalmic Hospital. He practised at 40 Weymouth Street, Portland Place, W, and died there on Sept 9th, 1880. His elder brother was Richard Holmden Amphlett, QC, Recorder of Worcester.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000677
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Sahoy, Ronald Rabindranath (1940 - 2008)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2008-11-14 2009-05-01
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000500-E000599
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372755372755
Occupation Cardiothoracic surgeon General surgeon
Details Ronald Sahoy was a pioneering cardiothoracic and general surgeon in the Caribbean. He was born on 3 January 1940, in Essequibo, British Guiana (now Guyana). His father was Kunandan Ramdial Sahoy, a business man who owned a trucking service, and his mother was Baidwattee née Narayan, who had worked as a clerk in the civil service in London in the sixties. Ronald was educated at the Modern Educational Institute, which had been founded by a cousin, Ongkar Narayan, the Central High School, Guyana, and Queen’s College, Guyana, where he won the Guyana Government intercollegiate scholarship. He studied medicine at the University of the West Indies, where he qualified in 1965, winning the Wilson-James surgery prize. He completed internships at the University Hospital of the West Indies in general surgery and general medicine and cardiology, followed by a senior house officer post in general and cardiothoracic surgery and a casualty officer post. He then did a general surgical rotation for two years, from which he won a Commonwealth scholarship in 1969, which took him to London to study for the FRCS. In 1970 he was clinical assistant to Norman Tanner at St James’s Hospital, Balham. Having passed the FRCS, he returned to the University Hospital of the West Indies, where he was a senior registrar in general and cardiothoracic surgery for the next three years. In 1973 he became a consultant surgeon to the National Chest Hospital, formerly the George V Memorial Hospital. There he headed the cardiothoracic team. In 1976 he entered private practice at the Medical Associates Hospital, where he was the senior surgeon and medical director. He married Pauline Rohini Samuels in 1965. Their two sons both became airline pilots. He died suddenly on 6 April 2008.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000572
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Pheils, Murray Theodore (1917 - 2006)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2008-11-21
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000500-E000599
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372756372756
Occupation General surgeon
Details Murray Pheils was professor of surgery at the University of Sydney. He was born in Birmingham on 2 December 1917, the younger of the two sons of Elmer Theodore Pheils, an osteopath, and Lilian Mary née Cole. His father Elmer was a colourful character: he was born in Toledo, Ohio, and trained as an osteopath under George Still, the founder of that profession, subsequently qualifying in medicine from Ohio. He went to London in 1907, and soon built up a successful practice, including among his patients George Bernard Shaw and Queen Elizabeth (later the Queen Mother), who he cured of torticollis by massage. Despite early hostility, he was widely accepted by regular members of the profession, and insisted that both his sons went to medical school. Murray was seven when Shaw became his father’s patient and soon got to know the great man well, describing their friendship in ‘Thank you Mr Shaw’ (*Brit med J* 1994 309 1724-1726). Murray Pheils was educated at Leighton Park School and followed his elder brother to Queens’ College, Cambridge, before going on to St Thomas’ Hospital for his clinical training. There he was influenced by B C Maybury, B W Williams, R H O B Robinson and T W Mimpriss. After qualifying, he was house surgeon and casualty officer at St Thomas’ and St Peter’s, Chertsey, before joining the RAMC in 1942. There he served in Africa and in the South East Asia Command and rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel. Whilst still on the house at St Thomas’ he married Unity Louise McCaughey, who came from a family long established in New South Wales. Her grandfather Sir Samuel McCaughey had set up the Murrumbidgee irrigation scheme which transformed agriculture in New South Wales. After the war, Murray obtained an ex-serviceman’s registrar post at St Thomas’ and then held further general surgery and urology posts at St Thomas’ and St Peter’s. In 1951 he was appointed as a consultant at St Peter’s, having obtained his Cambridge MChir. He became a very successful surgeon with a lucrative private practice, particularly after the Nuffield Private Hospital was built and opened. However, as the years passed Murray became restive – he had always wanted a teaching hospital post but, because of his late arrival back from the Far East after the war and, by that stage, having three young mouths to feed and educate, he had to take the post at Chertsey. Following a trip out to Australia in 1965, Murray had renewed his friendship with John Lowenthal, who was chairman of the Sydney University department of surgery. He was informed that there was to be a teaching department established at the Repatriation Hospital at Concord and they were looking for a mature surgeon to run the new teaching department. Murray returned to the UK, saw the post advertised, applied and was appointed to start in mid 1966. He rapidly made his mark not only as a clinician but also as a teacher. Casualties were being received from the Australian Forces in Vietnam. The condition of the evacuees was very poor and the whole process needed urgent attention as preventable deaths were all too common. Murray went to the Army hospital at Ingleburn and triaged the evacuees so they were transferred to an appropriate hospital for treatment. Furthermore, surgical teams of senior registrars and junior consultants were sent to Vietnam to improve the standard of care. With the backing of his colleagues, Murray was instrumental in transforming the management of the Australian Vietnam War casualties. His Second World War experience was invaluable in this respect. He became a full professor in 1973 and chairman of the university department in 1979. As the Concord department grew and evolved (the hospital became an acute hospital), so Murray’s department developed a special interest in bowel cancer. He published extensively on colorectal cancer, as well as writing a landmark paper on ischaemic colitis with Adrian Marston and others. He also published on abdominal actinomycosis, vesicocolic fistula and cholecystitis. He set up the section of colon and rectal surgery at the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons and endowed the Murray and Unity Pheils travel fellowship. Until he was over 80 he had a medico-legal practice in Sydney. He was a consultant to the New South Wales Law Reform Commission on informed decisions about medical procedures. He continued his interest in the Army, as a colonel in the RAAMC and as a consultant surgeon to the Australian Army. Outside surgery, he had a keen interest in his family and that of his wife, and wrote *The Return to Coree: the rise and fall of a pastoral dynasty* (St Leonards, New South Wales, Allen & Unwin, 1998). He died on 19 December 2006, leaving his wife, Unity, two sons (Michael Murray and Peter John) and two daughters (Diana and Johanna). Peter John Pheils is a consultant surgeon in Broadstairs, Kent.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000573
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Auden, Rita Romola (1942 - 2008)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2008-12-05
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000500-E000599
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372757372757
Occupation General surgeon
Details Rita Auden was a surgeon at the London Hospital, until mental illness forced her to abandon her career. She was born in Simla, India, on 22 August 1942. Her father, John Bicknell Auden, was a geologist with the Geological Survey of India, and the last European to be appointed to the permanent cadre of the Survey. His brother, Wystan, was the poet W H Auden. Her paternal grandfather was George Augustus Auden, a physician who became the first school medical officer in Birmingham and professor of public health at Birmingham University. He liked to quote an aphorism that a doctor should “care more for the individual patient than for the special features of his disease” and that “healing is not a science but an intuitive art of wooing nature”, ideas which influenced his family, including Rita. Rita’s mother was the painter Sheila Bonnerjee. She trained at the Oriental School of Art in Calcutta and the Central School of Art in London, and had various exhibitions in Calcutta and Bombay. Some of her work was exhibited in Paris. Her father, R C Bonnerjee, had read Greats at Balliol and then practised as a barrister in Calcutta. Sheila’s grandfather was W C Bonnerjee, a leading Indian barrister at the Calcutta High Court and the first president of the Indian National Congress. Calcutta in the 1940s was an interesting and cosmopolitan place, and Rita’s parents had a wide circle of friends, including journalists, artists, diplomats and businessmen. The Auden family lived in a flat in Lansdowne Road with Sheila Bonnerjee’s sister Minnie and her husband Lindsay Emmerson. Summer holidays were occasionally spent in Darjeeling at Point Clear, a house on the Jalaphar Road which belonged to an aunt. The children were sometimes taken to festivals by their bearer, ‘Mouse’, where the brightly painted statues garlanded with flowers would be carried to the Hooghly river and then left to float away. In 1951 the girls left India to be educated in England, travelling via the island of Ischia, where they stayed with their uncle Wystan. They initially went to school at the Convent of the Holy Child of Jesus in Edgbaston, Birmingham, near their grandfather George Augustus Auden, who lived in Repton. Later, when their mother settled in London, they went to More House, a Catholic day school, initially in South Kensington. Rita then went to Cambridge to do science A levels, as More House did not offer science teaching. Influenced perhaps by memories of the poverty and disease of Calcutta, she decided to choose medicine as a career, going to St Anne’s in Oxford in 1959 and then the London Hospital Medical College. There she stood out for her striking beauty and daunting intelligence, winning praises from all her chiefs and gaining the Andrew Clark prize in clinical medicine. After qualifying, she became house physician to Lawson McDonald and Wallace Brigden and then house surgeon to Clive Butler and Alan Parks, who all found her outstanding. She went on to win the Hallett prize for the primary FRCS. She was senior house officer in casualty in 1969, and then spent two years doing research with Charles Mann, before returning to the surgical unit. During this time she took study leave at the Mayo Clinic and spent a year in Belfast, where she gained experience with gun-shot injuries, and a year in Vietnam, seeking always to meet fresh challenges in the most dangerous and difficult situations. It was the same when she took a vacation: she thought nothing of spending a month going down the Amazon accompanied only by tribesmen. She returned to the London as a clinical assistant on the surgical unit in 1974 under David Ritchie, one of a group of exceptional young people, four of whom had been Hallett prize winners. There she showed herself to be an excellent organiser, a competent operator and a kind and caring doctor. When the time came for her to enter for an appointment as senior registrar to J E (Sam) Richardson in 1976, it was agreed that she was the outstanding candidate even though her appointment was vehemently opposed by the senior surgeon. Within a year however he had completely changed his opinion, saying she was the best senior registrar he had ever had. Indeed, so strongly did he advocate her further promotion that at his retirement dinner in 1981 he announced that Rita was to be appointed as a consultant. This was strongly opposed by some within the department. In the event she was appointed as a senior lecturer on the surgical unit, with consultant status. In 1984 she became ill and had a breakdown. At first Rita declined the offer of expert help, but within a few weeks she was sectioned and treated as an inpatient. After some three months it was thought she was fit to return to work, but unfortunately soon after her return she deteriorated again and had to be readmitted to a psychiatric unit. She resigned in 1987. She led a full life after her retirement. Until their deaths, she lived with her parents in Thurloe Square and her medical skills and instinct for care meant that neither had to go into a home, despite ill health. She also cared for and supported her wider family and friends, including her sister Anita, her nephew Otto and her aunt Anila Graham, who suffered a series of strokes. She would visit people in hospital even if this meant travelling up to Yorkshire. She was extremely interested in and concerned about the people around her, and would recount stories about her 90 year old neighbour who still drove a car and spent holidays in France, her Italian hairdresser, her Polish cleaner, and the regulars she would chat to in the local coffee shop. Her observations made them all the more human. While still an undergraduate she had met Peter Mudford, an English scholar at Christ Church who later lectured in English and European literature at Birkbeck College, London, eventually becoming a professor emeritus. They married in 1965 and divorced in 1985, though they kept very much in touch until her death. Because of her family and educational background her interests ranged widely. She used to play the piano and listen to music. She liked gardens and used to go to talks at the British Museum. She also regularly did crosswords and had a penchant for detective stories, tastes shared by her mother and her uncle Wystan. She died on 3 January 2008. Her family and friends will miss the special quality of her presence and her sense of humour and her sensitivity to the quirks and oddities of life.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000574
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Awdry, Philip Neville (1933 - 2010)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

by Tina Craig
Publication Date 2012-01-27 2013-08-29
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001900-E001999
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/374112374112
Occupation Ophthalmic surgeon
Details Philip Neville Awdry was a consultant ophthalmic surgeon at United Oxford Hospitals and Oxford Royal Hospital for the Blind. Born in 1933, he was the son of Neville John Awdry TD and his wife, Joan née Visger. Ophthalmologist to the Royal Commonwealth Society Blind Mobile Field Team, it is possible he worked in Rhodesia as he published a paper entitled "Vitamin A deficiency and blindness in N. Rhodesia" jointly in *Experimental eye research* in 1964. Other previous posts were senior resident officer to Moorfields Eye Hospital and lecturer in clinical ophthalmology to London University. He married Miss Martin-Jones in 1957 and they had two daughters Johanna (born 1959) and Felicity (born 1964). He died on 1 May 2010 after a short illness survived by his wife and family. Publications:- Xerophthalmia. *Transactions of the Ophthalmological Society of the UK* 1968 Lymphangiectasia conjunctivae. *British journal of ophthalmology* 1969
Resource Identifier RCS: E001929
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching de Vere, Roger Duchene (1921 - 2010)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

by Michael Pugh
Publication Date 2012-02-01
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001900-E001999
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/374113374113
Occupation Obstetric and gynaecological surgeon Obstetrician and gynaecologist
Details Roger de Vere was a consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist at Westminster Hospital, London. He was born on 23 May 1921 in Eynsham, Oxfordshire, the son of Gaston de Vere, an Oxford extramural studies tutor and translator of Vasari's *Lives* of Renaissance artists, and Margaretta Josephine née Hamilton-Williams. Sadly, Roger's parents' marriage was dissolved when he was a young child, and he was brought up by his mother in north London. His first school was Beacon Hill, which was founded by the philosopher Bertrand Russell, a friend of his father. The school took an unusual approach to the curriculum, concentrating on natural history. Pupils spent most of their time outside, only coming in during bad weather. After leaving Beacon Hill at the age of 10, Roger could only manage his two times table and later he was to say 'it is wrong to experiment on children'. But he did manage to become a fluent French speaker, after spending long summer holidays with an aunt in France. From Beacon Hill he went to the City of London School, and from there to St Thomas' Hospital, where he qualified with the conjoint diploma in 1945. He completed his National Service in the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve, serving in the South East Asia Command. He was posted to a French hospital ship, which had been acquired by the Royal Navy, until General de Gaulle requested the ship's return. After his National Service, he received his specialist training at St Thomas' and finally at Queen Charlotte's and the Chelsea Hospital for Women. He was subsequently appointed to the staff of the Westminster Hospital. Roger de Vere had an engaging manner and was a man of great charm, but also had an incisive, enquiring mind, which enabled him to get to the crux of a problem very quickly. He possessed a special quality, an ability to bring together colleagues of different disciplines to work together, which enabled him to make the Westminster a centre of excellence. As an obstetrician he could not bear to hear the sound of women in pain during labour and, together with J B Wyman, his anaesthetist, he established an epidural service, which was readily available to all his patients, from domestics to duchesses. They all appreciated his care and the comfort he gave them. He earned himself the sobriquet 'Divine de Vere'. He was an early exponent of vaginal hysterectomy in the repair of prolapse, a more comfortable and less traumatic operation than abdominal hysterectomy. There were other fields to which he brought his talent of bringing together specialist teams. With Gerald (Charlie) Westbury radical pelvic surgery for malignant disease was developed. Richard Bayliss, the distinguished endocrinologist, had been a student with him and they established an infertility clinic. With John 'Titus' Oates, a consultant venereologist, and Richard Staughton, a consultant dermatologist, they started a clinic for diseases of the vulva which met every month, after lunch! Working with him was never a chore: his operating lists were preceded by a generous lunch, often a roast, with his house surgeon invited to carve under a watchful eye. He was the most generous man, with a warm and charming personality; he brought credit to his hospital and also his busy private practice, which included at one time a clinic in Paris, before the French medical profession eased him out. He served as chairman of the examination committee of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, and examined for Cambridge, London and Birmingham universities. He was also a civilian consultant to the Royal Navy. Always good company, he was an eloquent raconteur with a large collection of jokes and risqué stories, but underlying this was his fascination for 'what made people tick' and exploring 'the human condition'. He was a member of the Gynaecological Club of Great Britain and the Garrick. Roger de Vere retired at 62 to care for his wife, Elizabeth née Crothers Parker, who had severe renal disease. They settled in Mildenhall, Wiltshire. Roger painted in oils, had a fine collection of water-colours and attended weekly philosophy classes. He was a keen fisherman and an active of member of the Savernake Flyfishers, serving at one time as their chairman. He was also an excellent marksman and belonged to two shoots. He regularly fished for trout in the Kennet and became aware that the river was compromised, with low water levels and contamination from a local sewage farm. With his friend Jack Ainslie, Roger founded Action for the River Kennet in 1990 to campaign to persuade Thames Water to correct this problem. He enlisted the help of Gareth Rees of the Farnborough College of Technology to carry out a study, and they persuaded Thames Water to invest in phosphate stripping equipment at the sewage farm and at other significant points along the river. The river became clean and fish have returned. This triumph led to Roger being named Countryman of the Year by *Country Life* magazine in 1997. Sadly his wife Elizabeth Crothers Parker died in 2002. They had three children, Georgina (formerly a medical secretary), Guy (a systems analyst) and Stephen (an award-winning wildlife cameraman). Roger died on 30 November 2010 at the age of 89.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001930
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Nyhus, Lloyd Milton (1923 - 2008)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

by N Alan Green
Publication Date 2012-02-01
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001900-E001999
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/374114374114
Occupation General surgeon
Details Lloyd Nyhus was the first Warren Cole professor and head of surgery, and the second academic surgeon, at the University of Illinois, Chicago. During his 22 years as head of the department, Nyhus developed innovative, multidisciplinary residency programmes for more than 300 doctors and recruited top-flight doctors and scientists to the department. He was part of a recognised generation of academic surgeons with national and international acclaim, and managed to foster relationships with students, residents, staff and colleagues worldwide. With a kind and calm disposition and an innate sense of humour, he was a mentor and role model to a generation of outstanding surgeons. He was born on 24 June 1923 in Mount Vernon, Washington, USA, the son of a Lutheran principal. Lloyd's subsequent interest in science and medicine were merely an extension of the caring and nurturing philosophy of his parents. After graduating in 1947 from the University of Alabama College of Medicine at Birmingham, he was fortunate to receive his surgical training in Seattle, Washington, under the tutelage of Henry N Harkins. Harkins had a profound effect on Lloyd Nyhus, whose subsequent career mirrored and built on that of his mentor. After finishing his surgical training in 1956 he served in the US Naval Reserve Medical Corps and then returned to the University of Washington, Seattle, in a productive scientific and clinical career until 1967, when he was recruited to the University of Illinois department of surgery. The Seattle ulcer group, led by Harkins and Nyhus, became well known for their studies on peptic ulcer surgery. Over a 15-year period their work helped to define the operation of vagotomy and antrectomy as the 'gold standard' by which duodenal ulcer treatments were judged, certainly in the USA. In these years they published their landmark textbook *Surgery of the stomach and duodenum* (London, J & A Churchill, 1962), detailing the physiological and clinical factors which had influenced the development of gastric surgery. Prominent among the many topics investigated were burns, disorders of the digestive tract and hernias. Lloyd Nyhus published more than 370 scientific papers in refereed medical and surgical journals, edited in English and foreign translations, and wrote 133 textbook chapters in surgery. His other textbooks, *Mastery of surgery* (Boston, Mass, Little, Brown, 1984) and *Hernia* (Philadelphia, Pitman Medical Publishing Co/J B Lippincott, 1964), in addition to *Surgery of the stomach and duodenum*, persist in updated editions with new editors, and so continue to educate and influence new surgeons worldwide. In 1968 he established a transplant surgery unit at the Chicago school, making it the first large medical institution in the area to commit to human heart transplantations. He was well known for having his residents 'on parade' at 6.30 am, after performing their own rounds. They would be required to discuss each patient's status, and he would instinctively be aware if any detail had been missed out. In surgical procedures he insisted on trainees following the techniques he taught, and his students 'had to put a suture within a millimetre of where he instructed them', so related Donald Wood, an associate professor of surgical oncology, who had studied under Nyhus in the early 1970s. He served on the editorial boards of many surgical journals, including as a senior member of the board of *Hernia*, an excellent and growing journal. He was heavily involved in numerous professional organisations, spending terms as chairman of the American Board of Surgery, as president of the Central Surgical Association, the International Society of Surgery, the Chicago Surgical Society, the Society of University Surgeons, the Society for Surgery of the Alimentary Tract, the Illinois Surgical Society and the Warren H Cole Society. He was first vice president of the American College of Surgeons and of the American Surgical Association. Lloyd Milton Nyhus died peacefully at the age of 85 years from natural causes on 15 December 2008 in a Glenview nursing home. Predeceased by his wife, Margaret, in 2006, he left a son, Leif, a daughter, Sheila Massey, and two grandchildren. A memorial service to commemorate his life and works was held at Ascension Lutheran Church, Northfield, Illinois. A fund was set up to support an annual Lloyd M Nyhus memorial lecture in surgery.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001931
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Heanley, Charles Laurence (1907 - 2008)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

by Brian Morgan
Publication Date 2012-02-01
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001900-E001999
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/374115374115
Occupation Plastic surgeon Plastic and reconstructive surgeon
Details Charles Heanley was head of the department of plastic surgery at the London Hospital. He was born in Hong Kong on 28 February 1907, the son of Charles Montgomery Heanley, a doctor, and Mary Morella Heanley née Tassell. He was educated at Epsom College and then at Downing College, Cambridge, where he was an exhibition scholar. He trained at the London Hospital Medical School. He spent a year as a reader in anatomy at William Wright's request and then worked as an assistant to the plastic surgeon Tommy Kilner at Shadwell Children's Hospital and at the Ministry of Pensions Hospital in Roehampton. He also visited Dollis Hill Hospital and Lord Mayor Treloar's Hospital, Alton. He remembered Kilner doing bone grafts to the jaw when he had formed a new buccal sulcus with skin graft inserted over a mould and also a similar technique for reconstructing eye sockets. Ivan Magill was the anaesthetist; he had made the first endotracheal tubes from soft rubber tubing which was wrapped around a cake tin and left on the balcony of his London flat. After a month of exposure to the sulphurous London atmosphere the rubber was vulcanised and gave it just the right consistency. It was cut in lengths one end oblique and the other transverse. The ends were then burnt and rubbed smooth. He was then appointed as a surgical chief assistant and a registrar at the London. Charles was in the Territorial Army, so at the outbreak of the Second World War he was posted to the 17th London General Hospital and sent to France, to a 1,200 bedded hospital at Dan Camiers. After three weeks the hospital moved to Hatfield House, but before long he was transferred to Sir Harold Gillies Hospital, Rooksdown House, Park Prewitt, to learn plastic surgery. He spent from 1941 to 1942 there. He was then posted to Raniket, 6,000 feet up in the Himalayas, as commanding officer of number three British Maxillofacial Surgery Unit with the rank of lieutenant colonel. 'We worked in the theatre from 9 until 6pm, three days a week, recovering on alternate days and hoping our patients would do the same.' He was then posted with his team to Ranchi and then to Camilla. He remembered his first use of penicillin in the case of facial injury and meningitis, and the benefit of hypochlorite solution in burns sepsis. He was at Chittagong when the Japanese capitulated and he was able to return to the UK in December 1945. After the war he returned to the London Hospital, where he was surgeon in charge of the department of plastic surgery. He also had appointments as a consultant surgeon at Worthing Hospital, Bethnal Green Hospital, and the plastic surgery unit at Queen Victoria Hospital, East Grinstead. He had an honorary consultant plastic surgeon appointment at the Royal National and Golden Square hospitals. In 1946 when the British Association of Plastic Surgeons was formed he was a founder member. In a letter to John Blandy he recounted how he was operating on a case for Victor Dix, reconstructing the perineum after the removal of a malignant ulcer and the symphysis pubis had gone. He was able to cover the defect and obtained healing with a local flap. Gerald Tressider, who he had met in India, was observing and commented 'what a magnificent approach for the prostate gland'. Charles noted that he had expected collapse of pelvis following the removal of the symphysis pubis and he had prepared for a bone graft later, but that this was not necessary. In correspondence to the *British Medical Journal* in 1970, he made the interesting observation that injection of vital blue dye into any part of the breast showed lymphatic drainage to both retro sternal glands and axilla. Also, that vital dye injected into the hand tracked randomly through the axilla and it was not possible to avoid lymphoedema of the arm by conserving particular lymphatics. He had an interest in lymphoedema and commented that in India one in five of the general population appeared to have gross swelling of one or both legs. He published articles in medical journals on a variety of topics, but a particular contribution was the use of the subcutaneous pedicle in flap reconstructions. He retired aged 58 to enjoy his recreations of swimming and archaeology. He married Mary Emily née Shellum in 1935. They had three sons, two of whom became doctors. He died on 9 February 2008.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001932
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Barker, John ( - 1884)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

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://scp.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 Campbell, George Gunning ( - 1858)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

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

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

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

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

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

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

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

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

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

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://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372945372945
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born in Jan, 1868, at Highbury, in the north of London, the son of James Barnard, engraver and designer in precious metals, and a great-nephew on his father’s side of Michael Faraday. After attending school in the neighbourhood he and his brother were sent three months before his sixteenth birthday to an uncle’s ranch in Oregon, Harold being under a promise that he would read for the Matriculation of the London University. He looked back with the keenest pleasure to these ten months spent on his uncle’s ranch, and the opportunities it afforded of adventure. On his return in the summer of 1884 he failed, however, to pass the examination, and for a time became a clerk in the office of a firm of wholesale timber merchants. He was not happy in this apprenticeship, and by close application he passed his Matriculation and Preliminary Scientific Examinations and entered the London Hospital in 1888. He gained in his first year a Scholarship in Anatomy and Physiology, and subsequently other scholarships and prizes. In 1893, at the end of his fourth year, he acted as Clinical Assistant in several positions; in 1894 he was Resident House Physician to Dr Samuel Fenwick and then House Surgeon to his son, E Hurry Fenwick, and became Demonstrator of Physiology under Dr Leonard Hill until March, 1897. Dr Leonard Hill wrote concerning their two years of co-operation, that Barnard exhibited the highest scientific ability in the researches carried out under his guidance. The influence of gravity on the circulation, through the brain in particular; the effects of venous pressure on the pulse; the effect of chloroform, also of morphia, ammonia, and hydrocyanic acid on the heart; the functions of the pericardium; as well as the invention of an improved sphygmomanometer – have all proved of scientific value, and show Barnard’s scientific genius in working. He obtained the post of Surgical Registrar in March, 1897, and then devoted himself wholly to surgery. Two years later he became Surgical Tutor, and, in 1900, Assistant Surgeon to the Hospital. He practised at 21 Wimpole Street. His surgical genius appeared when Surgical Registrar, in the paper published on “An Improved Method of Treating the Separated Lower Epiphysis of the Femur”, which he suggested to, and in which he assisted, Jonathan Hutchinson, junr. He showed by means of the newly discovered X rays the displacement forwards of the epiphysis, and the direction backwards of the femur, as well as the successful reduction by flexion in place of the previous treatment by extension. Barnard had collected 13 cases from the London Hospital Records, and stated that in 3 there had been a complete separation of the lower epiphysis of the femur. In 1902, he published a paper on “The Simulation of Acute Peritonitis by Pleuropneumonic Diseases”, and in so doing brought to the forefront a difficulty in diagnosis which must always be present to the mind. The three lectures “On Acute Appendicitis”, which he gave in 1903, were accompanied by diagrams illustrating the various positions occupied by suppuration, and his clock mnemonic of the positions of the appendix, is one which fixes itself in the student’s memory. Sir Frederick Treves had preceded him in developing the surgery of the appendix at the London Hospital, but had rather advocated delay in operating. It was not that there is often justification, but the crux remains that if the case for delay proves to be mistaken in the individual case the patient loses his life. Barnard put forward the reasons for the immediate operation, now the established one where children and young people are concerned. His article on “Intestinal Obstruction” in the second edition of Allbutt and Rolleston’s *System of Medicine*, reprinted and further enlarged with diagrams and bibliography in *Contributions to Abdominal Surgery*, is a brilliant exposition of a most difficult and even protean branch of surgery. There is much that is new in the sections on faecal obstruction, congenital dilatation of the colon, gallstone obstruction, strangulation by bands and by Meckel’s diverticulum, and obstruction by foreign bodies. But Barnard will be best remembered for his address on “Surgical Aspects of Subphrenic Abscess”, delivered before the Surgical Section of the Royal Society of Medicine on Jan 14th, 1907, but not printed until Feb 22nd, 1908, in the *British Medical Journal*. It is reprinted in the Contributions. Whatever the merits of previous descriptions, anatomical and pathological, subphrenic abscess had been described rather from the classical position of the man upright. Diagnosis by means of X-ray examination and the patient’s position at the operation are alike the horizontal one. It is in this position that the surgeon is called upon to approach and drain subphrenic suppurations. Barnard’s admirable drawings are the surgeon’s guide. He had served as Surgeon to the Poplar Hospital for Accidents, and in 1907 he became Surgeon to the London Hospital, when his health began to fail. A short cough was premonitory of aortic disease. He died at Highbury on Aug 13th, 1908, and was buried in Highgate Old Cemetery. Publications: *Jour. of Physiol. and Proc. Physiol. Soc.*, 1897, 1898; also Dr. L. Hill, *Brit. Med. Jour.*, 1908, ii, 539. Jonathan Hutchinson, Junr., and H. L. Barnard, “On an Improved Method of Treating the Separated Lower Epiphysis of the Femur.” – *Med.-Chir. Trans.*, 1899, lxxxii, 77; also “H. L. Barnard, Colleague and Collaborator. An Appreciation.” – J. Hutchinson, *London Hosp. Gaz.*, 1908, 96, with portrait. *Contributions to Abdominal Surgery*, edited by James Sherren, with a Memoir by H. H. Bashford, 1910. Contents: Intestinal Obstruction, 1-254; A Lecture on Gastric Surgery, 255-68. The simulation of Acute Peritonitis by Pleuropneumonic Diseases, 269-80. Three Lectures on Acute Appendicitis, 281-333. Surgical Aspects of Subphrenic Abscess, 335-84. Besides these are his contributions on various subjects, 1901.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000762
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2009-11-11 2013-08-07
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000700-E000799
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372946372946
Occupation General surgeon
Details Apprenticed to Richard Cremer, of Chelmsford, before he entered Guy's and St Thomas's Hospitals in the time of Astley Cooper and of Addison. First practised at Ingatestone, Essex, removed to Chelsea in 1820, practising for many years at 19 Manor Place, King's Road. There he was instrumental in founding the Western Medical and Surgical Society, also the West London Eye Infirmary, to which he was surgeon. He was also Surgeon to the School of Discipline and to the Royal Manor Hall Asylum for Young Females. He died before the year 1867.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000763
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

