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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-10-26
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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/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 Keast-Butler, John (1937 - 2005)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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/372531372531
Occupation Ophthalmologist
Details John Keast-Butler was a consultant ophthalmologist at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge. He was born in London on 26 September 1937. His father, Joseph Alfred Keast-Butler, was a salesman and his mother, Mary Loise Brierley, was a secretary. He was educated at University College School and went up to Trinity College, Cambridge, to read medicine, going on to University College Hospital for his clinical studies. After National Service in the RAMC he specialised in ophthalmology, at first as a registrar at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge, then as a senior resident officer at Moorfields Eye Hospital, City Road, and finally as a senior registrar at St Thomas’s Hospital and the National Hospital for Nervous Diseases. In 1977 he was appointed as a consultant ophthalmic surgeon to Addenbrooke’s NHS Trust, Cambridge University Teaching Hospitals Trust and Saffron Walden Community Hospital. In addition he was associate lecturer (medicine) at the University of Cambridge, director of studies (clinical medicine) at Trinity College, Cambridge, and attachment director in ophthalmology, University of Cambridge School of Medicine. He was a fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine, chairman of the BMA ophthalmic group committee for some years and honorary secretary of the Cambridge Medical Graduates’ Club. His colleagues rightly described him as a big man in stature and in personality. He was a skilled craftsman and enjoyed carpentry, photography and gardening. He married Brigid Hardy, a nurse, in 1967 and they had three children – one daughter (a civil servant) and two sons (a trainee ophthalmic surgeon and a business analyst). He died on 19 March 2005 while travelling with his wife in Goa. He had a major fall that proceeded a fatal pulmonary embolism.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000345
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-09-23
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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/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 Till, Anthony Stedman (1909 - 2006)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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/372539372539
Occupation General surgeon
Details Anthony Stedman Till, known as ‘Tim’, was a consultant surgeon in Oxford. He was born in London, on 5 September 1909, the eldest son of Thomas Marson Till OBE, an accountant, and Gladys Stedman, the daughter of a metal broker in the City. Tim was educated at Ovingdean Hall, Brighton, and Marlborough, before winning a scholarship to Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, from which he went to the Middlesex Hospital to do his clinical training as a university scholar. After he qualified he was house physician, house surgeon, casualty officer and registrar, and then became an assistant to Sir Gordon Gordon-Taylor, who was a large influence on him. Tim also studied in Heidelberg and became fluent in German. In 1940 he joined the RAMC, and in the same year married Joan Burnyeat, the daughter of Colonel Ponsonby Burnyeat, who had been killed in 1918. Tim was posted to the Middle East, via Cape Town and Suez. He was taken prisoner during the battle for Lemros and was shipped, via Athens, to Stalag 7A. While a prisoner-of-war he operated not only on his fellow prisoners but also on the local civilians, and later, possibly as a result of his services to the local population, he was repatriated to the UK. He was soon back on the continent with the 181st Field Ambulance, and was with the first medical group to enter Belsen. He was always reluctant to talk about the sights he saw, which made a huge impression on him, but did remember how he picked a flower there, finding this a symbol of hope. Shortly after demobilisation in 1945 he was appointed as a registrar in Oxford and, soon afterwards, consultant surgeon. His special interests were thyroid and abdominal surgery, where he made notable contributions in both fields. He was President of the section of surgery of the Royal Society of Medicine, President of the Association of Surgeons, and a member of the Court of Examiners of our College. Outside the profession, he served as a magistrate. He hunted with the Heythrop, and when he gave up riding he bought himself a mountain bike so that he could ‘ride out’ every morning. In retirement he was the District Commissioner – an onerous task. He was also a skilled fisherman and an accomplished artist in oils and watercolour. He had a long and happy retirement in the Cotswolds with his wife Joan, who gave him stalwart support. He died on 31 August 2006, leaving his widow, three daughters (the eldest predeceased him), ten grandchildren and twelve great-grandchildren.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000353
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2007-05-10 2022-02-03
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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
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Smith, Rodney, Baron Smith of Marlow in the County of Buckinghamshire (1914 - 1998)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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/372541372541
Occupation General surgeon
Details Lord Smith was one of our great presidents. Successive holders of that office have faced many and various challenges, but by any measure the confrontation between the Labour government and the BMA from 1974 to 1975 was a major crisis that threatened the future of consultant practice. Rodney Smith, as he was then, was equal to the occasion; by behind the scenes diplomacy he played a vital part in the resolution of the conflict. Yet this was only one of the many tasks he successfully undertook on behalf of the College in a long and ambitious career. In parallel, he developed a formidable surgical skill, combined with a bold and innovative approach, which made him a world leader in the field of pancreatico-biliary surgery. Surgery was not however his only skill – he was endowed with an enviable array of talents which would have enabled him to succeed in any career of his choice. In his youth, he was an accomplished violinist and had contemplated music as a profession. He stayed with surgery because, he was wont to remark, a surgeon could enjoy music, but a musician could hardly undertake surgery as a hobby. As a medical student he still found time to play cricket for Surrey second XI and on a memorable occasion scored a double century at the Oval while working for the primary. Golf came easily to him, chess was a fascinating contest, but bridge was a more serious business, which brought him into contact with both sides of the political divide. In retirement, he took up painting with his customary success, maintaining at the same time his expertise in numismatics and opera. In all these fields he was driven by the urge to excel and, although in public his ambition was decently cloaked, it was never entirely concealed. His father, Edwin Smith, was a south London coroner, his mother, Edith Catherine née Dyer, a professional violinist, and it is hardly surprising therefore that medicine and music engaged his early interests. After schooling at Westminster, which he left early after a row with the headmaster, Dr Costley-White, about an intended performance at the Chelsea Music Festival, he crossed the river to St Thomas’s for his medical training, conceiving there an admiration for Philip Mitchiner, a forthright and plain spoken surgeon whose earthy sense of humour was to provide an endless source of anecdotes for later after dinner speeches. Rodney qualified in 1937, but the sudden death of his father precluded him from taking the unpaid resident posts at St Thomas’s to which his student achievements would have entitled him. After a spell of general practice in Wimbledon, he passed his FRCS examination and in 1939 was appointed surgical registrar at the Middlesex Hospital, then staffed by an outstanding group of general surgeons. Senior amongst these was Sir Alfred, later Lord, Webb Johnson, shortly to become the long-serving President of the College and chief architect of our post-war reconstruction. It was Webb Johnson who first impressed upon Rodney the importance of the College to the profession and the prestige which attached to those who attained high office in it. Thereafter the College was to be the focus of his ambitions and a determination to fit himself for its service was to be the mainspring of his working life. In the meantime, war provided for him, as for so many surgeons, invaluable opportunities. He joined the RAMC in 1941 and with both the MS and FRCS was recognised as a surgical specialist. He served in North Africa, Yugoslavia and Italy, being wounded at Anzio. War surgery gave him the necessary practical experience required for the development of technical excellence in the operating theatre and shortly after demobilisation, in 1946, he was appointed as consultant surgeon to St George’s Hospital. Rodney Smith made it the most famous centre in Britain for the treatment of major biliary and pancreatic disorders, with a reputation which rivalled that of his friend Cattell in Boston. He was a prolific author, writing books and contributing to surgical journals, and was a hard working editor of multi-volume standard texts. His *Operative surgery* (London, Butterworths, 1960), which ran to many editions, written and edited in co-operation with Charles Rob of St Mary’s, was particularly successful. His popularity as a lecturer brought him many invitations to centres abroad. A spell as a visiting professor in Sydney gained him an honorary Fellowship in the Royal Australasian College, the first of many such honours. The busy life of travel and practice left him little time to devote to his own medical school, but it did not divert him from the Royal College of Surgeons, which he was determined to serve, first in the humble, later in the most prestigious capacity. He gained the Jacksonian prize in 1951, he delivered Hunterian Professorial lectures in 1947 and 1952. In 1957, he took the post of Penrose May tutor and successfully organised clinical surgery courses for postgraduates. In 1962, he was appointed to the Court of Examiners and in 1965 was elected to the Council. In the following year, he became Dean of the Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, an enterprise run jointly by the College and the University of London and in need of revitalising. He proved to be popular with both the staff and students, and the Institute thrived under his administration. There could never be any doubt that he would become President, but due to the death in office in 1973 of Edward Muir, he achieved that position earlier than expected. Rodney Smith came to the presidency fully prepared: he combined management skills with a proper regard for the ceremonial and had an agreeable affability on social occasions. He could of course be a hard task-master and intolerant of weakness or failure, but his zeal in the promotion of the high status of the College, paralleling his own ambitions, was unfaltering. His influence on the profession was far reaching, he had a wide circle of acquaintances, but few friends. His position and his acknowledged technical prowess brought him numerous invitations to be guest professor or eponymous lecturer, he received gold medals and no less than nine honorary fellowships, all of which he received with aplomb. In 1975, he was awarded the KBE and was clearly marked out for a role in national affairs, meanwhile the state of the NHS was causing a crisis of morale in the profession. Barbara Castle, Minister of Health in the incoming Labour government, was determined to create a whole-time salaried hospital service, eliminating private beds in NHS hospitals, which Bevan had allowed in 1948 to secure the co-operation of the consultants. The matter came to a head with a strike by hospital domestic staff unions, aimed at ousting private practice from the NHS, and the BMA reacted by calling for a work to rule by consultants. This was a strategy the College could not condone, even though its objectives were agreed. Overt political action was of course ruled out by the College’s charitable status and direct opposition to the BMA would clearly not unite the profession. Rodney Smith effectively used his diplomatic skills to help resolve the impasse, and emerged with great credit and with his leadership of the profession recognised by both government and opposition. Rodney Smith married Mary Rodwell in 1938 and they had four children – Martin, Andrew, Elinor and Robert. He divorced in 1971 and married Susan Fry in the same year. There are six grandchildren. He died on 1 July 1998 at the age of 84.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000355
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Cook, Charles Alfred George (1913 - 2003)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