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

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

First Title value, for Searching Barnes, Robert (1817 - 1907)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2009-11-18
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000700-E000799
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372949372949
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born at Norwich on September 4th, 1817, second son of Philip Barnes, an architect and one of the founders of the Royal Botanic Society of London. His mother was Harriet Futter, daughter of a Norfolk squire. Sent to school at Bruges from 1826-1830 he became proficient in French; later he had as tutor George Borrow, the well-known author of the *Bible in Spain*. After an apprenticeship in his native town he entered University College and continued medical studies at the Windmill Street School and at St George’s Hospital. After qualifying in 1842 he spent a year studying in Paris. Having failed to be appointed to the post of Resident Physician to Bethlem Hospital he started practice at Notting Hill. He taught at the Hunterian School and lectured on Forensic Medicine at Dermott’s School. He served as Obstetrician to the Western General Dispensary, and in 1859 was elected Assistant Obstetric Physician, and in 1863 Obstetric Physician to the London Hospital. But within a year he changed over to St Thomas’s Hospital, and in 1875 passed on to become Obstetric Physician to St George’s Hospital. Thus he became the foremost representative in London of his special branch, and his name was attached to instruments and apparatus. With the development of ovariotomy, he advocated an active practice of surgery by obstetricians and gynaecologists. In midwifery he prescribed early interference. In 1847 he first published an account of placenta praevia, elaborated in his Lettsomian Lectures to the Medical Society in 1858, “On the Physiology and Treatment of Flooding from Unnatural Position of the Placenta”. His plan was to separate with the finger the placenta as soon as possible, but other measures have replaced his. He advocated a bag to dilate the cervix, long forceps to extract the foetal head, or perforation when extraction failed. He proposed the term ‘ectopic gestation’ instead of ‘extra-uterine foetation’. Barnes was an active controversialist; the differences of opinion between the Obstetrical and Gynaecological Societies, with which he was much concerned, were solved by their union in the Section of the Royal Society of Medicine. Mrs Robert Barnes gave a sum of £4,010 to the Royal Society of Medicine, and the gift is commemorated in the name of the large hall of the society. Another gift has caused the Pathological Laboratory at St George’s Hospital to be named after him. He was twice married: by his first marriage he had three children; a son, Dr R S Fancourt Barnes, assisted his father in the publication of *Obstetric Medicine and Surgery*, 1884. By his second marriage he had a son and a daughter. He retired at about the age of 70, and died of apoplexy at Eastbourne on May 12th, 1907.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000766
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

First Title value, for Searching Barrett, Caleb (1821 - 1911)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

First Title value, for Searching Barrett, John (1811 - 1881)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

First Title value, for Searching Barrett, Thomas (1816 - 1868)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

First Title value, for Searching Hinman, Frank (1915 - 2011)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

by N Alan Green
Publication Date 2012-02-01
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001900-E001999
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/374116374116
Occupation Artist Urologist
Details Frank Hinman was a renowned American urologist, educator and skilful artist. He was chief of the urology service at San Francisco General Hospital from 1959 to 1977, and chief of urology at the Children's Hospital, San Francisco, from 1959 until his retirement from clinical practice in 1985. In addition to his busy clinical workload, he was active in teaching students and residents. He was born on 2 October 1915 into a medical household, the oldest of five sons of Frank Hinman senior, the first trained urologist in California, and his wife Mittie née Fitzpatrick. After attending Grant and Galileo public schools, Frank junior started his medical education in San Francisco and graduated *magna cum laude* from Stanford University in 1937. Completing an MD at Johns Hopkins Medical School, Baltimore, he remained in Maryland for internships from 1941 to 1942, before undertaking two years of surgical residency at the University of the Cincinnati College of Medicine under Mont Reid. Enlisting in the US Navy, he served initially with the Seabees, the construction battalions, in the Pacific sector of the Second World War. He was later a medical officer on the aircraft carrier *Intrepid*. Following his demobilisation, he undertook a urological residency on the University of California rotation, before joining his father in private urological practice and gaining hospital appointments. In addition to a heavy clinical workload, he was active in research. His studies of bladder defence mechanisms, supported for over 17 years by a National Institutes of Health grant, led to a better understanding of many aspects of urinary infection. In the paediatric field his work on bladder dysfunction led to the recognition of the 'nonneurogenic neurogenic bladder' now called the 'Hinman syndrome'. Frank Hinman was a prolific writer, and his clinical and laboratory work resulted in the publication of over 250 scientific articles. Numerous books bear his name, including the comprehensive book *Benign prostatic hypertrophy* (New York, Springer, 1983), and he personally wrote three definitive atlases: *Atlas of urologic surgery* (Philadelphia, Saunders, 1989), which was translated into German, Italian, Spanish and Chinese, *Atlas of urosurgical anatomy* (Philadelphia/London, W B Saunders, c.1993) and *Atlas of pediatric urologic surgery* (Philadelphia/London, Saunders, 1994), all with his own original drawings in conjunction with illustrator Paul Stempen. He was a specialty consultant to *Stedman's medical dictionary*. Many honours came his way including the pediatric urology medal of the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Barringer medal of the American Association of Genitourinary Surgeons, the Valentine medal of the New York Academy of Science, the distinguished alumnus award from Johns Hopkins and honorary membership of the Gold-headed Cane Society of the University College of San Francisco. The American Urological Association honoured him with the Hugh Young award and the Ramon Guiteras medal, and he received the William P Didusch award for his contributions to medical art. He was a trustee of the American Board of Urology, a founding member and president of the Society of University Urologists, vice president of the American College of Surgeons and president of the American Association of Genitourinary Surgeons, to name a few prestigious positions. During quieter moments during his wartime naval service, Frank Hinman took up painting, which he continued to enjoy for the rest of his life. One of his works was published in *Life* magazine, two were used as cover illustrations for the *Journal of the American Medical Association*, and he held two 'one-man' exhibitions. In later life he switched to acrylic paint - 'because it dries quickly'. He married Marion Modesta Eaves in 1948: they had no children. Marion shared her husband's love of sailing, and Frank was named yachtsman of the year in 1998 by the San Francisco Yacht Club. He was a keen member of the Bohemian Club and the St Francis Yacht Club. Frank Hinman died on 22 May 2011 in San Francisco, the city of his birth and his outstanding career. His wife, Marion, predeceased him in 2006, as did all his brothers over the years. The family name survives through one sister-in-law, Mrs Alice Hinman and her children Alanson Jr, William, Robert F and Frank II. There is another surviving sister-in-law, Mrs Sally Lewis and her two children, Windermere Tirados and Dixie Lewis. Frank Hinman's body was cremated and his ashes were scattered on his beloved Pacific Ocean. A celebration of his life was held at the St Francis Yacht Club, San Francisco.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001933
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Morrison, Andrew William (1925 - 2006)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2007-08-29
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000300-E000399
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372572372572
Occupation Otolaryngologist ENT surgeon
Details Andrew Morrison was born on 3 December 1925 in Huelva, southern Spain, where his father, William Andrew Morrison, was a mining engineer. His mother was Violet Mary née Common, the daughter of a dentist. The family returned to Scotland and Andrew attended Stirling High School, where he excelled both academically and in athletics, being victor ludorum several years running. He went on to study medicine at the University of Glasgow. After qualifying in 1948 he was a house surgeon at the Glasgow Royal Infirmary, living in on the surgical ward for six months with only two weekends off, but he could watch the ships leaving port from the hospital window. He joined the Merchant Navy as a ship’s medical officer and sailed to South Africa and the Far East. On one occasion he performed an emergency lower-limb amputation on the deck of the ship when a member of the crew had been crushed by heavy equipment, not only operating but giving his anaesthetic. He did his National Service in the RAMC and was posted to Lubbecke, where he met Maureen Rawlings who was serving in the Control Commission, and they married in December 1950. On demobilisation he specialised in otolaryngology, and did a series of registrar posts in Carlisle and at the London Hospital, becoming senior registrar in 1956. He was appointed as a consultant to Whipps Cross in 1959 and to the London in 1964. Later he became a consultant at the Royal National Throat Nose and Ear Hospital, where he worked from 1965 to 1979 as a lecturer at the University of London. It was a time when the surgery of the ear was evolving exponentially, thanks to precise high-speed drills and the operating microscope. Andrew became one of the exponents of this, thanks to his precise surgical skill. He was a pioneer and refiner of surgical technique for stapedectomy, publishing his series of 1,000 operations with outstanding results, and later made a study of its genetic basis. In the early 1960s, he visited the House Otologic Institute in California, where he learned the trans-labyrinthine surgical approach to the inner ear, developing this, in collaboration with T T King, the neurosurgeon, into their own technique for removing acoustic nerve tumours. Its superior results soon led it to be adopted throughout Europe and America. Over the next four decades he became pre-eminent in the surgery of the inner ear, leading on to the earliest multi-channel cochlear implantation. He headed Project Ear in the late 1970s and 1980s, developing purpose-built hardware for speech-processing, and was amongst the first to undertake multi-channel intra-cochlear electrodes. His trainees included many of today’s leading otologists and skull base surgeons. He travelled extensively, forging links with the leading otologists in the Western world, and was one of the few British surgeons to have been made an honorary member of the American Otologic Society. In his retirement and until his death, he continued his research into Ménière’s disease, determined to locate the gene responsible for this distressing condition, research which is being continued today by his co-workers, Mark Bailey in Glasgow, and his son, Gavin Morrison. Andrew was one of the first directors and a trustee of the British Academic Conferences in Otolaryngology, being its master in 1995. In the College he was a Hunterian Professor in 1966, on the Court of Examiners for the DLO and the FRCS, and on the SAC for otolaryngology. His interest in medico-legal work took him onto the council of the Medical Defence Union between 1971 and 1996. He was president of the section of otology at the Royal Society of Medicine, and a member of many prestigious organisations, including the Barany and Politzer Societies, the South African ORL, the Prosper Ménière’s Society of the USA. Ambitious, competitive and successful at work and sport, he was modest about the things he did best and was always a most jovial companion. Outside surgery, golf was his passion. His first hole in one was achieved as a schoolboy in Stirling; his second came some 50 years later. He was well known at St Andrews, Rye and Chigwell golf clubs, and was a member of the R & A for many years, supporting their meetings and enjoying many friendships there. He died on 6 January 2006, leaving his widow, Maureen, his daughter Claire and son Gavin, who followed him into ENT surgery.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000388
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

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

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

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

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

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

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

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

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

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

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

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

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

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

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

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

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

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

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

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

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

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

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

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

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

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

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

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

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

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

First Title value, for Searching Birtwhistle, John (1800 - 1863)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

First Title value, for Searching Birtwhistle, Richard L ( - 1846)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

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

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

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

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

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2010-03-18
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000800-E000899
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373075373075
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born September 15th, 1797, fourth son of Samuel Bishop of Pimperne, Dorsetshire; educated at the Child-Okeford Grammar School in Dorsetshire. It was intended that he should be a lawyer, but at the age of 25 he was induced by his cousin, John Tucker, of Bridport, to become a doctor. He entered St George’s Hospital as a pupil of Sir Everard Home, and attended the lectures of Sir Charles Bell, George James Guthrie (qv), and George Pearson. He was also a regular attendant at the chemical courses given at the Royal Institution. He became Surgeon to the Islington Dispensary, to the Northern and St Pancras Dispensaries, and to the Drapers’ Benevolent Institution. In 1844 Bishop contributed a paper published in the *Philosophical Transactions* on the “Physiology of the Human Voice”, and was shortly afterwards elected FRS and a Corresponding Member of the Medical Societies of Berlin and Madrid. The Royal Academy of Science of Paris awarded him two prizes for memoirs “On the Human and Comparative Anatomy and Physiology of the Voice”. He was also the author of: “On Distortions of the Human Body”, “On Impediments of Speech”, and “On Hearing and Speaking Instruments”. These works were remarkable for the careful examinations which the author had made on the subjects under investigation and for the mathematical demonstration given of each theory advanced by him. He contributed several articles to Todd’s *Cyclopœdia* and many papers of more or less importance to the medical literature of the day. Bishop was a man of varied attainments; he was conversant with Continental as well as with English literature, and to within a few months of his death he was deeply interested in the progress of science. He died on September 29th, 1873, at Strangeways-Marshale, Dorsetshire, within a few miles of his birthplace.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000892
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Bissill, John Henry (1817 - 1895)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

First Title value, for Searching Black, Cornelius (1822 - 1886)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2010-03-18
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000800-E000899
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373077373077
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born on August 2nd, 1822, at Radcliffe-on-Trent, Notts. Educated at the University of Edinburgh until 1844, apprenticed to John Cartledge Botham, of Catherine Street, Hartlepool, who was Surgeon to the Hartlepool Iron Works. He settled at Chesterfield, Derbyshire, where he practised at St Mary’s Gate, and died there on June 24th, 1886. He was Physician to the Chesterfield Dispensary; a Fellow of the Medical Society of London; a Member of the Pathological Society of London; a Corresponding Fellow of the Imperial Society of Physicians, Vienna, and of the Société Medicale, Lyons. Publications: “The Management of Health.” “The Pathology of the Broncho-Pulmonary Mucous Membrane,” 8vo, Edinburgh, 1853; reprinted from *Monthly Jour. Med. Soc. Lond. and Edin*. “The Clinical Examination of the Urine in Relation to Disease,” 8vo, London, 1840; reprinted from the *St Andrews Med. Grad. Assoc. Trans.,* London, 1869, iii. “Hydatids from the Left Lung, Subsequently to the Occurrence of Typhoid Fever, Complicated with Double Pneumonia,” 8vo, plate, London, 1853; reprinted from *Trans. Pathol. Soc.*, iv, 44-61. *The Pathology of Tuberculous Bone*, 8vo, Edinburgh, 1859. *The Insanity of George Victor Townley*, 8vo, London ; 2nd ed., 1865. “How to Prevent Pitting in Small-pox.” – *Lancet*, 1867, i, 792. “On Arsenic a Remedy for Cholera.” – *Assoc. Med. Jour.*, 1854, N.S. ii, 971. “On Conception.” – *Med. Gaz*. “On Caries of the Tarsal Bones and Amputation at the Ankle-joint.” – *Monthly Jour. Med. Sci. Edin.*, 1852, xv, 113. “Case of Ileus, in which a Portion of the Ileum was Discharged per Anum, followed by Recovery of the Patient.” – *Trans. Pathol. Soc.*, 1855-6, vii, 199. “On Perforating Ulcer of the Stomach.” – *Ibid.*, 191. “Melanic Cancer of the Horse.” – *Ibid.*, 1851, vii, 400. “On Ovariotomy.” – *Lancet*, 1857, i, 110, 138; 1863, 62. “On the Value of Arsenic in Cholera,” (serial). – *Ibid.*, 1857, ii, 388, 541, 573.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000894
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Blackmore, Edward (1808 - 1883)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

First Title value, for Searching Blades, William Dawson ( - 1869)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

First Title value, for Searching Blake, James (1815 - 1895)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2010-03-18 2013-08-07
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000800-E000899
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373080373080
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born at Gosport; educated in London and Paris. He practised at 16 Pall Mall, SW, migrated to America in 1847, and was immediately appointed Professor of Special, General, and Surgical Anatomy in the University at St Louis. Two years later he took part in the gold rush to California and settled at Sacramento. He then moved to San Francisco, where he practised until 1862, was a Professor in Toland's Medical College, and was one of the promoters of the California Academy of Natural Sciences. He moved later to Middletown, where he hoped to carry on some original research. Here he is said to have died late in June, 1893, but this may be incorrect, as it is possible that he returned to England and died at Horbury Crescent, Notting Hill, W, between 1894 and 1895. Blake was a voluminous writer who devoted much time to the study of chemistry, more especially on the molecular weight and constitution of chemical compounds and their physiological action, upon which subject he wrote a special work. The following letter from Laurence F Kenny, S J, Registrar of the Jesuit University of St Louis, gives a good picture of the man:- My Dear Mr Plarr, I have your interesting communication, dated the 22nd day of December, 1919, in which you inquire for further information about Dr James Blake. I submitted your request to Dr Louis C Boislinière, Assistant Professor of Medicine of this University, Chief of Staff of the Mount St Rose Hospital, and recently President of the St Louis Medical Society. He says: "My father (the late Dr L Charles Boislinière) came to St Louis in 1846, and lived for a time in the same house as Dr Blake. He often referred to him as a most indefatigable research worker, investigating especially the action of lethal poisons in animals, the chemical changes in the blood, and the pathological alterations in the viscera incident thereto….His was the honour of being among the very first in this western country to have carried out *systematic* scientific research by means of animal experimentation. "He was a tall, slender man, and quite eccentric; for instance, when feeling indisposed or out of sorts, he would take what he called a little walk - to Iron Mountain, Missouri, a distance of eighty miles, where he would satisfy his scientific cravings by examining the interesting geological formations in that vicinity. He would return in a few days, always with renewed vigour. After a few years in St Louis, he departed with the gold-seekers for California, walking all the way. "Among my father's books and papers I found two copies of a monograph written by Dr Blake, which, I imagine, was originally presented by him to or read before the French Academy. This article treated of the changes of blood-pressure in animals after certain alkaline salts had been injected in the veins. This pressure was measured by an instrument that he called a (?) 'hydrodynamometer'. One of these copies I gave to the late Professor Gustav Baumgarten. Seven or eight years ago I exhibited the other copy at a display of rare medical books and antiques held by the St Louis Medical History Club. The pamphlet greatly interested Professor C W Greene, Professor of Physiology at present at the University of Missouri. His interest arose from the fact that he was well acquainted with a daughter of Dr Blake, resident at that time in San Francisco." Dr Blake's name first appears in the catalogue of this University in the prospectus for the year 1847-8: JAMES BLAKE, MD, Professor of Special, General, and Surgical Anatomy. No catalogue was issued for the following year, when the city was decimated by the Asiatic cholera. The generous heroism of the medical profession during the scourge is one of the bright pages in the history of the profession. It would have been difficult for Dr Blake to have distinguished himself where all acted so nobly. His name appears again in the bulletin for 1849-50 with the same wording descriptive of his work as was used in 1847-8. He is not in the books for 1850-1. Dr Charles W Stephens held the professorship of General, Descriptive, and Surgical Anatomy. Perhaps I should add the names of some of Dr Blake's fellow-professors; all the names are familiar in their offspring here in St Louis, except perhaps Dr M M Pallen, whose son is Condé B Pallen, editor of the *Catholic Encyclopedia*, and who now lives in New York; and Dr Charles A Pope, who was Dean of the Medical Faculty, whose only son is the Rev John O'Fallon Pope, recently Head Master of Pope Hall at Oxford University, England. The others were M L Linton, A Litton, Thomas Reyburn, R S Holmes, W M McPheeters, and J V Prather. I have sent a word of inquiry to Professor Greene at the seat of our State University, asking him to put me in touch with Miss Blake. You will doubtless hear from me again if they let me have any item that will appear important for your purposes. With best wishes for the success of your arduous undertaking, I am, very sincerely yours, Laurence J Kenny, SJ Publications: Blake's publications include: Forty-two papers mainly on the geology, hydrology, climate, etc., of California and a few on the action of metals, published for the most part in the *Proc. Calif. Acad. of Nat. Sci.* The following papers were published by him before leaving Europe:- "Observations and Experiments on the Mode in which Various Poisonous Agents Act on the Animal Body," 8vo, Edinburgh, nd, from *Edin. Med. and Surg. Jour.*, 1840, liii, 35. "Mémoire sur les Effets de diverses Substances salines, injectées dans le Système circulatoire," lu à l'Académie des Sciences le 3 juin, 1839, 8vo, Paris, 1839, from *Arch. Gén. de Méd.*, 1839, Nov. "Physiological Essays on the Action of Poisons, and on the Introduction of Saline Substances into the Veins," 8vo, Edinburgh, 1839-1841, etc., from *Edin. Med. and Surg. Jour*., Nos. 139, 142, 148, 149, and *Arch. Gén. de Méd.*, 1839, Nov. "Observations on the Physiological Effects of Various Agents introduced into the Circulation as indicated by the Hæmadynamometer," 8vo, Edinburgh, n.d., from *Edin. Med. and Surg. Jour.*, 1839, l, 330. "On the Action of Certain Inorganic Compounds when introduced directly into the Blood." Read before the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Jan 21st and 28th, 1841, 8vo, Edinburgh, 1841, from *Edin. Med. and Surg. Jour*., 1841, lvi, 104. "On the Action of Poisons," 8vo, Edinburgh, n.d., from *Edin. Med. and Surg. Jour.*, 1841, lvi, 412. "Report on the Physiological Action of Medicines," 8vo, London, 1844, from *Rep. Brit. Assoc.*, 1843; *Ibid.*, 1846. "Introductory Lecture, Med. Dept. of the St. Louis University, Session of 1848-9," 8vo, St Louis, 1848.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000897
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Blake, Valentine Walshman (1818 - 1881)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

First Title value, for Searching Blakeney, Edward Hugh (1809 - 1885)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

First Title value, for Searching Blakeway, Harry (1884 - 1919)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2010-03-18
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000900-E000999
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373083373083
Occupation General surgeon
Details Second son of James Blakeway, MRCVS, of Stourbridge, Worcestershire. Educated at Stourbridge; entered St Bartholomew’s Hospital in 1903, where he won the Harvey Prize for Practical Physiology, the Brackenbury Scholarship in Surgery, the Willett Medal in Operative Surgery, the Walsham Prize for Surgical Pathology, and the Matthews Duncan Medal in Obstetrics. He was appointed House Surgeon at the Great Northern Central Hospital in 1908, and became House Surgeon at St Bartholomew’s Hospital to C B Lockwood (qv) in October of the same year. He was appointed Demonstrator of Anatomy at St Bartholomew’s Hospital in 1910, a position he held for several years. He proved himself a good teacher, and produced some original work on the anatomy of the palate which was put to practical use in the treatment of hare-lip and cleft palate when he became Surgeon to Out-patients at the Victoria Hospital for Children in Tite Street, Chelsea. In 1915 he lectured, as Hunterian Professor at the Royal College of Surgeons, on “The Operative Treatment of Cleft Palate”. He was appointed Surgical Registrar at St Bartholomew’s Hospital in 1913, and at this time he was holding the office of Surgeon to the City of London Truss Society. On the outbreak of war in 1914 he was specially retained, much against his will, as one of the younger surgeons necessary to treat the civil population at the hospitals in London. In this position he acted, in addition to his ordinary work, as Demonstrator of Morbid Anatomy, Temporary Assistant Surgeon, and Resident Assistant Surgeon at St Bartholomew’s Hospital, whilst he continued to take classes and give demonstrations in the Medical School and to attend professionally those of his colleagues and their families who required surgical assistance. All these duties he performed gladly. They overtaxed his strength, and he died in the Etherington-Smith Ward of the hospital on February 15th, 1919, from pneumonia during an epidemic of influenza. He married Margery Campbell, daughter of Frank Griffith, of Woking, and left a son and two daughters. He practised at 145 Harley Street and lived at 1 Weymouth Street, W1. A portrait illustrates the obituary notice in the *St Bartholomew’s Hospital Journal*. Blakeway’s death was deeply regretted, for he would have maintained the surgical reputation of the hospital both as teacher and as operator. He was an admirable practical anatomist, and his dissections of the pharynx and the palate are preserved in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons. As a man he was most unassuming, of a somewhat frail appearance, courteous in address, a loyal friend, a lover of books and music, a rider to hounds by heredity, and in all things trustworthy. Publications:- Blakeway wrote an article of first-rate importance, illustrated with drawings, on the anatomy and physiology of the parts concerned in cleft palate in *Jour. Anat. and Physiol.*, 1914, xlviii, 409-16. “Congenital Absence of the Gall-bladder associated with Imperfect Development of the Pancreas and Imperforate Anus.” – *Lancet*, 1912, ii, 365. *Operative Treatment of Cleft Palate*, 1912. “Teratoma of Unusual Size affecting the Testicle of a Horse.” – *Brit. Med. Jour.*, 1913, i, 704. “Treatment of Hare-lip and Cleft Palate.” – *Practitioner*, 1914, xcii, 219.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000900
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Blasson, Thomas ( - 1867)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

First Title value, for Searching Blathwayt, William (1811 - 1880)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

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

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

First Title value, for Searching Blenkins, George Eleazar ( - 1894)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

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://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373087373087
Occupation General surgeon
Details Educated at St George’s Hospital, and became an Assistant Surgeon in the Grenadier Guards on April l3th, 1838. He served with his regiment for upwards of thirty years. His promotions were Battalion Surgeon Oct 1st, 1854, and Surgeon Major January 24th, 1858. He retired on half pay with the rank of Deputy Inspector-General of Hospitals on December 12th, 1868. He served as Surgeon of the Grenadier Guards through the Crimean Campaign from December, 1854, and was present at the siege and fall of Sebastopol, receiving the Gold Medal with Clasp, Turkish Medal, and Order of the Fifth Class of the Medjidie. His biographer in the *British Medical Journal* (1894, ii, 789) remarks : “Mr Blenkins has so long retired from active work that the younger generation will hardly recognize his name as one of the most active and valued workers in the metropolis some thirty years ago. He was one of that distinguished class of army surgeons, then by no means too numerous, who to a thorough knowledge of his profession and departmental duties, added a great love of scientific research in the active study of its most difficult departments. He was a practical and skilful histologist, when to be so was a rare distinction even in the schools in civil life. We incline to believe that he was the first amongst the teachers of histology in the metropolitan medical schools who instituted classes of practical microscopic work and demonstration. He lectured and taught at Lane’s School of Anatomy and Medicine adjoining St George’s Hospital, and as far back as 1851 he carried on there a class of practical histology in which every student was provided with a microscope, and was taught himself to make, prepare, and put up the specimens. This class Mr Blenkins conducted while a surgeon in the Guards, and it had, at that time at least, few if any parallels in this country, for what is now an everyday rule of teaching was then a rare and brilliant exception.” The same biographer refers to him as one of the most lovable and accomplished surgeons of his day, a man of handsome presence and great refinement and dignity of manner, singularly modest and markedly reserved. His native kindliness chiefly showed itself in the welfare of his former students. He died at Worthing on September 26th, 1894. His London residence was at 9 Warwick Square, SW.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000904
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Blenkinsop, Henry (1813 - 1866)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

First Title value, for Searching Blomfield (or Bloomfield), Josiah (1824 - 1905)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