First Title value, for Searching Dunstone, George Hargreaves (1925 - 2006)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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/372543372543
Occupation General surgeon
Details George Hargreaves ‘Steve’ Dunstone was a consultant general surgeon at Dryburn Hospital. He was born in Houghton-le-Spring, county Durham, on 23 October 1925, the son of William Anthony Hargreaves, a jeweller and watchmaker, and Elsie Bailey, the daughter of a schoolmaster. He was educated at the primary and grammar schools in Houghton-le-Spring, from which he won a county scholarship to King’s College, Newcastle upon Tyne, in the University of Durham. After qualifying, he completed junior posts at Darlington Memorial Hospital and the Friarage Hospital, Northallerton. From 1949 to 1951 he did his National Service in the RAMC in Malaya with the Gurkha Rifles. On demobilisation he trained as a surgeon at the Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle, where he developed a particular interest in vascular and oesophageal surgery under Kenneth McKeown. He was appointed consultant general surgeon at Dryburn Hospital in 1964, where his outstanding technical expertise attracted many trainees from Australia. He was postgraduate surgical tutor and college tutor for our College, and an active member of the Vascular Surgical Society and the Hadrian Surgical Club. He was president of the North of England Surgical Society from 1984 to 1985. In 1955 he married in 1955 Mavis Blewitt, by whom he had two daughters. His many interests included fly-fishing and travel, particularly to France, and the game of bowls. He was a governor of Durham High School for Girls and a member of Hatfield College of Durham University. He died on 15 November 2006 from bronchopneumonia and essential thrombocythaemia, leaving his wife, two daughters and two grandsons.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000357
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Hickey, Brian Brendan (1912 - 2006)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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/372544372544
Occupation General surgeon
Details Brendan Hickey was a consultant general surgeon and urologist at Morrison Hospital, Swansea, and spent some time as a professor of surgery in Khartoum and as a surgical specialist to the Iraq government. He was born on 20 June 1912 in Newton Hyde, Cheshire, where his father, John Edward Hickey, was a schoolmaster. His mother was Grace Neil née Dykes. He was educated at Manchester Grammar School, from which he won an open scholarship to University College, Oxford, where he won the Theodore Williams scholarship in pathology. At the London Hospital he won the Treeves and Lethby prizes. After qualifying he did house appointments at the London under Sir James Walton and Douglas Northfield, and had passed the FRCS before the war broke out. He joined the RAMC, rising to be lieutenant colonel, and after the war continued as a keen member of the Territorial Army, becoming colonel in charge of Third Western General Hospital and honorary surgeon to the Queen. He was Hunterian Professor in 1958. He married in 1939 Marjorie Flynn, by whom he had one son, who became a doctor, and two daughters. Brendan Hickey died on 3 August 2006.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000358
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Hickinbotham, Paul Frederick John (1917 - 2006)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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/372545372545
Occupation General surgeon
Details Paul Hickinbotham was a consultant surgeon in Leicester. He was born in Birmingham on 21 March 1917, the second son of Frederick John Long Hickinbotham, an export merchant and JP, and Gertrude née Ball. He was educated at West House School, Birmingham, and Rugby, and went on to Birmingham to do his medical training, qualifying in 1939. There he was much influenced by H H Sampson, a charismatic general surgeon from the Queen Elizabeth Hospital. Hickinbotham went on to specialise in surgery, becoming resident surgical officer at Bradford Royal Infirmary from 1941 to 1942, when he passed the FRCS. He joined the RAMC in 1942 and served in North Africa and Italy. After the war he returned to the Leicester group of hospitals, where he served as a general surgeon on the staff until he retired in 1982. He married Catherine Cadbury in 1942. They had one son, Roger, and one daughter, Claire, neither of whom went into medicine. They had eight grandchildren. His extra-curricular interests included forestry and Welsh hill walking. He died at his home in Leicester on 22 September 2006.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000359
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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 Aylett, Stanley Osborn (1911 - 2003)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-07-06 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/372192372192
Occupation Bowel surgeon General surgeon
Details Stanley Aylett was a distinguished bowel surgeon. He was born in Islington, north London, on 8 July 1911, the youngest son of Arthur John Aylett, a building contractor of the firm John Aylett and son, founded by Stanley's grandfather in the 1850s. His mother was Hannah Josephine née Henman. He was educated at Highgate School and won an open scholarship to read medicine at King's College Hospital, where he obtained a BSc in physiology with first class honours and qualified with honours in medicine. He captained the United Hospitals Rugby Football XV. He completed junior posts at St Giles' and King's College Hospital, and spent a year as a ship's doctor with the Blue Funnel Line, before becoming a resident surgical officer at East Ham and Gordon Hospitals. In 1939, he was a surgical registrar at King's and a clinical assistant at St Peter's Hospital, and then a senior registrar at King's. He resigned his post at the outbreak of the second world war, in order to join the RAMC. He and his anaesthetist joined a surgical team in France, at first in a general hospital and later in a casualty clearing station at Lille. During the retreat, he set up operating posts at several locations until he reached de Panne, close to Dunkirk. When ordered to leave on 29 May, he and his companions commandeered a beached pleasure launch, dragged it into the sea, loaded it with their wounded and set off. The leaking vessel soon began to sink, but Aylett and some 20 men were rescued by a destroyer, HMS Havant. After arriving in England, he was sent to Dover to set up a small hospital in the Citadel in anticipation of a German invasion. In 1941, he sailed to the Middle East, to a posting at Alexandria, and then requested a move to forward surgical units, into the Western Desert and Tobruk just as the Axis forces were recapturing it Aylett's was the last surgical unit to escape. In January 1944, he was back in Cambridge, to train and command a field surgical unit, with which he sailed on D-day and accompanied the forces into Germany. In May 1945, he was sent into Sanbostel concentration camp, as a part of the first RAMC unit to reach the camp. His repeated requests for a hospital were turned down, until Lieutenant General Sir Brian Horrocks appeared and at once agreed. Aylett was awarded the French Croix d'honneur for his work in the camp. Later he was sent to Copenhagen to help in the evacuation of German wounded from their hospitals in Denmark. In August 1945 he was posted to Hanover as officer in charge of a surgical division of a general hospital with the acting rank of Lieutenant Colonel. In November 1945 he was demobilised. After the war, he was briefly a surgeon in the Emergency Medical Service in the King's College sector and then a surgical registrar at the Royal Marsden Hospital. At the start of the NHS, he was appointed consultant surgeon to the Gordon, Metropolitan and Potter's Bar Hospitals and consulting surgeon to the Manor House Trade Union Hospital in Hampstead. He developed a special interest in the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease, or colitis. At that time, the standard treatment was removal of the diseased bowel and a permanent stoma. Aylett pioneered a more conservative resection, allowing the retention of lower-most bowel, avoiding a stoma. The surgical establishment condemned his approach, with surgeons voicing concern that the patient would have intractable diarrhoea and would risk developing cancer in the retained bowel. However, Aylett soon showed good results and demonstrated that the risk of cancer could be overcome by careful follow-up. His approach, ileo-rectal enastomosis, became a standard treatment. Aylett gained many honours. He was Hunterian Professor at the College and in 1974 was made a member of the Académie de Chirurgie Française. He was President of the section for coloproctology at the Royal Society of Medicine, President of the Chelsea Clinical Society, and an honorary member of the American Society of Colon and Rectal Surgeons. He published extensively and wrote a textbook on colonic surgery, Surgery of the caecum and colon (Edinburgh and London, E & S Livingstone, 1954), as well as an autobiography based on his war diaries called Surgeon at war (Bognor Regis, New Horizon, c.1979). Among his hobbies were French history, gardening and cooking. In retirement, he enjoyed a full life, travelling to his beloved France and collecting antiques, porcelain and medical instruments. His first marriage to Winsome Clare in 1949 produced a son, Jonathan Stanley, a land agent in Devon, and two daughters, Deidre Clare, a nurse, who predeceased him, and Holly Josephine, a television producer and director. After his marriage was dissolved he married his outpatient sister, Mary Kathleen 'Kay' Godfrey. Stanley Aylett died on 7 January 2003.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000005
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Guthrie, Charles W Gardiner (1817 - 1859)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
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First Title value, for Searching Hames, George Henry ( - 1909)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Keate, Robert (1777 - 1857)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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
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First Title value, for Searching Lynn, William Bewicke (1786 - 1878)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-07-20 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/372196372196
Occupation General surgeon Military surgeon
Details Was gazetted Assistant Surgeon in the 5th Foot on July 13th, 1809, and retired on half pay on Sept 25th, 1817, commuting his half pay on June 22nd, 1830. He saw active service in Walcheren in 1809 and served in the Peninsula War from 1810-1814. He also served in Canada during the years 1814-1815. After he had retired he settled in practice in Westminster, and by 1847 had removed to Claygate in Surrey, and later to Aldenham Grove, Elstree, Herts, whence he returned to Claygate, where he died on July 27th, 1878. His son was W T Lynn, the Cambridge astronomer.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000009
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
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First Title value, for Searching Thomas, Honoratus Leigh (1769 - 1846)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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/372198372198
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born at Newbury, Berkshire, where his father, Osman Vincent, was a silk merchant and banker, living at Donnington. Captain Richard Budd Vincent, CB (1770?-1831), was John's elder brother. Vincent was apprenticed to William Long (d 1829), Surgeon to St Bartholomew's Hospital and the Bluecoat School, and as an apprentice he had occasion to attend Leigh Hunt, then a schoolboy. Hunt says of Long, "he was dark like a West Indian and I used to think him handsome, but the sight of Mr Long's probe was not so pleasant, I preferred to see it in the hands of Vincent". He was one of the last Members admitted by the Company of Surgeons on March 20th, 1800. Two days later, on March 22nd, 1800, the College Charter was granted and Vincent was again examined. There were thirty-nine candidates for the diploma, many of whom were 'referred'. John Smith Soden (qv) and Richard Spencer (qv) were amongst those who satisfied the examiners. Vincent was elected Assistant Surgeon to St Bartholomew's Hospital on August 13th, 1807, on the resignation of his master, William Long, whose house he took in Lincoln's Inn Fields. At the election he received 154 votes and his opponent, William Wadd, obtained 56. He became Surgeon on Jan 29th, 1816, and resigned on January 21st, 1847, when he was elected a Governor. At the Royal College of Surgeons Vincent was co-opted a Member of the Council in 1822 and held office till his death. He was a Member of the Court of Examiners from 1828-1851, Hunterian Orator in 1829, Vice-President in 1830, 1831, 1838, and 1839; and President in 1832 and 1840. He was not in favour of establishing an order of Fellows of the College. He married: (1) On May 28th, 1812, Maria, daughter of Samuel Parke, of Kensington and Lysonby Lodge, near Melton Mowbray, by whom he had six children, of whom three sons survived him. She died in October, 1824, and he then married (2) Elizabeth Mary Williams, who outlived him. He died of paralysis after several years of ill health at Woodlands Manor, near Sevenoaks, Kent, on July 17th, 1852, and was buried in the church he had built at Woodlands. A three-quarter-length portrait in oils, sitting, by E U Eddis hangs in the Great Hall at St Bartholomew's Hospital. It was painted by subscription for his pupils and represents Vincent as a frail-looking man. The likeness was said to be good. It was presented to the Hospital on Sept 10th, 1850, and an autographed engraving from it by Henry Cousins was issued to the subscribers. Sir James Paget, writing from personal knowledge, said that he remembered him, "as a very practical surgeon, shrewd in diagnosis and always prudent and watchful, but apparently shy and reserved and not at all given to teaching even in the wards. He never taught in the school - never even, I think, gave a clinical lecture." Luther Holden (qv), writing in greater detail on January 11th, 1897, tells of his recollections in the following words: "At last, after much delay, which I regret, here are a few items which I have gathered from the mouldy memories of my respected friend and teacher, John Painter Vincent. All that I tell you is limited to the estimation in which we students held him. "We used to call him 'Old Vinco'. He was very popular with us - always kind, always ready to help a fellow in distress, a man of few, but always gentle, words. He lived in Lincoln's Inn Fields, and always walked to the Hospital. His walk bespoke a character about which there was no mistake. He came shuffling along with short steps, his hands never in his pockets, never behind him, but always clasped in front, as if ready to do handy work. He was very careful of his hands, and well he might be, for they were his best instruments, not that we thought him a good operator in the usual sense of the word. He 'operated' best without instruments. He had a natural dexterity and fine surgical touch. This was best seen when he 'set' a fracture or reduced a dislocation or when he was examining the nature of a tumour, but best of all when he was reducing a hernia. Many a time I have seen him reduce a hernia which had baffled his house surgeon and dressers. 'Old Vinco' would come down, grasp the hernia with his magic hands, give it a bit of a shake, and tuck it up, much to the disappointment of the 'boys', who wanted an operation. In this matter of 'legerdemain' we all agreed that he was far more dexterous than his colleagues. Unfortunately for us, Vincent did not explain to us how to do the trick, for he was a man of very few words, and never, so far as I know, gave a clinical lecture. He was certainly a conservative surgeon, disposed to avoid operations, unless obviously necessary. His highly educated surgical teaching was probably appreciated by his colleagues. In doubtful cases it was their wont to instruct their respective house surgeons to request Mr Vincent to give his opinion. In his time there were no special days, as now, for surgical consultations. "As regards Vincent's personality, there is an admirable likeness of him in the Great Hall of St Bartholomew's Hospital. He was exceedingly modest, quiet, unobtrusive. I am not aware that he ever published much, if anything, but I believe there is a very good memoir of him by his son in our library. He wore a brown wig, which never altered in colour as he grew older. Eventually he died paralytic, after a very long confinement to bed, [still] Senior Surgeon to St Bartholomew's. "The above is all that I can fairly remember of 'old Vinco'. Even this little has given me pleasure to recall. Do what you like with it." "Always sincerely yours, "Luther Holden." PUBLICATIONS: - *The Hunterian Oration*, 8vo, London, 1829. *Observations on Some of the Parts of Surgical Practice*, 8vo, London, 1847. *An Address to the Council of the College of Surgeons,* 1841.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000011
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching White, Anthony (1782 - 1849)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-07-28 2012-07-19
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Occupation Anatomist General surgeon
Details Was the fourth child of the Rev. Peter Bellinger Brodie, M.A., of Worcester College, Oxford, Rector of Winterslow, Wilts, by Sarah, daughter of Benjamin Collins, Banker and printer, of Milford, near Salisbury. The Brodies were originally a Morayshire clan, and the family was fortunate in relations. Dr. Denman, then the accoucheur, had married Brodie's aunt; Sir Richard Goff ['Goff' is crossed out, and the following added: Croft (Lady Croft & Mrs Baillie were Dr Denman's daughters)] had married a cousin; and Dr. Baillie, nephew of William and John Hunter, had married another cousin. Dr. Denman's son afterwards became Lord Chief Justice, and was well known as one of the advocates at the trial of Queen Caroline, whilst Peter Brodie, Benjamin's eldest brother, held a high position as a conveyancer. In 1797 Brodie and his brothers raised a company of volunteers at a time when a French invasion was much dreaded. He was privately educated by his father, and at the age of eighteen went up to London, devoting himself from the first to the study of anatomy. Brodie joined the medical profession without any special liking or bent for it, and in after-days he said he thought those best succeeded in professions who joined them, not from any irresistible prepossession, but rather from some accidental circumstance inducing them to persevere in their selected course either as a matter of duty or because they had nothing better to do. He rose to be the first surgeon in England, holding for many years a position similar to that once occupied by Sir Astley Cooper. Brodie had always a philosophical turn of mind. He learnt much at first from Abernethy, who arrested his pupils' attention so that it never flagged, and what he told them in his emphatic way never could be forgotten. Brodie used to say "that he had always kept in mind the saying of William Scott [afterwards Lord Stowell] to his brother John [subsequently Lord Eldon], 'John, always keep the Lord Chancellorship in view, and you will be sure to get it in the end.'" And a similar aim and distinction were Brodie's. In 1801 and 1802 he attended the lectures of James Wilson at the Hunterian School in Great Windmill Street, where he worked hard at dissection. It was about this time that he formed what proved a lifelong friendship with William Lawrence (q.v.). In 1803 Brodie became a pupil of Sir Everard Home at St. George's Hospital, and was successively appointed House Surgeon and Demonstrator to the Anatomical School, after which he was Home's assistant in his private operations and researches in comparative anatomy, and he did much work for him at the College Museum. "The latter employment," says Mr. Timothy Holmes (q.v.) in his *Life of Brodie*, "was of critical importance for Brodie in several ways - chiefly because it obliged him to work on scientific subjects, and thus prevented a too exclusive devotion to the pursuit of practical surgery. We cannot be wrong in attributing to this cause mainly his connection with the Royal Society, and the many-sidedness of his intellectual activities." At the College he came into contact with Clift, and, through Home, became an intimate in the learned coterie of Sir Joseph Banks, President of the Royal Society, and the chief link between distinguished men of science of two centuries. Brodie still diligently pursued his anatomical studies at the Windmill Street School, where he first demonstrated for, and then lectured conjointly with, James Wilson until 1812. In 1808, before he was twenty-five, he was elected Assistant Surgeon at St. George's, thus relieving Home of some part of his duties. Brodie remained in this position fourteen years, and his "regular attendance at the hospital was an immense improvement, in the interests both of the patients and the students, on the practice obtaining in the metropolitan hospitals of that day". All through life Brodie was consumed with the rage for work which his father had originally instilled into him. So devoted was he to every phase of his duties that he found no time to travel, only once visiting France for a month and often going without a summer holiday. His very recreations were arduously intellectual. Thus he took a leading part in the life of various learned societies - the Academical Society, banished to London from Oxford in the French revolutionary epoch, the Society for the Promotion of Medical and Chirurgical Knowledge, the Royal Medico-Chirurgical Society, of which he was President in 1839 and 1840. He contributed several valuable papers to the last-named society, and at its meetings he stimulated discussion, and had always something of interest to say. Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1810, he soon communicated a paper "On the Influence of the Brain on the Action of the Heart and the Generation of Animal Heat", and another "On the Effects produced by certain Vegetable Poisons (Alcohol, Tobacco, Woorara)". The first paper, the subject of which he doubtless derived from John Hunter, formed the Croonian Lecture: the two papers taken together won him the Copley Medal in 1811, an honour never before bestowed on so young a man. In 1809 Brodie entered upon private practice, and in 1822 became full Surgeon at St. George's Hospital, from which time forward his career was one of ever-increasing success. He became a Member in 1805, a Fellow in 1843, and from 1819 to 1823 he was Professor of Anatomy, Physiology, and Surgery at the College. He lectured upon the Organs of Digestion, Respiration, and Circulation, and on the Nervous System, the most interesting of his discourses being upon "Death from Drowning", a subject which Hunter had investigated without hitting upon the scientific explanation of that form of asphyxia eventually brought out by Brodie. While Professor at the College, Brodie was summoned to attend George IV, and with Sir Astley Cooper, who was the operator, and a formidable array of medical men of that time, assisted at an operation for the removal of a small sebaceous cyst from the king's scalp. He became Surgeon to George IV, and attended him during his last illness, when he went every night to Windsor, slept there, and returned to London in the morning. "His habit", says Mr. Timothy Holmes, "was to go into the king's room at about six o'clock, and sit talking with him for an hour or two before leaving for town." The king became warmly attached to him. He was Surgeon to William IV, and in 1834, when he was made a Baronet, he was appointed Serjeant-Surgeon. In this capacity he became examiner by prescriptive right in the College, a privilege abolished by the Charter of 1843, which Brodie was largely instrumental in obtaining. He was a Member of Council from 1829-1862, Hunterian Orator in 1837, Vice-President in 1842 and 1843, and President in 1844. He retired from St. George's Hospital in 1840, but for some time continued his activity at the College, which owes to him the institution of the Order of Fellows. The object of this institution, he maintained, was to ensure the introduction into the profession of a certain number of young men who might be qualified to maintain its scientific character, and would be fully equal to its higher duties as hospital surgeons, teachers, and improvers of physiological, pathological, and surgical science afterwards. The Fellowship may be said to have been largely instrumental in raising the college to what it now is - "the exemplar of surgical education to the whole kingdom". Brodie was the first President of the General Medical Council, having been elected in 1858. Within a week after receiving this honour he became President of the Royal Society, an office which he filled with great dignity and wisdom till 1861. He died, nearly blind following double cataract for the relief of which he had been operated upon by Sir William Bowman (q.v.), at Broome Park, Betchworth, Surrey, on Oct. 21st, 1862. Of the immediate cause of his death, Holmes says: "It seems that nearly thirty years [see BLOXHAM, THOMAS] previously he had suffered from a dislocation of the right shoulder. I am not aware that he ever made any complaint of the part after the dislocation had been reduced, but it was in this same joint that in July he began to complain of pain accompanied by much prostration; and this was succeeded in September by the appearance of a tumour, doubtless of a malignant nature, in the neighbourhood of the shoulder." It thus happened that he who had spent his life treating diseased joints died of a joint disease. He married in 1816 Anne, the third daughter of Serjeant Sellon by his wife Charlotte Dickinson, his brother-in-law being Monsieur Regnault, the French physicist. Three children survived to maturity: Sir Benjamin Collins Brodie F.R.S. (1817-1880), who became Professor of Chemistry at Oxford; a daughter who married the Rev. E. Hoare; and another son, the Rev. W. Brodie. [His granddaughter Mary Isabel married Sir Herbert Warren K.C.V.O. President of Magdalen College Oxford - 1885-1928] Brodie was distinguished as a surgeon with the bent of a physician. He was not a great operating surgeon, nor did he regard operations as the highest aim of surgery. His power of diagnosis was great, and he was a distinguished teacher with an elegant and clear deliverance. He attained high success by the legitimate influence of a lofty order of intellect, by his great stores of surgical knowledge, and the sound decided opinions he based upon them. He was single-minded and upright in character and free from all affectations. He knew his duty and did it well. He lived for a great end, the lessening of human suffering, and for that he felt no labour was too great, no patience too long. As a scientific man his object was truth pursued for its own sake, and without regard to future reward. He recognized the great traditions of wisdom, benevolence, and self-denial as the everlasting bases on which true medicine and surgery rest, and he was in truth a master of medicine. Of Brodie's manner as a lecturer, Sir Henry Acland says: "None who heard him can forget the graphic yet artless manner in which, sitting at his ease, he used to describe minutely what he had himself seen and done under circumstances of difficulty, and what under like circumstances he would again do or would avoid. His instruction was illustrated by the valuable pathological dissections which during many years he had amassed, and which he gave during his lifetime to his hospital." Mr. Timothy Holmes says: "It was Brodie who popularized the method of lithotrity in England, and by so doing chiefly contributed to the ready reception of an operation which has robbed what was one of the deadliest diseases that afflict humanity of nearly all its terror. This will remain to all time one of Brodie's greatest claims to public gratitude." Brodie used to tell that he once prescribed for a fat butler, suffering from too much good living and lack of exercise. Sir Benjamin told him "he must be very moderate in what he ate and drank, careful not to eat much at a time or late at night. Above all, no spirituous liquors could be allowed, malt liquor especially being poison to his complaint." Whilst these directions were being given the butler's face grew longer and longer, and at the end he exclaimed, "And pray, Sir Benjamin, who is going to compensate me for the loss of all these things?" Brodie's personal appearance is admirably portrayed in the picture by Watts. He was not, perhaps, strictly handsome, but no one can deny that the features are striking. A fine forehead, keen grey eyes, a mobile and sensitive mouth, and facial muscles which followed all the movements of one of the most active minds, lent to the countenance a charm and an expressiveness to which no stranger could be insensible. His frame was slight and small; but there was nothing of weakness about it. Those who knew him only as a public man would little suspect the playful humour which sparkled by his fireside - the fund of anecdotes, the harmless wit, the simple pleasures of his country walk. The following is a list of portraits of Brodie: (1) A bust by H. Weekes, R.A., in the Royal College of Surgeons. (2) A portrait in middle life, which appeared in the Medical Circular (1852, I, 817). The copy in the College is accompanied by a strikingly picturesque and vivid appreciation of Brodie as a teacher making his round of the wards. (3) A half-length by G. F. Watts, R.A., painted in 1860, which is reproduced in Timothy Holmes's *Life of Sir Benjamin Collins Brodie*, 1897. (4) A medal presented to Sir Benjamin Brodie in 1840 when he retired from office as Surgeon to St. George's Hospital. There is a bronze replica in the Board Room at St. George's Hospital, and an illustration of it in the *British Journal of Surgery* (1918-19, vi, facing p.158). PUBLICATIONS: - As an author Brodie achieved fame by his treatise on *Diseases of the Joints*, 1818, which went through five editions and was translated into foreign languages. He wrote also on local nervous affections, diseases of the urinary organs, the surgery of the breast, lighting-stroke, besides an important work, published anonymously in 1854, under the title of *Psychological Enquiries* [Times 21 Jan 1938. BRODIE - On Jan. 20, 1938. at Brockham Warren, Betchworth, Surrey, of pneumonia, SIR BENJAMIN VINCENT SELLON BRODIE, Bt., M.A. (Oxon), D.L., J.P., aged 75. Funeral at Betchworth Church, 3 p.m. Monday, Jan. 24. SIR BENJAMIN BRODIE. Sir Benjamin Vincent Sellon Brodie, Bt.,. died at his home, Brockham Warren, Dorking, yesterday at the age of 75. He succeeded as third baronet on the death of his father in 1880. Educated at Magdalen College, Oxford, and a barrister at Lincoln's Inn, he was a county councillor and then a county alderman for Surrey, High Sheriff in 1912, and a member of the Surrey Education Committee. He owned about 1,000 acres in Surrey. Sir Benjamin married in 1887 Caroline, daughter of the late Captain J. R. Woodriff, R.N., his Majesty's Serjeant-at-Arms, and they had one son and two daughters. Lady Brodie died in 1895. The heir is Captain Benjamin Colin (amended to Collins) Brodie, who was educated at Eton and Magdalen College, Oxford. He served throughout the War with the Surrey Yeomanry and the 4th Battalion, The Gordon Highlanders, winning the M.C. and bar. Later he became a captain in the Army Educational Corps. He is married and has two sons and one daughter.] [SIR BENJAMIN BRODIE Captain Sir Benjamin Collins Brodie, MC, the fourth baronet, died on Monday. He served with the Surrey Yeomanry at Gallipoli, with the Gordon Highlanders and the 1st Highland Brigade, British Army of the Rhine, in the First World War. He was joint headmaster of Holyrood School, Bognor Regis, from 1927 to 1940. He was twice chairman of the governors of Tonbridge School; and from 1945 to 1960 of Judd School, Tonbridge. He was twice Master of the Skinners' Company. Brodie succeeded his father in 1938 and the heir to the baronetcy is Brodie's son, Benjamin David Ross Brodie.]
Resource Identifier RCS: E000016
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
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First Title value, for Searching Arnott, James Moncrieff (1794 - 1885)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-08-10 2016-01-29
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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
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First Title value, for Searching Green, Joseph Henry (1791 - 1863)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-08-10 2012-07-19
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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
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First Title value, for Searching Luke, James (1799 - 1881)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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/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 Stanley, Edward (1793 - 1862)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-08-10 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/372208372208
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born on July 3rd, 1793, the son of Edward Stanley, who was in business in the City; his mother was sister to Thomas Blizard. He entered Merchant Taylors' School in April, 1802, and remained there until 1808, when he was apprenticed to Thomas Ramsden, Surgeon to St. Bartholomew's Hospital, who died in February, 1813; Stanley was then turned over to John Abernethy for the rest of his term. He was awarded the Jacksonian Prize for his essay "On Diseases of Bone", and was elected Assistant Surgeon to St. Bartholomew's Hospital on Jan. 29th, 1816, at the early age of 24. Even during his apprenticeship he had rendered important services to the Medical School, for his love of morbid anatomy led him, with Abernethy's assistance and approval, to enlarge the Museum so greatly that he practically created it. He subsequently compiled a valuable catalogue of the collection. He acted as Demonstrator of Anatomy until 1826, when he was appointed Lecturer on Anatomy and Physiology in place of Abernethy and held the post without distinction until 1848, when he was succeeded by F. C. Skey (q.v.). He was elected full Surgeon in 1838, and then became famous as a clinical teacher. He was elected F.R.S. in 1830 for his pathological work, became President of the Royal Medico-Chirurgical Society in 1843, and was appointed Surgeon Extraordinary to Queen Victoria in 1858. At the Royal College of Surgeons Stanley was a Member of Council from 1835-1862, Professor Human Anatomy from 1835-1838, and Hunterian Orator in 1839, the Oration being published in London as an octavo volume in 1839. He was a Member of the Court of Examiners from 1844-1862, Chairman of the Midwifery Board in 1856, Vice-President in 1846, 1847, 1855, and 1856, and President in 1848 and 1857. He resigned the post of Surgeon to St. Bartholomew's Hospital in 1861, but continued to attend the weekly operations on Saturdays until May 24th, 1862. On that day, after witnessing the operations, being in his usual health and good spirits, he went with the other Surgeons, on the invitation of Sir William Lawrence, to see a patient in Henry Ward who was suffering from a swelling of the knee. Stanley bent over the patient for a short time, then drew himself up and said, "I think, Mr. Lawrence, this is a case of knee-joint disease, and that if all remedies have failed for many months in your hands the case would be one favourable for resection." He spoke clearly and evidently in full possession of all his faculties: a moment later he staggered against a bed and sank to the floor supported by those around him. He was at once raised and place on the 'state bed' in the front ward. Momentarily he seemed to regain consciousness, and when Mr. Wormald asked if he could do anything, Stanley replied: "I am quite well, Wormald; I never felt better in my life, it's only stomach." Tradition says that Lawrence, looking round, said to his House Surgeon, "Wrong again. Head." However this may be, Stanley quickly became unconscious, passing into a state of coma and died within an hour. He married a highly educated, talented and sympathetic lady by whom he had one son, the Rev. Rainey Stanley, and several daughters. He lived at first in Lincoln's Inn fields, afterwards at 66 Brook Street, the house afterwards occupied by Sir William Savory (q.v.). Stanley is described as being one of the most sagacious teachers and judicious practitioners of his day. He was vivacious in conversation, but solemn and impressive, and his language was clear and empathic when teaching in the wards, where the students knew him as 'the inspired butterman' because he was short and 'podgy'. His unattractive features were redeemed by large intellectual eyes, a genial smile and a face honest, earnest, and good-tempered. He was an eager inquirer after pathological knowledge, a patient, accurate, and intelligent investigator and collector, but was wanting in culture of the higher kind and was without any appreciation of the arts. He always took immense pains in studying his hospital cases, and as the result of this and his innate sagacity he was seldom wrong in the opinions he arrived at. He was never a brilliant operator, yet he shone in the operating theatre, because when grave or unexpected incidents arose he never lost his self-possession, and his courage rose with the emergency. His anatomical knowledge and quiet insistence carried him through all difficulties, and he was fortunate in having James Paget (q.v.) as his Assistant Surgeon. He was, too, a man of peace, and did much to compose the bitter quarrels in which the hospital staff engaged. To this end he was instrumental in arranging the Christmas Dinner which is still a feature in the life of the Hospital, where the members of the Staff and all teachers in the Medical School meet together and, if they are so disposed, play cards until a late hour. Stanley's writings and the specimens he added to the Museum show how extensive was his knowledge of diseases of bone. He had prepared specimens of the arthritis which occurs in locomotor ataxy and has since been called Charcot's disease. There are portraits of him in the College Collection. PUBLICATIONS: - *An Account of the Mode of Performing the Lateral Operation of Lithotomy*, 4to, London, 1829. *Illustrations of the Effects of Disease and Injury of the Bones with Descriptive and Explanatory Statements*, fol., 24 plates, London, 1849. The coloured plates are splendidly executed and are drawn from original preparations, many of which are still preserved in the Museum of St. Bartholomew's Hospital. *A Treatise on Diseases of the Bones*, 8vo, London and Philadelphia, 1849. These two books are classics. *A Manual of Practical Anatomy*, 12mo, London, 1818; 3rd ed., 1826.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000021
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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/372452372452
Occupation General surgeon
Details Kenneth Edgar Bond spent much of his career as a surgeon working in India. The son of Edward Vines Bond, the rector of Beddington, and Rose Edith née Bridges, the daughter of a landowner, he was born on 24 October 1908 and was educated at Mowden School, Brighton, and Haileybury College, before going on to Peterhouse Cambridge and St Thomas’s Hospital to study medicine. As an undergraduate he became interested in comparative anatomy, which led to a special study of reptiles, and in later life he kept snakes, which he exercised on his lawn in Bungay. He held junior posts at St Thomas’s, the Royal Herbert Hospital and Hampstead General Hospital. During the first part of the war he served in the EMS, in London, working as a surgeon at North-Western Hospital, Connaught Hospital, and New End Hospital. In October 1942 he joined the Army, first as surgical specialist at Queen Alexandra Hospital, Millbank, and later in India, where he was officer in charge of a surgical division in Bangalore and then in Bombay. Following demobilisation, he was appointed as a senior surgical registrar in abdominal, colon and rectal surgery at St Mark’s Hospital, London. In 1948 he returned to India, where he was honorary consulting surgeon at the European Hospital Trust, the Masina Hospital and Bombay Hospital. Following his retirement in 1970, he returned to Beddington as patron of the parish, a duty which he took very seriously, fighting one vicar who unlawfully removed and sold six fine medieval pews, and going to endless trouble to interview prospective candidates for the parish. He had a lifelong love of Wagner, regularly visiting Bayreuth. He was twice married. His first marriage to Wendy Fletcher was dissolved. He later married B H M Van Zwanenberg, who died in 1970. He died on 1 July 2003.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000265
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Banister, George (1819 - 1884)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

First Title value, for Searching Banks, Sir William Mitchell (1842 - 1904)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

First Title value, for Searching Banner, John Maurice ( - 1863)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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

First Title value, for Searching Barker, Daniel ( - 1866)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

First Title value, for Searching Barker, Edgar ( - 1874)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

First Title value, for Searching Barker, Edward (1818 - 1885)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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 Brown, Robson Christie (1898 - 1971)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2008-01-03 2014-07-18
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/372616372616
Occupation Obstetrician and gynaecologist
Details Christie Brown was born on 1 July 1898 and was educated at the Royal Kepier Grammar School and Durham University, where he gained numerous prizes and scholarships. While an undergraduate he served for a few years of the first world war in a destroyer based on Scapa Flow, but returned to the University after the war and graduated in 1920. He specialised early in gynaecology and became obstetric tutor at Leeds University and later at the London Hospital. After a time he was appointed to the staff of the Samaritan Hospital for Women, the Metropolitan Hospital, the City of London Maternity Hospital and many others in and around London. He became in due course an examiner to the Central Midwives Board and to the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, of which he had been a founder member. Christie Brown's outstanding ability as an obstetrician was widely recognised, especially by his married colleagues, and he made a special study of the treatment of infertility in women; he was also the inventor of an unspillable hour-glass chloroform-inhaler for use by the patient when in labour. Christie Brown was an excellent lecturer and an able after-dinner speaker, much sought after at medical and other gatherings where eloquence and wit were in demand. He was a good organiser and took an active part in the work of the Samaritan Hospital. When there was talk of the Samaritan being completely merged in St Mary's Hospital, Christie Brown took up the defence of the Samaritan whose name was retained when the two hospitals were united. He contributed many papers on his specialty and his text book on midwifery was reprinted many times, running into its third edition by 1950. In addition to his other work Brown took an active interest in the problems of cancer and was one of the first to prescribe cytotoxic drugs to his patients. First in London and later at Loughton in Essex, he kept open house to his friends and colleagues; for outside interests he became a keen photographer and a first-class mechanic. For many years he was dogged by ill health (a nephrotic syndrome), which led to his early retirement in 1959. Robin Christie Brown's wife died in 1970; and their only son Jeremy Robin Warrington Christie Brown took up medicine; he himself died after a brief illness on 13 December 1971 at his home at Highcliffe-on-Sea.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000432
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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

First Title value, for Searching Anderson, Henry Graeme (1882 - 1925)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2009-10-02
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000600-E000699
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372866372866
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born Aug 1st, 1882, the younger son of Nicol Anderson, of Barrhead, Renfrewshire. Educated at Glasgow, King’s College, London, and the London Hospital. Graduated at the University of Glasgow, and was admitted a Member and a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England on the same day. He filled various minor posts at the London, St Mark’s, the Royal Orthopaedic, the Metropolitan, and the Cancer Hospitals before he was elected Assistant Surgeon at St Mark’s Hospital, where he devoted himself to the surgery of the rectum. He joined the Royal Navy on the outbreak of War in 1914 and was posted to the Royal Naval Air Service Expeditionary Force, serving at Antwerp, Ypres, and on the Belgian and Northern French coasts. Appointed Surgeon to the British Flying School at Vendôme in 1917, and from 1918-1919 was Surgeon to the Central RAF Hospital, and was afterwards transferred from the Royal Navy to the Royal Air Force as Surgical Consultant to the RAF, with the rank of Major. He returned to civil practice at the end of the war, living at 75 Harley Street, and died suddenly whilst playing in a lawn tennis tournament on June 28th, 1925. He was married and left a widow and one daughter. Anderson was one of the small number of Air Medical Officers who obtained a pilot’s certificate when flying was in its infancy. He gave much thought and research to the physical fitness of airmen, the prevention and treatment of aerial injuries, and the selection of aviators from the surgical point of view. He was a keen sportsman and was particularly interested in boxing. Publication: *The Medical and Surgical Aspects of Aviation*, Oxford Medical Publications, 1919.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000683
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Anderson, Richard Benjamin (1874 - 1900)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2009-10-02 2013-08-06
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000600-E000699
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372867372867
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born in Lincolnshire, the son of a medical man, he was educated at St Mary's Hospital. Entered the school in 1866, won a prize in 1867, and became Prosector at the Royal College of Surgeons, House Surgeon at St Mary's, and afterwards at the South Devon and East Cornwall Hospital, Plymouth. Admitted FRCS in 1873 and joined his brother, James G Anderson, who was in practice in Tobago, acting as colonial surgeon. By 1889 he was a member of the Legislature, a Justice of the Peace for the Islands, and a landowner. In this year he was consulted by a native woman suffering from necrosis of the lower jaw. The patient and her husband proved troublesome and Anderson declined further attendance. Litigation followed, and Anderson was finally imprisoned by Justices Corrie and Cook for fourteen days in default of finding bail. In 1891 Anderson brought an action in London ("Anderson v Corrie and others") and obtained a verdict in his favour with £500 damages against Mr Justice Cook (Justice Corrie having died). Lord Esher on appeal decided that no action could lie against a judge for an act done in his judicial capacity, and refused to award damages, though he confirmed the verdict of the jury. The rest of Anderson's life was spent in a campaign against the wrongs and injustice done to the medical profession, and he strove to advance his cause by acting as Hon Secretary of the Corporate and Medical Reform Association. This labour and the disappointments no doubt shortened his life, for he died of angina pectoris, in straitened circumstances, at 82 Montague Place, Russell Square, on Sept 8th, 1900, and was buried at the Lambeth Cemetery, near Balham.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000684
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Anderson, William (1842 - 1900)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2009-10-02 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/372868372868
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born in London, Dec 18th, 1842, and educated at the City of London School. Studied for a time at Aberdeen and afterwards at the Lambeth School of Art, where he won a medal for artistic anatomy. Entered St Thomas's Hospital in 1864, when Sir John Simon (qv) and Le Gros Clark (qv) were surgeons. There he won the first College Prize, the Physical Society's Prize, and the Cheselden Medal. After acting as House Surgeon at the Derbyshire Royal Infirmary, he returned to St Thomas's Hospital on the opening of the new buildings in 1871, to fill the offices of Surgical Registrar and Assistant Demonstrator of Anatomy. In 1873 he was appointed Professor of Anatomy and Surgery at the Imperial Naval Medical College in Tokio, where he lectured on anatomy, surgery, medicine, and physiology. He remained in Japan until 1880, when he returned to London and was appointed Assistant Surgeon to St Thomas's Hospital and Senior Lecturer on Anatomy in the medical school. He became full Surgeon in 1891. At the Royal College of Surgeons he was elected a Member of the Board of Examiners in Anatomy and Physiology for the Fellowship in 1884, and served as a Member of the Court of Examiners from 1894-1900. In 1891 he was Hunterian Professor of Surgery and Pathology, and in the same year was elected Professor of Anatomy at the Royal Academy in succession to John Marshall (qv). He died suddenly on Oct 27th, 1900, the result of the rupture of a cord of the mitral valve without any other morbid condition of the heart or other organs. He married: (1) In 1873, Margaret Hall, by whom he had a son and a daughter; (2) Louisa, daughter of F W Tetley, of Leeds, who survived him. Anderson may be said to have been steeped in art; [1] form and colour appealed equally to him, and his residence in Japan, when the old world there was changing into the new, gave full scope to his love of art. It enabled him to form a superb collection of Japanese paintings and engravings, most of which are preserved in the British Museum. Between 1882 and 1886 Anderson prepared a *Descriptive and Historical Account of a Collection of Japanese and Chinese Paintings in the British Museum* (London, 1886), which contains a very complete account of the general history of the subject. In 1886 he also published in portfolios to make two volumes, *Pictorial Arts of Japan, with some Account of the Development of the Allied Arts, and a Brief History and Criticism of Chinese Painting*. Many of the plates are reproduced in colour. Anderson was Chairman of the Japan Society from its constitution in January, 1892, until his death eight years later. In 1880 he was decorated by the Emperor of Japan a Companion of the Order of the Rising Sun. Anderson was a good surgeon and a competent operator, but except for a small book issued in 1897 (*The Deformities of the Fingers and Toes*) he published no surgical work. The book was based on his Hunterian Lectures given in 1891, and in it he advised excision in preference to notching of the fibrous bands in Dupuytren's contraction. He was an excellent teacher for art and medical students, his lectures being made especially attractive by the facility with which he sketched on the blackboard. Personally he was a handsome man of distinguished appearance, quiet in voice and manner, highly cultivated but very retiring. Dr Frank Payne says: "To speak of Anderson we must first observe that he was notable for the thoroughness of his work. He continued to give lectures and demonstrations on anatomy at a stage of his career when most surgeons prefer to reserve their mornings for the consulting-room. In operations he was indefatigable. He would go straight through a long list, and at the end of it was quite willing to take two or three cases from the medical ward in addition. All this would be done with unruffled composure and without any outward signs of fatigue. In his intercourse with colleagues, students, and nurses he showed the unaffected sweetness of his nature; it would be difficult to remember an instance of his being impatient or out of temper. Though his retiring disposition prevented him from becoming a prominent personality in the eyes of the public, no one was more highly esteemed or, by those who knew him well, more warmly loved, while all his abilities and attainments were recommended by the conciliatory grace of modesty." Portraits of him appear in the *Transactions of the Japan Society*, iv; in the *Lancet*, 1900, ii, 1869; and in the *St Thomas's Hospital Gazette* 1900, November. [Amendments from the annotated edition of *Plarr's Lives* at the Royal College of Surgeons: [1] An outline of the history of art in its relation to medical science. Introductory address, Medical and physical society, St. Thomas's Hospital 1885- St. Thos. Hosp. Repts. 1886, 15, 151-181]
Resource Identifier RCS: E000685
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Anderson, William Alexander ( - 1882)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

First Title value, for Searching Anderson, William John (1821 - 1871)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2009-10-02 2013-08-06
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000600-E000699
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372870372870
Occupation General surgeon
Details Only son of William Anderson, of Paddington, gentleman. Admitted to the Head Master's House (C T Longley) at Harrow in January, 1835, left at midsummer, 1839, and matriculated from Christ Church, Oxford, on Oct 16th, 1839, but never graduated. Educated at St George's Hospital and in Paris. He started practice in Prince's Street, Cavendish Square, removing in 1849 to 10 Welbeck Street, where he restricted his practice to midwifery, was District Accoucheur to St Mary's Hospital, and Accoucheur to the St George's and St James's Dispensary. He was Hon Secretary to the Harveian Society and a member of the Royal Institution. He left this country to reside at Balmain, in New South Wales, and died on a voyage home from Sydney in 1871. Publications: *The Causes, Symptoms and Treatment of Eccentric Nervous Affections*, 8vo, London, 1850: 'Eccentric' affections being such as originate in causes extraneous to the nervous centres. *The Symptoms and Treatment of the Diseases of Pregnancy*, 8vo, London, 1852. *Hysterical and Nervous Affections of Women*, 12mo, London, 1853. "Continued Fever in Children," reprinted from *Assoc. Med. Jour.*, 1854, 751. With which is: "On the Use of Nitrosulphuric Acid in Cholera and Diarrhœa", reprinted from *Assoc. Med. Jour.*, 1853, 964. 8vo, London, 1854. "Remarks on the Treatment of Procidentia Uteri." *Assoc. Med. Jour.*, 1854, 904. "Some Anomalous Cases of Scarlatina." *Lancet*, 1854, i, 327. "On Leucorrhœa." *Med. Times*, 1856, xxxiii, 108, 435. "On the Submucous Section of the Sphincter Ani for Spasmodic Constriction with Anal Fissures." The paper is interesting because it emphasizes the advantages of operative treatment, as practised by Professor Blandin of Paris, over the older method of stretching the sphincter ani in cases of fissure which had been recommended by M Recamier.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000687
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Anderton, Henry (1790 - 1870)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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

First Title value, for Searching Andrew, Henry (1815 - 1875)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

First Title value, for Searching Andrews, John Goldwyer (1782 - 1849)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

First Title value, for Searching Andrews, William (1784 - 1862)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

First Title value, for Searching Angus, Henry Brunton (1867 - 1927)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

First Title value, for Searching Annandale, Thomas (1838 - 1907)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2009-10-02 2016-01-29
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/372877372877
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, the second son of Thomas Annandale, surgeon, [1] by his wife E Johnstone. Educated at Bruce's Academy, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and apprenticed to his father. Matriculated at Edinburgh in 1856 and graduated MD in the University in 1860, gaining the highest honours and winning the Gold Medal for his thesis "On Injuries and Diseases of the Hip-joint". Acted as House Surgeon to James Syme (qv) at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary and as Syme's private assistant from 1861-1870. Appointed a Junior Demonstrator of Anatomy in the University by Professor John Goodsir. He was a lecturer on the principles of surgery in the extramural school at Edinburgh in 1863, and gave a yearly course of lectures until 1871, when he began to lecture on clinical surgery at the Royal Infirmary. In 1864 he won the Jacksonian Prize at the Royal College of Surgeons of England with his dissertation on "The Malformation, Diseases and Injuries of the Fingers and Toes with their Surgical Treatment". The essay was published at Edinburgh in 1865. Annandale was elected Assistant Surgeon to the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary in 1865, and became Acting Surgeon in 1871. He was appointed Regius Professor of Clinical Surgery in the University in 1871 [2] in succession to Joseph, Lord Lister (qv), who migrated to King's College, London. He was made an honorary DCL of the University of Durham in April, 1902. He joined the Royal Archers, His Majesty's Bodyguard in Scotland, as an Archer in 1870, and was Surgeon-General to the corps from May 27th, 1900, until his death. He married in 1874 Eveline, the eldest daughter of William Nelson, the publisher, of Edinburgh, and had by her three sons and three daughters. He died suddenly on Dec 20th, 1907, having operated as usual on the previous day. A bust executed by W G Stevenson, RSA, is in the lecture theatre of the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, and there is a small portrait of him in the collection at the Royal College of Surgeons of England. Annandale lived through the revolution in surgical practice. He kept himself abreast of all the varying phases and combined the good parts of each. He was keenly interested in University matters, and more especially in the welfare of the students. He was prominent at the Students' Union and in the Athletic Club. The 'Annandale Gold Medal' for Clinical Surgery commemorates him at the University of Edinburgh. Publications: Surgical Appliances and Minor Operative Surgery, Edinburgh, 1866. Abstracts of Surgical Principles, 6 Parts, 1868-1870. 3rd ed., 1878. Observations and Cases in Surgery, 1875. On the Pathology and Operative Treatment of Hip Disease, 1876. [Amendments from the annotated edition of *Plarr's Lives* at the Royal College of Surgeons: [1] to the Newcastle infirmary 1854-66; [2] '1871' is deleted and '1877 see *BMJ* 1938, 2, 436' added]
Resource Identifier RCS: E000694
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Appleyard, John (1848 - 1905)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

First Title value, for Searching Archer, Edmond ( - 1869)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

First Title value, for Searching Archer, William Gammon (1848 - 1890)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