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://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373089373089
Occupation General surgeon
Details Apprenticed in 1837 to Mr Protheroe Smith, 105 Hatton Garden; completed his professional training at St Bartholomew’s Hospital. He was for six months dresser to John Vincent Painter (qv), and for the same period Clinical Clerk to Dr George Leith Roupell. He obtained the prize for clinical surgery, was second in medicine, surgery, chemistry, and materia medica, and was awarded an honours certificate in midwifery. After passing at the Apothecaries’ Hall he began to practise at Peckham Rye, but being under the required age did not pass the Membership of the College for more than a year afterwards. He removed to Camden Place, Peckham, in 1847, and was soon appointed one of the District Medical Officers for Christchurch and part of St George’s, Camberwell, holding this post during ‘the reign of the cholera’. The parish gained some notoriety from the prevalence of this disease. Blomfield had more than one hundred cases of Asiatic cholera under his care, besides numerous others of severe diarrhoea. About seventy-two of the cholera patients died. He received from the Board of Guardians a very handsome letter and the sum of £70, in acknowledgement of his services to the poor during the pestilence. On Nov 9th, 1849, he was elected from about seventeen candidates to the office of Surgeon to the Licensed Victuallers’ Asylum, Old Kent Road, the largest institution of the kind in existence. He was for many years Parochial Medical Officer for North Peckham, and was also Medical Examiner for Government Insurance. He practised for a time at 19 Grove Terrace, Peckham, and then for many years in Rye Lane. He retained his posts as Medical Examiner and at the Licensed Victuallers’ Asylum to the end of his long life, and died at his residence, 20 Peckham Road, on January 6th, 1905.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000906
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Bloxham, John Astley (1843 - 1926)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

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://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373090373090
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born at Highgate on May 26th, 1843; educated at St Bartholomew’s Hospital, where for the unusual period of two years he was House Surgeon to Sir James Paget (qv), to whom he afterwards acted as private assistant, whilst serving for another period of two years as chloroformist to the hospital. He entered the Army as Assistant Surgeon on the Staff on Oct 23rd, 1866, and was gazetted to the Royal Horse Guards Blue on March 15th, 1867, where he served as Assistant Surgeon till September 25th, 1869, when he resigned. He acted as Surgical Registrar at St Bartholomew’s Hospital from 1869 until the end of 1872. In February, 1873, he was appointed Assistant Surgeon to Charing Cross Hospital, becoming Surgeon in 1880 and Consulting Surgeon in 1903, after acting as Curator of the Museum (1874-1878), Lecturer on Operative Surgery (1879-1884), Lecturer on Surgery (1871-1895), and Aural Surgeon. He was also Surgeon to the Lock Hospital, from which he retired as Consulting Surgeon, and had been Assistant Surgeon at the Great Northern and West London Hospitals. He was placed on the Commission of the Peace for Buckinghamshire in 1908, and was a Knight of Grace and Hon Associate of the Order of St John of Jerusalem. He retired to Bourne End, Buckinghamshire, where he had inherited a small estate, and here he took part in local affairs, becoming Chairman of the Little Marlow Parish Council. He died at the Old Malt House, Bourne End, on Jan 12th, 1926, and was buried in Little Marlow Cemetery, survived by his widow, a son, and two daughters. Bloxham devoted himself more to the treatment of venereal disease than to general surgery, but as a surgeon he was dexterous and excelled in the plastic surgery necessary to repair the noses and lips of those who had been the subjects of syphilitic ulceration. The transplantation of part of a finger to form the basis of a new nose was one of his successes in the early period of plastic surgery. He was a man of striking appearance, tall, slender, and of upright carriage, and preserved in old age many of the characteristics of his early training in a crack regiment; above all things he valued punctuality. Publications:- “Treatment of Fractures of the Lower Extremity.” – *St Bart.’s Hosp. Rep.*, 1867, iii, 385. “On a Method of Administering Chloroform.” – *Med. Times and Gaz.*, 1871, i, 232. This is a short communication describing a small flat drop-bottle fitted with a metal dropper and cover, graduated from 20-360 gtt. It was made by Messrs Arnold & Son, of West Smithfield, price 3s 6d. It came into common use and has not been materially modified. “Intramuscular Injection for the Treatment of Syphilis.” – *Lancet*, 1888, i, 826, 863.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000907
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

First Title value, for Searching Blundell, Thomas Leigh (1788 - 1872)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

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

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

First Title value, for Searching Bowness, Robert Harrison (1816 - 1879)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

First Title value, for Searching Thomas, George Keith (1923 - 2010)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

by Sarah Gillam
Publication Date 2012-01-12 2014-04-09
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001800-E001899
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/374034374034
Occupation General surgeon
Details George Keith Thomas was a former consultant surgeon at Orillia Soldiers' Memorial Hospital, Ontario, Canada. He was born in Whitchurch, Shropshire, the son of Bert Thomas, a bank manager, and Maud Eleanor Thomas née Beatty. His sister, Patricia, also became a doctor. He was educated at Whitchurch Grammar School and Liverpool College, and then studied medicine at Queen's University, Belfast, qualifying in 1945. After graduation he was a demonstrator in anatomy at Belfast. He joined the Royal Air Force, serving in Germany in the immediate post-war years. He then worked as a ship's surgeon on a private liner. He returned to the UK and trained in surgery, notably in Sheffield and Southend. In 1956 he emigrated to Canada, as consulting surgeon at Orillia Soldiers' Memorial Hospital. He retired in 1990. In 1954 he married Inga-Karin Lethin. He died on 12 September 2010 at the age 87. He was survived by his wife, their sons, Karl and Eric, and four grandchildren.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001851
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Shemilt, Philip (1916 - 2008)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

by Sarah Gillam
Publication Date 2012-01-12 2014-06-03
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001800-E001899
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/374035374035
Occupation General surgeon
Details Philip Shemilt was a highly respected consultant surgeon at Salisbury General Hospital. Over a long career as a general surgeon, which included service during the Second World War and a period spent working in post-colonial Zimbabwe, he carried out 32,000 operations. He was born in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, on 14 January 1916, the son of Jesse Shemilt, a farmer and businessman, and Winifred Shemilt née Johnson, a former nurse. Two of his older brothers went on to qualify in medicine, both becoming members of the Royal College of Surgeons. He was a pupil at Longton School, Stoke-on-Trent, from 1927 to 1933, and then followed one of his brothers to St Thomas's Medical School. He qualified in 1938. His first post was at St Thomas', where he was a casualty officer and house surgeon from 1938 to 1939. Once war was declared, he joined the Emergency Medical Services, and was later sent to the Midlands to treat battle casualties from the fighting in France. In 1943 he joined the Royal Navy as a surgeon lieutenant, working at first on the Atlantic convoys, rescuing survivors from ships sunk by enemy torpedoes. He was later sent to Ceylon, to a naval hospital. While working there he was consulted by Lord Mountbatten, who had lost his voice prior to giving an important speech. Following his demobilisation, Shemilt returned to St Thomas' Hospital, where he worked as a surgical registrar and then as chief assistant in the rectal clinic. He gained his FRCS in 1947. In 1948 he was appointed as a consultant surgeon in Salisbury, where he stayed until his retirement in 1980. He was also a surgical consultant at Tidworth Military Hospital from 1949 to 1970. He chaired the medical staff committee of Salisbury General Hospital from 1964 to 1966, and served on the hospital management committee from 1965 to 1967. For five years from 1975 he chaired the surgical division of the hospital and the operating theatre users' committee. He remained a generalist. He did find time to write a paper on endometriosis and the appendix for the *British Journal of Surgery* ('Endometrioma of the caecum causing mucocele of the appendix.' *Br J Surg*. 1949 Jul;37[145]:118-20) and another on 'The origin of phleboliths'. (*Br J Surg*. 1972 Sep;59[9]:695-700). He also edited a book celebrating the bicentenary of Salisbury Infirmary (*Salisbury 200. Salisbury Infirmary bicentenary review*, 1967). He was a member of the Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and was a fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine. He retired from the NHS in 1981 and then went to Salisbury in Zimbabwe (just before it became Harare), where he worked as a surgeon for several months. Outside medicine, he enjoyed gardening in his garden in the cathedral close at Salisbury and at the family's holiday home in Bridport, Dorset. He also played golf. In retirement he learnt how to mend Persian rugs. In 1950 he married Janet Brownscombe, a physiotherapist. They had four daughters - Eleanor, Jane, Mary and Kate - nine grandchildren and two great grandchildren. Philip Shemilt died on 2 November 2008, aged 92, at his home in Salisbury.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001852
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Templeton, Peter Alexander (1963 - 2011)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

by Sarah Gillam
Publication Date 2012-01-12 2014-04-09
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001800-E001899
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/374037374037
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon Trauma surgeon
Details Peter Alexander Templeton was a consultant orthopaedic surgeon at Leeds General Infirmary. He was born and grew up in Canada, where his father, an orthopaedic surgeon, was working. The family eventually returned to Belfast, where Templeton studied medicine, qualifying in 1987. He went on to train in orthopaedics in Leeds, and developed an interest in children's orthopaedics. He held a year-long fellowship at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto. In 1999 he was appointed to his post at Leeds General Infirmary, where he became unit clinical director and regional training programme director. In addition, he was a lieutenant colonel in the Territorial Army and served as a trauma surgeon in Iraq and Afghanistan. Peter Alexander Templeton died on 21 May 2011 from coronary artery disease. He was 47. He was survived by his wife and three children.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001854
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Thomas, Osler Lister (1921 - 2009)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

by Sarah Gillam
Publication Date 2012-01-12 2014-04-09
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001800-E001899
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/374038374038
Occupation General surgeon
Details Osler Lister Thomas was born in Hong Kong on 20 May 1921, the son of George Harold Thomas, a surgeon and fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons, and Nora Thomas née Gourdin, the daughter of a chartered accountant. His younger brother also became a fellow of the College. Thomas studied medicine at Guy's Hospital Medical School, and was influenced by Grant Massie and S H Wass. During the Second World War he served in the Hong Kong Volunteer Defense Corps and then the Special Operations Executive, becoming a captain. He was awarded an MBE in 1945. He gained his FRCS in 1954, and a diploma in otorhinolaryngology in 1959. In 1949 he married Lily Trinh. They had three daughters and a son. Osler Lister Thomas died in October 2009, aged 88.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001855
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Tate, Geoffrey Thompson ( - 2011)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

by Sarah Gillam
Publication Date 2012-01-13 2014-04-09
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001800-E001899
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/374044374044
Occupation General surgeon
Details Geoffrey Thompson Tate was a general surgeon in Harrogate. He studied medicine in Leeds, qualifying in 1952. He gained his FRCS in 1963.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001861
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Thornhill, Cecil William (1922 - 2004)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

by Sarah Gillam
Publication Date 2012-01-13 2015-04-24
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001800-E001899
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/374045374045
Occupation Ophthalmic surgeon
Details Cecil William Thornhill was a senior consultant ophthalmic surgeon at Bradford Royal Infirmary. He qualified in 1945 with the LRCPI and LRCSI, the licentiates of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland and the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, together with the licentiates in midwifery from both colleges. He gained his diploma in ophthalmology in 1952 and his FRCS in 1959. Prior to his consultant appointment he was a senior registrar at Moorfields Eye Hospital in London and at University College Hospital. Cecil William Thornhill died on 26 August 2004. He was 82.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001862
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Todd, John Valentine (1912 - 2004)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

by Tina Craig
Publication Date 2012-01-13 2013-08-13
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001800-E001899
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/374046374046
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon
Details John Valentine Todd was a consultant orthopaedic surgeon at Newcastle Hospital and the Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle. He was born in either 1912 or 1913 and studied medicine at Durham University, qualifying MB BS in 1935 and proceeded to Liverpool to specialise in orthopaedics. He was consultant orthopaedic surgeon to Tynemouth Infirmary before his appointments in Newcastle and also consultant orthopaedic surgeon to the Ministry of Pensions. He served as a volunteer in the RAMC and, in 1967, was made Honorary Colonel of 201st (Northern) Field Hospital, RAMC (Volunteers). He was a Fellow of the British Orthopaedic Association and a member of the BMA. He died on 30 September 2004, aged 91, in Petersfield Hospital after a short illness, survived by his son, David and daughter, Jane and grandchildren Charlie, Lucia and Georgia.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001863
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Walkden, John Alexander Denis ( - 2005)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2012-01-18 2012-12-21
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001800-E001899
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/374051374051
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon
Details John Walkden was a senior orthopaedic registrar at the United Liverpool Hospitals and orthopaedic and surgical registrar to the professorial unit of Broadgreen Hospital Liverpool. He then became a consultant orthopaedic surgeon at West Cheshire and Central Wirral Hospitals. He was a member of the Liverpool Medical Institute, and the Chester and North Wales Medical Society. He lived in Preston on the Hill near Warrington and he died on 11 June 2005, survived by his wife.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001868
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Walls, Eldred Wright (1912 - 2008)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

by Sir Barry Jackson
Publication Date 2012-01-18 2013-07-24
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001800-E001899
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/374052374052
Occupation Anatomist
Details Eldred Walls was professor of anatomy at Middlesex Hospital Medical School, University of London, and a highly distinguished anatomist. He was born in Glasgow, the second son of J T Walls, but was orphaned at the age of 13. Financial pressures meant he had to leave Hillhead High School at 15 and matriculate in Glasgow University aged just 16. He qualified MB ChB in 1934 with first class honours and the Struthers gold medal, after first completing a BSc in botany. During his undergraduate years he was a noted sportsman, especially in rugby, where he was a Scottish trialist. After a short spell as a general practitioner, he decided upon a career in anatomy rather than clinical medicine, and was appointed as a demonstrator and lecturer in anatomy at Glasgow University, a position he held for five years. In 1941 he moved to Cardiff as a senior lecturer in anatomy at University College of South Wales, where he had command of the University Naval Reserve. He also studied hypnotism, on one occasion putting members of the London Symphony Orchestra into a trance and having them behave bizarrely on stage. However, he felt uncomfortable with the subject and never again put on any form of public display. In 1947 he moved to London to assume the readership in anatomy at Middlesex Hospital Medical School. His MD with honours, awarded in the same year, was on the conducting tissues of the heart. Two years later he was promoted to the S A Courtauld chair of anatomy at that medical school, where he remained until his necessary retirement in 1974. His love of anatomical teaching being undiminished, he returned to Scotland, where he was appointed as a lecturer in anatomy at Edinburgh University, teaching both undergraduates and postgraduate trainees in surgery. On reaching 70 he was again required by the university to retire, but unofficially he continued to tutor trainee surgeons on a regular basis for another 20 years, well into his nineties. An inspirational and charismatic teacher, deft with blackboard and chalk, he inspired great affection among his thousands of students, many of whom continued with a love of anatomy throughout their careers. Many would claim that in his later years Eldred had become the acknowledged doyen of the world of anatomy. He was made an FRCS by election in 1976 in recognition of his lifelong contribution to the teaching of anatomy to surgical trainees. In 1963 he became president of the Anatomical Society of Great Britain and Ireland, having previously served as treasurer for eight years. He contributed many papers to the *Journal of Anatomy*, as well as chapters in *Cunningham's textbook of anatomy* (Oxford University Press), and delivered many eponymous lectures, including the Gordon-Taylor lecture at the Royal College of Surgeons in 1976 ('Sir Gordon Gordon-Taylor, surgeon-anatomist and humanist,' *Ann R Coll Surg Engl.* 1977 Jan;59[1]:4-10). Generally, he committed these lectures to memory and delivered them immaculately without a single note. His research on the structure and function of the anal sphincter led to his appointment as honorary anatomist to St Mark's Hospital, an association he enjoyed until his death. During his time at the Middlesex he took a keen interest in medical education and was dean of the medical school from 1967 to 1974, during which time he raised millions of pounds which led to the establishment of the Jules Thorn Institute. Apart from an interest in medical history, his outside interests were few. In his entry in *Who's Who* he listed but one - an annual visit to Lords! In 1939 he married (Jessie) Vivien Robb, a fellow medical student whom he met in the dissecting room, who died shortly after their diamond wedding anniversary in 1999. They had two children, Andrew and Gwyneth, both of whom qualified in medicine at St Thomas's Hospital Medical School. Eldred Walls died on 24 March 2008, aged 95.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001869
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Falloon, Maurice White (1921 - 2004)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

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

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

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

First Title value, for Searching Fiddian, Richard Vasey (1923 - 2004)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-09-23 2007-08-23
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000000-E000099
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372243372243
Occupation General surgeon
Details Richard Vasey ‘Dick’ Fiddian was a consultant general surgeon at the Luton and Dunstable Hospital from 1964 to 1989. He was born on 6 October 1923 in Ashton-under-Lyne in Lancashire, where his father, James Victor Fiddian, was a general practitioner-surgeon. His mother, Doris Mary née White, came from a farming family. Dick was the last of five children, and the second son. From the age of eight he attended the Old College boarding school in Windermere, and then, at 11, went to Manchester Grammar School. In October 1941 he went up to Emmanuel College, Cambridge, to read for the natural sciences tripos. In 1943 he was drafted into the Army and spent three years as a fighting soldier in the Royal Engineers, rising to the rank of captain. As well as serving in the field with the 14th Army in Burma, he also helped to oversee the rebuilding of the Burma Road with the help of Japanese POWs. In October 1946 he returned to Emmanuel College, completing his first and second MB. He was also awarded an MA in anthropology, physiology, pathology and biochemistry. Whilst at Emmanuel, Fiddian became captain of the golf team, and was awarded a Cambridge blue. After qualifying, he did two years of house appointments at Bart’s, including anaesthetics, and a further year as junior registrar (SHO) to Rupert Corbett and Alec Badenoch. He then took a year off as a ship’s doctor on the Orsova of the Orient Line, before taking his Fellowship in 1956. He then became a registrar to Norman Townsley and John Stephens at the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital. When the Queen came to open the new operating theatres, Fiddian escorted the Duke of Edinburgh round the male Nightingale ward and introduced him to his patients, one of whom had been operated on by Dick, but failed to recognise his surgeon. He was heard to say in a broad Norfolk accent: “Nice to meet the Duke, but who was that good-looking young man in a white coat walking with him?” Dick returned to Bart’s in 1958 as chief assistant to John Hosford, whom Dick greatly admired. He also worked with Sir Edward Tuckwell, whose rapidity as an operator was legendary. After two years he went to the North Middlesex Hospital under Basil Page, the urologist. Spending a year in Boston, Massachusetts, he worked as an assistant in surgery at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital under Francis Moore, professor of surgery at Harvard and chief surgeon at the Brigham. In 1963 he completed a Milton research fellowship in surgery at Harvard Medical School. In 1964 he was appointed as a consultant to the Luton and Dunstable Hospital. There he developed a special interest in wound infection and made some useful contributions on the use of metronidazole. He retired from the NHS in 1989. In 1985 he started learning Spanish at the local adult education college in Luton, continuing to study the language until he was 80. He visited Spain many times and often went on cultural trips, which he thoroughly enjoyed. After his retirement he studied Spanish literature at Birkbeck College, and received an award from the Institute of Linguists for his command of the language. He married twice. His first wife was Aileen, an Australian he met on board ship. They had one son, Jonathan. After her death he married Jean née Moore, a medical secretary, by whom he had a son, James, and two daughters, Emily and Sarah. They also adopted the child of one of Jean’s friends. Although they became estranged, they remained good friends and Jean cared for him in his latter days, which were marred by a degree of dementia. He died on 30 December 2004. Dick Fiddian was an extremely affable man who was everyone’s friend, not because of a wish to be universally liked, but for his capacity to see the best in people. He was a self-effacing man, describing his contributions to the literature as “numerous, none of which were important”. Conversation with him was always a pleasure, as was listening to his after-dinner speeches which were interspersed with bon mots and limericks which probed the idiosyncrasies of the company, never with malice but always with a twinkle in his eye.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000056
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

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

First Title value, for Searching Townsend, Julian Charles Francis ( - 2010)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

by Sarah Gillam
Publication Date 2012-01-18 2014-04-07
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001800-E001899
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/374053374053
Occupation General surgeon
Details Julian Charles Francis Townsend was a consultant surgeon at St Albans City Hospital, Queen Elizabeth II Hospital, Welwyn Garden City, and Hill End Hospital. He studied at Pembroke College, Cambridge. He held house posts at St George's Hospital, London, and was then a registrar at the United Cardiff Hospitals, and a resident surgical officer at St Mark's Hospital, London. From 1957 he held a short service commission in the medical branch of the RAF. He died on 29 November 2010.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001870
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

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

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

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

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://scp.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 Yellowlees, Sir Henry (1919 - 2006)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-06-21 2012-03-08
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000200-E000299
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372437372437
Occupation Chief Medical Officer
Details Sir Henry Yellowlees was Chief Medical Officer for England from 1973 to 1983. He was born on 16 April 1919 in Edinburgh, the son of Sir Henry Yellowlees, a psychiatrist, and Dorothy Davies, a cellist. He was educated at Stowe and University College, Oxford, but deferred his medical training to join the RAF, where he became a flying instructor. After the war he went up to Oxford to read medicine, going on to the Middlesex Hospital for his clinical studies. After house appointments he became a resident medical officer at the Middlesex. His skilful handling of an epidemic among the staff drew him to the attention of Sir George Godber and before long Henry was involved in medical administration, first as medical officer at the South West and later the North West Regional Hospital Boards, and finally the Ministry of Health. There he became Deputy Chief Medical Officer in 1966 and finally Chief Medical Officer in 1973, despite having suffered a coronary thrombosis. During his time the NHS went through a series of massive and destructive reorganisations, wrought by Barbara Castle and her successors just at a time when important new developments were taking place in medicine and surgery. After he left the Department of Health he worked at the Ministry of Defence, restructuring the medical services of the Armed Forces. He married Gwyneth 'Sally' Comber in 1948. They had three children, Rosemary (a nurse), Lindy (a psychiatrist) and Ian (an anaesthetist and pain specialist). After his wife's death in 2001 he married Mary Porter. He died on 22 March 2006.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000250
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

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

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

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

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

First Title value, for Searching Jones, Geoffrey Blundell (1915 - 2004)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

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

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

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

First Title value, for Searching Woodyard, John Edward (1931 - 2007)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

by Sarah Gillam
Publication Date 2012-01-23 2015-05-01
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001800-E001899
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/374058374058
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon
Details John Woodyard was a consultant orthopaedic surgeon in Stafford. He was born in London on 21 May 1931, the son of Harry Cyril Woodyard, a company director, and Caroline Victoria Woodyard née Wheeler. He was educated at Radley College, Clare College, Cambridge, and then Westminster Hospital Medical School. He qualified in 1956 and carried out his National Service in the Army. He went on to the Royal Marsden, and was then a surgical registrar in Bristol, Swindon and Oxford. He specialised in orthopaedics and became a senior registrar in Exeter. In 1970 he was appointed to his consultant post in Stafford. Over the years he helped expand the department, which now has nine consultants. He developed a particular skill in paediatric orthopaedics, especially hip problems. After he retired he became chairman of the postgraduate centre in Stafford and was a non-executive director of the trust board. Outside medicine he was interested in gardening and painting. John Woodyard died on 23 August 2007 from leukaemia. He was 76. He was survived by his wife Katie, an anaesthetist, and by two children - Ian and Jennifer.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001875
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-09-22 2007-08-15
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000200-E000299
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372442372442
Occupation General surgeon
Details After qualifying from St James’s Hospital, Leeds, Ivor Fussey studied neurophysiology for nine years, gaining his PhD in 1972, during which time he devised platinum microelectrodes that could be implanted in the brain and used to locate vagal afferent impulses. After this experience he decided to specialise in surgery and did registrar jobs with George Harrison in Derby and Duthie in Sheffield, where he met his future wife Kate, a medical student. He was appointed as a consultant general surgeon to Lincoln County Hospital in 1980, where he developed a special interest in surgery of the breast and, together with Jenny Eremin, established the breast unit in the 1990s. After he retired in 1996 he went to Leicester, where he was a mentor to preclinical staff and students, with whom he was very popular. He died suddenly on 30 November 2003, leaving his wife, Kate, and two daughters, Tamsin and Miekes.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000255
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Littlewood, Arthur Henry Martin (1923 - 2004)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

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

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-11-02
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000100-E000199
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372335372335
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon
Details David Richmond was an orthopaedic surgeon in Burnley. He was born on 1 September 1912 in Stockport, where his father, George, was Manchester’s last private Royal Mail contractor. His mother was Edith Lilian née Hitchin. He was educated at Stockport Grammar School and went up to University of Manchester to read medicine. In 1933 he was awarded a BSc in anatomy and physiology and won the Dickinson scholarship in anatomy. On qualifying he won the Dumville surgical prize and the surgical clinical prize. He was captain of the lacrosse university team and was presented to the Duke of York, later King George V. After qualifying, he was house surgeon and demonstrator in anatomy at Manchester Royal Infirmary, and then became registrar to H H Rayner and Sir Harry Platt. From 1940 to 1946 he was a surgeon in the EMS Hospital at Conishead Priory under the supervision of T P McMurray and I D Kitchin, and was involved in the treatment of many casualties. After the war he went with his family to work as a surgeon to a general practice in Stratford, North Island, New Zealand, which proved to be a low point in his career. The family returned to England in 1947, when he joined the RAMC as an orthopaedic specialist with the rank of Major, and served in Malaya and Japan. Whilst in Japan he worked in the American Military Hospital in Tokyo with several reputed American surgeons. He returned to England in 1949 as first assistant to I D Kitchin at Lancaster Royal Infirmary. In 1950 he was appointed consultant orthopaedic surgeon in Burnley with the task of setting up an orthopaedic and trauma service where none had previously existed. This soon proved to be a success and he was joined by two other consultant colleagues. In 1960 he won a WHO travelling fellowship to work with Carl Hirsch in Sweden, and later his special interest in the surgery of the hand took him to the United States for several sabbaticals. In Burnley he was a respected member of the medical community, branch President of the BMA, and devoted much time to training junior medical staff and students, who remembered his freshly cut rose buttonhole. He married Eira Osterstock, a theatre sister, in 1939, and they had one son William David Richmond, a surgeon and a fellow of the College, and one daughter, Jennifer, who became a nurse. He retired in 1977 and the following year moved to Gatehouse of Fleet in Dumfries and Galloway, where he could devote himself to gardening and walking. Eira predeceased him in 1983 and he learned to cook and continued to be active in the Gatehouse Music Society. In 1996 he moved to Suffolk to be near his daughter, but began to develop signs of a progressive debilitating illness, from which he died on 9 August 2003.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000148
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Cutler, Geoffrey Abbott (1920 - 2000)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2007-05-10
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000300-E000399
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372529372529
Occupation General surgeon
Details Geoff Cutler was a surgeon in New South Wales, Australia. He was born on 29 February 1920 in Manly, a suburb of Sydney. He was the second of the three sons of Arthur and Ruby Cutler. Their father was a sales representative for Remington, who had been a crack shot and twice winner at Bisley. He was killed in a car accident in 1935 and Geoffrey left school at 17 to work in a bank, whilst studying for a degree at night. When the war came he was keen to enlist, but his mother would not sign the papers as his elder brother, later to become Sir Roden Cutler, future diplomat and Governor of New South Wales, had been seriously wounded in Syria, winning the VC, but losing his leg. Geoff joined the RAAF when he was 21. While he was learning to fly he became bored during a long formation flight to Goulbourn and decided to slip away to do a few loops and rolls, and then found to his consternation that he was quite alone and not sure where he was. He landed his Tiger Moth in a suitable field, but was quickly surrounded by a group of men in uniform, who told him that he was in the middle of a prison farm. Undeterred, on getting directions for Goulbourn, he persuaded them to hang on to his plane’s tail until he had sufficient power to take off. (He kept this story secret for many years.) Later he became a test and ferry pilot, and saw enemy action in Burma and New Guinea. After the war he was able to enrol in medicine, his first love, through the repatriation arrangements provided for ex-servicemen. Enrolling with 726 other students, they were warned that 50 per cent of their year would be failed at the end of the year. He graduated with honours in 1952 and did his house appointments at Manly Hospital, having been attached to the Royal North Shore Hospital as a student. He went to England in 1954, intending to specialise in gynaecology and obstetrics, but changed to surgery, and did junior jobs in Middlesex, Northampton, Guildford and Oldchurch Hospital, Romford, as well as attending courses at the College. After passing the FRCS he returned to Australia in 1957 to a registrar position at the Royal North Shore Hospital, and started in private practice in 1958. Among his other interests were reading history, and breeding Hereford cattle on his farm, which he owned for 25 years. He had met Dorothy Arnold, another Australian, when she was nursing in London. They married in 1959 and had three children, two boys and a girl. Stephen, the eldest, represented Australia at rugby for ten years, before going to the USA to work for the pharmaceutical firm Quintiles. Anne became a physiotherapist and Rob became a solicitor in Sydney. Geoff Cutler died on 20 October 2000 from carcinoma of the colon.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000343
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-11-02 2012-03-09
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000100-E000199
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372337372337
Occupation Nurse Physician
Details Dame Cicely Saunders established St Christopher's Hospice in London, which became the model for hundreds of other hospices. She was born in Barnet, Hertfordshire, on 22 June 1918, the daughter of Gordon Saunders, a domineering estate agent, and Mary Christian Wright. She was educated at Roedean and St Anne's College, Oxford, and on the outbreak of war deferred completing her degree to become a nurse. She entered St Thomas's, but a back injury put an end to a career in nursing. She returned to complete her degree at Oxford and qualified as a lady almoner (a hospital social worker). By now she had fallen in love with David Tasma, a refugee from the Warsaw ghetto, who was dying of cancer. Through him she learned how the pain of cancer could be tamed by modern drugs, and that the inevitable distress of the dying could be made tolerable by care in which physical and spiritual needs were combined. At this time she also gave up her agnostic stance and became a committed and evangelical Christian. Her experience as a volunteer at St Luke's Home for the Dying Poor caused her to realise that the received medical views on dying and bereavement needed to be changed, and to do this she needed to become a doctor. She returned to St Thomas's and qualified in 1957, at the age of 38. She set up a research group to study the control of pain, while also working at St Joseph's, Hackney, which was run for the dying by the formidably down-to-earth Sisters of Charity. Before long Cicely had reached the unorthodox conclusion that the usual intermittent giving of morphine for surges of pain was far less effective than giving enough morphine to achieve a steady state in which the dying patient could still maintain consciousness, self-respect and a measure of dignity. It was at St Joseph's that she met Antoni Michniewicz, who for the second time taught her that loving and being in love were powerful medicaments in terminal illness. His death determined her to set up St Christopher's Hospice, named after the patron saint of travellers, as a place in which to shelter on the most difficult stage of life's journey. Her unorthodox views were published as *The care of the dying* (London, Macmillan & Co) in 1960. This opened many eyes, and soon another edition was needed. There followed years of hard work, lecturing, persuading and fund-raising. St Christopher's was set up as a charity in 1961 and the hospice was opened in 1967. That her methods worked was soon apparent and before long Cicely was invited to join the consultant staff of St Thomas's and the London Hospital. In 1980 she married Marian Bohusz-Szyszko who shared her love of music and with whom she was blissfully happy. Sadly he predeceased her in 1995. A tall, impressive lady, she had a tremendous though quiet personality that shone with honesty and wisdom. Innumerable distinctions and honours came her way - honorary degrees and fellowships galore, the gold medals of the Society of Apothecaries and the British Medical Association, the DBE and the Order of Merit - but it was the establishment of hundreds of hospices according to her principles and the revolution in the care of the dying that will be the real measure of her greatness. She died from breast cancer on 14 July 2005 at St Christopher's.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000150
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