First Title value, for Searching Armstrong, Robert ( - 1855)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2009-10-02 2016-10-13
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/372883372883
Occupation General surgeon
Details At one time he was Physician to the Royal Naval Hospital, Plymouth, and at the time of his death (1), which occurred before 1860, was Inspector of Hospitals and Fleets. He was residing at Hills Court, Exeter, when he died. Publication: *The Influence of Climate and Other Agents on the Human Constitution, with Reference to the Causes and Prevention of Disease among Seamen; with Observations on Fever in general, and an Account of the Epidemic Fever of Jamaica*, 8vo, London, 1843. [(1) Date of death 28 June 1855 - details on gravestone. Notified by Alan Taylor by email 11 October 2016.]
Resource Identifier RCS: E000700
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Arnold, James (1819 - 1866)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2009-10-07
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000700-E000799
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372887372887
Occupation General surgeon
Details Educated at Guy’s Hospital, and then became Surgeon to the Western General Dispensary. Appointed Medical Officer of Health to the united districts of Grantham, Newark, Sleaford, and Ruskington, and afterwards to Caversham, and to the Rural Districts of the Grantham, Newark, and Sleaford Unions. He came to Reading about the year 1882, and served the Borough for over forty years, being at the time of his death Consulting Medical Officer of Health to the Reading and Wokingham Union and Wokingham Rural Districts, Public Analyst, and Gas Examiner to the County Borough of Reading. He died suddenly at the entrance to the Reading Town Hall on Jan 7th, 1922. His official address had been at the Municipal buildings in Valpy Street, and his home address was at Ashdene, Argyll Road. Publications: *Grantham, Newark, and Sleaford combined Sanitary District*: Sec. 1. Precautions against the Spread of Infectious Diseases. Sec. 2. Directions for Disinfection. Sec. 3. Penalties for the Neglect of Precautions....Sec. 4. Directions for Rendering House Drainage free from Danger. Sec. 5. General Directions for the Preservation of Health. 8vo, Grantham, *n.d*. “Illustrations of Arrest of Infectious Diseases by Isolation of the Sick.” *Practitioner*, 1878, xxi, 300, and 1879, xxiii, 148. “Log-wood as a Re-agent.” *Analyst*, 1884. “The Fallacies of Empirical Standards in Water Analysis.” *Proc. Soc. M.O.H.*, 1884. “Powers of Local Authorities in respect of Dairies, Cowsheds, Milk Shops, etc.” * Ibid.*, 1886. “The Medical Officer of Health” in Stevenson and Murphy’s *Treatise on Hygiene*, 1893, ii. “The Detection of Methylated Spirits in Tinctures, Spirits or Ether.” *Analyst*, 1894, xix, 265. “Milk Epidemic of Diphtheria associated with an Udder Disease of Cows.” *Public Health*, 1906.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000704
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2009-10-07 2016-01-29
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000700-E000799
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372893372893
Occupation General surgeon
Details Eldest son by his first wife of Dr John Atherstone, who married Elizabeth Damant, of Fakenham. He probably came from Atherstone in Warwickshire, she of a Flemish family settled in Norfolk after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. Commissary-General John Damant married into the Korsten family, of Cradock Place, Port Elizabeth, and induced John Atherstone and Lieut Damant, of Fakenham, in Norfolk, to emigrate in 1820 in the ss *Ocean* as one of the settlers whom the Earl of Bathurst was introducing into the Colony. John Atherstone had been House Surgeon at Guy's Hospital, and he brought his wife, William Guybon, and three daughters with him. In August, 1820, he became District Surgeon of Uitenhage for a year, and then went to Cape Town in 1828, where he practised successfully for five years. In 1828 he was District Surgeon at Grahamstown and practised there until he was killed by falling out of a cart in 1858. Two of his sons by a second wife, and therefore half-brothers to William Guybon Atherstone, also practised medicine in the Colony. William Guybon Atherstone, born at Sion Hill, Nottingham, on May 27th, 1814, accompanied the family to South Africa and was educated at Grahamstown School in the old 'Messenger House' and afterwards at Uitenhage. He went with his father to Cape Town, where he attended the natural history lectures given by Dr Andrew Smith (afterwards Sir Andrew Smith, who, many years later, as Director-General of the Army Medical Department, was made a scapegoat for the medical scandals of the Crimean War). In 1829 he returned to Uitenhage, where he attended the academy kept by Dr Rose Innes, and seems to have stayed there for two years, as he was apprenticed to his father in 1831. In 1834 he acted as staff medical officer under Sir Benjamin D'Urban on the outbreak of the second Kafir war, and in 1886 he received his certificate as a qualified medical man. He then went to Europe and attended the lectures of Stokes and Graves in Dublin during the year 1887, and qualified MRCS Eng in the following year after being one of Michael Faraday's pupils. He was joined by his friend Fred W Barber, spent a year in Paris, and took the degree of MD at Heidelberg in 1839. He then returned to England, and having on April 13th, 1839, married his cousin, Catherine Atherstone, sailed back with her in the Robert Small, a vessel of 1000 tons. He settled in practice with his father in Grahamstown in December, 1839, and spent the rest of his life in the Colony except for a short period in 1876, when he again visited England. He at first acted as Gaol and District Surgeon at Grahamstown, and in 1847 he performed an operation under ether which must have been one of the first administrations in South Africa. He also did some original work jointly with his father in investigating horse-sickness and tick-fever. In 1857 and again in 1866 he was keenly interested in the development of railways, urging the annexation of the Congo area so that a line might be carried from the Cape to Cairo, and in 1878 he tried to get a telegraph line carried overland to Egypt. Both projects were defeated, but he familiarized his contemporaries with these schemes, which were afterwards carried into effect. Although Cecil J Rhodes was in South Africa during his lifetime there is no evidence that the two kindred spirits ever met. He fostered, too, the infancy of ostrich-farming at Heathertown Towers and Table Farm. As a prospector with a sound working knowledge of geology he made many important journeys, visiting Namaqualand in 1854; Stormberg in 1870; Kimberley and the Lydenburg goldfields in 1871. In 1867 he identified the first diamond found at Colesberg Kop - now Kimberley - examining it under a polariscope and trying its hardness on glass. The window pane on which he experimented has been framed and preserved. In 1888 the Kimberley Companies clubbed together and presented him with a 4-carat diamond in recognition of his services. Atherstone maintained his interest in science to the end of his life, for he was much more than a prospector, being a good field botanist, an artist, and a very competent musician. He founded in 1855 the Medico-Chirurgical Society which afterwards became the Albany Museum, esteemed the second best in the Dominion. In 1887 he helped to found the Bacteriological Institute in Grahamstown, and in 1888 he initiated the South African Geologists' Association. He became a member of the Legislative Assembly for Grahamstown in 1881, and in 1884 he was elected to the Legislative Council (the Upper House) for the Eastern District, a position he retained until 1891. His eyesight having failed about 1887 he retired from practice, but in 1896 he consented to serve as President of the South African Medical Congress when it met in Grahamstown. He died at Grahamstown on June 26th, 1898, his family consisting of two sons and three daughters. Atherstone was a man brimful of original ideas, who must be looked upon as one of the great pioneers of South Africa. He was energetic to a marvellous degree and he had the knack of imparting his enthusiasm to all about him. No one excelled him in patriotic feeling; he loved South Africa and everything in it. Geology was his particular branch, and his observations were keen and practical. There were few persons at the Cape in the early seventies of the nineteenth century who understood the bearing of geology on economics; but Atherstone fully appreciated the importance of thoroughly unravelling the geological problems of the country and thus assisting in its development. He had often to battle against adverse influences, but his good work lives after him and science in South Africa owes him much. He received no great recognition:- The Royal College of Surgeons elected him a Fellow of twenty years' standing in 1888, and he was made an Honorary Corresponding Secretary of the Royal Colonial Institute and a Fellow of the Geological Society. He left behind him an account of his life and works in 155 closely written notebooks. They begin in 1843, have not been published, and are still in possession of the family.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000710
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Allgöwer, Martin (1917 - 2007)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

by John Blandy
Publication Date 2009-10-21
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/372894372894
Occupation General surgeon
Details Martin Allgöwer was chair and professor of surgery at the University of Basle, Switzerland. He was born in St Gallen, Switzerland, on 5 May 1917. He received his education at St Gallen and studied medicine at Geneva, Zürich and Basle. After qualifying, he was resident in the department of surgery at Basle under Carl Henschen and Otto Schürch, a distinguished orthopaedic surgeon who encouraged Allgöwer to set up a research institute of experimental surgery in Davos, where his first studies were on sulphonamide antagonists in tissue fluid, work carried out before penicillin was introduced. There he continued to work on tissue biology and wound healing, work which he continued as a visiting fellow in Galveston, Texas, under Pomerat and Blocker. He published the result of his research as *The cellular basis of wound repair* (Springfield, Illinois, Thomas) in 1956. In the same year he was appointed surgeon in chief in the Rätische Kantonsspital at Chur, Switzerland, later moving to be professor of surgery in Basle. He was the recipient of numerous honours, among which was the honorary fellowship of our College. He died on 27 October 2007 in Chur.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000711
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Amen, Amer Abdul Aziz (1944 - 2008)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

First Title value, for Searching Ballantyne, John Chalmers (1917 - 2008)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

by Neil Weir
Publication Date 2009-10-21
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000700-E000799
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372896372896
Occupation Otolaryngologist ENT surgeon
Details John Ballantyne, a genial, kindly, hard-working man who gave much to British and world otolaryngology, was a consultant otolaryngologist at the Royal Free Hospital, London. He was born during a Zeppelin raid on Nottingham on 26 September 1917. He was a triplet – preceded by his sister, Jeannie, and followed by his identical twin brother, Rollo. His father, the Reverend John Charles Ballantyne, was a Unitarian minister. His mother, Muriel, née Taylor, was ethereal, artistic and musical. All her children, including the triplets’ older brother David, skilfully played the piano. Ballantyne was raised in Liverpool and attended St Christopher’s preparatory school. On the recommendation of their uncle Arthur Ballantyne (professor of ophthalmology at Glasgow), John and Rollo, who had decided to read medicine, took their first MB at St Mary’s Hospital Medical School, London. This was during the deanship of Charles Wilson (later Sir Charles and Lord Moran), who positively encouraged students to take the MB (as opposed to qualifying with the conjoint board examination only). He must have welcomed the versatile Ballantyne twins who enjoyed athletics and swimming and founded the St Mary’s Music Society. They followed an accelerated course to enable them to qualify early, in 1942, in order to join the Services during the Second World War. The captains Ballantyne joined the RAMC and were posted to Gibraltar. John was attached to the Royal Scots and began training as an otolaryngologist with R Scott Stevenson, whose interest in deafness and ease in writing left a marked impression. John’s first paper to be published in the *Journal of Laryngology and Otology* (JLO) was co-authored with his mentor, Scott Stevenson, and was entitled ‘The conservative treatment of chronic suppurative otitis media’. After the war, he completed his Army service in Hamburg and Oxford, before, in 1947, becoming registrar to Jack Angell-James in Bristol. From 1949 to 1950 he combined the posts of registrar to the Royal Cancer Hospital, London, with a research registrar post in the audiology unit at Golden Square Hospital, working with Edith Whetnall. This post stimulated John’s interest in deafness and the structure and function of the inner ear. After three successful years as senior registrar to John Simpson and Ian Robin at St Mary’s he gained his first part-time consultant post at the Royal Northern Hospital in 1953. At the same time he became assistant director to the audiology unit at the Royal National Throat, Nose and Ear Hospital and also otologist to the London County Council (LCC). This experience led to the publication of his first book, *Deafness* (London, J & A Churchill, 1960). It was written to help parents of deaf children and the adult deaf and has been used by generations of audiologists in training. John’s second daughter Deborah, an audiological scientist, translated the book into Italian. After five years at the audiology unit and the LCC, John moved on to a consultant post at the Royal Free Hospital. His senior colleague, W G Scott-Brown, introduced him to private practice in Harley Street and to his textbook *Diseases of the ear, nose and throat* (London, Butterworth), first published in 1952. The two Johns, John Ballantyne and John Groves, helped Scott-Brown with the second (1965), third (1971) and fourth (1979) editions, with each succeeding edition becoming a volume larger. John Ballantyne edited the second and third editions of *A synopsis of otolaryngology* (Bristol, J Wright) in 1967 and 1978 with his former chiefs from St Mary’s. He edited both the ear volume and the nose and throat volume for the third edition of Rob and Smith’s *Operative surgery* (London, Butterworth) in 1976, contributing chapters on stapedectomy and nasal surgery. In 1986, he repeated the exercise for the fourth edition, this time with Andrew Morrison and D F N Harrison as his co-editors of the ear, nose and throat volumes, respectively. Experience gained from a sabbatical with Hans Engstrom resulted in the joint publication of a paper on the morphology of the ‘vestibular ganglion cells’. This work stimulated his collaboration with Imrich Friedmann (who was for many years the JLO’s adviser in pathology) in co-editing a book in 1984 entitled *Ultrastructural atlas of the inner ear* (London, Butterworth). John Ballantyne was much in demand as a teacher, examiner and committee member. He never refused these duties, although in 1971 he is minuted as having seriously questioned the value of the repetitious work of the British Medical Association (BMA) otolaryngology group. It ceased to function the same year. And yet, if he could help to lessen deafness no task was too small. (He agreed, for example, to represent the BMA otolaryngology group on a British Standards Committee studying noise from toys.) At the Royal Society of Medicine (RSM) John chose as the title of his 1976 section of otology presidential address, ‘The hearing ear; variations on a theme of Helmholtz’, which enabled him to utilise his knowledge and love of music. He memorably played the passage in Smetana’s first string quartet (from ‘My life’), in which the composer described his own tinnitus. During his time as honorary secretary of the British Association of Otolaryngologists (from 1972 to 1977), he also represented the association on the council of the Royal College of Surgeons. He examined for the FRCS in England and Ireland, and was a civilian consultant in otolaryngology to the Army. As a distinguished editor of the JLO (from 1978 to 1988), John Ballantyne, with only the help of his tireless secretary, performed all the tasks of sub-editing and proofreading himself, including hand-writing letters to each author. He co-authored with Ted Evans and Andrew Morrison an influential report (published as the first JLO supplement in 1978) on cochlear implantation (CI), which paved the way for further work by the Medical Research Council and then the later adoption of CI by the Department of Health and Social Security (DHSS). As chairman of the DHSS advisory committee on services for hearing impaired people (ACSHIP) from 1974 to 1980, he introduced hearing therapists and contributed to the establishment of specialist audiological physicians. For the British Academic Conference in Otolaryngology, he served as honorary secretary and later chairman of the general committee for the conferences in Edinburgh and London respectively, and was invested as master of the seventh conference in Glasgow in 1987. In the same year, he was elected as an honorary fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow. John Ballantyne delivered the 16th James Yearsley lecture in 1970 on the subject of ototoxicity, the Sir William Wilde lecture in 1975 and the Toynbee lecture in 1984. He was awarded the Harrison prize in otology of the Royal Society of Medicine in 1971, and the Jobson Horne prize of the British Medical Association in 1982, and was a member of the Collegium Oto-Rhino-Laryngologicum Amicitiae Sacrum. For 20 years he was a most supportive director of the Britain Nepal Otology Service. John Ballantyne was honoured with a CBE for services for the deaf in 1984 and received the honorary fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, the College of Surgeons of South Africa and the Royal Society of Medicine. In retirement he was a founder member of the RSM’s Retired Fellows’ Society. The last meeting he was able to attend at the RSM was in December 2006, when fittingly he chaired a lecture given by his daughter, Jane. He for many years was administrator of the RSM Music Society, ending up as president. He never lost his youthful curiosity or humour, and was always reading, learning and wanting to know more. While in Gibraltar in 1942 he met Barbara Green, a Wren from Bristol. They married in 1949 and she survives him with their two daughters, Jane, an anaesthetist and professor of pain control, University of Philadelphia, USA, and Deborah, chief audiological scientist at ‘La Sapienza’ University in Rome. John Ballantyne died on 25 June 2008, aged 90.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000713
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Bateman, Patricia Jane (1943 - 2008)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

by John Blandy
Publication Date 2009-10-21
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/372897372897
Occupation Ophthalmologist
Details Pat Bateman was a consultant ophthalmologist in Cambridgeshire. She was born in Bristol on 11 May 1943, the daughter of Sam Roylance, headmaster of Cottam Grammar School in Bristol, and Emily Grace, a consultant paediatrician. She received her medical education at St Bartholomew’s and, after qualifying, completed junior posts at Bart’s and at Redhill General Hospital, before specialising in ophthalmology. From 1980 to 1998 she was a locum consultant ophthalmic surgeon at Doddington and, from 1992 to 2003, an associate specialist at Hinchingbrooke Hospital, Huntingdon. A modest person with great talents, she lived for serving others, and family, friends and patients were never disappointed. Her incisive mind and endless patience made her a good medical ophthalmologist: her calligraphic hand and clear notes were legendary. Her courage and sense of humour were valued, though she was never afraid to give her moral view when necessary. Her early surgical work ran into conflict with her wish to be a present and supportive mother, and the winners were the many consultants who knew they had a conscientious colleague who would always stay to the end of the clinic and complete what was in front of her. Pat was on her local parish council for 11 years and during her time as chairman made great improvements to the village, turning its clay pit into a nature reserve, where a commemorative stone has now been placed. Pat was a churchwarden at Little Shelford for a time, but in her latter days found her spiritual home and comfort at the Unitarian Memorial Church, Cambridge. She obtained an MSc in medical anthropology before she retired, which was the spring board into her archaeological, anthropological and biographical interests in retirement. She was also a proficient watercolour artist with an excellent sense of colour. She married Anthony Malcolm Bateman, a general practitioner at Great Shelford. Pat was adored by her family: her daughter Wigs works in international public health in Sydney, Australia, where she is married to Zac, an academic psychologist. Pat’s son, David, is a design engineer in London. Her courage in the last weeks of her life was inspiring, after her stage four glioma had been diagnosed. She died on 7 July 2008.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000714
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Connolly, Rainer Campbell (1919 - 2009)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

by T T King
Publication Date 2009-10-21
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/372898372898
Occupation Neurosurgeon
Details Campbell Connolly was a consultant neurosurgeon at St Bartholomew’s Hospital, London. He was born on 15 July 1919, the elder son of George Connolly, a solicitor who had served in the First World War, and his wife, Margaret, née Edgell, of Brighton. His grandfather, Colonel Benjamin Bloomfield Connolly was a distinguished military surgeon who had been principal medical officer of the Cavalry Brigade at El Teb (Sudan) and was commander of the Camel Bearer Company on the expedition to relieve General Gordon. Connolly’s education was at Lancing College, Bedford School and St Bartholomew’s Hospital, from which he graduated in 1941. Owing to the shortage of junior medical staff, he was immediately employed as a locum anaesthetic houseman and gave a number of anaesthetics for Sir James Paterson Ross who had, at the start of his career, an interest in neurosurgery. This position led to Connolly’s appointment as a house officer at the wartime hospital, Hill End, St Alban’s, to which the professorial surgical department of St Bartholomew’s had been evacuated. Though Paterson Ross was nominally in charge of neurosurgery, J E A O’Connell was the neurosurgeon within the professorial unit. While working at Hill End, Connolly was seconded to Sir Hugh Cairn’s head injury hospital at St Hugh’s, Oxford, to learn about electroencephalography, which it was thought might be useful in neurosurgical diagnosis. Oxford was one of the few places in the country where this new technique was being explored. This experience put him in contact with Cairns, who was responsible for the organisation of neurosurgery in the Army. Connolly eventually spent almost a year at St Hugh’s. Early in 1943 he found himself posted to an anti-aircraft battery in south London, where he had little to do until his commanding officer told him that he was to accompany the battery to a destination in West Africa. Alarmed, he wrote to Cairns and was almost immediately removed and placed in a holding post at Lancing. Connolly was one of the last survivors of the young neurosurgeons who staffed the mobile neurosurgical units that had been established by Hugh Cairns at the beginning of the Second World War. These saw action in France and Belgium in 1940, and the first one was captured at Dunkirk. Subsequently another six were formed and deployed in the Western Desert, Italy, Northern Europe and Burma. Through the influence of Cairns, Connolly was posted to mobile neurosurgical unit No 4 in Bari, Italy, when the senior neurosurgeon of the unit, Kenneth Eden died suddenly of poliomyelitis in October 1943. With its head, John Gilllingham, and John Potter, he accompanied the unit in the campaign up the east coast of Italy, ending at Ancona with the rank of major and with a mention in despatches. This unit treated over 900 head injuries from the battles at the Gothic Line and the Po Valley, as well as those from partisan activities in Yugoslavia. Many of the Yugoslavian patients had open head wounds for which treatment had been delayed by difficulties in transport, a subject on which Connolly contributed a paper to *War supplement No.1 on wounds of the head* published by the *British Journal of Surgery* in 1947 (*Br J Surg* 1947;55(suppl1):168-172). The results were surprisingly good, the mortality being 20 per cent. The use of penicillin, first clinically tested by Florey and Cairns, and then by Cairns in mobile neurosurgical unit No 4 in North Africa, was considered to be an important factor in these results. After VE day, Connolly returned to England in July. He was posted to the Far East, spending six unproductive months in India following the ending of the war in August. After demobilisation, he returned to Bart’s to a post created to accommodate ex-servicemen such as himself whose training and careers had been affected by war service. He obtained the FRCS in 1947. Cairns had plans for an organised training scheme for neurosurgeons, something not achieved until many years later, and he offered Connolly an appointment at Oxford to a training programme of some years’ duration, beginning as a house surgeon. At the same time Cecil Calvert, in Belfast, who had done much of the surgery at St Hugh’s during the war, invited him to the Royal Victoria Hospital as a consultant. The rigours of being a houseman at Oxford under Cairns were known to Connolly: he took the offer in Belfast and stayed there for four years. In 1952 he moved to the Midland Centre for Neurosurgery in Birmingham. In 1958 he was appointed as the second neurosurgeon to O’Connell at St Bartholomew’s Hospital and remained there until his retirement as senior neurosurgeon in 1984. He was also in private practice and established a reputation especially for judgement and skill in intervertebral disc surgery. He was on the staff of the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital and the King Edward VII Hospital for Officers and was a civilian consultant to the Royal Navy from 1971 to 1984. In the College he was Hunterian Professor in 1961, speaking on cerebral ischaemia in subarachnoid haemorrhage. He was president of the section of neurology of the Royal Society of Medicine from 1980 to 1981, a Freeman of the City of London and a liveryman of the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries. He married Elisabeth Fowler née Cullis, who was an anaesthetist at St Hugh’s. He died of cancer of the prostate on 14 August 2009, survived by his wife, two daughters and a son.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000715
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Barker, Walter Rice Howell (1810 - 1889)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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
Format Asset

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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 Longmire, William Polk (1913 - 2003)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-10-12
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000000-E000099
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372282372282
Occupation General surgeon
Details William Polk Longmire Jr was one of the founders of the school of medicine at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) and a former President of the American College of Surgeons. He was born in Sapulpa, Oklahoma, in 1913. After graduating from the University of Oklahoma, he entered Johns Hopkins Medical School, where he obtained his MD in 1938. He stayed on at Baltimore for two years, first as Cushing fellow in experimental surgery, and then as Halsted fellow in surgical pathology. This was followed by two years in practice in Sapulpa. He then returned to Johns Hopkins for his residency training, and was a member of the first surgical team to successfully perform the ‘blue baby’ operation, a groundbreaking procedure that allowed infants with a severe heart deformity to live a normal life. At Johns Hopkins he was appointed as an assistant professor and then an associate professor of surgery. Just before leaving, he was appointed as its first professor of plastic surgery. He returned to general surgery when he went to the University of California at Los Angeles as professor and Chairman of the department of surgery. He served as UCLA’s surgical Chairman until 1976 and continued in medical practice at UCLA, becoming professor emeritus in 1984. He published more than 350 published scientific articles and four books. In his later years, he wrote *Starting from scratch*, a book describing the founding of UCLA’s school of medicine. He served on the American College of Surgeons’ board of regents, ultimately as its President. He also served as President of the Society of Surgical Chairmen, the American Surgical Association, the International Federation of Surgical Colleges and the Los Angeles Surgical Society and as Chairman of the American Board of Surgery. He served as visiting professor in many universities, including the University of Berlin and the University of Edinburgh. He was recognised by surgical societies in Italy, Switzerland, France and Germany. He married Sarah Jane Cornelius and they had two daughters, Sarah Jane and Gil. There are three grandchildren. He died on 9 May 2003, from cancer.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000095
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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 Matheson, John Mackenzie (1912 - 2003)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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 McKechnie, William Richard (1906 - 2004)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-10-19
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000100-E000199
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372291372291
Occupation General surgeon
Details Keith Moore was a consultant surgeon at North Middlesex Hospital. He was born on 30 June 1911, at Rose Bay, Sydney, Australia, the son of Frank Joshua Moore, an engineer, and Adela May née Bailey. He was educated at Brisbane Grammar School, and then Wesley College, Sydney University. He went to England to work for his FRCS. In 1941 he enrolled in the RAMC and then served in the Middle East prior to the fall of Tobruk. He subsequently escaped from an Italian prisoner of war camp and walked south through enemy territory to rejoin the Allied Forces, who were by then advancing northwards. After demobilisation he returned to Australia with an English bride, Evelyn Sarah Cowdeney (‘Sally’). They went on to have three daughters (Sarah, Charlotte and Jacqueline) and a son (Richard). He was soon appointed as a surgeon to the Children’s Hospital in Brisbane. He was unhappy with the ethos of private practice in Australia and in 1950 returned to England to work in the newly established National Health Service, the principles of which he admired. His subsequent appointment at the North Middlesex Hospital became his life’s work. He retired in 1976. He was a cutting surgeon rather than a writing surgeon, despite having kept detailed personal diaries since he was a young man. His forte throughout his surgical career was discussing the rationale for his decisions concerning the treatment of his patients with his junior staff. Much of his retirement was spent in fulfilling his life-long ambition to restore an old mill, which he had bought very cheaply and which finally became an idyllic residence and garden in Wiltshire. In his later years he was afflicted with rapidly increasing glaucoma-related blindness, which he accepted with remarkable stoicism. During this time he was ably supported by his devoted and understanding wife, Sally. He died on 4 January 2005.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000104
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

First Title value, for Searching Owen, William Jones (1945 - 2003)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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/372295372295
Occupation General surgeon
Details William Jones Owen was a consultant surgeon at Guy’s and St Thomas’s Hospitals and a senior lecturer at King’s College, London. He spent his early life in north Wales, where he excelled at his academic work, rugby, music and Welsh. He won first prize in a recital group at the Urdd National Eisteddfod and the Evanson scholarship from Llandovery College. He went on to Guy’s, where he took a BSc in anatomy, with a distinction in pathology. He held house posts in the south east of England, and gained his FRCS, winning the Hallet prize. He returned to Guy’s for his higher surgical training, and during this period obtained his masters degree in surgery from the University of London for his studies on intestinal adaptation. At the end of his training, in 1981, he was appointed to the staff of Guy’s, as a senior lecturer with Ian McColl. He remained in this position until he died. For many years he also worked at Lewisham and later at St Thomas’s Hospitals, and took on management responsibilities. He was considered a warm and loyal colleague, becoming a surgeons’ surgeon. He established one of the best oesophageal laboratories in the country, producing over 100 excellent papers. He played a prominent role in the Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland, and was Chairman of the oesophageal section of the British Society of Gastroenterology. He was an examiner at the College and an honorary surgeon to the Army and the Royal Society of Music. He loved music and was an enthusiastic follower of sport. He was married to Wendy, a doctor who worked with him in the oesophageal laboratory. They had a daughter, Sarah, and a son, David. He died from a brain tumour on 3 April 2003.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000108
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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/372297372297
Occupation Ophthalmologist
Details Roger Pearce was a consultant ophthalmologist at Watford General Hospital. He was born in Pinner, Middlesex, on 23 December 1943, the son of Leonard John Pearce, the director of a firm of gunsmiths, and Millicent Maud. He was educated at University College School, Hampstead, where he was captain of fives and played rugby for the school. He studied medicine at St Mary’s Hospital, where he was a member of the Christian union and played tennis for the school. In 1966, he spent a year in India with Voluntary Service Overseas. After house posts at the Royal Berkshire Hospital and Queen Elizabeth II Hospital, Welwyn, a period in Nigeria with Save the Children Fund, and some time spent at St Mary’s as a lecturer and a casualty officer, he decided to specialise in ophthalmology. He was a senior house officer in ophthalmology at St Mary’s and trained at Moorfields and the Western Ophthalmic Hospital. In 1981, he was appointed as a consultant at Watford. His special interest was in paediatric ophthalmology. He married Linda Turner in 1976, and they spent their honeymoon in India. They had three daughters, Claire, Victoria and Nicola. He was an active sportsman, until 1982, when a ruptured Achilles tendon led to a pulmonary embolism. He enjoyed walking, trekking and skiing. He had only just retired from the NHS when he and Linda were tragically killed on 31 December 2003 in a minibus crash near Bergville, South Africa, whilst on a safari walking holiday to celebrate his 60th birthday.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000110
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Eley, Arnold Amos ( - 1998)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-10-19 2015-10-28
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/372298372298
Occupation General surgeon
Details Arnold Eley qualified at Charing Cross and after junior posts did his National Service in the RAMC as a junior surgical specialist. On leaving the Army he was registrar at the Connaught Hospital under J Thompson Fathi and surgical first assistant at St George's before being appointed to the Surrey Hospital Group. He published on perfusion of the liver and jaundice in severe infections. He retired to Yelverton in Devon where he died on 15 December 1998.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000111
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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 Rang, Mercer Charles (1933 - 2003)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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/372300372300
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon
Details Mercer Rang was an eminent paediatric orthopaedic surgeon. He was born in London in 1933 and studied medicine at University College London. He was a house officer in London and then a resident at Rochester. He went on to complete two years National Service, as a command surgical specialist in Northern Ireland. He then undertook postgraduate orthopaedic training, and was inspired by Lipmann Kessel to pursue an academic career. He enrolled in the programme of the Royal Northern Orthopaedic Hospital. In 1965 he was seconded to Jamaica, where he served for two years as a senior lecturer in orthopaedic surgery at the University of West Indies under Sir John Golding. In 1967 he went to the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto as a basic research fellow and, with R B Salter, undertook research on the pathogenesis of deformity of the femoral head in an animal model of Legg-Perthes’ disease. He was appointed to the staff of the division of orthopaedic surgery at the end of the year, where he continued undertaking research until his retirement from the hospital in 1999. He then practised and taught orthopaedics in Saudi Arabia for one year, until he became ill and returned to Canada. Mercer had many clinical interests in paediatric orthopaedic surgery, but his most important contributions were in the fields of children’s fractures and neuromuscular disorders, especially in cerebral palsy, as well as the history of orthopaedics. He wrote 12 book chapters, and published 61 articles and six books, including *The growth plate and its disorders* (1969, Edinburgh/London, E & S Livingstone), *Children’s fractures* (c1983, Philadelphia, Lippincott) and *The story of orthopaedics* (2000, Philadelphia/London, W B Saunders). He received many honours and awards, including an honorary fellowship of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons in 1990, honorary fellowship of the British Orthopaedic Association in 1996 and the Alan Graham Apley gold medal of that Association in 1999. He was married to Helen and they had three daughters (Caroline, Sarah and Louise) and six grandchildren. He died on 6 October 2003 after a long illness.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000113
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Rees, Richard Lestrem (1916 - 2004)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

First Title value, for Searching Glenn, James Francis (1927 - 2009)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

by John Blandy
Publication Date 2009-10-21
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/372900372900
Occupation Urologist
Details Jim Glenn was an internationally celebrated urologist, a former chief of urology at Duke University and dean of Emory University school of medicine. He was born in Lexington, Kentucky, and educated at the University High School there, from which he went to Rochester University and afterwards to Duke University to study medicine, qualifying in 1952. He specialised in urology and completed a surgical residency at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston and trained in urology at Duke University. He served briefly on the academic staff at Yale and at Wake Forest University, before returning to Duke in 1963 as a professor and later a chief of urology. He went on to Emory University in Atlanta as dean of the medical school and was later president of Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City. He then returned to Kentucky, where he was director of the Markey Cancer Center at the University of Kentucky from 1989 to 1993 and chief of staff at the University of Kentucky Hospital from 1993 to 1996. He was acting chairman of surgery at the University of Kentucky from 1996 to 1998. He was a born organiser, becoming president of the American Association of Genitourinary Surgeons in 1993. A past president of the Société Internationale d’Urologie, in 2007 he received that organisation’s highest honour. He was a former governor of the American College of Surgeons and a former president of the American Urological Association. He received the Association’s lifetime achievement award in 1994. He was a frequent visitor to England, and always went out of his way to welcome visitors from the UK. He was made an honorary fellow of our College in 1987. He was awarded the St Paul’s medal of the British Association of Urological Surgeons in 1996. He died on 10 June 2009, leaving his widow Gay née Elste Darsie, two sons (Cambridge F Glenn II and James M Glenn), two daughters (Sarah Brooke Glenn and Nancy Carrick Glenn) and seven grandchildren.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000717
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Gray, Thomas Cecil (1913 - 2008)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2009-10-21
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000700-E000799
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372901372901
Occupation Anaesthetist
Details Thomas Cecil Gray was the first professor of anaesthesia at Liverpool University and undoubtedly one of the great British pioneers of modern anaesthesia. He was born in Liverpool on 11 March 1913, the son of Thomas Gray, a local publican, and Ethelreda Unwin. A devout Roman Catholic, Cecil was educated at the Convent of the Sacre Coeur in Bath and then Ampleforth. It had been his intention to enter the Monastery, but being caught smoking in the bushes within two months of becoming a novice monk made it clear to all except Cecil that this was not his vocation. To the dismay of his mother, he returned to Liverpool to study medicine. Graduating with distinction in anatomy in 1937, he became a trainee in general practice in the city, before purchasing a practice in Wallasey with the help of his father. He rapidly became fascinated by anaesthesia, which at that time was mostly practiced on a part-time basis by general practitioners. Under the tutelage of Robert Minnitt, he rapidly collected the 1,000 cases required for the diploma in anaesthesia, which he obtained in 1941, and shortly afterwards became a full-time anaesthetist to several hospitals in the city of Liverpool. His academic career began in 1942 with his appointment as demonstrator in anaesthesia in the University of Liverpool. Largely as the result of Minnitt’s mission to ensure proper teaching and training in anaesthesia, Cecil was appointed reader and head when the academic department was established in 1947. In 1959, he was awarded a personal chair in anaesthesia, which he held until his retirement from active practice in 1976. He was the first postgraduate dean of the faculty of medicine in Liverpool University from 1966 to 1970 and then dean of the faculty of medicine until 1976. Very early in his full-time career in anaesthesia Cecil Gray and John Halton set out to investigate the feasibility of inducing neuromuscular blockade by means of a derivative of wourali, the crude South American arrow poison which was eventually purified as d-tubocurarine chloride by Burroughs Wellcome. Within a year they had collected 1,200 surgical cases in which the drug had been used safely. Their first public dissertation ‘A milestone in anaesthesia – d-tubocurarine’ was delivered to the section of anaesthesia of the Royal Society of Medicine on 1 March 1946. Much often sceptical discussion about the safety of this potential poison took place at subsequent meetings of the section. In April 1948, Cecil Gray attempted to allay this scepticism with his detailed report on 8,500 patients anaesthetised by a group of enthusiastic colleagues across the Liverpool region who had willingly adopted the technique of hypnosis, muscle relaxation and controlled ventilation without serious morbidity or mortality, thereby confirming Cecil’s firm belief that one of the most potentially dangerous of drugs was one of the least toxic when used carefully. With modification this technique has survived nationally and internationally to the present day. He must also be remembered for his major contribution to education and standards of training in anaesthesia. Aware of the changes which would follow the establishment of the National Health Service in 1948, he saw the need for a high standard of formal training and postgraduate education in anaesthesia and an examination structure similar to the Royal Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons. On becoming reader and head of the new department of anaesthesia in the University of Liverpool in 1947, he persuaded the dean of the Liverpool Medical School and the board of clinical studies to support the establishment of a postgraduate course. The first enrolments took place in October 1948. Within a year the hospital authorities within the area accepted the proposals for a full-time course and empowered the academic department to recruit junior staff for the hospitals throughout the region. Most of the surgeons tacitly agreed to the presence of trainees in the operating theatres. All trainees would attend lectures until 11am each morning, including Saturday, and all were required to have had some anaesthetic experience prior to enrolment. This course was the first in the United Kingdom, and by 1952 had expanded its horizons, drawing students from the Indian sub-continent, Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, South Africa and Australia. Cecil’s profound interest in medical education and his organisational skills led to his election as a foundation member of the board of the faculty of anaesthetists of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1948. He served as vice-dean from 1952 to 1954 and as dean from 1964 to 1967. He also played an active role in the foundation of the World Federation of Societies of Anaesthesiology and the European Congress of Anaesthesiology. He was invited as either a visiting professor or lecturer to many university departments and anaesthetic societies overseas. In 1948 Cecil and Edward Faulkner Hill were appointed as joint editors of The British Journal of Anaesthesia and oversaw a gradual improvement in coverage, quality and circulation. He retired from this role in 1964. Cecil was invited to deliver numerous eponymous lectures. His many honours included the Clover medal, the James Young Simpson gold medal, the Henry Hill Hickman medal of the Royal Society of Medicine, the George James Guthrie medal, the gold medal of the Royal College of Surgeons, the John Snow silver medal and the Magill gold medal of the Association of Anaesthetists. In 1982 he was awarded a gold medal by Pope John Paul II in recognition of the role which he had played in the organisation of the Pope’s visit to Liverpool. In 1961 he became the first anaesthetist to be awarded the Sims Commonwealth travelling professorship of the Royal Colleges of Physicians, Surgeons and Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. This provided the opportunity for Cecil and his wife to travel to Australia, where they spent three months engaged in educational activities and valuable interchange of ideas. He wrote numerous papers and co-edited several editions of *General anaesthesia* (London, Butterworths), which became the ‘Liverpool Bible’ of anaesthesia. His last publication in 2003 was the biography of Richard Formby, the founder of the Liverpool Medical School at the Royal Institution, which subsequently moved to the Infirmary in 1844. Cecil was president of the section of anaesthesia of the Royal Society of Medicine, the Association of Anaesthetists, the Liverpool Society of Anaesthetists and the Liverpool Medical Institution. He was active in the British Medical Association and the Medical Defence Union, of which he was vice-president from 1954 to 1961 and again from 1983 to 1988, and served as honorary treasurer from 1976 to 1981. From 1966 to 1983 he was a much respected member of the Liverpool Bench. Cecil, a man of great charm, talent and boundless energy was a gifted teacher, inspiring students, trainees and colleagues with devotion and enthusiasm. His advice, either deliberately sought or volunteered, was always sound. No problem was insurmountable. Consequently he had a profound influence on the lives of many whose progress he followed assiduously and with considerable pride. A good friend and mentor of many, friendships made endured. Cecil was married twice. In 1937 he married Marjorie (Margot) Kathleen née Hely, a talented amateur actress and artist, by whom he had two children, David (who is a consultant anaesthetist in Liverpool) and Beverley. Marjorie (Margot) died in 1978. In 1979 he married Pamela Mary (Corning). Their son James Frederick was born in 1981. Cecil, a true native of Liverpool, was a generous, entertaining host with a wicked sense of humour. He had a passion for amateur dramatics, as both a player and producer of the Irish Players for over 20 years. An accomplished pianist and opera lover, he was a member of the Royal Philharmonic Society, the Liverpool Welsh Choral Society and the Verdi Society. The night before he died he gave a faultless rendition of Debussy’s ‘Clair de lune’. He died on 5 January 2008.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000718
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Juby, Herbert Bernard (1925 - 2004)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