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://scp.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
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First Title value, for Searching Guthrie, George James (1785 - 1856)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-07-06 2018-06-08
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000000-E000099
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372188372188
Occupation General surgeon Military surgeon Ophthalmic surgeon
Details Born in London on May 1st, 1785. His grandfather, a Scotsman, served with the army at the Battle of the Boyne. His father succeeded his maternal uncle, a retired Naval Surgeon, as manager of a business for the sale of lead plaister. Guthrie learnt French from the Abbé Noel when quite a boy, and spoke it so perfectly that he was often mistaken in after-life for an émigré. At the age of 13 he accidentally came under the notice of John Rush, Inspector of Regimental Hospitals, who had him apprenticed to Dr Phillips, a surgeon in Pall Mall. He attended the Windmill Street School of Medicine, and was one of those into whose arms William Cruikshank - Dr Johnson's 'sweet-blooded man' - fell when he was delivering his last lecture on the brain on June 27th, 1800. From June, 1800, to March, 1801, Guthrie served as Hospital Mate at the York Hospital, Chelsea, which then occupied what is now a part of Eaton Square. Surgeon General Thomas Keate issued an order that all hospital mates must be members of the newly formed College of Surgeons. Guthrie presented himself for examination on the day following the issue of the order, was examined by Keate himself, and made so favourable an impression that he was at once posted to the 29th Regiment. He was then 16 years of age; his Colonel was 24 - but, notwithstanding, it was generally agreed that no regiment was better commanded or better doctored. Guthrie accompanied the 29th Regiment to North America as Assistant Surgeon, remained there until 1807, then returned to England with the regiment and was immediately ordered out to the Peninsula. There he served until 1814, seeing much service and earning the especial commendation of the Duke of Wellington. He acted as Principal Medical Officer at the Battle of Albuera, though he was only 26 years old, and one evening had on his hands 3000 wounded with four wagons, and such equipment as regimental surgeons carried in their panniers, and the nearest village seven miles away. He was appointed in 1812 to act as Deputy Inspector of Hospitals, but the Medical Board in London refused to confirm the appointment on the ground of his youth. He was placed on half pay at the end of the campaign, began to practise privately in London, and attended the lectures of Charles Bell and Benjamin Brodie at the Windmill Street School of Medicine. He hastened to Brussels directly after the Battle of Waterloo in June, 1815, was received enthusiastically by his former comrades, amputated at the hip with success, extracted a bullet from the bladder, and tied the peroneal artery by cutting down upon it through the calf muscles, the latter operation being afterwards known as 'Guthrie's bloody operation'. On his return to London he was placed in charge of two clinical wards at the York Hospital [The Duke's or York Hospital - military - was in Grosvenor Place where Hobart Place now is], with a promise that the most severe surgical cases should be sent to him. He discharged this duty for two years, during which he was amongst the first in England to use lithotrity. He also began a course of lectures which was continued gratuitously to all medical officers of the public services for the next twenty years. At the end of the first course, 1816-1817, the medical officers of the Army, Navy, and the Ordnance presented him with a fine silver loving-cup appropriately inscribed. The cup has become an heirloom in the family of Henry Power (qv), to whom it was presented by his last surviving child, Miss Guthrie. In 1816 Guthrie was instrumental in establishing an Infirmary for Diseases of the Eye, which became 'The Royal Westminster Ophthalmic Hospital', long situated in King William Street, Strand, next to the Charing Cross Hospital, but removed in 1928 to Broad Street, Bloomsbury. Guthrie was appointed Surgeon and remained attached to the hospital until 1838, when he resigned in favour of his son, C W G Guthrie (qv) [but retained his connection with the hospital until 1856]. In 1823 he was elected Assistant Surgeon to Westminster Hospital, becoming full surgeon in 1827, when the Governors made a fourth Surgeon to mark their esteem for his surgical reputation and personal character. He resigned his office in 1843, again to make way for his son. At the Royal College of Surgeons Guthrie was a Member of Council from 1824-1856, a Member of the Court of Examiners from 1828-1856, Chairman of the Midwifery Board in 1853, Hunterian Orator in 1830, Vice-President five times, and President in 1833, 1841, and 1854. He was Hunterian Professor of Anatomy, Physiology, and Surgery from 1828-1832. He was elected FRS in 1827. He married twice and had two sons and one daughter, none of whom left issue. He died suddenly on his birthday - May Day 1856, and was buried at Kensal Green. [See entry for his younger son Charles W G Guthrie; the elder son Lowry Guthrie (1814-48) became a clergyman, see Venn's Alumni Cantabrigienses.] Guthrie is described as a man of active and robust frame, keen and energetic in appearance, with remarkably piercing black eyes. Shrewd and quick, he was at times very outspoken and somewhat inconsiderate in regard to other people's feelings; but behind his military brusqueness was much kindness of heart. He was very popular as a lecturer, his lectures being full of anecdotes and illustrative cases, and his Hunterian Oration is memorable; it was given fluently and without notes, as was afterwards done by Sir James Paget, Savory, Henry Power, Butlin, and Moynihan. He was noted for his coolness as an operator and for the delicacy of his manipulations. His unrivalled experience in military surgery, gained during the later years of the Peninsular War and at the most receptive period of his life, justly entitles him to be called 'the English Larrey'. It enabled him to advance the science and practice of surgery more than any other army surgeon since the days of Richard Wiseman. Before his time it was usual to treat gunshot wounds of the thigh by placing the limb on its side. Guthrie introduced the straight splint. He differed from John Hunter in the treatment of gunshot injuries requiring amputation. Hunter was in favour of the secondary operation; Guthrie advocated immediate removal of the limb. After Albuera he introduced the practice of tying both ends of a wounded artery at the seat of the injury; Hunter contented himself with its ligature above the wound. Guthrie also advocated the destruction with mineral acids of the diseased tissues in cases of 'hospital gangrene'. In connection with ophthalmic surgery he taught that the cataracting lens should be extracted, not 'couched', and he was one of the first to describe congenital opacity of the lens. He was heterodox in the treatment of syphilis for he recommended that mercury should not be used, and his advice was largely followed by his pupils. At the College of Surgeons he was in favour of Reform, and did much to secure the passing of the Anatomy Act in 1832. He was opposed to the Charter of 1843. A life-size half-length portrait by Henry Room (1802-1850) hangs in the Secretary's Office at the Royal College of Surgeons. It was presented by his daughter, Miss Guthrie, in 1870. There is a bust by E Davis, also presented by Miss Guthrie in 1870; there are two copies of a fine mezzotint in the College Collection. The plate was engraved by William Walker after Room, and was published by the London Publishing Co on May 10th, 1853. A crayon portrait by Count D'Orsay is in the Westminster Hospital. There is also a clever but rather spiteful pencil sketch in the College Collection. It represents Guthrie lecturing on emphysema - May 6th, 1830 - "Mr Guthrie's 11th Lecture" appears in the handwriting of William Clift below the sketch. It is initialled T M S in the bottom right-hand corner. It was probably made by T Madden Stone, Library Assistant in 1832, who was unfriendly to Guthrie - and not without reason. PUBLICATIONS: - Guthrie is best known by his *Treatise on Gunshot Wounds*, which was first published in 1813 [changed to 1815]. It may still be read with pleasure for the graphic accounts of the Military Surgery of a bygone age. The Commentaries on the Surgery of the War in Portugal, Spain, France and the Netherlands from the Battle of Roliça in 1808 to that of Waterloo in 1815, revised to 1853, of which a new edition was published in 1855, is a digest of the Treatise on Gunshot Wounds. It forms the substance of Guthrie's public lectures and contains his matured opinion on military surgery. In 1819 he published a Treatise on the Operation for the Formation of an Artificial Pupil, which he included in a larger work entitled, Lectures on the Operative Surgery of the Eye. These lectures reached a 3rd edition in 1838. Remarks on the Anatomy Bill in a Letter to the Right Hon Lord Althorp, 1832. The Wounds and Injuries of the Arteries of the Human Body, with the Treatment and Operations required for their Cure, 1846. In these lectures Guthrie drew attention to the anastomotic circulation.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000001
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
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First Title value, for Searching Ackroyd, Jenny Susan (1950 - 2004)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-07-06 2016-11-25
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000000-E000099
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372189372189
Occupation General surgeon Vascular surgeon
Details Jenny Ackroyd was a consultant general and vascular surgeon at Princess Alexandra Hospital, Harlow. She was born in Leeds on 23 May 1950, the fourth child of Peter Ackroyd and Evelyn née Nutt. Her father, an academic theologian, was subsequently a professor at King's College, London, and was known as 'Old Testament Ackroyd'. She was educated at James Allen's Girls' School in Dulwich, and then went on to New Hall, Cambridge, where she read medicine and fine arts. She then went to Middlesex Hospital for her clinical studies. During her junior doctor training she became the first female surgical registrar and senior registrar at St Thomas's, a particularly male-dominated institution at the time. She was awarded the FRCS in 1979. She also achieved the degree of master of surgery at Cambridge in 1986, possibly the first woman ever to do so. She was appointed as consultant surgeon in general and vascular surgery at Princess Alexandra Hospital in Harlow in 1987 and developed a particular interest in day surgery. There was no dedicated day unit there, so she and a band of enthusiastic helpers helped raise the necessary funds to build one. Her most recent interest was the building of a new surgical wing, opened by the Secretary of State for Health in November 2004, and named in her honour. Jenny was a founder member of Women in Surgical Training, a body formed at the Royal College of Surgeons for the encouragement of training of women in surgery and felt strongly that, at about two per cent, the current representation of female consultant surgeons was unacceptably low. She is remembered as a caring, encouraging, enthusiastic and patient teacher by her junior staff and was nominated by them for a trainer of the year award from the Association of Surgeons in Training. Twelve years ago she developed a melanoma of the eye and after treatment lost the sight of the eye, but continued her professional life and was often known locally as the 'partially sighted, female surgeon from Wareside', to the amusement of her patients. In this capacity she was invited to attend the Woman of the Year lunch in 1993, which was sponsored by the Royal National Institute of the Blind. During this busy professional life, working full-time throughout, Jenny had a fulfilling social and family life. She married Malcolm Lennox, also a consultant surgeon, in 1976, and had two children, Sophie and Sandy. She was a faithful member of St Mary's Church choir and also sang in Ware Choral Society and played the cello. Her manner was sympathetic, concerned and helpful, but most of all she was lively, fun to be with, colourfully dressed and noisy in a delightful way. She died peacefully at home on 5 September 2004.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000002
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Allan, Walter Ramsay (1927 - 2003)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-11-15 2006-07-17
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000100-E000199
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372348372348
Occupation General surgeon
Details Walter Ramsay Allan, known as ‘Peter’, was a consultant surgeon at Bolton Royal Infirmary. Born on 26 October 1927, he was the second of four sons of Walter Ramsay Allan, a general practitioner based in Edinburgh who had fought in the first world war before completing his medical studies at Glasgow University. His mother was Elizabeth Brownlee née Moffat, a classical scholar who studied at Oxford. Peter went to Lincoln College, Oxford, to read medicine, along with his two younger brothers, all of whom represented the university at sport. Peter also won a Scottish cap for cricket in 1950. He went on to Edinburgh for his clinical studies, qualifying in 1951. After house physician and house surgeon posts at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary and Stornaway, he spent two years in the RAMC from 1952 to 1954. He returned to continue his surgical training at Bangor Hospital and Manchester, becoming a senior registrar at Preston and Manchester Royal Infirmaries and finally being appointed consultant surgeon at Bolton. Following his retirement he developed an interest in the Scottish writers of the 18th century and enjoyed walking in the Borders and Pennines. He also enjoyed music and made annual trips to Glyndebourne. He married Anne Evans, a senior house officer in anaesthetics, while he was a surgical registrar. They had two daughters (Ann Ellen Elizabeth and Victoria Jane Moffat) and two sons (Walter Janus Thomas and James Dillwyn Douglas). James became a consultant urologist. Peter died on 12 May 2003.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000161
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
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First Title value, for Searching Cleland, William Paton (1912 - 2005)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-11-15
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000100-E000199
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372349372349
Occupation Thoracic surgeon
Details Bill Cleland was a pioneering thoracic surgeon who helped develop open heart surgery in London in the 1950s. He was born in Sydney, New South Wales, on 30 May 1912, the son of Sir John Burton Cleland, professor of pathology at the University of Adelaide, and Dora Isabel Robson. He was proud to be the 26th head of his ancient Scottish family who were kinsmen of William Wallace. He was educated at Scotch College, Adelaide, and Adelaide University, where he qualified in 1934. He then completed two years as house physician and house surgeon at the Royal Adelaide and the Adelaide Children’s Hospital. He went to England, to King’s College Hospital, in 1938 to be a resident medical officer and passed the MRCP. With the outbreak of war he was evacuated with King’s to Horton, Surrey, where he was busy in the Emergency Medical Service dealing with wartime injuries. This generated an interest in surgery: he quickly passed the FRCS and then went on in 1948 to the Brompton Hospital as house physician and resident medical officer, where he was influenced by Russell Brock, Tudor Edwards and Price Thomas. He soon specialised in chest surgery, moving gradually on into cardiac surgery. He was appointed consultant thoracic surgeon at King’s College Hospital and the Brompton in 1948, and the following year as a lecturer at the Hammersmith, where he worked with Denis Melrose on the prototype heart-lung machine with which he performed the first successful open-heart operation in Britain in 1953. He was a pioneer in the subsequent development of cardiac by-pass surgery, which he described in a classic paper in *Thorax* in 1983. He wrote more than 70 papers, and was much sought after abroad, setting up cardiothoracic units in Russia, Egypt, Iraq, Syria and Iceland. He was consultant adviser in thoracic surgery to the Department of Health and the Royal Navy. He married Norah Goodhart in 1940 who predeceased him. They had two sons and a daughter. In retirement he continued to follow up his old patients, and enjoy his hobbies of fishing, the opera, gardening and beekeeping. A strongly built man, he became somewhat frail in old age, and died peacefully at home in Goodworth Clatford, Hampshire, on 29 March 2005, just before his 93rd birthday.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000162
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
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First Title value, for Searching Doll, Sir William Richard Shaboe (1912 - 2005)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-11-15
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000100-E000199
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372350372350
Occupation Epidemiologist
Details Sir Richard Doll, the most distinguished epidemiologist of his generation, established that smoking causes cancer and heart disease. Born in Hampton, Middlesex, on 28 October 1912, he was the son of Henry William Doll, a general practitioner, and Amy Kathleen Shaboe. He was educated at Westminster and St Thomas’ Hospital, doing junior jobs as casualty officer, anaesthetist and house physician. He began his research career under Paul Wood at Hammersmith, while working as a resident medical officer at the London Clinic. When war broke out he was called up into the RAMC, where he served as a battalion medical officer at Dunkirk, was posted to a hospital ship, and served in the invasion of Sicily. He contracted tuberculosis of the kidney in 1944, underwent a nephrectomy, and was discharged in early 1945. He took a course on statistics under Sir Austin Bradford Hill, who was impressed by him, and in 1948 that he went to work with Bradford Hill at the Medical Research Council. They began to study the causes of the huge increase in deaths from cancer of the lung. It was a time when smoking was regarded as normal and harmless. Their preliminary study of hospital patients with cancer of the lung and other diseases showed, to their surprise, that those with lung cancer were smokers, those with other diseases were not. This was confirmed by a prospective study on doctors’ smoking habits. At this stage Doll himself gave up smoking. Immensely distinguished, honoured by innumerable institutions, Doll was a genial and likeable man whose juniors adored him. One of his last public speeches was to a meeting of the Oxford Medical Graduates Club, where to the relief of his audience he showed that there was no statistical harm done by wine. When asked how much, he replied: “enough”. Doll married Joan Mary Faulkner in 1949. They had a son and daughter. He died on 24 July 2005.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000163
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
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First Title value, for Searching Hardy, James Daniel (1918 - 2003)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-11-15 2007-08-09
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000100-E000199
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372351372351
Occupation Thoracic surgeon
Details James Daniel Hardy was an organ transplant pioneer and the first chairman of the department of surgery and surgeon in chief at the University Medical Center, Jackson, Mississippi. Board certified by both the American Board of Surgery and the Board of Thoracic Surgery and a fellow of the American College of Surgeons, Hardy worked to improve medical and surgical care in Mississippi throughout his career of teaching, caring for patients and clinical research. Over 200 surgeons trained with him during his tenure as chairman of the department of surgery from 1955 to 1987. Born in Birmingham, Alabama, on 14 May 1918, the elder of twin boys, he was the son of Fred Henry Hardy, owner of a lime plant, and Julia Poyner Hardy, a schoolteacher. His early childhood was tough and frugal, thanks to the Depression. He was educated at Montevallo High School, where he played football for the school, and learned to play the trombone. He completed his premedical studies at the University of Alabama, where he excelled in German, and went on to the University of Pennsylvania to study medicine, and during his physiology course carried out a research project (on himself) to show that olive oil introduced into the duodenum would inhibit the production of gastric acid - an exercise which gave him a lifelong interest in research. At the same time he joined the Officers Training Corps. In his last year he published research into the effect of sulphonamide on wound healing. After receiving his MD he entered postgraduate training for a year as an intern and a resident in internal medicine at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and also conducted research on circulatory physiology. Research became a vital part of his professional life. His military service in the second world war was with the 81st Field Hospital. In the New Year of 1945 he found himself in London, before crossing to France and the last months of the invasion of Germany. After VE Day his unit was sent out to the Far East, but when news arrived of the Japanese surrender his ship made a U-turn and they landed back in the United States. He returned to Philadelphia to complete his surgical residency under Isidor Ravdin. He was a senior Damon Runyon fellow in clinical research and was awarded a masters of medical science in physiological chemistry by the University of Pennsylvania in 1951 for his research on heavy water and the measurement of body fluids. That same year Hardy became an assistant professor of surgery and director of surgical research at the University of Tennessee College of Medicine at Memphis, later he was to become an associate professor, and continued in this position until 1955, when he became the first professor of surgery and chairman of the department of surgery at the newly established University of Mississippi Medical Center, School of Medicine, Jackson. As a surgeon charged with establishing an academic training programme, Hardy became known as a charismatic teacher and indefatigable physician. He also actively pursued and encouraged clinical research in the newly established department of surgery. His group’s years of research in the laboratory led to the first kidney autotransplant in man for high ureteral injury, and to advances in the then emerging field of human organ transplantation. The first lung transplant in man was performed at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in 1963 and in 1964 Hardy and his team carried out the first heart transplantation using a chimpanzee as a donor. Hardy authored, co-authored or edited more than 23 medical books, including two which became standard surgery texts, and published more than 500 articles and chapters in medical publications. He served on numerous editorial boards and as editor-in-chief of *The World Journal of Surgery*. He also produced a volume of autobiographical memoirs, *The Academic surgeon* (Mobile, Alabama, Magnolia Mansions Press, c.2002), which is a most readable and vivid account of the American residency system and its emphasis on research, which has been such a model for the rest of the world. Over the course of his career he served as president of the American College of Surgeons, the American Surgical Association, the International Surgical Society and the Society of University Surgeons and was a founding member of the International Surgical Group and the Society for Surgery of the Alimentary tract. He was an honorary fellow of the College, of the l’Académie Nationale de Médicine and l’Association Français de Chirurgie. The proceedings of the 1983 surgical forum of the American College of Surgeons was dedicated to Hardy, citing him as “…an outstanding educator, investigator, clinical surgeon and international leader.” In 1987 Hardy retired from the department of surgery and served in the Veteran’s Administration Hospital system as a distinguished VA physician from 1987 to 1990. He married Louise (Weezie) Scott Sams in 1949. They had four daughters: Louise, Julia Ann, Bettie and Katherine. He died on 19 February 2003. An annual James D Hardy lectureship has been established in his honour at the department of surgery, University Medical Center, Jackson.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000164
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First Title value, for Searching Guthrie, Charles W Gardiner (1817 - 1859)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-07-07 2012-07-19
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000000-E000099
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372193372193
Occupation General surgeon
Details The younger son of George James Guthrie (q.v.) by his first wife Margaret Paterson, daughter of the Lieutenant-Governor of Prince Edward's Island. He was educated at the Westminster Hospital, where he was elected Assistant Surgeon in 1843 on the resignation of his father in his favour. He became Surgeon and Lecturer on Surgery, and resigned on the ground of ill health shortly before his death. He was also Assistant Surgeon to the Westminster Ophthalmic Hospital, where his father was Surgeon, and succeeded him as Surgeon. He practised at 18 Pall Mall East, but retiring to Clifton died there of ascites due to a liver complaint in August, 1859. He never married, his elder brother left no children, and his sister died unmarried, so that the family of Guthrie ended. Charles Guthrie was a capable surgeon and a dextrous operator, both in the large operations of general surgery and the more delicate ones on the eye. He was kindly, generous, and very sociable; a cause of much anxiety to his father, who on more than one occasion had to pay for cattle shot on the Thames marshes under the impression that they were big game. He might have done well. PUBLICATIONS: - *On the Cure of Squinting by the Division of one of the Straight Muscles of the Eye*, 8vo, London, 2nd ed., 1840. *Report on the Result of the Operations for the Cure of Squinting performed at the Royal Westminster Ophthalmic Hospital between 18 April and 30 October,* 1840, 8vo, Westminster, 1840. *On Cataract and its Appropriate Treatment by the Operation Adapted for each Peculiar Case*, 8vo, plate, London, 1845.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000006
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First Title value, for Searching Hames, George Henry ( - 1909)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

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://scp.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
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First Title value, for Searching Keate, Robert (1777 - 1857)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

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://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372195372195
Occupation General surgeon
Details The fourth son of William Keate, D.D., rector of Laverton, Somerset; was born at Laverton on March 14th, 1777. John Keate, his elder brother (1773-1852), was the well-known and ferocious head master of Eton. Robert Keate was educated at Bath Grammar School until 1792, when he was apprenticed to his uncle, Thomas Keate, who in 1798 was elected Surgeon to St. George's Hospital in succession to Charles Hawkins, and was also appointed in the same year Surgeon General to the Army in succession to John Hunter. Robert Keate entered St. George's Hospital in 1793, and was made Hospital Mate in 1794 and Deputy Purveyor to the Forces on Sept. 26th, 1795. In 1798 he became a member of the Surgeons' Corporation and was appointed Staff Surgeon in the Army, from which he retired on half pay on March 25th, 1810, with the rank of Inspector-General of Hospitals. In 1800 he was appointed Assistant Surgeon to his uncle at St. George's Hospital, where he succeeded him as full Surgeon in 1813, and held the post until 1853, outstaying his powers. He was early introduced to practice among the royal family. In 1798 he attended the Princess Amelia at Worthing, who was suffering from a "white swelling of the knee". The Duke of Clarence, later King William IV, always showed great confidence in him, and made him Serjeant-Surgeon Extraordinary, and in 1841 Queen Victoria continued him as Serjeant-Surgeon. Keate used to say, "I have attended four sovereigns and have been badly paid for my services. One of them, now deceased, owed me nine thousand guineas"; but William IV always paid, though there is no doubt that Keate's frequent visits to Windsor led to some loss of practice. It is told of him that he one day received an urgent summons to Windsor to see Queen Adelaide, and he arrived there about the breakfast hour. The Queen, who was suffering from a pain in the knee, gave Keate a hint that the presence of the King might be dispensed with. Keate accordingly said to the King, "Will your Majesty be kind enough to leave the room?" "Keate," replied the King, "I'm damned if I go." Keate looked at the King for a moment and quietly said, "Then, your Majesty, I'm damned if I stay." When Keate got as far as the door the King called him back and said, "I believe you are right, and that you doctors can do anything; but had a Prime Minister or the Lord Chancellor ventured to do as you have done, the next day I should have addressed his successor." Keate contributed little to the literature of his profession, yet he rose to the highest eminence in it. He was anxious to avoid operations, yet he was a good operator, accurate in diagnosis, and a sound practitioner. Timothy Holmes (q.v.) remembered Keate as a very old man when he but seldom visited the hospital. He once saw him operate and his hand shook terribly. Holmes, too, recollected his saving the limb of a lad from amputation after the Assistant Surgeon had actually ordered the boy into the operating theatre. He was a terror to his house surgeons and dressers from the violence of his temper and language. He clung to office at the hospital - there was no rule as to retirement then - until he was bullied into giving up by certain of the governors, who persisted in inquiring at every meeting how often the senior surgeon had visited the hospital, and for how long, and who did the work there which he did not do. Keate was sensible of the value of the scientific advancement of surgery, and deserves our recollection as a good surgeon and an honest man. Sir Benjamin Brodie spoke highly of Keate, who was slightly his senior; and he joined with Brodie in the effort, which the latter began, to raise the surgical practice of the hospital to a higher level, by more careful and systematic visits to the patients, and by more constant and regular instruction of the students. He won the warm friendship of his great contemporary, who speaks of him in his autobiography in the following terms: "He was a perfect gentleman in every sense of the word; kind in his feelings, open, honest and upright in his conduct. His professional knowledge and his general character made him a most useful officer of the Hospital; and now that our *game has been played*, it is with great satisfaction that I look back to the long and disinterested friendship that existed between us." With his death was ended the direct connection of the Serjeant-Surgeoncy with the Army. At the College of Surgeons he was co-opted to the Court of Assistants in 1822, being the last person to be so chosen, and continued as a life member of the Council until 1857. He was President in the years 1831 and 1839, and he served and acted as Examiner from 1827-1855. He married the youngest daughter of H. Ramus, an Indian Civil Servant, by whom he had two sons and four daughters. [One daughter married W E Page FRCP and was the mother of H M Page (1860-1942) FRCS 1886, qv in Supplement.] One of his sons, Robert William Keate (1814-1873), was successively Governor of Trinidad, of Natal, and of the Gold Coast. Keate is described as being a square, compact little man, with a rough complaining voice. He was unmistakably a gentleman, but there was something of the 'Scotch terrier roughness' in all that he said and did. He was always a favourite with the pupils, who never turned him into ridicule in spite of his trying ways. Keate was perfect in minor surgery, the placing of limbs, and bandaging, and was reputed to be the only man who could make a linseed-meal poultice to perfection. He did marvels, too, with red precipitate ointment, saying, "My uncle used it for many years. I have used it all my life, that's why I use it." In standard operations, such as amputation of the thigh by the circular method, he excelled even Robert Liston (q.v.). In chronic and painful diseases of joints he used the cautery freely, and his judgement of tumours was good but wholly empirical. He did not care for anatomy, and he had no other tastes but surgery. He died in Hertford Street, Mayfair, on Oct. 2nd, 1857. A portrait of him hangs in the Board Room at St. George's Hospital. PUBLICATIONS: - Keate wrote only two papers: - "History of a Case of Bony Tumour containing Hydatids Successfully Removed from the Head of a Femur." - *Med.-Chir. Trans.*, 1819, x, 278. "Case of Exfoliation from the Basilar Process of the Occipital Bone and from the Atlas after Excessive Use of Mercury." - *Lond. Med. Gaz*., 1834-5, xvi, 13 (with drawing): Le Gros Clark referred to the specimen and reproduced the drawing in the Med.-Chir. Trans., 1849, xxxii, 68.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000008
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

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://scp.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 Glashan, Robin Wattie (1933 - 2003)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

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

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

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

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

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

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

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

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

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

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

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

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

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

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

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

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

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

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

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

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

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

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

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

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

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

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

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

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

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

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

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

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

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

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://scp.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 Arnott, James Moncrieff (1794 - 1885)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

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://scp.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 Green, Joseph Henry (1791 - 1863)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

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

First Title value, for Searching Luke, James (1799 - 1881)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

First Title value, for Searching South, John Flint (1797 - 1882)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-08-10 2012-07-19
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000000-E000099
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372207372207
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born on July 3rd, 1797, the eldest son by his second wife of James South, a druggist in Southwark. Sir James South (1785-1867), President of the Royal Astronomical Society, who also qualified as a medical man, was his half-brother. His father made money by prescribing for immense numbers of children with bowel complaints. John Flint South was put to school in October, 1805, with the Rev. Samuel Hemming, D.D., at Hampton, Middlesex, where he remained until June, 1813, making such good progress in Latin that in after-life he was selected to examine the articled pupils in that language before they were apprenticed at the Royal College of Surgeons of England. He began to attend the practice of St. Thomas's Hospital a few weeks after leaving school, and on Feb. 18th, 1814, was apprenticed, for the usual sum of 500 guineas, as an articled pupil to Henry Cline the younger, then a Surgeon at the Hospital. He attended Sir Astley Cooper's lectures on anatomy, and made the acquaintance in 1813 of Joseph Henry Green (q.v.), a fellow-apprentice whose support proved afterwards of the greatest service to him. He was admitted M.R.C.S on Aug. 6th, 1819, six months before he had completed his indentures. He then acted for some months as prosector to the Lecturers on Anatomy at St. Thomas's Hospital, and on Dec. 14th, 1810, was appointed Conservator of the Museum and Assistant Demonstrator of Anatomy for a term of three years at a salary of £100 a year. He was elected Demonstrator of Anatomy jointly with Bransby Cooper (q.v.) in February, 1823, and on the retirement of Sir Astley Cooper he was appointed Lecturer on Anatomy in 1825 in preference to Bransby Cooper, an event which put the culminating stroke to the disagreements between the two Borough Hospitals and led to the separation of the Medical Schools of Guy's and St. Thomas's. He was elected Assistant Surgeon to St.Thomas's Hospital - a post specifically made for him - on April 9th, 1834, and succeeded Benjamin Travers, senr. (q.v.), as full Surgeon on July 28th, 1841. This post he resigned in April, 1863, having retired from the lectureship of surgery in April, 1860. An attack of illness - largely of a neurotic character - led him to resign his lectureship on anatomy in 1841, and to move from London to Morden Road, Blackheath Park, where he lived for the rest of his life. At the Royal College of Surgeons, South was a Member of the Council from 1841-1873. In 1844 he delivered the Hunterian Oration, which was planned on so large a scale that he never arrived at Hunter's period in the history of medicine. From 1845-1847 he was Professor of Human Anatomy; a Member of the Court of Examiners from 1849-1868; Chairman of the Midwifery Board in 1859; and a Member of the Dental Board from 1864-1868. He served as Vice-President during the years 1849, 1850, 1858, and 1859, and was elected President in 1851 and 1860. As Vice-President in 1859 he signalized his year of office by getting the body of John Hunter re-buried in Westminster Abbey, and wrote the inscription for his monument. The last twenty years of his life were spent in gathering materials for a history of English surgery. The materials he accumulated became unmanageable, were afterwards edited by D'Archy Power at the request of his widow, and were published under the title The Craft of Surgery in 1886. The original manuscript volumes containing a transcript of the Court Minutes of the Barber-Surgeons' Company of London, 1540-1745, got scattered and some found their way to Canada. In 1852 he made a journey to Sweden for the purpose of introducing the vegetable marrow, and for this service the Swedish Horticultural Society at Stockholm awarded him its Linnean Medal in bronze at the instigation of his friend, Professor Retzius. South married: (1) in 1832 Mrs. John Wrench, the second daughter of Thomas Lett, of Dulwich House, and (2) in 1864 Emma, daughter of John Louis Lemme, of Antwerp and London, the niece of his life-long friend, J. H. Green. Children of both marriages survived him. He died at Blackheath Park on Jan. 8th, 1882, and was buried in Charlton Cemetery. There is an excellent bust by H. Weekes, R.A., which was executed in 1872. A steel engraving is prefixed to Feltoe's *Memorials*, and his portrait by T. H. Maguire (1840), lithographed by M. & N. Hanhart, is in the Young Collection at the Royal College of Surgeons. South was a man of varied attainments, who had many interests outside his professional work. As a surgeon his name is linked with an historical specimen preserved in the Museum at St. Thomas's Hospital. It is a case of ligature of the abdominal aorta for an aneurysm of the iliac artery. He tells of the operation in the diary which he kept from boyhood; - "June 21st, 1856. At eight this morning went with Sutton Sams to *Dreadnought*, to find Black and get body to take up aorta, which I did pretty well: back home: left by 12.21 North Kent to Hospital. There met Green in consultation about aneurysm case and settled with him about tying aorta. Mr. Simon and Busk afterwards saw it. Waited for Luke but he did not come. I was in a great state of anxiety during the hour; but I had prayed earnestly for help last night and constantly during the morning and was most graciously heard. We went into the theatre a little after two and though it took long to get the patient under chloroform, directly I sat down I was perfectly calm: went through the operation with great quiet and self-possession and not to the disadvantage of the patient. Green, Solly and Clark and also Croft, who had come up from the *Dreadnought*, were very able assistants and part of myself. I never operated with more self-command and steadiness: and He knows in whose help alone I relied: how thankful I am for an answer to my prayers." South was old-fashioned in dress, wearing a black cut-away coat with large pockets, and a high white stock round his neck. His face was close shaved, and his appearance generally somewhat puritanical. His manners were punctilious, but he was easily roused to wrath and did not then measure his language. He was deeply religious, and threw himself with zeal into church work, especially in connection with Sunday schools. From 1843 onwards he was Surgeon to the Female Orphan Asylum. It is characteristic of the leisurely times in which he lived that when an emergency case was admitted to the Hospital during his week on duty, the porter would be sent in a cab to Blackheath to fetch him, a distance of six or seven miles. In 1831 he was a prime mover in establishing the Surrey Zoological Gardens and Botanical Society. PUBLICATIONS: - As an author South is best known by his edition of Von Cheliu's *System of Surgery * (2 vols., 8vo, London, 1847), into which he wove so large a mass of his own experience that it is still of value as representing the surgery of his time. *A Short Description of the Bones*, 32mo, London, 1825; 3rd ed., 8vo, 1837. *South's Knochen-Lehre*, 16mo, Berlin, 1844. *Household Surgery*, 12mo, London, 1847, which had a large sale and of which a 5th edition appeared in 1880. He also assisted J. H. Green in preparing the second and third editions of *The Dissector's Manual*, 8vo, London, 1825.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000020
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Raje, Dilip Raghunath (1936 - 2007)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2008-02-07
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000400-E000499
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372630372630
Occupation General surgeon
Details Dilip Raje was a former consultant surgeon in Jamaica and senior lecturer at the University of the West Indies. He was born in Gwalior, India, on 26 October 1936, the son of Raghunath Raje, a professor of English literature, and Vaidehi née Kotwal, a headmistress. He was educated at the Aryan Education Society’s School and Anand College, Bombay, where he matriculated with a distinction in mathematics in 1951. He then went to Victoria College, Gwalior, where he graduated in science in 1953, before entering Vikram (now Jiwaji) Medical College, Gwalior, qualifying in 1958. After a year as a house surgeon, he spent two years as a research assistant at his medical college, where the principal, Balkrishna Rao, was a great influence. He then went to England to specialise in surgery, working first at the General Hospital in Sunderland as a senior house officer and then as a registrar in Dryburn Hospital, Durham. He then held posts at the Royal Infirmary and Ronkswood hospitals, Worcester. In 1972 he went to Jamaica, working as a registrar at Kingston Public Hospital for two years. There he was singled out by Sir Harry Annamunthodo and appointed consultant to the University Hospital of the West Indies, being promoted to senior consultant surgeon and lecturer in surgery, and then senior lecturer. His surgical work, which was characterised by uncompromising thoroughness, included highly selective vagotomy, but was mainly centred on cancer. From 1985 to 1987 he was professor of surgery at the National University of Malaysia and there he set up the Malaysian Breast Cancer Rehabilitation Group. He returned to his post in Jamaica, where he became dean of the faculty of medicine in 1991. He attended courses in the UK on hospice care, at St Christopher’s Hospice and Birmingham, and on retirement from the University of the West Indies in 1997 returned to the UK to work as a consultant in palliative medicine and as clinical director of the Myton Hamlet Hospice, Warwick. He was appointed as a clinical tutor at Birmingham University in 1998 and to the Leicester Medical School in 2002. Raje was an honorary consultant to the Jamaica Cancer Society and the Missionaries of Charity, one of Mother Teresa’s foundations. Also in Jamaica, he founded the Hospice Homecare Centre, the Stoma Association and Reach to Recovery – a group for breast rehabilitation. On his return to England, he became a lay member of the Patient Liaison Group of the Royal College of Physicians, in which capacity he was a member of working parties which formulated the RCP response to the European Commission. On its foundation he became a keen member of the Senior Fellows Association of our College. His keen interest in cancer care helped him with his own battle with leukaemia, which was diagnosed three months before his retirement in 2001. He outlined his experience in the seventeenth Sir Harry Annamunthodo memorial lecture, describing the isolation he felt (“no trees, no pets, no birds”), the weight loss and some of the insensitive remarks made by the members of the medical team. Finally, he achieved remission and life became “less complicated”. Living with cancer, he found, meant no procrastination, no long term plans. When he suffered a relapse in 2005 he once again adopted a philosophical approach which helped him through more chemotherapy treatment. In May 2007, he was diagnosed with colon and prostate cancer and, after palliative surgery, was cared for by colleagues in Myton Hamlet Hospice. He spent his final weeks at home in the Lake District, where he had moved after his retirement, being cared for by his wife and daughter. He married Maureen Clasper, a nurse whom he met in Sunderland, in 1966. They had one daughter, Fiona, who became a senior lecturer in transport. A keen cricketer in his youth, he continued to follow cricket, and attended the world cup final in Barbados in April 2007 shortly before the onset of his last illness. He died on 7 September 2007.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000446
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Belsey, Ronald Herbert Robert (1910 - 2007)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2008-02-07 2009-01-16
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Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000400-E000499
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372631372631
Occupation Thoracic surgeon
Details Ronnie Belsey was a consultant thoracic surgeon, known worldwide for his innovative techniques in oesophageal surgery. He was born on 2 April 1910 in London, the son of Herbert Robert Belsey, a dental surgeon, and Marie Martha Annie née Moller. He was educated at Woodbridge School, Suffolk. There he excelled, not only in his studies but also in a variety of sports, and was made head prefect in 1926. From Woodbridge he won an entrance scholarship to St Thomas’ Hospital where, in addition to medical studies, he played rugby and ice hockey. Among his memories of this period he recounted the two London hospitals cup finals against St Mary’s, both of which Tommy’s won. After qualifying with the conjoint diploma in 1934, he went on to sit the London MB BS examination, winning the coveted Beaney prize for surgery (with honours). During his training he was house surgeon on the surgical unit to Max Page, Hugo Romanis and Norman (Pasty) Barrett. In later years he could concede that Barrett had a major influence in moulding his interests in oesophageal surgery. In 1936 he moved to the Brompton Hospital as a resident surgical officer, working with the doyens of thoracic surgery - Tudor Edwards, J E H Roberts and Clement Price Thomas, not to mention the up and coming Russell Claude Brock. With Roberts he was closely involved in developing extrapleural pneumonolysis and artificial pneumothorax in the treatment of pulmonary tuberculosis. At the same time Brock was breaking new ground in our College in defining the anatomy of the bronchial tree. These influences by the giants of thoracic surgery kindled in Belsey a lasting interest in that field. In 1937 he was awarded the Dorothy Temple Cross scholarship, which enabled him to go to the USA as a research fellow at the Harvard Medical School, acting as clinical assistant to Edward (Pete) Churchill. The outcome of this collaboration was the outstanding contribution which they jointly made to pulmonary surgery: ‘Segmental pneumonectomy in bronchiectasis’ (*Annals of Surgery*, Vol.109, 1939, No.4, pp.481-499). He rounded this year off with a paper presented in Atlanta to the American Association of Thoracic Surgeons on extrapleural pneumothorax. On returning to England, he was appointed as a resident assistant surgeon at St Thomas’ Hospital, in time to witness the outbreak of the Second World War. With the evacuation of the medical school to locations outside London, Belsey was left with a skeleton surgical staff to cope with war casualties, an experience he cherished. In 1941 he was sent down to the West Country to establish a thoracic surgical service for the south west region. Having initially worked at a tuberculosis sanatorium in Kew Stoke, outside Weston-super-Mare, in 1944 he moved to Frenchay Hospital, which until then had been a Nissen-hutted evacuation hospital run by the US Army Medical Corps for war casualties. Here he established the south west regional thoracic centre, training surgeons to man units in Tehidi (for Cornwall and south Devon) and Bovey Tracey (for north Devon). From the outset he worked on the principle (to put it in his own words): “you cannot make friends and at the same time get things done”. True to his word, he went ahead and made several enemies. The result was an excellent thoracic surgical centre manned by two consultants, well known all over the world, training surgeons who went on to lead some of the best centres in Europe and North America. He received a constant stream of trainees from the USA and Canada, initially from the Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, and later from the Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore. In reciprocation he made a visit each year to the USA to attend the annual meeting of the American Association of Thoracic Surgeons. It was on one such visit in 1966 that he delivered the honoured guest lecture to that association on the surgical treatment of functional diseases of the oesophagus, which to this day remains the authoritative paper on the subject. He will however be remembered for the Mark IV operation for control of gastro-oesophageal reflux. His interest in hiatal herniation was initiated during the year he spent in Boston, when Harrington presented his paper on the anatomical repair of hiatus hernia. Whilst working in Frenchay, Belsey made several attempts at a physiological repair constructing an anti-reflux valve mechanism. Having designated these attempts as Marks I to III, he came to the conclusion that a 270 degree partial inversion wrap produced the best result. This he called the Mark IV repair, the description and results of which were only communicated to the surgical world, not by himself but by his senior registrar, after a ten year follow-up of his patients. In the early fifties, with declining tuberculosis and bronchiectasis, and an increasing potential for cardiac surgery, the regional thoracic centre became the regional cardio-thoracic centre. Closed heart surgery flourished and with the advent of open heart surgery ‘the B’ (as Belsey came to be known) was invited to move the open-heart unit to the Bristol Royal Infirmary. Like the true researcher that he was, he set off to study cardiopulmonary bypass on animals at the Bristol University Veterinary School in Langford. He then took himself off to join his friend Charles Drew at the Westminster Hospital to learn the technique of profound hypothermia using quadruple cannulation. He returned to set up the cardiac unit at the Infirmary, devoting his time to the Children’s Hospital, Bristol Royal Infirmary and Frenchay. Despite his commitment to paediatric cardiac surgery, his main interest was in congenital tracheo-oesophageal fistula, atresia and other non-cardiac conditions in the newborn. He was a pioneer in the use of the left hemicolon in oesophageal replacement surgery and a firm believer in the place of stainless steel wire sutures in thoracic surgery, a conclusion arrived at in the tuberculosis era. Belsey was a meticulous technical surgeon, handling tissues with the utmost gentleness, and working with dexterity and complete economy of hand movement. “Doctor, remember you are dealing with human flesh, handle it with care, not macerate it,” he would tell his assistant if the latter was caught manhandling the organs. Even when confronted with a complex situation in the operating room ‘the B’ was in total command, and his assistants knew that he was. In 1973 he was awarded the Colles medal by the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, and a year later the Sir Clement Price Thomas medal of our College. In 1983 he delivered the Tudor Edwards memorial lecture under the auspices of our College. He also collected medals from the universities of Leiden and Padua for services to thoracic surgery. Belsey retired from the National Health Service in 1975 and in the following year was invited to join the department of surgery at the University of Chicago, where he spent six months of each year participating in teaching postgraduates until 1988. He published extensively and co-edited a book on *Gastroesophageal reflux and hiatal hernia* (Little Brown, 1972) and in 1988 (with David Skinner) the monumental textbook *Management of esophageal disease* (Philadelphia, Saunders). He travelled worldwide, and held visiting professorships in several universities in Europe and America. He took great delight in spending short sojurns in Cairo, operating on children with corrosive strictures of the gullet. He was awarded honorary memberships and fellowships of several surgical societies both in Europe and America. He was an early member of Brown’s Club and a founder-member of the Esophageal Club in the United States. He was a past president of the Society of Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland. In 1996 during the presidency of the European Association for Cardio-Thoracic Surgery of his last registrar in Bristol, he was made an honorary member, the citation being presented by his last senior registrar and successor at Frenchay. Early in his surgical career, Belsey started planning for his retirement. He was an excellent shot, an aptitude he attributed to the genes he acquired from his father who had won several prizes at Bisley. He was a member of the Bristol Gun Club and was a collector both of long and short firearms. He was a keen fly fisherman and belonged to the Frenchay Fly Fishing Club, which met regularly on the Usk in Monmouthshire. When time permitted he would disappear into the depths of the Devon countryside with a local group of fly fishermen, delicately designing his own flies, and fishing on the Dart. In 1969 he acquired Combestone, an old farmhouse with a stretch of the river below Dartmeet. This was the family weekend retreat. Belsey married Pauline May Tilbury in October 1941, a graduate of the Florence Nightingale School of Nursing at St Thomas’. Pauline, who loved the farm and nursed many a delicate and feeble lamb into healthy adulthood, died in 2000. They had three daughters, one of whom, Gay, died in infancy. Annabelle trained as a nurse at St Thomas’, where she became a theatre sister and is married to an anaesthetist, Stuart Ingram: they have two sons. Gillian followed her father into medicine, became a senior partner in a general practice in north Devon and predeceased Ronald in 2002. With increasing inability to walk down to his beloved Dart, Belsey took to carving handles for walking sticks out of wood and bone, which he would give away to friends and visitors. Despite his reluctance to move out of his farmhouse, and the dedicated support of his nursing carer, Dorothy Steele, it became clear that a remote dwelling on Dartmoor was not the best place for a 94 year old. In March 2004 he agreed to move to a nursing home in Denbury, near Newton Abbot, where he remained with excellent mental facilities, able to converse intelligently until his last days. Ronald Belsey died on 22 May 2007. His funeral service at the church of St Mary the Virgin, Holne, was attended by members of his family, fishing and local friends, and several of his medical and surgical colleagues and former trainees, who later retired next door to the Church House Inn, a popular old haunt of his.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000447
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

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

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

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

First Title value, for Searching Salz, Michael Heinz (1916 - 2005)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

First Title value, for Searching Scott, James Steel (1924 - 2006)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2007-05-10
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000300-E000399
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372538372538
Occupation Obstetrician and gynaecologist
Details James Scott was professor of obstetrics and gynaecology at Leeds University. He was born in Glasgow on 18 April 1924, the elder son of Angus McAlpine Scott and Margaret Scott. He was educated at Glasgow Academy and then studied medicine at Glasgow University, gaining his obstetric experience at the Rotunda, Dublin. After qualifying he completed his National Service in West Africa. Following his demobilisation he trained in obstetrics and gynaecology at Queen Charlotte’s Hospital, London, and then in Birmingham, before moving to Liverpool in 1954 as an obstetric tutor. He became a lecturer and then senior lecturer, at a time when Sir Thomas Jeffcoate was head of the department. Here Scott carried out research into placental abnormalities. He was appointed to the chair of obstetrics at Leeds in 1961, becoming dean of medicine in 1986. His main interest was fetoplacental function, and he was the first to recognise that transplacental passage of harmful maternal antibodies could lead to hyperthyroidism and shortage of platelets in the newborn. He had a particular interest in pre-eclampsia, which he discovered was more common and more serious in pregnancies where the mother had a new male partner, and carried out research into repeated miscarriage. He was much in demand as a visiting professor. Always hyperactive, he detested golf, though he wrote a biography of Alister McKenzie, a designer of golf courses. He was a keen skier, was passionate about opera, the arts in general and his house in Scotland. He died from prostate cancer on 17 September 2006, and is survived by his wife Olive (née Sharpe), a consultant paediatric cardiologist, and two sons.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000352
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Till, Anthony Stedman (1909 - 2006)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

First Title value, for Searching Walt, Alexander Jeffrey (1923 - 1996)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2007-05-10 2022-02-03
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000300-E000399
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372540372540
Occupation General surgeon Trauma surgeon
Details Alexander Walt was a former president of the American College of Surgeons. He was born in Cape Town, South Africa, in 1923 and went to school and university there. After qualifying in 1948 he completed his house jobs at Groote Schuur Hospital, Cape Town, before winning a Dominion studentship to Guy’s Hospital in 1951. He then completed a surgical residency in the USA, at the Mayo Clinic, from 1952 to 1956. He returned to the UK, as a surgical registrar at St Martin’s Hospital, Bath, where he remained until 1957. He then went back to Cape Town, to the Groote Schuur Hospital, as an assistant surgeon for the next four years. He was subsequently appointed to Wayne State University School of Medicine in Detroit, Michigan, USA, where in 1966 he became professor and chairman of the department of surgery. He was recognised by his peers by his election to the presidency of the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma in 1997, the presidency of the Western Surgical Association in 1987, and the presidency of the American College of Surgeons in 1995. **See below for an additional obituary uploaded 8 October 2015:** Alec Walt was born in Cape Town in 1923, the son of Isaac Walt, a wholesale grocer who had emigrated to South Africa from Lithuania to escape the pogrom. When only two and a half years of age, his mother, Lea, née Garb, and two sisters were killed in a train crash, but his father was determined that all three sons be educated – and all three became doctors. At Grey High School in Port Elizabeth he distinguished himself as a sportsman and formed a lifelong friendship with Bill (later Sir Raymond) Hoffenberg. Together they entered the University of Cape Town as medical students in 1940, but an acute sense of patriotism led them to volunteer for service with the army medical corps – which was approved only at the third attempt. They served for three and a half years with the 6th SA Armoured Division and 5th US Army in Egypt and Greece, and throughout the whole of the Italian campaign, during which time they spent many hours planning how to fail trivial army examinations so that they could remain together as privates in the same unit. It was service with a surgical team in the field which instilled a long-abiding interest in trauma and served him well in later years during his time in Detroit. He played rugby for the Mediterranean forces, and was disappointed that circumstances did not allow him to accept a place in the army team in London where he hoped to see his brother after a 25 year absence. With army planning at the time, he also missed the appointment for an interview for a possible Rhodes scholarship. On demobilisation in 1945, Alec Walt returned to medical school, graduating in 1948 and serving his internship in Groote Schuur Hospital. In 1947 he married Irene Lapping, with whom he had been close friends since boyhood, and they went abroad for his surgical training, firstly to attend the basic science course for the primary fellowship of the College, and then to undertake residency training at the Mayo Clinic. While there he qualified FRCS Canada in 1955 and MS Minnesota in 1956. Returning to England as surgical registrar at St Martin’s Hospital, Bath, he took his final FRCS in 1956 before returning to Groote Schuur with his wife and three children – John Richard, born in 1952, Steven David, born in 1954, and Lindsay Jane, born in 1955 – as an assistant surgeon and lecturer. However, he became increasingly concerned that his family should not be brought up in the political climate of South Africa and in 1961 left a flourishing practice to return to the United States and an appointment with the Veterans Hospital in Detroit. His abilities were clearly recognised, for in 1965 he was appointed Chief of Surgery at Detroit General (later Receiving) Hospital, and the following year Chairman of Surgery and Penerthy Professor of Surgery of the Wayne State University School of Medicine, from which he retired in 1988. He was assistant and, from 1968 to 1970, associate dean of the medical school. As Professor of Surgery, Alec Walt gained recognition as a superb teacher and distinguished academic. He was designated ‘clinical teacher of the year’ on no fewer than three occasions and in 1984 received the Lawrence M Weiner award of the Alumni Association for outstanding achievements as a non-alumnus. On his retirement in 1988, he was a visiting fellow in Oxford with his old friend Bill Hoffenberg, then President of Wolfson College and also of the Royal College of Physicians. He was elected to the Academy of Scholars and was designated Distinguished Professor of Surgery of Wayne State University. Alec Walt’s avid thirst for knowledge made him an active and prolific clinical investigator, his 165 published papers and reviews concentrating on the surgery of trauma and of hepatobiliary disease which, along with breast cancer, were his prime interests. His army experience, which endowed him with unusual skills in the organisation of trauma services, stood him in good stead during the Detroit riots in 1967, when his paper on the anatomy of a civil disturbance and its impact on disaster planning was a classic. On four occasions he took surgical trauma teams for training in Colombia, whose government presented him with the Jorge Bejarano medal in 1981 Principal author of the first paper describing the prognostic value of oestrogen receptors in breast cancer, he was an active participant in therapeutic trials in this disease and latterly became a strong proponent of the need for multidisciplinary care. His final contribution to Detroit surgery was his development of the Comprehensive Breast Center in the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute, now named the Alexander J Walt Center. Alec Walt had a distinctive clarity of writing and speaking which led to his appointment to the editorial boards of several medical journals, including the <i>Archives of surgery</i> and the <i>Journal of trauma</i>. He was in great demand as a lecturer, honouring numerous prestigious national and international commitments. He was Hunterian Professor at the Royal College of Surgeons in 1969 and Moynihan Lecturer in 1988, and in 1995 gave a keynote address at the 75th Anniversary Meeting of the Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland. He held leadership positions in many North American surgical organisations, including the Presidency of the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma, the American Board of Medical Specialties and was Vice-President of the American Surgical Association. He was elected an honorary Fellow of the College of Surgeons of South Africa in 1989, and of the Royal Colleges of Surgeons of Edinburgh and Australasia in 1993 and 1995 respectively. A keen contributor to the affairs of the American College of Surgeons, Alec Walt served as a Regent from 1984 to 1993 and as Chairman of the Board of Regents from 1991 to 1993. He was elected 75th President in 1994, an office to which he immediately brought great panache. Unfortunately, during his presidential year he developed a massive recurrence of a bladder cancer, first treated twelve years previously. With typical courage he elected to have chemotherapy ‘spaced’ so that he could preside over the Annual Clinical Meeting, at which his successor was to be inaugurated. The attributes which contributed to Alec Walt’s great distinction as an academic surgeon were a keen intelligence, capacity for hard work, absolute integrity, a deep concern for all people, particularly the young, and, greatest of all, a deep and sincere humility. He did not suffer fools gladly and had no hesitation in attacking the uncritical, unscientific or badly presented paper with a characteristic irony; but he would always have a kind congratulatory word for those who had given of their best. A top sportsman – champion hurdler at school, captain of cricket and an athletic Blue at university – he led by example, not dictate. Realising a boyhood dream of climbing to 17,000 feet in Nepal with one of his sons and his daughter at the age of 62 while recovering from treatment of his bladder cancer, he took with him Tennyson’s Ulysses, a favourite poem, passages from which he would loudly declaim. He was devoted to his wife Irene, his three children, his son-in-law and his 20 month old granddaughter Eve Lenora, all of whom gave him the love and respect which nourished him throughout his professional life, and supported him during his final illness. Alec described his mother as a ‘homemaker’, and his wife had been no less. From the earliest days of his marriage Irene provided a home with an ever-open door, a kindness which endeared her to impoverished and hungry British fellows at the Mayo Clinic, of which I was one. Vivid personal memories of Alec Walt are firstly early days together in Rochester, Minnesota when, as the deluded captain of the first and only Mayo Clinic cricket team which lost their match in Chicago he chastised us for our dismal performance and undisciplined behaviour on the previous night; later, when as visiting professor to his department in Detroit, joint discussions with his students revealed the depth of his feelings for the inequalities of care for women with breast cancer which, later on at midnight in the emergency room, was extended to all of those others whom society had deprived; then at the Asian Association of Surgeons when, as President of the American College of Surgeons he gave a masterly address on surgical training, during which his deep sense of responsibility for the future of young surgeons was only too evident; and finally, on the beach in Bali, when we shared our feelings of good fortune to have had a job in life which had provided us both with such great fulfilment, pleasure, and even fun. Shortly before his death he advised his son John to ‘work hard, be honest, and the rest will take care of itself’ – advice which is exemplified by the life he led. He died on 29 February 1996 aged 72, survived by his wife Irene and his children – John, a lawyer, Steven, a professor of law, and Lindsay Jane, a sculptress. Sir A Patrick Forrest with assistance from Mrs Irene Walt
Resource Identifier RCS: E000354
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Jones, Rhys Tudor Brackley (1925 - 2003)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