by Neil Weir
Publication Date 2009-10-21
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/372902372902
Occupation ENT surgeon
Details Bernard Juby was a consultant ENT surgeon at the Ipswich Hospital. He was born in Stowmarket, Suffolk, on 9 April 1925, the only son of L H Juby, a draper, and Ethel née Quinton. He was educated at Culford School. His early wish was to be a farmer, but was encouraged by his mother to read medicine. He attended St Bartholomew's Medical School from 1942 to 1947. As a house surgeon to F C W Capps he had an early experience of ENT surgery. After a surgical officer post at the Luton and Dunstable Hospital, where he gained from the influence of Donald Barlow, Juby became an ENT registrar at the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital and was later a senior registrar at the Royal National Throat, Nose and Ear Hospital. His training was interrupted by National Service in the RAMC in Berlin. There he rapidly learnt to cope with all surgical emergencies, including salvaging the one remaining upper limb of a brigadier involved in a road traffic accident. Bernard Juby’s interest in ENT must have been maintained during this period as in 1953 he published a paper entitled ‘The incidence of middle ear disease in serving soldiers’ in the *Journal of the RAMC* (*J R Army Med Corps*, 1953 Apr;99(3):115-7). In early 1958 he was appointed as a consultant ENT surgeon at the Dryburn Hospital and the following year to the Durham and Shotley Bridge General Hospital. He longed, though, to return to his native Suffolk and, in 1962, was appointed to the West Suffolk General Hospital in Bury St Edmunds. Three years later, on the retirement of Kenneth Mackenzie, he moved over to Ipswich Hospital, where he continued his ENT practice until his retirement in 1987. Juby’s was a general ENT practice, but he will be remembered for his review paper published in 1969 in the *Journal of Laryngology and Otology* entitled ‘The treatment of pharyngeal pouch’ (*J Laryngol Otol* 1969 Nov;83(11):1067-71)and for his chapters on the same subject in Rob & Smith's *Operative surgery* (London, Butterworth’s, 1986). Bernard Juby represented East Anglia on the council of the British Association of Otolaryngologists and served on council of the section of otology of the Royal Society of Medicine. He was medical officer to Ipswich Town football club. Outside medicine, he built a dry stone wall whilst in Yorkshire. He was a keen golfer and a long-standing member of the Ipswich Philatelic Society. A charming man with a dapper demeanour, Bernard Juby married Elizabeth Birdwood (a Bart’s nurse) in 1949. They had two sons (one a solicitor) and two daughters (one a nurse who died of cancer of the spine at the age of 46 and the other an occupational therapist). Bernard Juby died peacefully in St Elizabeth Hospice, Ipswich, of hepatocellular carcinoma on 22 May 2004.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000719
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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/373035373035
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born on October 3rd, 1875, the youngest son of Alfred Carpmael, solicitor, of Norwood, and his wife Jane Josephine (*née* Rainbow). He was educated at Dulwich College, where he was captain of the shooting VIII for four years. From Dulwich he went to University College, London, and obtained the Gold Medal for Botany, and the Silver Medal for Zoology and Comparative Anatomy. In 1896 he entered St Thomas’s Hospital, and there held the appointments of Anatomical Registrar, House Surgeon, and Clinical Assistant in the Skin Department. He captained the Hospital Rifle Team, when he won many trophies, including the United Hospitals Challenge Cup for the highest aggregate at Bisley. This cup he won outright after holding it for three years in succession and five years in all. In 1907 he entered into partnership with Dr William Lengworth Wainwright at Henley-on-Thames, where he showed himself to be an able and hard-working practitioner. He interested himself in the Henley Miniature Rifle Club, and became its captain. In addition to rifle-shooting he was a keen fisherman and was one who could and did make his own fishing rods. He died at Henley-on-Thames in March, 1912, after a brief illness from a cerebral tumour, and was buried at the Norwood Cemetery. He was unmarried. Two brothers and five sisters survived him.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000852
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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/373036373036
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born at Leeds in 1814, became a pupil of Mr Needham, and studied at the York School of Medicine and at University College Hospital. He became assistant to Henry Barnett, of Blackheath, and afterwards joined him in partnership until his death in 1873. He then developed an extensive practice at the head of the firm Carr, Miller, and Carr. When Prince Arthur, afterwards Duke of Connaught, was residing at the Ranger’s House, Blackheath, Carr became his medical attendant. In 1867 the Prince was attacked by small-pox, and after Drs Sieveking and Munk ceased attendance Carr remained in charge. The vesicles were painted with collodion, no pitting followed. The Queen sent an autograph letter of thanks for his kindness and attention to her son, and he continued in attendance until the Duke left the neighbourhood. Carr was a staunch friend and supporter of the Royal Benevolent College at Epsom and collected a large sum to found scholarships. In 1865, on the exposure of the state of the Metropolitan Workhouse Infirmaries following the death of Gibson and Daly, Farnall, the inspector of the Poor Law Board, who conducted the inquiry, appointed Carr as his medical assessor. Shortly afterwards he was associated with Anstie and others on the *Lancet* commission for inquiry into the state of the Infirmaries. He was a keen volunteer in the early days; the first meeting to inaugurate the 3rd Kent Rifles was held at his house. He was Surgeon up to the time of his death of the 1st Battalion Kent Rifles (Volunteers) and attended Battalion Field Days. He was Surgeon to the Royal Kent Dispensary and to the Metropolitan Police. He was also an ardent gardener and President of the Horticultural Society. He died at his residence, Lee Grove, Blackheath, on March 22nd, 1877.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000853
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

First Title value, for Searching Wilson, Peter ( - 2005)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2009-03-27 2013-02-01
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/372787372787
Occupation General surgeon
Details Peter Wilson was a consultant surgeon at Whitybush Hospital, Haverford West. He studied medicine in Edinburgh, qualifying in 1956. After junior posts he moved to Cardiff, where he became senior registrar in general surgery at the United Cardiff hospitals. He was then appointed to his consultant position at Haverford West. He was elected FRCS ad eundem in 1979. The college was informed of his death in May 2005.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000604
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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/373044373044
Occupation General surgeon
Details The son of a schoolmaster, was born at Melbourne, Cambridgeshire, in 1824. He was apprenticed in 1841 to William Mann, of Royston, for three years. He then entered University College Hospital, and was House Surgeon to Robert Liston (qv); he worked also under John Eric Erichsen (qv) and Richard Quain (qv). Next he was Resident Clinical Assistant at the Brompton Hospital for Consumption, then an Assistant in a mining practice at Nantyglo for a year. From there he went to Cambridge as House Surgeon at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, where at the time there was only a single resident. He acted as Registrar and Anaesthetist, and also made all the post-mortem examinations. Following upon this post he was chosen by George Humphry (qv), the Professor of Anatomy, as his Demonstrator; he entered St John’s College and graduated in Arts and Medicine. Attracted by the offer of a partnership in 1866, he moved to Huntingdon and was appointed Surgeon to the County Hospital. There followed a break in his health for which he took a voyage round the world, and after his return was appointed, through Humphry, Surgeon to Addenbrooke’s Hospital, and on his retirement Consulting Surgeon. He was also Surgeon to the Huntingdon Militia and to the University Rifle Volunteer Corps. He was one of the original members in 1880 of the Cambridge Medical Society, and was elected President in 1887. He was also a Fellow of the Cambridge Philosophical Society and a member of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society. He went to live in Kent on his retirement from practice in 1898, but returned to Cambridge, and finally, in the summer of 1904, moved to Torquay, where his son, Dr Arthur Edmund Carver, was in practice. He died at Torquay on September 7th, 1904. His Cambridge address had been 58 Corpus Buildings. Carver married Miss Emily Grace Day, who survived him. His portrait is in the Fellows’ Album. – Publications:– Papers in *Jour. of Anat. and Physiol*.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000861
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Bennett, William Charles Storer (1852 - 1900)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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 Bernard, Ralph Montague (1816 - 1871)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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/373049373049
Occupation General surgeon
Details Educated at Guy's Hospital. He practised at 73 High Street, Croydon, and died at his residence, Kirby Bedon, Lower Addiscombe Road, Croydon, in the period between November, 1889, and November, 1890.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000866
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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/372481372481
Occupation General Practitioner
Details Martin Laird was a general practitioner in Richmond, South Australia. He qualified from Sheffield University in 1941 and then demonstrated anatomy for two years. In 1943 he became a resident medical officer at the Royal Hospital, Sheffield. He then served in the RAMC in Burma, returning after the war to Sheffield, to specialise in surgery and take the FRCS. He was resident surgical officer to the Sheffield Royal Infirmary and then went on to the Westminster Hospital as registrar. In 1952 he went to Nottingham General Hospital as a senior registrar and remained there for the next three years. He then retrained in general practice in Cleethorpes. In 1956 he emigrated to South Australia, where he was in general practice in Richmond. He died in Adelaide on 13 November 2004. He was predeceased by his wife Joan. He leaves three daughters, Fiona, Alison and Isobel.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000294
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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/372484372484
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon
Details Rodney Sneath was a consultant orthopaedic surgeon at the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital in Birmingham and a pioneer in limb salvage surgery for patients with bone tumours. He was born in Sheffield, the son of Ernest Saville Sneath, a master printer, who owned the ‘Saville Press’. His mother was Dorothy Unwin. He was educated at Chesterfield Grammar School and Sheffield University, where he qualified with the conjoint diploma in 1948, acquiring the MB ChB in 1957. He had a wide range of interests at university, including rugby, rock climbing, gliding and motor sport. In 1952 he took part in the Monte Carlo rally with his father and was the first of the private competitors to finish. During his National Service in the RAMC he was stationed in Austria, and became an accomplished skier, an interest he pursued well into his seventies. After demobilisation and the acquisition of the FRCS in 1958 he began orthopaedic training at St George’s Hospital and later at the Royal National Orthopaedic and its associated hospitals. He was appointed a consultant orthopaedic surgeon at the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital, Birmingham, in 1965, where he developed an interest in the treatment of malignant musculo-skeletal tumours. In collaboration with John Scales at the RNOH he established what became an internationally recognised unit for the treatment of bone tumours, and together they made many innovations, including a ‘growing prosthesis’ for use in children. He was a founder member of the European Musculo-Skeletal Oncology Society and a Fellow of the British Orthopaedic Association. Among many invited lectures he gave a Hunterian lecture on ‘the treatment of malignant bone tumours in children’ in 1993. He died on 1 April 2005, leaving a wife, Ann, and five children.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000297
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Staunton, Michael Douglas Mary (1925 - 2005)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-11-30 2017-06-30
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000200-E000299
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372485372485
Occupation General surgeon
Details Michael Douglas Mary Staunton, known as 'Dudley', was a general surgeon in London with an interest in oncology. He was born on 8 September 1925 in Swinford, County Mayo, Ireland, where his father Michael Douglas Staunton was a dispensary doctor. His mother was Ursula Mellett. Of the six children, all became doctors. From Blackrock College, Dublin - 'the best rugger school in Ireland' - he went on to Trinity College Dublin to study medicine, and did house jobs at Dr Steevens Hospital, before going to Bristol Royal Infirmary, where he worked for Ashton Miller. In 1952 he did his National Service in the RAMC, mostly in 37th BMH Accra, Ghana, as a junior surgical specialist. In 1955 he returned to marry Rena Stokes, a radiographer from Tipperary, and to become surgical registrar at the Morriston Hospital, Swansea. Having passed the FRCS, he became a senior registrar at the Royal Marsden Hospital, training in cancer surgery under Ronald Raven. In 1964 he was appointed as a consultant surgeon to the Metropolitan, St Leonard's and the Royal London Homoeopathic hospitals, and in due course to the Hackney Hospital and St Bartholomew's (1980) and finally Homerton Hospital (1986). He was an enthusiastic tutor and examiner for the College, ending as chairman of the Court in 1982. He published extensively, mainly on cancer of the breast and thyroid. A keen member of the Territorial Army, he retired with the rank of lieutenant colonel. Among his many other interests were rugby, genealogy, his old college (he was chairman of the Trinity College Dublin Dining Club from 1985 to 1994) and the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries. A colourful, amusing and delightful colleague, he died on 31 August 2005 from carcinoma of the prostate. He had two sons, a daughter and two grandchildren.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000298
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
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First Title value, for Searching Stidolph, Neville Edsell (1911 - 2005)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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/372486372486
Occupation General surgeon Urologist
Details Neville Stidolph was a consultant in urology and general surgery at Whittington Hospital, London. He was born in Mossel Bay, South Africa, on 31 October 1911. His father, Charles Edward Stidolph, was a magistrate. His mother was Florence née Hinwood. He was educated at Grey High School, Port Elizabeth, where he was head boy. In 1929 he was Eastern Province champion in sprinting and hurdling and in 1930 South African champion in the 440 yards hurdles. From the University of Cape Town he won a Rhodes scholarship to Oxford in 1932. There he won the Theodore Williams scholarship in pathology and the Radcliffe prize in pharmacology, and went on to St Mary’s Hospital for his clinical training. On qualifying he was house surgeon in obstetrics and gynaecology at St Mary’s and house surgeon at the Radcliffe Infirmary. In 1938 he became a ship’s doctor and travelled all over the world, but in August 1939 he joined the Royal Air Force, rising to the rank of wing commander. He was senior medical officer at RAF Scampton in 1943 at the time of the Dam Busters raid. Later he served with the ground forces in Burma, and was flown to Bangkok to organise the repatriation of prisoners of war. In 1948 he was appointed consultant in urology and general surgery at the Whittington Hospital, where he created a special senior registrar post for Commonwealth surgeons and set up a structured training course for the FRCS. At the College he was the Penrose May tutor from 1963 to 1968 and a member of the Court of Examiners from 1968 to 1974. A handsome, athletic man, Neville Stidolph had great charm and presence. He married Betty Rhodes in 1941, and had two sons, Chip and Paul. Betty predeceased him in 2004. He died on 15 November 2005.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000299
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Wapnick, Simon (1937 - 2003)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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/372328372328
Occupation Anatomist
Details Simon Wapnick was an anatomist based in New York. He was born on 25 October 1937 in Pretoria, South Africa, the son of Percy Jacob Wapnick and Fanny née Levitt. He was educated at Pretoria Boys’ High School and then went on to the University of Pretoria Medical School. He held house appointments at Pretoria General Hospital and Harari Hospital, in the then Rhodesia. In 1964 he went to London, where he was a locum registrar at St Stephens and King George’s Hospitals, London, and followed the basic science course at the College and the Fellowship course in surgery at St Thomas’s. In 1965 he was a senior house officer at Great Ormond Street. From 1966 to 1969 he worked as a registrar and clinical tutor at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School in Hammersmith. In 1969 he returned to Africa, as a lecturer and senior lecturer at the department of surgery at the Godfrey Huggins School of Medicine, Rhodesia. From 1972 he was a specialist surgeon at the department of surgery, Ichilov Hospital, Tel Aviv, Israel. He then emigrated to the US, where he was a surgeon at Brooklyn Veterans Administration Hospital in New York. He subsequently taught gross anatomy at Ross University Medical School in the Dominican Republic and at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. At the time of his death, Simon was an assistant professor in the department of cell biology and anatomy at New York Medical College. He taught gross anatomy to first year medical students and facilitated a postgraduate gross anatomy course for various residency programmes. He wrote papers on a range of topics, including skeletal abnormalities in Crohn’s disease, diverticular disease, hiatus hernia, and carcinoma of the oesophagus and stomach. He was actively interested in various Jewish organisations in Israel and in Africa. He married Isobelle née Gelfand, the daughter of Michael Gelfand, the author of books on tropical medicine and on the Shona people, in 1962. They had two daughters (Janette and Laura) and a son (Jonathan), and three grandchildren (Chloe, Jordan and Michael Joshua). A keen marathon runner, Simon Wapnick died on 26 May 2003 of an apparent heart attack, while out jogging in Central Park.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000141
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
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First Title value, for Searching Bidwell, Leonard Arthur (1865 - 1912)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

First Title value, for Searching Birks, Melville (1876 - 1924)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2010-03-04 2015-06-12
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/373069373069
Occupation General surgeon Occupational health specialist
Details The following was published in volume one of Plarr's Lives of the Fellows. Was a student of Adelaide University and Hospital, and at the London Hospital, acting at the former as House Physician and House Surgeon. He practised for many years at Petersburg, South Australia, and later became Surgeon Superintendent of the Broken Hill and District Hospital, New South Wales. He died in or before the year 1925. Publications: "Mine Accidents at Broken Hill and District Hospital." - *Med. Jour. Australia*, 1918, i, 507. "Health Conditions at Broken Hill Mines." - *Jour. State Med.*, 1921, xxxix, 121. See below for an amended version of the published obituary: Melville Birks was surgeon superintendent of Broken Hill Hospital from 1913 to 1923 and an authority on industrial diseases. He was born on 30 January 1876, the son of Walter Richard Birks and Jemima Scott Birks. He was educated at state schools and at Way College, and then attended Roseworthy Agricultural College in South Australia. He was awarded a silver medal and his diploma of agriculture in 1896. He went on to study medicine at the University of Adelaide, gaining his medical degree in 1902. He served for a year at Adelaide Hospital as a house surgeon and then went to England, where he spent three years. He gained his FRCS in 1907. While in London he met Miss MacIntyre, daughter of P B MacIntyre of Ross-shire, Scotland, a crofters commissioner, and they married shortly afterwards, on 5 March 1909. He returned to South Australia, where he practised at Peterborough until 1913. While he was in the town he was also involved in civic affairs and served for a time as mayor. He was then appointed surgeon superintendent at Broken Hill. Here he made a study of miners' diseases. He was also a referee under the Workers' Compensation Act; he had a reputation for fairness and was respected by both miners and employers. He worked for long hours in the operating theatre, supported only by nursing staff. After some time at Broken Hill he began to suffer from ill health. In 1918 he was granted leave for a year. He went to Europe and America with his wife and family, and made a study of occupational diseases, visiting factories and hospitals. He attended a Medical Congress in Brussels, where he read a paper on lead poisoning. He returned to Broken Hill in 1920, but in August 1922 his health broke down once again and he was advised to go to the eastern states of Australia. He was in a private Melbourne hospital for 11 months and then in Melbourne General Hospital for a further three months. He returned to his mother's home in Adelaide in December 1923 and died there on 24 April 1924 at the age of 48. He was buried in Payneham Cemetery, Payneham South, South Australia. He was survived by his wife and their children - two sons and a daughter. Sarah Gillam
Resource Identifier RCS: E000886
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-11-30
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000300-E000399
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372487372487
Occupation Consultant in accident and emergency medicine Accident and emergency surgeon
Details David Simpson was a consultant in accident and emergency medicine. He was born in London in 1954 and entered King’s College Hospital for medical training. He had considered a career as an engineer, but changed his mind after early training in this discipline. After gaining his FRCS, he became a surgical registrar at the Westminster Hospital and then settled on a career in accident and emergency medicine. He became an associate member of the British Association of Orthopaedic Surgeons and a member of the British Association for Accident and Emergency Medicine, and his future career seemed assured at a time when the specialty was expanding from the old ‘casualty departments’ to the modern ones capable of dealing with a variety of emergencies. He was very interested and had a great knowledge of ‘Scott of the Antartic’, to whom he was distantly related. On entering the Cambridge/Norwich senior registrar training programme he was described as a likeable and hard working, intelligent trainee, but then he developed health problems which dogged his lifestyle and made it difficult for him to engage in permanent posts. Eventually he went to the Middle East, working mainly in Saudi Arabia, and from thence to New Zealand, where he died suddenly on 14 July 2003. He is survived by Raja, his second wife, and Sue and his children, Duncan and Victoria.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000300
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Bolam, Reginald Frederick (1924 - 2007)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