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://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372272372272
Occupation General surgeon
Details Air Vice Marshal Rhys Tudor Brackley Jones was born on 16 November 1925 in Middlesex, the son of the late Sir Edgar and Lady Jones. He studied medicine at St Mary’s Hospital, where he qualified MRCS LRCP in April 1950 and became a house surgeon there. His surgical training rotation continued at Harold Wood Hospital, becoming a junior surgical registrar, before call up for National Service by the Royal Air Force in September 1952. He married Irene Lilian Henderson in August 1953. He was rapidly promoted to squadron leader in 1954 whilst serving at the RAF Hospital Wroughton. Typical service annual moves to RAF Hospitals Nocton Hall, Weeton, Uxbridge, Ely and Wegberg happened until 1960, when he passed his FRCS and was posted on active service to the RAF Hospital in Aden. This was a period of terrorist activity and he rapidly gained extensive experience in battle surgery. After returning to the UK, he continued as a general surgeon, gaining the wide experience the service required, before being promoted to wing commander in 1963. He had a sabbatical year and was appointed as a consultant by the Armed Services Consultant Approval Board at the College in 1967. An overseas posting to RAF Hospital Changi soon followed, where a wide range of general surgery was undertaken. After returning to the UK he had a further period of external study before being promoted to group captain. He was soon posted to the RAF Hospital Wegberg as the senior consultant. This hospital was at the western end of British Forces Germany and he was responsible for the surgical treatment of the Army as well as the RAF. He was a very capable surgeon and this was soon recognised by the Army surgeons, with whom he established an excellent working relationship. In 1978 he went to the senior RAF Hospital the Princess Mary’s and was in charge of the Stanford Cade unit, where all the RAF cases of malignant disease were treated. In 1982 he was appointed as a consultant adviser in surgery and was soon promoted to air commodore. This was a busy and difficult period following the Falklands war, and included the dissolution of all military hospitals. In 1987 he was promoted to air vice marshal, with responsibility for all postgraduate training of RAF medical officers. He rapidly became the senior consultant of the RAF and honorary surgeon to the Queen. He retired in 1990 and died suddenly on 8 December 2003.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000085
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Kell, Robert Anthony (1939 - 2003)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-10-12 2006-12-07
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000000-E000099
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372273372273
Occupation ENT surgeon
Details Robert Anthony Kell, known as ‘Robin’, was a consultant ear, nose and throat surgeon at the Victoria Infirmary and Southern General Hospital, Glasgow. He was born in Bishop Auckland, County Durham, in 1939, the son of William Kell, a colliery manager and Lilian. His mother died from leukaemia when Robin was only seven, and he was brought up by his father and stepmother, Ann, in Acomb. He was educated at the Friends’ School, Brookfield, Wigton, a co-educational boarding school, where his report reads: “he will develop not only into a first class scientist but also a man of wide sympathies and a strong social conscience”. He had hoped to follow in his father’s footsteps, but failed the coal board medical due to his eyesight. After graduating from St Andrews in 1963, he trained at Dundee Royal and the department of anatomy, Dundee. He began his ENT training in Dundee, but then moved to the Liverpool ENT Hospital to develop this interest further. He was appointed to his consultant posts in Glasgow in 1972. He was the clinical director for ENT at the Victoria Infirmary and Southern General Hospital for many years. His main interests were in audiology, the middle ear, and head and neck oncology. Robin served on the council for the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow, was President of the Scottish ENT Society and was an examiner for the intercollegiate board. He married Babs Scorgie, whom he met while working in Dundee. An expert pianist, he enjoyed music, playing the fiddle, and played with the Strathspey and Reel Society. He was also a keen traveller, particularly enjoying visiting Italy, the Lake District and west Cork. He died from metastatic prostate cancer on 17 December 2003, leaving a daughter, Valerie, and two sons, Alistair and Malcolm Kell, a general surgeon and a Fellow of our College. There are two grandchildren, Ruby and Genevieve.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000086
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Kenyon, John Richard (1919 - 2004)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

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://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372274372274
Occupation Vascular surgeon
Details John Richard Kenyon, known as ‘Ian’, was a former consultant vascular surgeon at St Mary’s Hospital, Paddington. His father, who was a general practitioner in Glasgow, died when Ian was just 13. His mother had been a Queen Alexandra nursing sister on various hospital ships during the Gallipoli campaign. After Glasgow Boys High School, Ian went to Glasgow University to study medicine and soon afterwards joined the RAF. He served in the Middle East and left the forces as a Squadron Leader. During this period he developed an interest in surgery and, following his demobilisation, went to London to further his surgical studies. At St Mary’s Hospital he was an assistant to Charles Rob and, on the retirement of Sir Arthur Porritt, he became a consultant surgeon. He was eventually assistant director of the surgical unit. He remained at St Mary’s until his retirement. He made many contributions to the developing specialty of vascular surgery, particularly on aortic aneurysm, carotid artery stenosis and renal transplantation. In the early 1980s he became President of the Vascular Society of Great Britain and Ireland. He was married to Elaine. They had no children. He was interested in rugby (he was President of the St Mary’s Hospital rugby club) and model steam trains, building a railway track around the five acres of his garden. He died on 9 March 2004 following a stroke.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000087
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

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://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372275372275
Occupation Vascular surgeon
Details Vettivetpillai Ketharanathan or ‘Nathan’ was a senior research associate at the vascular surgery unit at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, Victoria, Australia. He was born in Jaffna, Sri Lanka, on 25 November 1935 to Appiah Ketharanathan and Rukmani Nama (Sivayam) Ketharanathan, who were both teachers. He attended Jaffna Central College, but from the age of 14, when his father died, he had to shoulder the burden of family responsibilities. He studied medicine in Colombo, qualifying in 1960. After house jobs in Colombo and four years as a registrar at the General Hospital, Malacca, he went to Melbourne in 1966, as a registrar on the cardiothoracic unit at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, where he came under the wing of Ian McConchie. He became an Australian citizen, and was encouraged by McConchie to go to London, where he completed registrar posts in Hackney and the Brompton Hospital. He returned to Melbourne, where he began to carry out research into improved biomaterials for replacing cardiac valves and blood vessels, research he continued whilst he was working as a consultant thoracic surgeon at Ballarat. This work took him later to Portland, Oregon, as an international fellow in cardiopulmonary surgery. A number of new materials were patented by him and in 1990 he set up two companies, BioNova International and Kryocor Pty, to exploit them, whilst he was appointed senior research associate at the Royal Melbourne Hospital. An indefatigable investigator, he was an inspiration to many young surgeons. Among his many interests were cooking, and he was a regular client at the Queen Victoria market, seeking the freshest produce, rewarding his friends with examples of Sri Lankan fare. He died on 3 March 2005, leaving his wife Judith, and four children, of whom his eldest daughter, Selva, is an infectious diseases specialist at Sir Charles Gardiner Hospital in Perth. His second daughter, Naomi, is about to qualify at Amsterdam.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000088
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Hickey, Brian Brendan (1912 - 2006)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

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

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

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://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372280372280
Occupation Obstetric and gynaecological surgeon Obstetrician and gynaecologist
Details Tom Lewis was a respected London obstetrician and gynaecologist. He was born in Hampstead on 27 May 1918, but regarded himself as a South African of Welsh origin. His great-grandfather, Charles Lewis, had run away to sea from Milford Haven and settled in Cape Town in about 1850, where he established a sail-making business that was profitable until the coming of steam. His son, A J S Lewis, was a civil servant who became mayor of Cape Town and was ordained into the Anglican Church on retirement. In turn, A J S’s son, Tom’s father, Neville went to London to study art at the Slade School, where he met and married a fellow art student from Dublin, Theodosia Townshend. When the marriage broke up, Neville was left with three children under five, including Tom. They were sent to Cape Town, where they were brought up by their grandparents, A J S and Annie Solomon. Tom was educated at the Diocesan College, Rondebosch, where he had a good education, boxed and played rugby. Every two or three years their father would arrive unannounced from England, and they would go off by car all over South Africa to paint portraits. On one occasion a spear was thrown through a painting, which was feared to be taking part of the soul of its subject. In 1933, Neville and his second wife, Vera Player, bought a house in Chelsea and sent for them. Tom then went to St Paul’s School, from which he went to Jesus College, Cambridge, and Guy’s Hospital. As a student he won the gold medal in obstetrics. In 1943, he travelled by ship to Cape Town and enlisted in the South African Air Force as a doctor, but was then seconded to the RAMC, with whom he served in Egypt, Italy and Greece. After the war, he returned to Guy’s to take the FRCS and specialised in obstetrics and gynaecology. He captained the Guy’s rugby XV from 1946 to 1948, and was only prevented from playing for England against France by hepatitis. He played his last game for the first XV when he was aged 46. He was appointed as a consultant at Guy’s just before his 30th birthday, and to Queen Charlotte’s Maternity Hospital and the Chelsea Hospital for Women two years later. A meticulous surgeon, he was a very distinguished teacher. He wrote three textbooks of obstetrics and gynaecology and his book *Progress in clinical obstetrics and gynaecology* (London, Joe A Churchill, 1956) became a classic. He served three times on the council of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, was its honorary secretary from 1961 to 1968, senior vice-president from 1975 to 1978 and Sims Black travelling professor in 1970. He was President of the obstetric section of the Royal Society of Medicine. He was a consultant gynaecologist to the Army and an examiner to the Universities of Cambridge, London and St Andrews, the Society of Apothecaries and the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. As a student, Tom had fallen in love with a Guy’s student nurse, Alexandra (‘Bunty’) Moore. They married in 1946 and had five sons. The eldest, John, became a doctor. In retirement, they built a holiday home on the island of Elba. A superb host, Tom was an authority on wine, fungi and astronomy. He died after a difficult last illness on 9 April 2004.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000093
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Lister, James (1923 - 2004)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

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

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

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

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://scp.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 Bigelow, Wilfred Gordon (1913 - 2005)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-09-07
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000000-E000099
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372210372210
Occupation Cardiac surgeon
Details Wilfred Gordon ‘Bill’ Bigelow, who helped develop the first electronic pacemaker, was a professor of cardiac surgery at the University of Toronto and a pioneering heart surgeon. He was born in Brandon, Manitoba, in 1913. His father, Wilfred Bigelow, had founded the first medical clinic in Canada. Bill trained in medicine at the University of Toronto and did his internship at the Toronto General Hospital, during which time he had to amputate a young man’s fingers because of frostbite, leading Bill to research the condition. During the second world war, he served with the Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps, in a field transfusion unit and then as a battle surgeon with the 6th Canadian Casualty Clearing Station in England and Europe, where he saw many more soldiers with frostbitten limbs. After the war, he returned to a surgical residency in Toronto, followed by a graduate fellowship at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. He returned to Toronto in 1947 as a staff general surgeon. In 1950 he became a research fellow in the university department of surgery. He was made an assistant professor in 1953 and a full professor in 1970. He researched into hypothermia in a cold-storage room in the basement of the Banting Institute. He theorised that cooling patients before an operation would reduce the amount of oxygen the body required and slow the circulation, allowing longer and safer access to the heart. This work led to the development of a cooling technique for use during heart operations. He also discovered that he could restart the heart by stimulating it with a probe at regular intervals, work which led him on to develop the first electronic pacemaker, in collaboration with John Callaghan and the electrical engineer John Hopps. He published extensively and received many awards, including the Order of Canada and the honorary Fellowship of our College. He was President of the American Association for Thoracic Surgery and the Society for Vascular Surgery. He was predeceased by his wife, Margaret Ruth Jennings, and is survived by his daughter, three sons and three grandchildren. He died from congestive heart failure on 27 March 2005.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000023
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

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

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-09-14
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000000-E000099
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372212372212
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon
Details Wa’el Seifeddin Boustany was a consultant orthopaedic surgeon. He was born in Damascus, Syria, into a medical family. He studied medicine in Damascus and then came to England for postgraduate training. After completing several house posts, he went to the Adelaide Hospital, Dublin, as an orthopaedic registrar. He then moved to the South Infirmary in Cork, where he worked for many years. In 1978 he returned to Damascus, where he was in private practice. In 1989 he went to work at Al-Noor Hospital, Abu Dhabi, where he remained until he retired in 1998. He died of prostatic cancer on 16 December 2004, leaving a wife, Catherine, and four sons.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000025
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Bradfield, William John Dickson (1924 - 2003)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-09-14
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000000-E000099
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372214372214
Occupation General surgeon
Details William John Dickson Bradfield, or ‘Bill’, was a consultant surgeon at Kingston Hospital in Surrey. He was born in London on 23 June 1924, the only son and second child of John Ernest Bradfield, a businessman, and Marjorie Elizabeth née Dickson, the daughter of a silk merchant. Bill was educated at Dulwich College and Sandhurst. In 1942, he went on to St Thomas’s to study medicine as a Musgrave scholar, but interrupted his training to join the 5th Iniskilling Dragoon Guards. As a troop leader of a tank squadron in Normandy, he was awarded the Military Cross in 1944 for showing leadership and skill in command. He returned to St Thomas’s in 1946, where he was a keen and fearless rugby player. He was appointed consultant surgeon to Kingston Hospital, Surrey, in 1964, but remained honorary president of St Thomas’s rugby club. Bill rejoined the Army as a Territorial in 1950, retiring as a Lieutenant Colonel. He was honorary medical officer to the Commonwealth Ex-Services League from 1985, and worked with the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture. For a time he was a governor of the Star and Garter home for disabled soldiers, sailors and airman. He married Ellicott Hewes in 1971. They had no children. Throughout the years he kept in touch with the inhabitants of the two small French towns around which he saw action in 1944, and dignitaries from these towns attended his thanksgiving service. He died on 21 November 2003 from renal failure complicating carcinoma of the prostate.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000027
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Chakrabarti, Ramakanta (1945 - 2004)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-10-26 2012-03-22
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000200-E000299
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372459372459
Occupation General surgeon
Details Ramakanta Chakrabarti was a respected surgeon in Calcutta. He was born in Calcutta on 1 October 1945, the son of Rajchandra and Kadambini Chakrabarti. He studied medicine at Calcutta National Medical College, where he subsequently held intern and house surgeon posts. In 1973 he was appointed as a senior house surgeon in general surgery and urology at the Rama Krishna Mission, Seva Prathishthan. He then became a senior surgical resident and postgraduate student at the Willingdon Hospital and Lady Hardinge Medical College, New Delhi, where he was awarded a masters degree in surgery with a thesis on emergency prostatectomy in clinically benign enlargement of the prostate. He was subsequently surgeon to the Lalbag Hospital in Murshidabad. He then went to the UK for further surgical training. He was a senior house officer in the trauma and accident department at Queen Elizabeth II Hospital, Welwyn Garden City, and then senior house officer in orthopaedics at Oldham Royal Infirmary. He then held appointments at the Royal Hallamshire Hospital, Sheffield, in urology and transplantation, and at Hull Royal Infirmary in orthopaedics. During this period he passed his FRCS from the London and Glasgow Colleges. He was then a registrar at Withybush General Hospital, Haverfordwest, under David Bird, where he further developed his interest in vascular and urological surgery. In 1986 he returned to Calcutta as a visiting general surgeon to the Dum Dum Municipal Hospital, where he became an outstanding figure, keeping up-to-date with the latest developments in endoscopic surgery by attending seminars and meetings, and becoming a popular member of the Dum Dum branch of the Indian Medical Association. He was married to Maitreyee, a teacher, and they had one daughter, Madhumanti, who is studying at Queen Mary College, London. He died on 3 August 2004.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000272
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Anderson, John Douglas Chalmers (1924 - 2006)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-10-26
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000200-E000299
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372460372460
Occupation Ophthalmologist
Details John Douglas Chalmers Anderson, known as ‘Jock’, was an ophthalmologist who spent much of his career working in Afghanistan. He was born in Redbourne, Lincolnshire, on 21 August 1924, the second of three sons of William Larmour Anderson, a general practitioner, and Eileen Pearl née Chambers. He was educated at Bedford School, where he won the Tanner prize in science, and then went to Peterhouse, Cambridge, on a state bursary. After a year his studies were interrupted by the war and he joined the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company, where he was a technical assistant, working on magnetrons. During the war he also served in the Home Guard and found time to obtain a BSc and a certificate of proficiency in radiophysics from London University. He returned to Cambridge in 1947 to complete his preclinical studies, and then went on to Middlesex Hospital, where he won the Mrs Charles Davis prize in surgery. After qualifying he completed house jobs at Bedford General Hospital and, after a year as a trainee assistant in general practice, returned as a demonstrator in anatomy at Cambridge. He was then an orthopaedic registrar at Bedford General Hospital. Influenced by his deeply held Christian beliefs, he accepted an invitation to work as a general surgeon at the Church Mission Society in Quetta, Pakistan. He was later an ophthalmic registrar at the Christian Medical College in Ludhiana, Punjab, India. In 1959 he returned to the UK, as an ophthalmic registrar at Northampton General Hospital and completed a course in London for the diploma in ophthalmology. He also raised funds for Afghanistan, returning there in 1961 to set up a moveable ‘caravan hospital’, taking general medical, surgical and ophthalmic services to remote desert communities. He returned to the UK as a clinical assistant in ophthalmology at Southampton Eye Hospital to study for the final FRCS. In 1967, having gained his FRCS, he was appointed consultant ophthalmologist with the National Organisation for Ophthalmic Rehabilitation in Kabul, establishing a 100 bed eye hospital and teaching centre there, from which subsidiary outpost treatment camps were organised. His centre survived the invasion by the Russians and the enmity of the Taliban, with only occasional interruptions. In 1973 he was appointed associate director (West Asia) of the Bible and Medical Missionary Fellowship, which involved two tours of three months every year in west Asia, taking him to Kunri, on the edge of the Sind Desert. In 1978 he returned to Southampton as a lecturer in ophthalmology, where he remained until 1980, when he returned to Kabul. Civil unrest meant he had to return to the UK earlier than expected. By now a world expert on trachoma, he joined the newly formed department of preventive ophthalmology at Moorfields and was appointed OBE in 1981. He carried out studies on the prevention of blindness in Zanzibar and the Sudan, and in 1984 was made an honorary consultant at Moorfields. He retired in 1988 after developing a tumour of the spinal cord. After several operations he became paraplegic. He married Gwendoline Freda Smith (‘Gwendy’), a Middlesex Hospital nurse, on 25 July 1953. They had two daughters (Ruth and Jean) and a son (Christopher). He died on 16 June 2006.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000273
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Bradbury, Sir Eric Blackburn (1911 - 2003)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-10-26 2009-01-09
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000200-E000299
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372461372461
Occupation General surgeon
Details Surgeon Vice Admiral Eric Blackburn Bradbury RN was the medical director general of the Royal Naval Medical Service from 1969 to 1972, a period when many changes were being made in the services. He was born on 2 March 1911, the son of A B Bradbury of Maze, County Antrim. His education was at the Royal Belfast Academical Institute and Queen’s University, Belfast. After qualifying in 1934, he decided on a career with the Royal Navy and was commissioned as a Surgeon Lieutenant. After basic training, he was soon at sea and from 1935 to 1936 served in HMS *Barham*, *Endeavour* and *Cumberland*. Essential hospital service was spent at the RN hospitals in Haslar, Chatham, Plymouth and Malta. His wartime sea service was spent in HMS *Charybdis* and HM Hospital Ship *Oxfordshire*. Promotion to flag rank arrived in 1966 when he became a Surgeon Rear Admiral and was appointed medical officer in charge of Haslar Hospital, the senior teaching hospital of the Royal Navy. He also became the command medical officer of Portsmouth and an honorary physician to HM the Queen. In 1968 he became a Companion of the Bath. He was soon selected as the medical director of the Royal Naval Medical Services and was appointed in 1969, serving until 1972. He was promoted Surgeon Vice Admiral in 1971 and appointed Knight Commander of the British Empire. In 1972 our College conferred the fellowship on him. In 1939 he married Elizabeth Constance Austin, daughter of J G Austin of Armagh. They had three daughters – Ann, Elizabeth and Valerie. After retirement he was chairman of the Tunbridge Wells DHA from 1981 to 1984, during which time advances were made in the accident and emergency services. He died on 6 January 2003.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000274
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Calvert, James Murray (1924 - 2003)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

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://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372462372462
Occupation Neurosurgeon
Details James Calvert, neurosurgeon, was born at Mount Bute, near Ballarat, Victoria, Australia, where his parents owned a sheep farm. He was educated first at the local state school and then at Ballarat Grammar School. On leaving school, he worked briefly for the Commercial Bank of Australia, before enlisting at the age of 18 in April 1943 in the Australian Army. After initial training in South Australia he was sent to the 2/8th Australian Field Regiment, which had recently returned to Australia after taking part in the Battle of El Alamein. The regiment was now training for the invasion of Sarawak and Brunei in Borneo and sailed from Townsville in May 1945, initially to Morotai and then for Brunei, where it landed on 10 June. Though there was little resistance initially, an ambush of a patrol in which Calvert was taking part resulted in the death of three of his immediate companions. The Japanese surrender occurred in August 1945 and Calvert was discharged in September 1946. He then spent a year at a coaching college, obtaining the necessary exams to enter the medical school at the University of Melbourne. To accommodate the influx of ex-serviceman the University had set up a branch at a former RAAF base in Mildura, in the north west of Victoria, and there Calvert entered the first year of the course. For later years he was resident at Queen’s College, Melbourne University, where he rowed in the first eight, played football and took part in athletics. His clinical studies were done at the Royal Melbourne Hospital where after qualifying he did his house jobs. He then became a surgical registrar there, and later at the Western General Hospital, Footscray. In 1959 he obtained the FRACS, went to England, passed the FRCS at the first attempt, without doing a course, which he could not afford, and entered neurosurgical training at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham under Brodie Hughes. He returned to Melbourne in 1962, working initially at the neurosurgical department of the Alfred Hospital as an honorary (unpaid) assistant neurosurgeon until 1969. During this time he did GP locums at the weekend to make ends meet. In 1967 he took up the post of neurosurgeon to the Austin Hospital, Heidelberg, Melbourne, and there he worked for the next 20 years as senior neurosurgeon. He also held an appointment to the Repatriation Hospital, close to the Austin, which dealt with ex-servicemen, and at the Peter McCallum Clinic, the Victorian Cancer Centre. He retired from the Austin in 1987 and from the Repatriation Hospital two years later, though continuing to do medico-legal work. Calvert was a person of quiet and retiring demeanour who worked long hours and was much liked by his patients. He was an active member of the Neurosurgical Society of Australia, being treasurer for some years and president from 1980 to 1981. He was also closely associated with the Returned Services League, the Australian ex-servicemen's association and was vice-president of his regiment. In 1956 he married Marnie Fone. They had four daughters and a son.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000275
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Coakley, Patrick Kevin (1928 - 2004)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

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://scp.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
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First Title value, for Searching Welbourn, Richard Burkewood (1919 - 2005)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-01-19
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000100-E000199
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372373372373
Occupation Endocrine surgeon
Details Richard Welbourn was professor of surgery at Belfast and then at the Hammersmith Hospital, London, where he developed a reputation for endocrine surgery. He was born in Rainhill, Lancashire, on 1 May 1919, the son of Burkewood Welbourn, an electrical engineer, and Edith Annie Appleyard, a teacher. From Rugby School he went to Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and did his clinical studies at Liverpool University. He qualified in 1942 and, after his first house job, joined the RAMC, where he served in field ambulances and a field dressing station, and took part in the invasion of Normandy in June 1944, after which he was posted to general hospitals in Belgium and Germany. He eventually became a graded surgeon in Hamburg, where he remained until he was demobilised in 1947. On returning to England he became a registrar with Charles Wells in Liverpool, becoming a senior registrar in 1948. In 1951 he spent a year at the Mayo Clinic under James Priestley, then pioneering adrenalectomy for Cushing’s syndrome under cover of the newly described cortisone. He returned as consultant lecturer in surgery at the Queen’s University, Belfast, in Harold Rodgers’ department, where he continued to study the role of adrenalectomy in Cushing’s and later in carcinoma of the breast and prostate. He became a consultant surgeon to the Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast, in 1951 and later to Belfast City Hospital. In 1958 he was appointed professor of surgical science. On the death of Ian Aird, Welbourn was invited to the vacant chair at Hammersmith in 1963, taking with him to the new post Ivan Johnston, his senior lecturer from Queen’s, who soon afterwards went on to the chair at Newcastle. His department was active, particularly in endocrine surgery, but supervised all the other disciplines, including urology. A keen teacher, his postgraduate courses at Hammersmith were widely sought-after. He wrote many publications and among other honours was a Hunterian Professor of our College in 1958, received the James Berry Prize in 1970, and was a visiting professor at Yale and many other universities. Among his many interests, stemming from his early involvement with the Student Christian Movement, were the philosophy and ethics of medical care, and he was one of the founders of the Institute of Medical Ethics and was a joint editor of the *Dictionary of Medical Ethics* (Bristol, J Wright, 1977 and London, Darton, Longman and Todd, 1981). Unfortunately his last years were marred by a cardiac condition, worsened by the medication he was given. After retiring from Hammersmith in 1983 he was visiting scholar for research at UCLA, where he carried out a study of the history of endocrine surgery, which led to his last book in 1990. In 1944 he married Rachel Haighton, a dentist, by whom he had four daughters, Philippa Mary, Edith Rachel, Margaret June and Dorothy Alice, and one son, Charles Richard Burkewood Welbourn, a surgeon. He had 15 grandchildren. After a series of strokes he died in Reading on 3 August 2005.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000186
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
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First Title value, for Searching Birbara, George (1928 - 2006)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

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://scp.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
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First Title value, for Searching Moffoot, Alexander Gordon (1923 - 2008)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

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://scp.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
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First Title value, for Searching Marchant, Mary Kathleen (1924 - 2003)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-10-19
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000000-E000099
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372285372285
Occupation Plastic surgeon Plastic and reconstructive surgeon
Details Mary Marchant was a former plastic surgeon in Liverpool. Born in 1924, she qualified in medicine at Liverpool and began her career as a house officer at Smithdown Road Hospital. She trained in surgery and practised in and around Liverpool, before specialising in plastic surgery. She helped set up the first plastic surgery unit in Liverpool at Whiston Hospital. In 1965, she joined a missionary surgery in Uganda, spending four years there, returning to England in 1969 because of ill health. She joined a general medical practice in Penny Lane, Liverpool, and retired in 1983. She died on 18 August 2003.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000098
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
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First Title value, for Searching Marsh, John David (1925 - 2004)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

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

First Title value, for Searching Pitcairn, Sir James (1776 - 1859)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

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://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372637372637
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born on July 18th, 1776, the eldest son of the Rev Robert Pitcairn, of Brasenose College, Oxford, Vicar of English Combe, Somerset, and Incumbent of Spring Chapel, London. The family originated in Pitcairn, Fifeshire, and to it belonged the two well-known physicians – William Pitcairn, MD (1711-1791), Physician and Treasurer to St Bartholomew’s Hospital, and President of the College of Physicians; and his nephew, David Pitcairn, MD (1749-1800), his successor as Physician to St Bartholomew’s. James Pitcairn went to school in London, and then was a pupil of Sir Everard Home at St George’s Hospital at the same time as Benjamin Brodie. Having graduated MD at Edinburgh, he returned to become house surgeon at St George’s Hospital. He was thereupon selected by Sir Everard Home for special service at the request of the Commander-in-Chief, was gazetted at once a Staff Surgeon on Aug 30th, 1799, and was sent in 1814 to Holland, where he served to the end of the campaign, and then with the Russian Contingent at Guernsey. In 1800 he went to Ireland to the charge of the 56th Regiment, which was soon dispatched to the Mediterranean under Sir Charles Stewart, and joined the Army under Sir Ralph Abercrombie on the expedition to Egypt where he served to the close of the campaign. He returned to Dublin in 1802 in charge of the Recruiting Staff, and organized arrangements in view of the threatened invasion of England by Napoleon. From 1804-1815 he supervised the encampments formed at the Curragh and in the Connaught District of Ireland. In 1816 his services were transferred to Munster, and at Cork during thirty-one years he personally superintended the arrangements for foreign service and the embarkation. The position was full of difficulties and obstacles which his good sense and affable nature tended to lessen and remove. He was knighted by Lord Normandy in 1837 for professional services. In 1847 he succeeded Dr George Renny as Director-General of the Medical Department for Ireland until 1852, when he retired with the rank of Inspector of Hospitals. The Medical Officers of the Army presented him with a service of plate and an address. It was said of him that he discouraged criticism of the absent with such interruptions as: “Never let your mouth be opened unless for good; if you cannot speak to the credit of a man, keep it shut. This has been my rule through life and I have never had cause to regret it.” He died at 3 Haddington Road, Dublin, on Jan 12th, 1859.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000453
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

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://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372288372288
Occupation General surgeon
Details Roger Mawdsley was a consultant surgeon on the Wirral, Merseyside. Born in Formby, Lancashire, on 2 November 1932, his father was Edward Mawdsley and his mother, Martha Jones. He was educated at St Mary’s College, Crosby, Liverpool, and then went on to Liverpool University. He completed a BSc in anatomy, which introduced him to research. At medical school he received the William Mitchell Banks bronze medal in anatomy and shared the E B Noble prize in 1955. After house jobs in Liverpool, he returned to the department of anatomy as a demonstrator, and completed an MD thesis on environmental factors affecting the growth and development of whole-bone transplants in mice. It seemed that a future in academia was before him, but, whilst working as a house officer for Edgar Parry at Broadgreen Hospital, he had become fascinated with vascular surgery. He held registrar appointments at the thoracic unit at Broadgreen Hospital and at Liverpool Royal Infirmary. He was appointed as a consultant general surgeon to Whiston Hospital, Prescot, in 1970, and as a consultant surgeon in the north and central Wirral Hospital group in 1973, where he remained until he retired in 1992. He had many interests outside medicine. He played golf and completed the Telegraph crossword every day. After a visit to South Africa, he became an expert on that country’s history and politics. When a patient gave him a lathe he set about making a sophisticated clock, every piece of which he made himself. He married Elizabeth Anne Cunningham, the daughter of L J Cunningham, a physician, in 1964, and they had three children, Elizabeth Anne, Andrew and Caroline. There are five grandchildren. A dedicated smoker, his later years were beset by increasing dyspnoea due to emphysema. He died of cancer on 13 September 2003.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000101
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

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

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

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

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

First Title value, for Searching Hickinbotham, Paul Frederick John (1917 - 2006)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

First Title value, for Searching Pollock, Alan Victor (1921 - 2006)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

by Sir Barry Jackson
Publication Date 2007-06-08 2018-05-10
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000300-E000399
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372546372546
Occupation General surgeon
Details Alan Pollock was a consultant surgeon at Scarborough Hospital, Yorkshire. He was born on 10 September 1921 in Johannesburg, South Africa, and went to school and University in Cape Town, where he graduated in medicine in 1943, winning a medal in surgery along the way. After house appointments he joined the South African Navy and was seconded to the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve with the rank of surgeon lieutenant. Demobilised in 1946, he emigrated to the UK, and initially worked for a year in experimental pathology with Howard Florey's group in Oxford. During this time he was an author of two research papers on antibiotics, both published in Nature. Despite his auspicious beginning in laboratory work, he decided that surgery was more his bent. He obtained a resident appointment at Westminster Hospital, where he was greatly influenced by Sir Stanford Cade, a leading cancer surgeon. Then followed a series of posts at St Peter's and St Paul's Hospital, St Mark's Hospital and the West London Hospital, before he moved north to a senior lecturer's post in Leeds. There he came under the influence of John Goligher, whose teaching of colorectal surgery caused this subject to become a particular interest. In 1958, he was appointed consultant general surgeon to Scarborough Hospital, Yorkshire, where he remained for the rest of his career. During his consultant years, and after he retired from clinical work, Alan Pollock's early interest and ability in research never left him. Although working in a non-university hospital, together with his research associate Mary Evans, he produced a constant stream of research papers on topics as diverse as pre-operative bowel preparation, surgical incisions, wound drains, approaches to achieving haemostasis, different suture materials and techniques, and anaesthetic techniques. A key interest throughout his career was prevention of post-operative morbidity and to this end he, with Evans, conducted many randomised controlled trials into different antibiotics and antibiotic regimens for reducing post-operative infections as well as trials into different methods of reducing post-operative deep vein thrombosis. He was the author of several books. The dedication in one reads: 'I dedicate this book to all my registrars, who have taught me how little I really know'. Not surprisingly, he was a regular contributor to scientific meetings both at home and abroad, especially in the United States, where he was well known. He was an active member of the Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland, serving on the council for a period, as well as the Royal Society of Medicine, sections of surgery and coloproctology, as well as with groups interested in infection. Married to Hilary née Grant, he had two sons and a daughter, none of whom followed him into medicine. He will be remembered by many as a very clubbable man, often wreathed in pipe smoke, who showed how a questioning and determined district general hospital surgeon could contribute top class research at an international level. Sadly, his last years were clouded with progressive motor neurone disease, from which he died on 19 January 2006.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000360
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2007-06-08
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000300-E000399
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372547372547
Occupation General surgeon
Details Robert Rihan was a consultant surgeon at Good Hope Hospital, Sutton Coldfield. He was born on 22 October 1927 in Birmingham, the son of Alexander Rihan, a general practitioner, and Ruby Lillian Floyd. He attended Edgbaston preparatory school and, during the war years, Rydal School, Colwyn Bay. In 1945 he gained a place at Birmingham Medical School and qualified in 1951. He was house surgeon to A L d’Abreu and then joined the RAMC, becoming an acting major and deputy assistant director of medical services to the 7th Armoured Division and, more importantly, also their cricket secretary. On demobilisation he returned to Birmingham to complete his surgical training, including a spell as a registrar at the Birmingham Children’s Hospital. He was appointed consultant surgeon at Good Hope Hospital, one of a team of three general surgeons. His particular interests were in vascular and paediatric surgery. Robert was a gifted technical surgeon, blessed with considerable insight and good judgement, and thus confident about when to operate and when to treat conservatively. He was extremely thorough and conscientious, always available to his junior staff, and he insisted on reviewing emergency and elective cases himself before management decisions were taken. He always liked to be involved, and sometimes found it difficult to suffer fools gladly, but he was greatly liked and respected by senior colleagues, as well as the juniors he trained, the nursing staff, and his patients. Robert was active in various aspects of hospital life, becoming chairman of the surgical division, where his tenure was marked by quiet, thoughtful and mature decisions. He retired from the NHS in 1990. Robert married Barbara Potts, a physiotherapist, in September 1957, and they had four daughters. There are eight grandchildren. Following his retirement he moved with Barbara to the Cotswolds. There he threw himself into the local social life, demonstrating his surgical skills by carving the Christmas turkey at the local history society dinner. Sadly his last years were marred by all the problems of cardiac and renal failure, although he bore his ill health with great fortitude. He died at home with his family on 19 February 2006.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000361
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Travers, Eric Horsley (1910 - 2006)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2007-06-08
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000300-E000399
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372548372548
Occupation General surgeon
Details Eric Travers was a consultant surgeon to Sedgefield and Stockton and Thornaby hospitals. He was born on 7 June 1910 in Brantingham, Yorkshire, where his father John (‘Jack’) Francis Travers was a solicitor. His mother was Beatrice Mary Horsley. The eldest of three, he and his two younger sisters (Mary and Rachael) grew up to enjoy riding and shooting. He was educated at Repton, where he was found to be a talented mathematician and woodworker, enjoying carpentry for the rest of his life. On leaving school he spent a few months in his father’s office, but found the work uncongenial. He told his father: ‘I never want to look at another damned deed again’. So he went to Edinburgh to study medicine, and qualified in 1936. He was house surgeon at Derby Royal Infirmary. He had joined the Territorial Army as a gunner, but found his medical work interfered with his training sessions and transferred to the RAMC. In 1939 he married Beryl Newby, and was about to take up the position of demonstrator in anatomy in Cambridge when the war broke out and he was posted to France, from which he was safely evacuated. He took the opportunity to sit and pass the FRCS. He was then posted to Singapore when news came of its surrender, and his ship was re-routed to the Middle East. There he found himself in a field hospital in Basra, where he practised his small arms skills by going wild fowling, and in the evenings became a fine bridge player. He ended the war as commanding officer of his field hospital. While at this posting a single dose of penicillin was received and he was asked which patient should be given it. He answered, the patient most in need. His staff remonstrated – this patient was an Italian prisoner of war. Travers repeated his orders. He was demobilised in 1945 and then worked as a registrar at the Westminster Hospital under Sir Stanford Cade until 1948, when he was appointed consultant surgeon to Sedgefield, and Stockton and Thornaby hospitals, their first non-GP specialist, retaining this appointment when the National Health Service was set up. He was particularly interested in abdominal surgery. From time to time he acted as medical officer to Sedgefield and Stockton racecourses. Outwardly shy, mild and well-mannered, in hospital he demanded the highest standards for his patients. Outside medicine, he learned to sail dinghies with his eldest daughter Jane and son John, and helped his other daughter, Mary, with her pony. He also bought a small farm. He retired at the age of 60 to a neglected Elizabethan cottage in Surrey, where he and Beryl transformed the interior and recreated the garden. He died after a prolonged illness on 2 September 2006.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000362
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Walker-Brash, Robert Munro Thorburn (1920 - 2006)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2007-06-08
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000300-E000399
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372549372549
Occupation General surgeon
Details Munro Walker-Brash was a consultant general surgeon at Orpington and Sevenoaks hospitals. He was born in London on 15 November 1920, the second son of John Walker-Brash, a general practitioner, and his wife Gloria Lilian née Parker. He was educated privately at Colet Court in Hammersmith and Cliveden Place School, Eaton Square, and then entered Westminster as a King’s scholar, remaining there from 1934 until 1939. He was a chorister for Royal events in Westminster Abbey, including the coronation of King George VI. From Westminster he went up to Christ Church, Oxford, and on to St Bartholomew’s for his clinical training in 1942, spending part of his time in Smithfield during the Blitz, and part at Hill End Hospital, a former mental hospital to which Bart’s students were evacuated. After qualifying, he was house surgeon to Sir James Paterson Ross and John Hosford, by whom he was greatly influenced. He did his National Service in the RAMC, rising to the rank of major, and returned to Bart’s to be junior registrar to Basil Hume. After six months at Great Ormond Street he returned to the surgical unit at Bart’s under Sir James Paterson Ross, and then went to Norwich as registrar to Charles Noon and Norman Townsley, and the Jenny Lind Hospital for Sick Children. He returned to Bart’s in 1954 as chief assistant to Rupert Corbett and Alec Badenoch, progressing after one year to senior registrar on the ‘Green’ firm. He was noted for his dexterity, clinical judgment and teaching ability. At this time senior registrars continued their training in Bart’s sector hospitals, in Munro’s case this was at Southend General Hospital, where he worked with Rodney Maingot, who was also at the Royal Free Hospital, and Donald Barlow, who also worked at the Luton and Dunstable and London Chest hospitals. In spite of spending so much time on the road, both were prolific writers and had thriving private practices. During this period Munro was much influenced by his namesake Andrew Munro, who later moved to the Royal Postgraduate Medical School. Munro’s definitive consultant posts were at Orpington and Sevenoaks hospitals, from 1960 until his retirement in 1984. He used his extremely wide general surgical training and admitted that ‘he was overworked at two peripheral hospitals’. Surgical Tutor at these hospitals for five years from 1970, he said he wrote ‘nothing of importance’. Despite his sizeable frame, his main hobby was riding: he was a show-jumping judge and an early supporter and helper of Riding for the Disabled. He married Eva Frances Jacqueline Waite, a Bart’s nurse in 1945. They had two children, Angela, who became a personal assistant in the legal department at Scotland Yard, and Robert, who emigrated to Auckland, New Zealand, to work as an insolvency accountant. Munro’s wife was diabetic and predeceased her husband, dying in 1985. Following her death, he was befriended by Pauline Smeed. Munro had a fall in May 2006 and died in hospital on 15 September 2006.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000363
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Islam, Mohammed Shamsul (1937 - 2005)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2008-10-17
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000500-E000599
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372745372745
Occupation General practitioner
Details Mohammed Shamsul Islam was born in Tangail, East Bengal, the former training station for ICS officers, on 7 June 1937. He qualified in Dacca and then went to England to specialise in surgery. Sadly, the college has no more information about his subsequent career until he settled down in general practice in Cheshire. He died on 24 February 2005.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000562
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Foss, Martin Vincent Lush (1938 - 2008)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2008-10-17
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000500-E000599
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372746372746
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon Trauma surgeon
Details Martin Foss was a consultant trauma and orthopaedic surgeon at Luton and Dunstable Hospital. He was born in Bristol on 12 February 1938, the son of George Lush Foss, a general practitioner, and Eileen Isabelle née Buller. His paternal grandfather, Edwin Vincent Foss, was also a general practitioner. Martin was educated at St Michael’s Preparatory School and at Marlborough, from which he entered Jesus College, Cambridge, going on to University College Hospital for his clinical course. After qualifying he became house surgeon to David Matthews and Doreen Nightingale at University College Hospital and then house physician to Lord Amulree at St Pancras Hospital, the UCH geriatric unit. Between 1964 and 1966 he worked for Donal Brooks and Kenneth Stone as orthopaedic and casualty senior house officer at the Barnet General Hospital, followed by a further year as an orthopaedic senior house officer at the North Middlesex Hospital. This was followed by two years as general surgical registrar at the Whittington Hospital, during which time he passed the FRCS of both colleges. He then specialised in orthopaedics and trauma, first as an orthopaedic registrar at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital and then as a senior orthopaedic registrar at University College Hospital. In 1973 he was appointed consultant orthopaedic and trauma surgeon at the Luton and Dunstable Hospital. He retired in 1996, having served as medical director of the Luton and Dunstable NHS Trust from 1991 to 1996. Martin undertook the full range of orthopaedic surgery in a very busy unit on the M1 motorway, but had a special interest in paediatric orthopaedics. His only publication was on bone density, osteoarthritis of the hip and fracture of the upper end of the femur in 1972. At Cambridge he played a full part in college life and won his oar in the successful first VIII. He loved the outdoor life, birdwatching, painting, walking and, after he retired, travelling. He was a lifelong freemason, gaining high office as provincial grand master for Bedfordshire. He married Anthea Noelle Johnson in 1963 (they divorced 1992), with whom he had two daughters, Victoria Charlotte and Caroline Louise. He died on 2 February 2008. Alan Lettin
Resource Identifier RCS: E000563
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
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First Title value, for Searching Pratt, David (1930 - 2006)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

by N Alan Green
Publication Date 2008-10-17
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000500-E000599
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372747372747
Occupation General surgeon Vascular surgeon
Details David Pratt was a consultant general and vascular surgeon at St James’s University Hospital, Leeds. He studied medicine in Leeds, where he had a distinguished undergraduate career, gaining first class honours and graduating with distinctions in surgery and forensic medicine. After house appointments, he served as a surgeon lieutenant on HMS Eagle during the Suez Crisis. He returned to Leeds, where he completed his surgical training. In 1962 he gained his FRCS, winning the Wilson Hey gold medal. He was appointed as a consultant to St James’s and Chapel Allerton hospitals, Leeds. His consultant career was marked by great diagnostic flair and superb technical skills: but above all he is remembered by patients for his caring personality and by his colleagues for the help he gave them in difficult times. Behind an unassuming demeanour there was a lively mind and a gentle sense of humour. David was a valued member of the Travelling Surgical Society of Great Britain and Northern Ireland from 1971 onwards. He and his wife, Libby, made many friends when attending overseas and home meetings. He was greatly respected in this forum of surgeons whose members represent most parts of the UK and many specialties. He was also a member of the Vascular Society and many of his publications reflected this interest; his wider knowledge of surgery was apparent in other papers and lectures. During a visit of the Travelling Surgical Society to Gibraltar and southern Spain he gave a paper on ‘Delorme’s procedure’ illustrated by his own pastel drawings: colo-proctologists present were surprised at the depth of his knowledge and his carefully assessed results. His other interests included photography, domestic cooking and watercolour painting in which in retirement he took lessons. He died suddenly at home of acute coronary insufficiency on 23 May 2006. He is survived by Libby and three sons.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000564
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
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First Title value, for Searching Blumberg, Louis (1920 - 2006)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

First Title value, for Searching Brock, Bevis Henry (1922 - 2005)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2007-07-25
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000300-E000399
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372554372554
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon
Details Bevis Brock was a consultant orthopaedic surgeon in Salisbury. He was born in Cambridge in 1922, the son of H M Brock, a well-known cartoonist and illustrator. Bevis attended the Perse School in Cambridge and subsequently Cambridge University, before undertaking his clinical training at King’s College Hospital. After military service in the RAMC he returned to King’s as a registrar, first in general surgery and then in orthopaedics. After completing his orthopaedic training as a senior registrar at Guy’s Hospital, Bevis was appointed consultant orthopaedic surgeon to the Salisbury group of hospitals in 1961. He was a highly respected orthopaedic surgeon and a wise and thoughtful doctor. He married Margaret, the superintendent physiotherapist at King’s. In 1947 their son Christopher was born. During her pregnancy Margaret developed rubella, but declined termination. Sadly, Christopher was born deaf, dumb and blind. Margaret and Bevis later founded the Rubella Group (for which she was awarded an OBE). This developed into the charity Sense. A daughter, Elizabeth, was born in 1950, but after qualifying as a physiotherapist she died from multiple sclerosis in her early forties. Following his wife’s death in the early 1990s, Bevis married Mary, a long-serving sister in the Salisbury hospitals and the daughter of a local GP. She also predeceased him. He died on 7 November 2005.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000368
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Evans, Ivan Tom Gwenogfryn (1938 - 2006)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2007-07-25 2009-01-16
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000300-E000399
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372555372555
Occupation ENT surgeon
Details Ivan Tom Gwenogfryn Evans, known to colleagues, friends and patients as ‘Og’, was a consultant surgeon in Newport, Gwent. He was born in London on 11 November 1938, in a house between Battersea Power Station and the Dogs Home. His parents Evan Evans and Margaret née Jones were Welsh and kept a family general store. Like many other children living in the heart of the capital at the time of the Blitz, the infant Og was evacuated to an aunt in west Wales and when time and circumstances permitted after the war he was joined by his parents, who returned permanently to Wales to live near Newcastle Emlyn in Cardiganshire. He was educated at the local Aberbanc Primary School and Llandysul Grammar School, and then won a place at the Welsh National School of Medicine in Cardiff in 1957, where for a time he trained with Cardiff City Football Club. He did house officer posts in Cardiff, where he married his childhood sweetheart, Marion, who was a teacher in Cardiff. He trained in general surgery before selection for a training post in ENT in Cardiff. His mentors in ENT were Hector and Alun Thomas, and he especially enjoyed the variety of surgical skills in this specialty, whether it was the exacting microsurgery of the middle ear or the use of the knife in the head and neck. Also in Cardiff was Stephen Richards who had worked with Hal Schucknecht in Boston. He persuaded Og to take up a fellowship in Detroit in 1974 with Ted McGee, one of the doyens of ear surgery at that time. His appointment was to the Providence Hospital, Southfield, Michigan. This proved to be a very fulfilling professional experience for Og and a happy year for Og, Marion and their young son, Andrew. After a year they returned to Cardiff and Og was appointed consultant surgeon in Gwent with appointments at the Royal Gwent Hospital, Newport, Nevill Hall in Abergavenny, and Pontypool and District Hospital. At the Royal Gwent he established a first class otological service for the county of Gwent in collaboration with audiology colleagues Gavin Davies and Ann Thomas. Due to his wide training he was an all-round surgeon in his specialty and was as comfortable with delicate ear surgery as with the demands of major head and neck work. He was widely read and meticulously conscientious in his standards and care for patients, and he enjoyed teaching, so that he attracted trainees. He was appointed College surgical tutor for ENT in south Wales. His colleagues elected him chairman of the Gwent Medical Society and he served for several years with distinction as secretary to the Welsh Otolaryngological Society. He enjoyed family life with Marion, and especially their grandson Dylan, in their favourite location, Newport Pembrokeshire, where they had a second home. Og was passionately proud of his Welsh language and heritage. A practical man, he did all the do-it-yourself jobs around the house and, until the advent of electronics, serviced his cars himself. He had been a keen cricketer and continued to follow soccer. Og had a remarkable gift of communication with people and could speak as easily and kindly to a child as to an old person. He died in September 2006 from metastatic cancer of the pancreas that only revealed itself two months before his death.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000369
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