by John Blandy
Publication Date 2009-06-23
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/372800372800
Occupation General surgeon
Details Reg Bolam was a locum consultant general surgeon. He was born on 3 January 1924 in south London, the first of the three children of Harriet and Frederick Bolam. He grew up in Streatham and won a scholarship to Bec College, was in the top stream, joined several public libraries and borrowed several books from each, every week. Childhood holidays were spent with relatives who had a farm in Lincolnshire, to which his father took the family on his motorbike and sidecar, Reg riding pillion. At the outbreak of war the school was evacuated to Lewes, and Reg was billeted on a farm. There he learned to help with the harvesting, and to shoot rabbits for the pot. He played the piano, sang in the local church choir and played piccolo in the Boys’ Brigade, with whom he went to the Albert Hall. He became a good middle distance runner, and for a time was in the same club as Roger Bannister. He injured his right elbow as a boy, when falling through a trapdoor. This resulted in an ankylosed elbow, but the experience influenced him to become a surgeon, an ambition not encouraged by his headmaster, who thought him too shy and short-sighted. At 16 he had to leave school to help with the family finances, and worked in the Civil Service until he was old enough to volunteer for the Royal Navy. He served for the last three years of the war in Malta as a petty officer radar mechanic. It was there that he met his first wife, Joyce, saving all his tots of rum for the wedding. On demobilisation, he was awarded a grant to complete his education and entered University College Hospital to study medicine, qualifying in 1952. After junior posts he passed the FRCS in 1962 and was appointed consultant surgeon to the Kent and Sussex Hospital, Tunbridge Wells. There he was a really general surgeon. In the sixties he worked as a consultant surgeon in the Middle East, where he made good use of the opportunities to indulge his interest in archaeology. On returning to England he did a series of locum consultant posts, until he retired in his sixties. The long hours worked by junior doctors, and the repeated necessity of moving house every six months or so, put great strain on his marriage to Joyce, who had given him his first son, Roderick. Like so many wartime marriages, it failed. He then married Marie, who gave him his second son, Andrew. They moved to Tonbridge, and fostered a little girl called Anita. Sadly, Marie developed a terminal illness and died in 1994. He then married Susan, by whom he already had a daughter, Polly. One of his many interests was opera: he was a friend of the English National Opera and a keen member of the Tonbridge Music Club. In 2002, he suffered a fall on an escalator coming back from the British Museum, from which he never fully recovered. He died on 28 July 2007 in hospital in Tunbridge Wells, as a result of extensive cerebrovascular disease and epilepsy.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000617
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2009-06-23
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000600-E000699
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372801372801
Occupation Anaesthetist Ophthalmologist
Details John Holford Cook began his career as an ophthalmologist, but later re-trained as an anaesthetist. Born on 16 May 1943, in the middle of the Second World War, he did not meet his father until he was three years old. He studied medicine at the Royal Free Hospital, London, and, following qualification, trained as an ophthalmologist. He later switched to anaesthesia, and ultimately became director of the intensive care unit at Eastbourne. There ‘Cookie’, as he was always known, was an enthusiastic teacher and trainer. He was clinical tutor for his hospital and a college tutor for the Royal College of Anaesthetists. He had many interests outside medicine. He had long been an enthusiastic radio ‘ham’ and built his own equipment and branched out into designing circuits for the radio control of the model boats that were built by his step-father. He mastered machine code for his computers and, when his children took up music, he decided to learn the trombone, which he played in the British Legion Band and the Eastbourne Concert Orchestra, using his computer to make new arrangements for his band. He developed adenocarcinoma of the lung and died on 27 December 2006, leaving his wife Lesley, four children and a grandson.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000618
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Davidson, Colin Mackenzie (1928 - 2008)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

by Sir Barry Jackson
Publication Date 2009-06-23
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/372802372802
Occupation General surgeon
Details Colin Davidson was a general surgeon at Frenchay and Cossham Memorial hospitals. He was born on 11 January 1928 in Glasgow, the son of Norman Davidson, a one-time senior surgeon of the Victoria Infirmary and Mary Scott née Mackenzie, a teacher of classics. He schooled at the Glasgow Academy and Rugby School, before attending Glasgow University for his medical studies. After qualification, he worked with Sir Charles Illingworth at the Western Infirmary and W A Mackie at the Royal Infirmary, Glasgow, before being awarded a McCunn scholarship to visit the Lahey Clinic in Burlington, Massachusetts, where he spent 18 months. On his return to England, he obtained a senior registrar appointment at Bristol Royal Infirmary, working with Robert Milnes Walker. During the tenure of this post he was seconded as senior lecturer to the University of Khartoum, Sudan, where he gained vast operative experience in a wide range of pathology. In 1968 he was appointed consultant general surgeon at Frenchay Hospital, Bristol, where he worked for the rest of his career. He took an active part in local surgical society life, becoming president of the Cossham Medical Society, the South West Surgical Club and the Colston Research Society, Bristol. He was also sometime president of the Moynihan Chirurgical Club. His outside interests included fishing, shooting, golf and photography. He married Robina McMurtrie Macgregor in 1953 and had four daughters and nine grandchildren. He died after a short illness on 30 January 2008.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000619
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

First Title value, for Searching Nohl-Oser, Herman Christian (1916 - 2008)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

by Raymond Hurt
Publication Date 2009-06-23
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/372806372806
Occupation General surgeon
Details Herman Christian Nohl-Oser was a consultant surgeon at Harefield Hospital, where he specialised in pulmonary and oesophageal surgery, with a special interest in paediatric surgery. He was born Herman Christian Nohl (in the 1960s he add the ‘Oser’) in Jena, Germany, in April 1916, the son of Herman Nohl. His father originally intended to study medicine, but, finding anatomy not to his liking, switched to philosophy and in 1920 was appointed to a chair in Göttingen. In 1937 he was dismissed by the Nazis and sent to work in a factory. After the war, he was reinstated as professor and dean of the philosophy faculty. Despite his first name, Chris was considered one quarter Jewish, and in 1934 he went to England with Kurt Hahn, the founder of Gordonstoun School, who had a very great influence on his life and subsequently became a lifelong mentor and personal friend. Chris was a ‘late developer’, but despite this became head boy at Gordonstoun, where he had a classical education. In 1936 he entered St Peter’s Hall (now College) in Oxford to matriculate and then study medicine. He was interned on the Isle of Man for one year, won a prize for the best medical and surgical dissertation, and qualified at Oxford as a doctor in 1944. Because of his German background, he found it difficult to obtain junior hospital posts but nevertheless gained considerable general surgical experience and obtained his FRCS in 1951. Despite this higher qualification, his application for a senior registrar post at the Middlesex Hospital was rejected in favour of a much junior English doctor and, with the encouragement of Sir Thomas Holmes Sellors, whom he had first met in Oxford during the war, he decided to train in thoracic surgery. Junior posts at the London Chest and Brompton hospitals allowed him to study the lymphatic drainage of the lung and the value of scalene node biopsy in the assessment of bronchial carcinoma. He continued this research following his consultant appointment to Harefield Hospital in 1960 and this led to an Oxford DM the same year and to a Hunterian professorship in 1971. When he was appointed to Harefield Hospital open-heart surgery was just beginning and this he undertook with enthusiasm until the appointment of a specialist cardiac surgeon to the hospital in 1967. Thereafter he confined his work to pulmonary and oesophageal surgery, with a special interest in paediatric surgery. He published his research extensively, both in English and European journals, and lectured widely in England and also in Germany. His magnum opus was a textbook on surgery of the lung, published in Germany, printed in English and later translated into German and Spanish, but unfortunately the book was little known in the UK. His obvious erudition and ability were not always recognised by his colleagues. He was a founder member of Pete’s Club, a travelling surgical club which pioneered the informal discussion of mistakes and errors of judgement – the only rule of the club was that no member was allowed to report a case which reflected credit on himself. He was devoted to his surgical career and to his wife Inge, whom he married in the same week that he qualified and who later suffered increasing disability from multiple sclerosis which presented soon after the birth of their child. His only son died tragically after an accident in 1987 and his wife died in 1991. In 1975 Chris had two coronary vein graft operations which were only partially successful in relieving his angina; thereafter a regime of graduated exercise completely relieved his symptoms. He died from a myocardial infarction on 13 June 2008.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000623
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

by T T King
Publication Date 2009-06-23
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000600-E000699
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372807372807
Occupation Neurosurgeon
Details Bryan Jennett, professor of neurosurgery at the University of Glasgow, devised, with colleagues, two key diagnostic tools – the Glasgow Coma Scale, used throughout the world to assess consciousness, and the Glasgow Outcome Scale, used for patients with head injury. His work led to the defining of persistent vegetative state and the establishment of criteria for brain death. He was born on 1 March 1926 in Twickenham, Middlesex, the son of Robert William Jennett, a civil servant, and Jessie née Loudon. His mother’s family had farmed in Lanarkshire, Scotland, though there was a tradition of medicine. His father, an Irish Protestant, worked in the offices of the Royal Irish Constabulary in Dublin, but after his marriage was transferred to the British Civil Service in London, an option offered after the Troubles of 1916 and the establishment of the Irish Free State. At the start of the Second World War, Jennett was evacuated to rural Scotland, and then to Southport, where he attended George V School. He went on to study medicine at Liverpool, qualifying at the top of his year, in 1949, having been president of the British Medical Students’ Association. During his period in Liverpool, he was influenced towards neurosurgery by the lectures of Lord Cohen of Birkenhead on neurology. A neurosurgical house appointment at the Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford, with Sir Hugh Cairns and J B Pennybacker was followed by National Service at the Military Hospital, Wheatley, which confirmed him in a career in neurosurgery. At the suggestion of Walpole Lewin, who was responsible for the care of head injuries at the Radcliffe Infirmary, Jennett undertook a study of the incidence and features of epilepsy after blunt head injuries, work which later resulted in his important monograph on the subject (William Heinemann Books, 1962). From Wheatley and Oxford, he went to Cardiff and, in 1957, was appointed senior lecturer at Manchester, a post he held until 1962. During his period he was a Rockefeller travelling fellow at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), with W Eugene Stern. There he carried out experimental work on the effects of brain compression on tentorial herniation and the pupil, from which came two papers. The experience in UCLA introduced him to experimental work and research, and he considered staying on in the States, but in 1962 he was recruited to a combined academic and NHS appointment at Killearn Hospital in the West of Scotland Neurological Unit, Glasgow. There he was influenced by Sir Charles Illingworth, who had established a tradition of clinical surgical research. He published, in 1964, the first of five editions of *An introduction to neurosurgery* (London, Heinemann Medical), a small textbook in which he showed his skill in exposition. In 1968, he was given a chair of neurosurgery and, two years later, moved to the new Institute of Neurological Sciences at the Southern General Hospital, which he made into an outstanding centre of neurosurgical research and education in the UK. British neurosurgery had not been orientated much towards research, especially the laboratory sort for which Jennett had become enthusiastic after his experience in Los Angeles. In his new appointment, he showed a gift for co-operation and for enlisting accomplished scientists from other disciplines. With Murray Harper, he set up a Medical Research Council group on cerebral circulation, which studied the effects of carotid ligation, raised intracranial pressure, the sympathetic nervous system and the effect of anaesthetic agents on cerebral blood flow in primates and humans. He continued his studies of post traumatic epilepsy and greatly advanced the study of the pathology and outcome of head injuries. Together with Graham Teasdale, his successor in the chair, he devised a method of quantifying a head injury by using simple clinical observations. This became the Glasgow Coma Scale, an essential instrument in grading the severity of a brain injury. He and Michael Bond, who later became professor of psychological medicine at Glasgow, also devised a simple categorisation of the outcome of head injuries. Jennett’s studies with Hume Adams on the pathology of fatal head injuries drew attention to neuropathological evidence that these brains showed ischaemic damage, presumably occurring in the period immediately following the injury and, therefore, due, at least in some cases, to avoidable factors. This offered the opportunity of improving the outcome by attending to ventilation and avoiding hypotension in the early period after injury and controlling, if possible, raised intracranial pressure. Another co-operative effort, this time with Fred Plum of Cornell University, New York, led to the separation of a group of patients following severe head injury in which lack of awareness and of willed movement was associated with cycles of waking and sleeping, which they termed ‘vegetative state’, usually, though not always, permanent. Jennett’s special and characteristic contribution to the management of head injuries was to look at the evidence or collect new evidence, rather than rely on general impressions and past assumptions. If this sometimes seemed slightly cold-blooded, it was very successful in his hands and greatly changed the position of this important if somewhat depressing branch of trauma surgery. Management now depended on rational knowledge, rather than hopeful expectancy. In 1981 he published, with Graham Teasdale, *Management of head injuries* (Philadelphia, F A Davis Co. 1981), which incorporated these studies. Comparison of this book with earlier publications on the same subject shows how greatly the study of head injuries had advanced in a decade. Jennett’s later work inclined towards more general ethical, legal or administrative problems. When the development of heart transplantation created a need for organs to be taken from patients whose heart and circulation were still functioning, there developed a desire to redefine the criteria for death. Artificial ventilation of patients with very severe brain injuries produced a group of patients who appeared eventually to have no cerebral activity or cerebral circulation, if they were investigated, and who would die if ventilation were to be stopped, since they could not breathe spontaneously. Their circulation, however, continued as the heart remained beating. Such patients, at the endpoint of an overwhelming injury, provided an indispensable source of material for heart transplants. After much discussion, criteria were laid down which pronounced them to be, in effect, dead and therefore available as organ donors. This translation of a prognosis into a ‘state’ was not accepted by everyone in the profession and there was some unease and agitation about it. Jennett successfully brought his skill in laying out an argument, and in public debate, to bear on the problem. A somewhat similar difficulty arose over patients in the permanent ‘vegetative state’ he had described. They could live for many years in this state, fed by tube but showing no signs of higher mental functions, often to the distress of their relatives. The question arose whether their lives could be terminated by ceasing tube feeding. In the end, a judgement of the House of Lords decided it could. Jennett wrote an extensive study *The vegetative state: medical facts, ethical and legal dilemmas* (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2002), which examined all aspect of this difficult problem. The increasing expense of highly complex medical treatment, its effectiveness and its value for money was the subject of his Rock Carling fellowship and monograph (*High technology medicine: benefits and burdens*, London, The Nuffield Provincial Hospitals Trust, 1984) in which, in his usual clear and even-handed way, he examined all aspects of the subject, admitting its failings, which he tended to attribute to misapplication by doctors, but generally defending it. His intellectual and organisational gifts made him sought-after as an administrator. He was on many committees in the UK, especially those concerned with head injuries, epilepsy, criteria of brain death and allocation of resources. He was dean of the faculty of medicine of Glasgow University from 1981 to 1986, visiting professor to universities in the USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, a corresponding member of the American Neurological Association and the American Association of Neurological Surgeons, an honorary member of the Society of Neurological Surgeons in America and the stroke council of the American Heart Association. He was president of the International Society for Technology Assessment in Health Care. Jennett was a small man with great energy. He had a sharp tongue, pen and wit, and could be harshly dismissive of people of whom he had little opinion, which sometimes produced enemies. He married Sheila Pope, a fellow medical student at Liverpool, who became a respiratory physiologist at Glasgow. There were three sons of the marriage and one daughter. He and his wife pursued outdoor activities and he was interested in flora and fauna. He was a keen sailor, owned a series of yachts and did much cruising around the coast of Scotland and England. Though tone deaf, he was a sponsor of musical activities. His daughter became a professional cellist. Jennett died on 26 January 2008, aged 81, from the effects of multiple myeloma.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000624
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Osborne, David Robert (1943 - 2008)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2009-07-10 2015-09-14
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000600-E000699
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372808372808
Occupation General surgeon Urological surgeon Urologist
Details David Osborne was a consultant surgeon who established the first urological department in Basildon. He was born in Weston-super-Mare on 12 December 1943, the son of Alan John Osborne, a leading aircraftman, and his wife, Tilly Fleming née Straiton. He was educated at Hazelcroft Primary School and then Weston-super-Mare Grammar School. He studied medicine at the Royal Free Hospital Medical School from 1963 to 1968, winning the Ruth Bowden anatomy prize and the George Quist surgery prize, and playing in the first XV rugby team. After qualifying, he was a house officer at Hampstead General Hospital and then at St Andrew's Hospital. In 1970 he was a casualty officer at the Royal Free. He then held senior house officer posts at Luton and Dunstable, and at Frenchay and Southmeads hospitals, Bristol. He was then a registrar in general surgery at Cheltenham and Gloucester. From 1976 to 1983 he was a lecturer in surgery at the Royal Free Hospital. In 1983 he was appointed as a consultant general surgeon with an interest in urology to Basildon and Thurrock hospitals. In 1985 he became a consultant surgeon to South Ockendon Hospital and in 1991 became head of the department of urology with full-time responsibility for urology services. He established a specialist urology department with three surgeons, each with a subspecialty interest. He was interested in reading, gardening, walking and painting, and loved fine wines. In 1969 he married Brenda Mary Cornforth, a general practitioner and a fellow student at the Royal Free, who was the daughter of Sir J W Cornforth FRS KBE. They had one son, Andrew John (a GP in New Zealand), and a daughter, Catherine Jane (a marketing manager). He died on 17 October 2008. His love of surgery was so great that he continued seeing patients and operating until three weeks before he died.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000625
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