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

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

First Title value, for Searching Young, Ian William (1929 - 2005)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-01-19
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000100-E000199
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372374372374
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon
Details Ian Young was a consultant orthopaedic surgeon based in Swindon. He was born in Rugby on 25 February 1929, the only child of George Sangster Young, an electrical engineer and Margaret Fenton Wright Breingan. He was educated at Rugby School and Merton College, Oxford. He then went on to University College Hospital, London for his clinical studies, qualifying in 1954. After house jobs at UCH he served in the RAMC with the 1/6th Gurkha Rifles in Malaya and Hong Kong. He returned to continue his surgical training at UCH as a registrar from 1960 to 1962, and then to the Radcliffe Infirmary, where he specialised in orthopaedics and became senior registrar there and at the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre. He was appointed consultant orthopaedic surgeon at Swindon in 1967. He married Anne Martine Davies, another UCH medical graduate, in 1955. They had one son and one daughter. His hobbies included squash and bird-watching. He died on 30 August 2005 of a pulmonary embolism.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000187
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Hawkins, Caesar Henry (1798 - 1888)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-01-25 2012-03-22
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000100-E000199
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372375372375
Occupation Anatomist General surgeon
Details One of the ten children of the Rev. Edward Hawkins, grandson of Sir Caesar Hawkins, Bart. (1711-1786), Surgeon to St. George's Hospital and Serjeant-Surgeon to George II and George III, who was descended from Colonel Caesar Hawkins, commanding a regiment of horse for Charles I. Caesar Hawkins was born on Sept. 19th, 1798, at Bisley, Gloucestershire, and, his father having died whilst he was still young, he was sent to Christ's Hospital (the Bluecoat School), where he remained from 1807-1813, when he had to be withdrawn as he was not destined for either Oxford or Cambridge. He was apprenticed to Mr. Sheppard, of Hampton Court, then the medical attendant of the Duke of Clarence, afterwards King William IV, who lived at Bushey Park. At the end of his indentures in 1818 he was admitted a student at St. George's Hospital under Sir Everard Home and Benjamin Brodie, and attended the chemistry classes of Michael Faraday at the Royal Institution. As soon as he had qualified he began to teach anatomy at the Hunterian or Windmill Street School of Medicine, having Sir Charles Bell as his colleague. He was elected Surgeon to St. George's Hospital on February 13th, 1829, and resigned in 1861, when he was appointed Consulting Surgeon. In 1862 he was gazetted Serjeant-Surgeon to Queen Victoria, and was thus the fourth member of his family to hold a like office. He was a Member of the Council from 1846-1863, and of the Court of Examiners from 1849-1866; was Chairman of the Midwifery Board in 1860; delivered the Hunterian Oration in 1849, when H R H the Prince Consort honoured the College with his presence; was Vice-President in 1850, 1851, 1859, 1860; President in 1852 and again in 1861; and Representative of the College on the General Medical Council from 1865-1870. In 1871 he was elected a Trustee of the Hunterian Museum. He was elected FRS on June 9th, 1856. He married: (1) Miss Dolbel, and (2) Miss Ellen Rouse, but left no issue by either. He died on July 20th, 1884, at his house, 26 Grosvenor Street. As a surgeon Hawkins attained eminence and achieved success, his opinion being especially sought in complex cases. For long he was noted as the only surgeon who had succeeded in the operation of ovariotomy in a London hospital. This occurred in 1846, when anaesthetics were unknown. He did much to popularize colotomy. A successful operator, he nevertheless was attached to conservative surgery, and he was always more anxious to teach his pupils how to save a limb than how to remove it. Long after he had become Consulting Surgeon to his hospital he continued to be a familiar figure on the wards, where he gave his colleagues the benefit of his lifelong experience. Caesar Hawkins was a man of sterling worth and merit, as well as of great capacity. His family was, indeed, distinguished for talent, as evidenced by the fact, above alluded to, that four of them rose to the rank of Serjeant-Surgeon. Two of Caesar Hawkin's own brothers were men of mark - Edward (1794-1877) the well-known Provost of Oriel who played so great a part in the life of Oxford during the Tractarian Movement, and Dr. Francis Hawkins, the first Registrar of the General Medical Council, who was known as one of the best classical scholars among the physicians of his time. His nephew Sir John Caesar Hawkins (1837-1929), Canon of St. Albans, was the author of the well known *Horae Synopticae*. Hawkins was not remarkable for graciousness of demeanour on a first acquaintance - in fact, most men complained of him as somewhat dry and repellent under these circumstances. But this vanished on a closer acquaintance, when his genuine kindness of heart and sincerity became recognized. Everyone knew how firm a friend he was to those who had earned his friendship, and how trustworthy a counsellor, and he ended his days amid the universal respect and regard of the many who had been his colleagues and pupils. One of the latter, when addressing students of St. George's at the opening of the session of 1885, thus concluded a reference to the examples left them by their predecessors in the school:- "I would point out to you, as an example of what I mean, the great surgeon who has lately passed away from us, full of years and honours, endeared to those who had the happiness of being his pupils by every tie of gratitude and affection, and reverenced by all who can appreciate stainless honour. Caesar Hawkins was rich in friends, who watched and tended the peaceful close of his long and brilliant career. They can testify how well he bore Horace's test of a well-spent life, '*lenior et melior fis accedente senecta*' (Epist. ii. 211). The old words involuntarily occur to everyone who contemplates an old age so full of dignity and goodness: 'The path of the just is as a shining light, which shineth more and more unto the perfect day'" (Proverbs v. 18). He has been described as one of the cleverest minds in the medical profession, a mind of unquestioned accuracy, unswayed by imagination, temper, or desire for renown. No one was more discreet and honest in council, or less influenced by self-interest. A bust by George Halse was presented to the College by Mrs Caesar Hawkins in June, 1855. Photographs are preserved in the College Collection. PUBLICATIONS:- Hawkins contributed largely to the medical journals, and reprinted his papers for private circulation under the title, *The Hunterian Oration, Presidential Addresses, and Pathological and Surgical Writings,* 2 vols., 8vo, 1874. Among these mention may be made of valuable lectures "On Tumours", and of papers on "Excision of the Ovum", "The Relative Claims of Sir Charles Bell and Magendie to the Discovery of the Functions of the Spinal Nerves", "Experiments on Hydrophobia and the Bites of Serpents", "Stricture of the Colon treated by Operation", etc.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000188
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Adams, William ( [1] - 1900)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2009-08-21 2016-01-15
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000600-E000699
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372833372833
Occupation General surgeon
Details [2] Studied anatomy and physiology at the Webb Street School, which was then under the management of Richard Grainger (1798-1861), the younger brother of the talented but ill-used founder. In 1838 he entered as a medical student at St Thomas's Hospital, where he came under the influence of Joseph Henry Green (qv) (1791-1863), the philosophical surgeon whose memory he always held in the highest esteem. [3] In August, 1842, he was appointed Curator of the Museum and Demonstrator of Morbid Anatomy in the Medical School of St Thomas's Hospital, then situated in the Borough. These posts were held until 1854, when he joined the Grosvenor Place or Lane's Medical School in Kinnerton Street [4] near St George's Hospital. Here he lectured on Surgery and Hospital Practice, having Thomas Spencer Wells (qv) as a colleague. About this time Adams began to devote his attention more particularly to orthopaedic surgery, of which he became one of the leading exponents and most successful practitioners in this country. He was appointed Surgeon to the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital, Surgeon to the Great Northern Hospital, and Surgeon to the National Hospital for the Paralysed and Epileptic before it had specialized in brain surgery. At the Great Northern (now the Royal Northern) Hospital he devised the operation which became known by his name - osteotomy of the neck of the femur within the capsule of the hip-joint. For this purpose he invented a saw with a short cutting surface and a long blunt shank - "my little thaw," as he always called it - by which the bone could be divided through a minute incision in the skin. He also brought into prominence the treatment of Dupuytren's contraction by subcutaneous division of the fibrous bands. In 1864 he was awarded the Jacksonian Prize for "Club-foot, its Causes, Pathology and Treatment". The essay is a classic, for it is an epitome of the knowledge of the time. In 1872 he severed his connection with the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital in consequence of a quarrel between the staff and the management, in which it was thought by his contemporaries that the staff was in the right. In 1876 he was President of the Medical Society of London, and in that capacity visited the United States and Canada as a delegate to the International Medical Congress held in September at Philadelphia. He was accompanied by Dr Lauder Brunton and Richard Davy (qv). With Lister (qv) he watched Professor Sayre excise the hip-joint in a boy. He lived and practised until 1896 at 5 Henrietta Street, Cavendish Square, where is now the College of Nursing. He retired to 7 Loudon Road, St John's Wood, and died there on Feb 3rd, 1900, the morning of his ninetieth birthday. [5] He never married. [6] Adams was a careful but slow operator who maintained his interest in general surgery and pathology to the end of his life. He had been one of the promoters and first members of the Pathological Society of London as early as 1846. He was a good but prolix talker, with a soft voice and well-marked lisp. Sir James Paget used to complain of him that he never finished his sentences, and when one of us (D'A P) was curator of the Museum at St Bartholomew's Hospital, he would often come in later days and waste two or three hours of valuable time, having himself nothing to do. His talk, however, was interesting, for he would tell of his reminiscences of 'resurrection days' and the snatching of bodies for the purposes of anatomy. He took with him from Grainger's School Tom Parker as his dead-house assistant at St Thomas's Hospital. Tom Parker was a notorious resurrectionist, and there is good reason to suppose that he was the executioner who cut off the heads of the four men sentenced for high treason after the Cato Street Conspiracy in 1820. Publications:- "Observations on Transverse Fracture of the Patella." *Trans. Pathol. Soc.*, ii, 254. "The Enlargement of the Articular Extremities of Bone in Chronic Rheumatic Arthritis." - *Ibid*., iii, 156. (He refuted in this paper the teaching of Rokitansky.) Lectures on Orthopaedic Surgery, 1855-8. "Presidential Address on Subcutaneous Surgery." - *Proc. Med. Soc. Lond.*, 1857. *On the Reparative Process in Human Tendons after Subcutaneous Division for the Cure of Deformities, with a Series of Experiments on Rabbits and a Résumé of the Literature of the Subject,* 8vo, plates, London, 1860. (A piece of good pathological work illustrating the method of repair of divided tendons.) *Lectures on the Pathology and Treatment of Lateral and other Forms of Curvature of the Spine*, 8vo, 5 plates, London 1865; 2nd ed., 1882. *Club-Foot, its Causes, Pathology and Treatment* (Jacksonian Prize Essay), 8vo, illustrated, London, 1866; 2nd ed, 8vo, 6 plates, London, 1873. (The original manuscript is in the Library of the Royal College of Surgeons.) "Congenital Dislocation of Hip-Joint." - *Brit. Med. Jour.*, 1885, ii, 859; 1887, i, 866; 1889, i, 243; and *Trans. Amer. Orthop. Cong.*, 1895. "Congenital Wry-Neck" - *Trans. Amer. Orthop. Assoc.*, 1896. "Rotation of the Spine in the so-called Lateral Curvature." - *Ibid.*, 1899, etc. The following are in the Library of the Royal College of Surgeons:- *A New Operation for Bony Anchylosis of the Hip Joint by Subcutaneous Division of the Neck of the Thigh Bone*, 8vo, 4 plates, London 1871. "On the Successful Treatment of Hammer-Toe by the Subcutaneous Division of the Lateral Ligaments", 8vo, plate, London, 1868, from *Proc. Med. Soc. Lond*., ii; 2nd ed., 1892. "On the Successful Treatment of Cases of Congenital Displacement of the Hip-Joint", 8vo, 2 illustrations, London, 1890, from *Brit. Med. Jour*. "Subcutaneous Surgery: its Principles, and its Recent Extension in Practice" (Sixth Toner Lecture), 1876, in *Smithsonian Miscell. Collections*, xv, 8vo, Washington, 1877. *Observations on Contractions of the Fingers (Dupuytren's Contraction), and its Successful Treatment by Subcutaneous Divisions of the Palmar Fascia and Immediate Extension; also on the Obliteration of Depressed Cicatrices after Glandular Abscesses or Exfoliation of Bone by a Subcutanous Operation*, 8vo, 4 Plates, Washington, 1879. The 2nd edition appeared with the title, *On Contractions of the Fingers (Dupuytren's and Congenital Contractions) and on 'Hammer-toe'*, etc., 8vo, 8 plates, Washington, 1892. "The International Medical Congress in Philadelphia" (Presidential Address before the Medical Society of London). - *Proc. Med. Soc. Lond.*, 1875-7, iii, 97; printed as an 8vo volume, London 1876. *Royal Orthopaedic Hospital. Letters and Documents in reference to the recent Arbitration by a Committee appointed by the Council of the Metropolitan Branch of the British Medical Association to investigate Certain Charges made by Mr W Adams against Mr Brodhurst, in connection with the Events which have lately occurred at the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital*, 8vo, London, 1872. *Principles of Treatment applicable to Contractions and Deformities*, 1893. Special section contributed to the 2nd edition of William Spencer Watson's *Diseases of the Nose and the Accessory Cavities*, 8vo, London, 1890. Adams delivered the Lettsomian Lectures before the Medical Society of London in 1869, his subject being the "Rheumatic and Strumous Diseases of the Joints and the Treatment for the Restoration of Motion in Partial Ankylosis." In the same year he cut through the neck of the thigh bone, but Mr Brodhurst had already performed this operation several times. [Amendments from the annotated edition of *Plarr's Lives* at the Royal College of Surgeons: [1] 1820 (1st February); [2] Son of James Adams L.S.A. of 39 Finsbury Square, a Governor of S. Thomas's Hospital.; [3] His eldest brother, James, was also a pupil of J.H. Green, became an ophthalmic surgeon & died aged 31.; [4] 'Kinnerton Street' is deleted and 'Grosvenor Place' added; [5] 'the morning of' is deleted and '2 days after' is added, and 'ninetieth' is deleted and '80th' added; [6] 'He never married.' is deleted, and the following added 'He married 21 August 1847, Mary Anne MILLS, who died in 1897, and had 2 sons & 1 daughter - all now (1931) dead without descendants (information from P.E. Adams MRCS, nephew). the last surviving son died in 1920. He is also reported to have had "two harems(?)"'; Portrait (No.1) in Small Photographic Album (Moira & Haigh).]
Resource Identifier RCS: E000650
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Agnis, John Crown (1828 - 1866)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2009-08-21
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000600-E000699
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372834372834
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born at Langford, Malden, Essex, on Nov 11th, 1828, and dying unmarried was the last representative of an ancient Cambridgeshire family. He was a very promising lad, and at the age of 16 entered University College, London, and soon carried off the Senior Greek Prize, “being a mere boy in comparison with his competitors” (*Lancet*). He received his medical education at University College Hospital, became House Surgeon, and was gazetted to the 3rd Light Dragoons on Aug 11th, 1854. He afterwards became Assistant Surgeon to the Horse Guards Blue in 1860 (Sept 18th), holding this post to the end of his life. As an operator he was “bold and skilful”, “notably endowed”, as his *Lancet* biographer remarks, “with that special surgical acumen which is logic in action”. His talents were such that his friends urged him to bring himself into greater evidence. Accordingly he began to study deformities and “energetically followed out a series of special researches into their general surgical pathology.” In 1864 the Examiners for the Jacksonian Essay Prize awarded an Honorarium to Agnis for his essay on “Club-foot, its Causes, Pathology and Treatment”. The many illustrations to the Essay were drawn by the author, but the paper has not been published. Agnis was a skilful artist, “an enthusiastic entomologist, and versed in almost every branch of natural science”. He died in London on June 28th, 1866, after a brief illness. He had previously suffered from the effects of a severe hunting accident.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000651
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

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

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

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

First Title value, for Searching Hilton, John (1805 - 1878)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-02-01 2012-03-22
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000100-E000199
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372380372380
Occupation Anatomist General surgeon
Details Born at Sible Hedingham, a small village on the River Colne in the heart of Essex, on September 22nd, 1805, the first son of John and Hannah Hilton. His parents were in humble circumstances when he was born, but his father afterwards made money in the straw-plaiting industry, became the owner of some brickfields, and built the house in Swan Street which is still called Hilton House. In addition to John, the Hilton family consisted of a brother, Charles, who inherited his father's property, and two sisters, one of whom, Anne, married Charles Fagge on December 27th, 1836. Hilton was educated at Chelmsford and afterwards at Boulogne, and became a student at Guy's Hospital about 1824. Guy's separated from St. Thomas's during his student career, and he was appointed Demonstrator of Anatomy under Bransby Cooper (q.v.), his fellow-demonstrator being Edward Cock (q.v.), in 1828. The two demonstrators worked together in friendly rivalry, and when Sir Astley Cooper proposed that they should investigate the origin and distribution of the superior laryngeal nerve, Cock undertook the comparative and Hilton the human anatomy side of the question. The results were largely instrumental in causing his election as F.R.S. in 1839. From 1828 Hilton devoted himself so assiduously to the dissecting-room as to acquire the sobriquet 'Anatomical John'. When he was not dissecting or teaching he was making post-mortem examinations, and after sixteen years of this work he had gained an unrivalled knowledge of the anatomy of the human body and had become a first-rate teacher and lecturer. About 1838 he was engaged in making those dissections which, modelled in wax by Joseph Towne, still remain as gems in the Museum of Guy's Hospital. For this purpose Hilton spent an hour or two every morning in making a most careful dissection of some very small part of the body - usually not more than an inch or two. He then left, and Towne copied the dissection in wax. Towne worked alone in a locked room, and the secrets of his art died with him. Hilton was elected Lecturer on Anatomy in 1845 and resigned in 1853. As a lecturer and teacher he was admirable, for he had the power of interesting students by putting the trite and oft-told facts of anatomy in a totally new light, the result of his own observation and experience. He combined, too, elementary physiology with anatomy, for the two subjects had not then been separated. He was, however, a confirmed teleologist and tried to prove that anatomical distribution was due to design rather than to development. He had neither the education nor the inclination to appreciate anatomy in its scientific aspects. Hilton was elected Assistant Surgeon to Guy's Hospital in 1844, Thomas Callaway and Edward Cock being his colleagues, whilst John Morgan, Aston Key, and Bransby Cooper were full Surgeons. He thus had the distinction of being the first surgeon at one of the large London hospitals who was appointed without having served an apprenticeship either to the hospital or to one of its Surgeons. In 1847 James Paget was elected to a similar position at St. Bartholomew's Hospital without either of these qualifications, and the rule previously looked upon as inviolate soon became more honoured in the breach than in the observance. Hilton's period of probation in the out-patient room was of short duration. Aston Key (q.v.) died of cholera after an illness of twenty hours in 1849, and Hilton as the Senior Assistant Surgeon was promoted to fill his place. The ordeal was trying, for he had been an anatomist all his life and had never had charge of beds, but he came well through it. He did not acquire the brilliancy or expertness of the older surgeons, but the very exactness of his anatomical knowledge made him a careful operator. His caution is still remembered by that method of opening deeply-seated abscesses with a probe and dressing forceps after making an incision through the skin, which is known as 'Hilton's method'. He shone especially in clinical lectures, where he brought out the importance of every detail in a case, and so linked them together as to form a continuous chain which interested even the idlest student. He attracted to himself the best type of men, and to be a dresser to Hilton was considered a blue ribbon at the hospital. Yet he was no easy master to serve, for he was rough in speech and was prone to indulge in personalities designed to hurt the *amour propre* of those to whom they were addressed. At the Royal College of Surgeons Hilton was chosen a life-member of the Council in 1854. He lectured as Hunterian Professor of Human Anatomy and Surgery from 1859-1862, but it was not until 1865 that he became a Member of the Court of Examiners, a post he held for ten years. He served as Vice-President during the years 1865 and 1866, and was elected President in 1867, the year in which he delivered the Hunterian Oration. He resigned the Lectureship on Surgery at Guy's Hospital in 1870, though he continued to practise at 10 New Broad Street, E.C. In 1871 he was appointed Surgeon Extraordinary to Queen Victoria, and in the same year he was President of the Pathological Society. He married twice, and his children survived him. He died at Clapham of cancer of the stomach on September 14th, 1878. Hilton's claim to remembrance rests upon his essay "On the Influence of Mechanical and Physiological Rest in the Treatment of Accidents and Surgical Disease and the Diagnostic Value of Pain". The essay was delivered as his course of Arris and Gale Lectures at the Royal College of Surgeons in the years 1860, 1861, and 1862, with the title "Pain and Therapeutic Influences of Mechanical and Physiological Rest in the Treatment of Surgical Diseases and Accidents". It was published as an octavo volume in 1863; the second edition, with the shortened title *On Rest and Pain*, edited by W. H. A. Jacobson (q.v.), appeared in 1877; the third in 1880; the fourth in 1887; and the fifth in 1892. All the issues except the first are duodecimos; the third, fourth, and fifth contain no material changes. *Rest and Pain* is interesting historically as showing the state of surgery in a large general hospital when its practice was based entirely upon anatomy and was devoid of the assistance it now derives from histology, bacteriology, and anaesthetics. It bears perhaps the same relation to modern surgery as Chambers's *Vestiges of Creation* bears to modern geology and biology. There is much morbid anatomy, and great common sense mingled with very crude speculation. It remains a fascinating work, written by one who, though a master of one side of his subject, was unable to see the whole, partly because he was insufficiently acquainted with advances of his contemporaries, and partly because the means for developing the scientific aspects of surgery were not in existence. The particular points upon which Hilton laid stress in his lectures were the blocking of the foramen of Magendie in some cases of internal hydrocephalus; the cautious opening of deep abscesses; the pain referred to the knee by patients with hip disease and its anatomical explanation; the cause of triple displacement in chronic tuberculous disease of the knee; and the importance of the early diagnosis and treatment of hip disease. All this and many other things which are now the commonplaces of surgery, Hilton set out in *Rest and Pain*, in which the naïve description of his cases and their treatment is by no means the least attractive feature. It was said that no one looking at Hilton would have taken him for a great surgeon: he appeared much more like a prosperous City man. Short, rather stout, and plodding in his walk; dapper in a plain frock-coat with a faultless shirt front, a black stock or bow-tie, a fancy waistcoat festooned with a long gold chain which was hung from the neck; always in boots irreproachably blackened at a time when Warren's and Day & Martn's blackings were at the height of their vogue - such was the picture of Hilton as he sat on the bed of a patient in one of his wards examining an inflamed ulcer with a probe to determine the position of any exposed nerve. A life-size half-length oval portrait of Hilton by Henry Barraud (1811-1874) hangs in the Conservator's room at the College. It was presented by Mrs. Hilton in 1879. There is a photograph in the New Sydenham Society's "Portraits by President" portfolio; and a medallion given by Mrs. Oldham to C. H. A. Golding-Bird, F.R.C.S., in 1894 hangs in the Librarian's room at the College.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000193
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First Title value, for Searching Wilson, James Noël Chalmers Barclay (1919 - 2006)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-11-09 2007-03-08
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Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon
Details James Noël Chalmers Barclay Wilson, known as ‘Ginger’, was an orthopaedic surgeon. He was born on Christmas Day 1919 in Coventry, the son of Alexander Wilson, a schoolmaster, and Isobel Barbara née Fairweather, many of whose relatives were general practitioners. His parents later moved to Kenilworth, where a great friend of the family was W E Bennett, a founder member and the first treasurer of the British Orthopaedic Association. Bennett may have influenced Wilson’s later choice of specialty. Wilson was educated at King Henry VIII School, Coventry, where he began to study classics, but switched to science, much to the disgust of his headmaster, and won the Newsome memorial gold medal for physics and a prize for shooting. He studied medicine at Birmingham University, where he passed the primary as an undergraduate, won the Peter Thompson prize for anatomy, as well as the senior surgical and Arthur Foxwell prizes, and qualified with honours. In 1939 he was called up as an emergency dresser and lived in the General Hospital, Birmingham, until January 1940. He was one of the first students to enter Coventry after the notorious raid of 14 November 1940. This was followed a few days later by a massive air raid on Birmingham, when the hospital took in over 240 patients in one night. He qualified in 1943. After six months as a house surgeon at Birmingham General Hospital (during which time he won the Heaton award for being the best resident) he joined the RAMC. There he served as regimental medical officer, qualified as a parachutist, and was attached to the 9th Armoured Division, the 11th Armoured Division and the First Airborne Division, with whom he landed at Arromanches shortly after D-Day. In April 1945 he was recalled to the 1st Airborne to prepare for the attack on Denmark and Norway. He flew in on 9 May in a Stirling bomber, landing at Gardermoen. He remained in Norway until late August, returning in time to marry Pat McCullough, a nurse he had met in Birmingham, on 3 September, celebrating with champagne liberated from a German cache in Norway. After the war he returned as supernumerary registrar to Birmingham and, after passing the FRCS, spent a year at the Coventry and Warwickshire Hospital as an orthopaedic registrar, followed by three years at the Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital, Oswestry, where he was much influenced by Sir Reginald Watson-Jones, Sir Henry Osmond Clarke and A M Henry. He earned his ChM degree for a thesis on supracondylar fractures of the elbow, written at Oswestry. In 1952 he was appointed consultant orthopaedic surgeon to Cardiff Royal Infirmary, but after three years moved to the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital London to set up the accident service at Stanmore, where he was on call three nights a week and alternate weekends. He was also consultant orthopaedic surgeon to the National Hospital for Nervous Diseases, Queen Square. His orthopaedic interests were at first general, and he helped to develop the Stanmore total hip replacement, along with John Scales and was the first to put one of them in. Later the same team developed the method for replacement of the upper femur and hip for bone tumour. He devised his own osteotomy for the treatment of hallux valgus in adolescents, and set up the RNOH bone tumour registry, which he directed until his retirement. He established the London Bone Tumour Registry. He described a new sign in the early diagnosis of osteochondritis dissecans of the knee, which became known in the USA as ‘Wilson’s sign’, and described two new conditions - ‘Winkle-Pickers’ disease’ and ‘the Battered Buttock’. After retirement he devoted his energies to developing orthopaedic services throughout the third world, travelling to Addis Ababa (where he was made professor of orthopaedics in 1989), Nigeria, Ghana, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Malaysia and Papua New Guinea. He revised and edited the fifth and sixth editions of Watson-Jones’s textbook on *Fractures and joint injuries* and published more than 60 papers in orthopaedic journals. He was founder member and president of the World Orthopaedic Concern, president of the orthopaedic section of the Royal Society of Medicine, an honorary fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine, and a member of the editorial board of the *Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery*. In the College he was the Watson-Jones lecturer in 1988, and Jackson Burrows medallist in 1991. He was appointed OBE in 1995 for services to orthopaedics worldwide. Among his hobbies he included his vintage Bentley, occasional golf, and making things out of rubbish. He died suddenly on 2 March 2006, leaving his wife (who died two weeks later), two daughters (Sheila Barbara and Patricia Elizabeth Jane), two sons (Michael Alexander Lyall and Richard Noël) and three grandchildren (Sam, Rosie and Alice).
Resource Identifier RCS: E000283
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First Title value, for Searching Wilson, Charles Graham (1924 - 2005)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-11-09
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Occupation General surgeon
Details Charles Wilson was a surgeon at the Royal Adelaide Hospital. He was born in Adelaide on 3 April 1924. His father, Sir George Wilson, was a founding fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons and a foundation fellow of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. His mother, Elsa May Cuzens, had been a nurse. He was educated at St Peter’s College, Adelaide, and Adelaide University, where he won a blue for golf. After qualifying in 1947 he was an intern at the Royal Adelaide Hospital for 15 months before joining the RAMC, serving with the British Commonwealth Occupation Force in Japan for a year. He returned to Australia to spend a year as a resident at the Adelaide Children’s Hospital. He then went to England to study for the FRCS, working at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School, Hammersmith, and Kingston General Hospital. After passing the Edinburgh and English fellowships he returned to Australia in 1954. He was first a registrar and then a senior registrar at the Royal Adelaide Hospital. In 1959 he became an honorary assistant surgeon, becoming a full surgeon in 1969 and a senior visiting surgeon in 1970. He remained at the Royal Adelaide Hospital until 1988. In 1967 he led the South Australian Civilian Surgical Team to South Vietnam, and in 1969 was lieutenant colonel surgeon at the First Australian Field Hospital for three months, remaining as consulting general surgeon to Central Command from 1969 to 1979. At the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons he was chairman of the South Australia state committee, coordinator of surgical training from 1975 to 1980, and served on the Court of Examiners. He was a keen golfer, serving as captain and later president of the Royal Adelaide Golf Club. He married Lois Penelope Fox: they had two daughters, Susan and Philippa, and one son, Thomas Graham Wilson, who is a fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons. Charles Wilson died on 15 August 2005.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000284
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First Title value, for Searching Richards, Stephen Higgs (1928 - 2006)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

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

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-02-01 2012-03-22
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Occupation General surgeon
Details Born at Prestonpans on March 20th, 1808, the son of James Fergusson. He was educated at Lochmaben, Dumfriesshire, at the High School, and at the University of Edinburgh. He was placed by his own desire in a lawyer's office at the age of 15, but finding the work uncongenial he changed law for medicine when he was 17. He became a pupil of Robert Knox, the anatomist, then at the height of his reputation, who appointed him demonstrator in 1828, when the class consisted of 504 students and the lectures had to be repeated thrice daily. Fergusson quickly became a skilled anatomist, and it is said that he often spent sixteen hours a day in the dissecting-room, and he soon began to lecture in association with Knox. He was elected Surgeon to the Edinburgh Royal Dispensary in 1831, and in that year tied the third part of the right subclavian artery for an axillary aneurysm, an operation which had been published only twice previously in Scotland. He described the appearances seen at the post-mortem examination in the *London and Edinburgh Journal of Medical Science* (1841, i, 617). In 1855 he employed the dangerous method of direct compression of a subclavian aneurysm (*Lancet*, 1855, ii, 197). He married Helen Hamilton Ranken on Oct. 10th, 1833. She was the daughter and heiress of William Ranken, of Spittlehaugh, Peebleshire, and the marriage at once placed Fergusson in easy circumstances. He continued zealous in his profession, and in 1836, when he was elected Surgeon to the Royal Infirmary and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, he shared with James Syme (q.v.) the best surgical practice in Scotland. In 1840 Fergusson accepted the Professorship of Surgery at King's College, London, with the Surgeoncy to King's College Hospital, which was then situated in the slums of Clare Market. He settled at Dover Street, Piccadilly, whence he removed in 1847 to George Street, Hanover Square. His fame brought crowds of students to King's College Hospital to witness his operations. He became Member of the College of Surgeons in 1840, Fellow in 1844, was a Member of Council from 1861-1877, and of the Court of Examiners from 1867-1870, Vice-President in 1869, President in 1870, and Hunterian Orator in 1871. As Arris and Gale Lecturer he delivered two courses on "The Progress of Anatomy and Surgery during the Present Century", in 1864 and 1865. In these lectures Fergusson mentioned three hundred successful operations for hare-lip performed by himself. In 1849 he was appointed Surgeon in Ordinary to Prince Albert, and in 1855 Surgeon Extraordinary to H. M. the Queen. He was made a baronet in 1866, and Serjeant-Surgeon in 1867. The occasion of his receiving a baronetcy was seized upon to make a presentation of a dessert service of silver plate which was subscribed for by three hundred of his old pupils. He was elected F.R.S. in 1848, President of the Pathological Society in 1859-1860, and of the British Medical Association in 1873, and Hon. LL.D of Edinburgh in 1875. He resigned the office of Professor of Surgery at King's College in 1870, but retained the post of Clinical Professor of Surgery and Surgeon to the hospital until his death. He invented the term 'conservative surgery', by which he meant the excision of a joint rather than the amputation of a limb. He introduced great improvements in the treatment of hare-lip and cleft palate, and his style of operating attracted general attention and admiration. As an operator, indeed, he is justly placed at the pinnacle of fame. Lizars said he had seen no one, not even Liston himself, surpass Fergusson in a trying and critical operation, and his biographer, Mr. Bettany, says in the *Dictionary of National Biography*: "His manipulative and mechanical skill was shown both in his mode of operating and in the new instruments which he devised. The bulldog forceps, the mouth-gag, and various bent knives for cleft palate, attest his ingenuity. A still higher mark of his ability consisted in his perfect planning of every detail of an operation beforehand; no emergency was unprovided for. Thus, when an operation had begun, he proceeded with remarkable speed and silence till the end, himself applying every bandage and plaster, and leaving, as far as possible, no traces of his operation. So silently were most of his operations conducted, that he was often imagined to be on bad terms with his assistants." Fergusson was celebrated as a lithotomist and lithoritist, and it was said that to *wink* during one of his cutting operations for stone might involve one's seeing no operation at all, so rapidly was the work performed by that master hand. On one occasion when performing a lithotomy the blade of the knife broke away from the handle. He at once seized the blade in his long deft fingers, finished the operation, and quietly told the class: "Gentlemen, you should be prepared for any emergency." He died in London of Bright's disease on Feb. 10th, 1877, and was buried at West Linton, Peebleshire, beside his wife, who died in 1860. He was succeeded in the title by his sons, James Ranken; a younger son, Charles Hamilton, entered the Army, and there were three daughters. Fergusson's personality was marked. Tall and of fine presence, with very large and powerful hands, he was genial and hospitable. He was beloved by hosts of students whom he had started in life, and of patients whom he had aided gratuitously. Those who could afford to pay sometimes gave him very large sums for an operation. Like John Hunter, he was a good carpenter, and had besides a number of social pursuits and accomplishments. He was a staunch friend, forgiving to those, such as Syme, who opposed him, and his best monument is the life and work of the many pupils whom he influenced and stimulated as few have ever done. He made many contributions to surgical literature, and wrote a *System of Practical Surgery*, of which a fifth edition appeared in 1870. An expressive and nearly full length oil painting of Fergusson by Rudolf Lehmann hangs in the Secretary's office at the College, and there are numbers of portraits in the College Collection. The portrait was painted in 1874, and a replica hangs in the Edinburgh College of Physicians. He was extremely social and given to kind and friendly hospitality in private life. He sometimes invited a small circle of friends to dine at a well-known city hostelry, The Albion Tavern. On one of these occasions he invited the then Editor of *Punch*, who responded in these terms: "Look out for me at seven, look after me at eleven. - Yours, Mark Lemon." PUBLICATIONS:- *A System of Practical Surgery*, of which the first edition in 18mo was published in London, 1842; 2nd ed., in 12mo, 1846; 3rd., 1852; 4th ed., 1857; 5th ed., 1870. The work deals with the art rather than the science of surgery, and was a good text-book for medical students. Paper on lithotrity in the *Edin. Med. and Surg. Jour.*, 1835, xliv, 80. Paper on cleft palate in the *Med.-Chir. Trans.,* 1845, xxviii, 273. The Hunterian Oration, 8vo, 1871, is chiefly remarkable for the generous eulogium of James Syme, his former colleague, with whom relations had been somewhat strained.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000196
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First Title value, for Searching Busk, George (1807 - 1886)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

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

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z

First Title value, for Searching Curling, Thomas Blizard (1811 - 1888)

2025-08-06T06:16:23Z