by Sir Barry Jackson
Publication Date 2009-07-10 2010-12-09
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000600-E000699
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372809372809
Occupation Urological surgeon Urologist
Details Ken Shuttleworth helped establish the urology department at St Thomas' Hospital, London. He was born on 30 April 1922 in Bradford to Frederick and Edith Shuttleworth. His father won a scholarship to Oxford from Bradford Grammar School to read mathematics: his mother was at Girton College, Cambridge. His father won the Military Cross in 1918 for successfully evacuating his gun crew despite a severe wound to his leg. After the war, he became a chartered accountant at Deloitte's, despite his disability, but for a long time it was Ken's mother who kept the family afloat by teaching mathematics at Queen's College in Harley Street. Ken was educated at Watford Grammar School. Despite some early experience in hospital, where he had fainted at the sight of blood every day for a fortnight, he entered St Thomas' Hospital to study medicine in 1939. He qualified in 1944 and at once joined the RAMC, serving in Italy, Egypt and Palestine, an experience which included taking out the appendix of the son of a sheikh, who rewarded him with a feast including the traditional sheep's eyes. On demobilisation, he returned to St Thomas', at first at Midhurst, where he married Phillippa Hartley, and then as a surgical registrar in Lambeth. He was put in charge of an audit of the results of hernia repairs in a large number of policemen, mostly using the nylon darn method, which he published in 1962. He was an exchange fellow at McGill University at the Royal Victoria Hospital, Montreal, where he carried out research into intravenous fat therapy and the metabolism of glyceride clearance under Gavin Miller, and took the opportunity to tour America and visit Johns Hopkins and the Mayo Clinic. On his return he was appointed to the staff of St Thomas' and awarded a Hunterian Professorship in the College in 1962. From the days of Cheselden, the urological tradition at St Thomas' had always been a strong one, and at this time was being upheld by R H O B Robinson and Walter 'Gaffer' Mimpriss, who had taken the trouble to visit the United States to learn the technique of transurethral resection with the cold punch from Gershom Thompson at the Mayo Clinic. Both Robinson and Mimpriss continued with general surgery until they retired in 1962 and 1970 respectively. Shuttleworth replaced Mimpriss as a general surgeon, but at once realised the necessity of setting up a specialist department of urology, entirely separate from that of general surgery. Such specialisation in London was at that time exceptional, and he faced opposition from some colleagues who were keen for the overlap between urology and general surgery to continue. But Shuttleworth stuck to his guns and eventually won the day. He realised too that a specialist department must be seen to be carrying out research if it was to be credible, and if its trainees were to gain higher degrees in surgery. At this time at St Thomas' Brian Creamer was breaking new ground with his measurements of the pressure changes in the oesophagus, and this stimulated Shuttleworth to do the same thing in the urinary tract, long before urodynamics had been dreamed of. He sent several of his brighter protégés to San Francisco to learn the latest techniques from Frank Hinman Jr. He extended these studies to the upper urinary tract in the physiology of the ureter and hydronephrosis. The theoretical advantage of combining of hyperbaric oxygen with external beam irradiation was then being developed at St Thomas', and Shuttleworth was keen to offer its advantages to men with carcinoma of the prostate, among whom were some very distinguished people. He was president of the British Association of Urological Surgeons (BAUS) from 1982 to 1984, at a time when many in the surgical subspecialties were urging the surgical Royal Colleges to set up a higher surgical qualification which would indicate when a candidate had been fully trained in his or her specialty. The Edinburgh College had led the way by setting up specialist assessments in neurosurgery and orthopaedics, and approached Ken on the feasibility of a similar examination in urology. Representatives from BAUS visited Edinburgh to observe the assessment in orthopaedics, which impressed and persuaded them of the need for a comparable assessment in urology. BAUS were persuaded to support this concept, but not without some difficulty and only on condition that it would be set up jointly by all four surgical Royal Colleges. The invention by Dornier of the method of extracorporeal shock wave destruction of urinary stones came at a time when the NHS budget was under unusual strain and the Department of Health asked for bids from different London hospitals. The competition was intense, but Shuttleworth put forward a scheme which won the prize, and for the next decade large numbers of renal calculi were referred to St Thomas' for the new treatment. The results of the first thousand cases were published in the *British Journal of Urology* [1986 Dec; 58(6):573-7]. His publications included his Hunterian Lecture [*Ann Roy Coll Surg Eng* 1963; 32:164-179] and a chapter on urological surgery for De Wardener's textbook, *The Kidney*. In committee he was often dogmatic and, as a consequence, nearly always got his way, although not when he was outvoted in the appointment of the first female surgical registrar! (In his view a surgical career was for men.) Because of his strong personality and strong views he had many detractors in the hospital, and strained relationships were also apparent in relation to his somewhat turbulent private life. He was a lover of sunshine and of Italy, owning a villa in Tuscany, where he retreated each summer and produced his own wine. He had three marriages, all of which failed, and from each of which there were children. This was unusual in the then conformist establishment of St Thomas' and some of his more puritanical colleagues were distinctly disconcerted. He also attracted a circle of devoted supporters. In retirement he moved permanently to his Tuscan farmhouse, where he was happy growing his own vegetables, harvesting his hay field, picking his own grapes and making wine, and entertaining friends who visited him from England. Left alone after the death of his partner Pamela, he continued to be a generous host and kept in touch with several of his family. A hip replacement in London did not slow him up and it was only when he suffered progressive amnesia that his family brought him back to England to a nursing home. He was then diagnosed with prostate cancer from which he eventually died on 8 March 2006. His supporters felt that it was sad there was no memorial service for him at St Thomas', as was customary for a departed senior member of the consultant staff.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000626
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Bradley, Richard Holland (1820 - 1897)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

First Title value, for Searching Bradley, Samuel Messenger (1841 - 1880)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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/373133373133
Occupation General surgeon
Details Educated at Manchester and the Manchester Infirmary; soon after he was qualified he served as Resident House Physician. He then had a varied experience as locum tenens for six months of a general practice in Bowness, Windermere, and next for twelve months he made several voyages between Liverpool and New York in the Cunard Company’s service. He began general practice at Longsight, which involved him in a warm controversy with the Manchester Board of Guardians over the treatment of the sick. At an inquiry by the Poor Law Board he produced such strong evidence as to justify his statements, and his legal expenses were paid by a public subscription. For a time he acted as Surgeon to the Ancoats and Ardwick Dispensary and lectured on physiology at Stonyhurst College, for he was a successful and popular lecturer on natural history subjects, and a brilliant conversationalist. He published the first of numerous books, a *Manual of Comparative Anatomy and Physiology*, in 1869, of which a third edition appeared in 1875. Having qualified as FRCS in 1869, he was appointed Assistant Surgeon to the Manchester Infirmary and Lecturer on Anatomy at Owens College; later he lectured on practical surgery, and in 1879 became Surgeon to the infirmary. In 1870 he joined Walter Whitehead and edited the *Manchester Medical and Surgical Reports*, later amalgamated with the *Liverpool Reports*. He wrote much in a popular style on the “Shape of English Skulls”, “On Controversial Aspects of Syphilis”, “On the Relationship of Anatomy to the Fine Arts”. Besides he was so skilful a painter as to be elected an honorary member of the Manchester Limners’ Club and exhibited pictures. He was also a member of the Literary Club and a composer of casual verses. He had striking clear-cut features, a slightly aquiline nose, high forehead, and massive jaw; he was a good linguist and possessed of musical talents. His contributions to surgery appear to have been limited to the “Treatment of Hydrocele” (*Brit. Med. Jour.*, 1872), and *Injuries and Diseases of the Lymphatic System*, 1879. His health not being good he went to Ramsgate for rest, where after getting wet he was seized with acute pleurisy and pericarditis, from which he died on May 27th, 1880, and was buried at Ramsgate. Publications: *Retrospect of Advance of Modern Medicine: an Introductory Address, Manchester Royal School of Medicine*, 8vo, Manchester, 1869. “The Unity of the Syphilitic Virus.” – *Med. Press and Circ.*, 1871, ii, 269. *Notes on Syphilis, with an Appendix on the Unity of the Syphilitic Poison*, 8vo, London, 1872. “A New Method of Treating Hydrocele.” – *Brit. Med. Jour.*, 1872, i, 508. *Manual of Comparative Anatomy and Physiology*, 8vo, 1st ed., 1869; 3rd. ed., 1875. “Moral Responsibility,” 8vo, Lewes, n.d.; reprinted from *Jour. Ment. Sci.*, 1875-6, xxi, 251. *A Sketch of the Rise and Progress of the Art of Surgery: a Lecture*, 8vo, Manchester, 1876. *Injuries and Diseases of the Lymphatic System*, 8vo, London, 1879. “The Evolution of Disease.” – *Brit. Med. Jour.*, 1871 ii, 19. *The Collateral Statistics of English Surgery in Public Medical Charities for* 1870 (with Walter Whitehead), 8vo, 1871. “Description of the Brain of an Idiot.” – *Jour. Anal. and Physiol.*, 1872, vi, 65. *The Relationship of Anatomy to the Fine Arts*. A Lecture delivered in the Royal Institution, Manchester, 8vo, Manchester and London, 1880, etc. *A List of S. M. Bradley’s Published Writings* (1863-1876), was issued from the press without date. Bradley was Editor, in conjunction with Walter Whitehead, of the *Manchester Medical and Surgical Reports* in 1870-1871, and remained as an Editor for some time after the amalgamation of the publication with a similar one at Liverpool, when it became the *Liverpool and Manchester Medical and Surgical Reports*. He contributed several papers to these *Reports*, including one on the “Shape of English Skulls”, his object being to show that the existing classification of crania was no longer accurate. With the same object in view he also wrote on Australian crania (1871-1872). His paper on the shape of English skulls was based upon his measurements of the heads of male prisoners in the Manchester Borough Gaol, and he concluded that the skull is greatly modified by civilization.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000950
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Bradley, William Henry (1807 - 1881)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

First Title value, for Searching Bradshaw, William Wood (1801 - 1866)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

First Title value, for Searching Brady, George Fraser (1820 - 1877)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

First Title value, for Searching Braine, Francis Woodhouse (1837 - 1907)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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/373137373137
Occupation General surgeon
Details Son of James William Braine (qv), a medical man in large practice; born at St James’s Square, London, on December 28th, 1837, the eldest of eleven children. He entered St George’s Hospital in 1854, and was successively House Surgeon, Surgical Registrar, and Demonstrator of Anatomy. He acted as private assistant to George Pollock (qv), Surgeon to the hospital, and thus gained experience in the administration of chloroform. Henry Potter, Chloroformist to St George’s Hospital, gave up his position unexpectedly owing to the death of a patient to whom he was giving the anaesthetic. The post was offered to Braine, who until then was educating himself for a post on the surgical staff of the hospital, and was Resident Medical Officer at the Children’s Hospital, Great Ormond Street. The offer was accepted with some reluctance. Braine took Potter’s house in Maddox Street, and became one of the early specialists in the administration of anaesthetics. He soon attained a European reputation. For twenty-six years, from 1868-1894, he was anaesthetist to the Dental Hospital in London, where he was appointed a Vice-President on his resignation of office. During this period Braine was the first to adopt in England the use of nitrous oxide gas for the production of anaesthesia. From 1873-1890 he was Chloroformist and Lecturer on Anaesthetics at Charing Cross Hospital, where his lectures were the first systematic course on the subject in this country. He was also Anaesthetist to St Peter’s Hospital for Stone, acting for sixteen years and retiring with the rank of Consulting Anaesthetist. He was one of the founders and the first President (1893-1895) of the Society of Anaesthetists, and was Hon Secretary of the Medical Society of London when it moved from George Street, Hanover Square, to Chandos Street, Cavendish Square, in 1871. For his services the Society awarded him a silver medal in 1875 and made him a Vice-President. He was twice married. He died on October 28th, 1907, and was buried at Harrow. Braine was an adept boxer, whip, and rider to hounds, his love of sport being an inheritance from his grandfather, who is described as a wealthy gentleman farmer living in Oxfordshire. In his younger days he took part in swimming matches under the assumed name of ‘Frank Stanley’. He was also devoted to games of skill. For many years he acted as Hon Secretary of the Fellows of the College of Surgeons’ dinner, which was held on the date of the Election to the Council, and by his social qualities and administrative ability did much to make the gathering successful. He held high rank as a freemason, and was appointed in 1901 to the acting rank of Senior Grand Deacon in the Craft, and Assistant Grand Sojourner in the Royal Arch. His life synchronized with the rise and development of the art of anaesthesia from experimental beginnings. He was one of the great practical pioneers, and lived to see it established on a firm scientific basis. Nitrous oxide could not be brought in cylinders when Braine began to practise. It had to be made at home and conveyed to the patient in a large bag from which the gas leaked, as often as not, until it frequently happened that hardly enough would be left to produce anaesthesia. It was so often impure that to the last day of his practice Braine always satisfied himself by inhaling a few whiffs before he gave it to the patient. He was greatly in favour of chloroform at the beginning of his career, but soon became an advocate for the use of ether, in the administration of which he was very expert. He always used the Ormsby inhaler, and was a firm believer in rapid induction, giving nitrous oxide first to full narcosis and then changing to ether, using separate inhalers. He very rarely used mixtures containing chloroform in later life. Publications:— Braine’s contributions on anaesthetics are to be found in *Brit. Dent. Jour.* and *Brit. Med. Jour.* for 1869-1871 and in *Lancet* for 1872, ii, 782.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000954
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Braine, James William (1796 - 1870)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

First Title value, for Searching Braithwaite, Francis (1804 - 1863)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

First Title value, for Searching Bratton, James (1813 - 1889)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

First Title value, for Searching Brewer, Jehoida (1801 - 1876)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

First Title value, for Searching Bridge, Alexander (1814 - 1873)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

First Title value, for Searching Bridge, Stephen Franklin (1790 - 1877)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

First Title value, for Searching Brietzcke, Henry (1841 - 1879)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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/373148373148
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born in London in 1841, the son of E J Brietzcke, formerly of the Admiralty. He entered as a student at Guy’s Hospital in October, 1860. A severe attack of rheumatism towards the end of his time at the hospital, followed by cardiac trouble, caused him to become Surgeon to one of the Hudson’s Bay Company’s ships. Sailing on June 11th, 1864, the vessel was wrecked near its destination. Brietzcke endured many privations and went through considerable perils, but returned to England with improved health, though during the remainder of his life he remained somewhat of an invalid. He joined the Naval Medical Service, and was on the West Coast of Africa for one year. He then became House Surgeon to the Sheffield Public Hospital and Dispensary, retained this post for three years, and finally entered upon general practice in Derby in 1869. From this, poor health and partnership troubles compelled his retirement in 1871. After a time he obtained the appointment of Medical Officer to the Fulham Convict Prison, and in 1872 was transferred to the post of Assistant Surgeon to the Parkhurst Prison, Isle of Wight. Thence he was moved successively to Portland, Portsea, and Millbank, being appointed Senior Medical Officer to Portsea in October, 1876. He married in 1874, and when he died at Portsea he left a widow and two young children. He was buried on March 11th, the prison officials attending the funeral. Despite his wretched health Brietzcke was a hard worker and a keen reformer. It was chiefly as an indefatigable officer of the medical convict service that he was best and most widely known and appreciated. Being of a warm, generous, sympathetic temperament, thoroughly unselfish, hating and fighting abuses of all kinds, gifted with far more than ordinary talent for appreciating the humorous in all matters, his company and correspondence were highly prized by his friends. Amongst the many abuses against which he vehemently protested was that which made the medical officers in the convict service hold an inferior position, both in regard to the large amount of work expected of them and the inadequacy of their pay, when contrasted with the more favoured position occupied by other officers of the service having unskilled work to perform. Brietzcke himself once wrote to a friend: “My great difficulty appears to be how to detect the malingerer. I have always found it difficult enough to make a correct diagnosis in any disease when the symptoms are at all obscure, but it seems ten times more so when you know that nearly every assertion your patient makes is false. And most of these men employ their solitary hours (which are not a few) in endeavouring to discover means for deceiving the doctor.” Publications: “Caries of First Lumbar Vertebra; Inflammation of the Membranes of the Cord extending to the Brain; Death by Coma.” – *Lancet*, 1872, ii, 668. “A Case of Aneurysm of the Arch of the Aorta, in which Death occurred from Rupture into the Pericardium.” – *Ibid.*, 1875, ii, 730. Extensive researches on urea in relation to muscular force were embodied by him in a paper in the *Brit. and For. Med.-Chir. Rev.*, 1877, lx, 190.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000965
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Brigham, William ( - 1864)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

First Title value, for Searching Briscoe, John (1820 - 1908)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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/373150373150
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born in Montgomeryshire and was of Welsh extraction. He was apprenticed to Frederick Wood (qv), the Surgeon Apothecary at St Bartholomew’s Hospital, and was one of the earliest pupils of James Paget (qv), whose teaching made a lasting impression upon him. In 1845 he was elected House Surgeon Apothecary at the Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford, a position he held until 1857. It is possible that his wish to come to Oxford may have been due to the fact that the Rev Thomas Briscoe, of Jesus College, a benefactor to the Infirmary in 1856, was probably a kinsman. His appointment was marked by considerable changes for the better in the organization of the charity. After twelve years’ service as a resident officer he was appointed, in 1857, to the post of Surgeon to HM Prison at Oxford, when he commenced to practise privately in the city. In 1858 he inherited a property in Montgomeryshire near Shrewsbury which rendered him independent of his profession. His interest in the Radcliffe Infirmary continued unabated, and in 1858 he was co-opted to the weekly board and became a member of a sub-committee to consider the accommodation for out-patients. He was about the same time appointed Surgeon to the Oxford Militia. Briscoe was elected Surgeon to the Infirmary at a special General Court held on April 29th, 1865, on the retirement of James T Hester (qv), and he retained the office until 1878. As he lived close to the hospital, he did gratuitously a large share of the hospital and private practice for his colleagues, both surgical and general, in Oxford from 1869-1872, performing at the infirmary all operations upon the eye as well as those of general surgery. On his retirement from the active staff of the hospital he practically gave up practice, but continued to go to the infirmary for at least two evenings a week, and used to attend the Tuesday Clinics given by Sir William Osler. He lived at 5 Broad Street, and died unmarried on September 28th, 1908, being buried in St Sepulchre’s Cemetery. By his will he left the whole of his fortune, amounting to £62,799, to the Radcliffe Infirmary. The bequest led the way to a complete rebuilding of the out-patient department, with accommodation for pathological, X-ray, and electro-therapeutical services, together with a lecture-room, library, sleeping accommodation for some of the staff, and a new dispensary and waiting-room. The building was formally opened by the Chancellor of the University, Lord Curzon of Kedleston, on November 26th, 1913. Briscoe was a careful but not a brilliant surgeon, eminently practical as a diagnostician. He took great care of his patients, but, having no special incentive to work and no special standard to maintain, he failed to improve in surgery as he grew older, and his wards retained the characteristic surgical odours long after they had vanished elsewhere. In appearance he was well set up, short, sturdy, and of huge chest capacity. He numbered among his colleagues Sir Henry Acland, Dr Henry Tuckwell, Dr Edward B Gray, Edward L Hussey (qv), Frederick Symonds (qv), and Alfred Winkfield (qv). His great friend was Mr Justice Wright, whom he had seen through a severe illness when he was a Balliol undergraduate, and there were periodical dinners or visits in London, at Oriel College, and in Hampshire. The friendship lasted till the judge died. Briscoe himself gave delightful little dinner-parties at his house in Broad Street, which were attended by Washbourne West, Bursar of Lincoln, John Martin, the oldest practitioner in Oxford, Harry Mallam, Randall, and Winkfield. He was a good swimmer in his early days, a great walker, and a good shot.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000967
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Brittain, Thomas (1810 - 1881)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

First Title value, for Searching Broadbent, Edward Farr (1814 - 1877)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2010-05-13 2013-08-07
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/373152373152
Occupation General surgeon
Details Educated at King's College and at St Bartholomew's Hospital, where he was House Surgeon. After qualifying he was elected House Surgeon to the Lincoln County Hospital on December 1st, 1838, and held the post for four years, after which he became partner with Messrs Hewson and Brook, and practised at East Gate, Lincoln. At the time of his death he was Surgeon to the Lincoln Union House, the County Hospital, and County Gaol, Public Vaccinator to the Lincoln Union, Surgeon to the Lincoln Lunatic Hospital, Hon Secretary to the Lincolnshire Medical Benevolent Society, Assistant Surgeon to the Royal North Lincolnshire Militia, and Certifying Factory Surgeon. He represented the Upper Ward in the Town Council for some years. His death occurred at his residence, East Gate, on August 5th, 1877.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000969
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Broadbent, Richard (1795 - 1868)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

First Title value, for Searching Broadhurst, John (1818 - 1888)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

First Title value, for Searching Brodhurst, Bernard Edward (1822 - 1900)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2010-05-13
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000900-E000999
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373155373155
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born at the Friary, Newark, on February 4th, 1822, and in 1840 was articled at the Royal College of Surgeons to John Goldwyer Andrews (qv), the Senior Surgeon of the London Hospital. After qualifying he was appointed House Surgeon, and after serving a year went to Paris, where he attended the hospitals and made the acquaintance of Maisonneuve, whose private surgical operations he attended. He then went to Vienna and studied ophthalmic surgery with Jaeger and Rosas, and pathological anatomy with Rokitansky. In the large Viennese school, with its 4000 beds, he studied for twelve months. Prague was next visited by him, then Berlin. He afterwards turned south and visited the schools of Pavia, Pisa, and Florence. He arrived in Rome at the end of 1848, or more likely early in 1849, in company with Arthur Hugh Clough (1819-1861), the poet, who during his stay there wrote his “Amours de Voyage”. Garibaldi at this time occupied the city with his troops, and on April 30th, 1849, 5000 French under Oudinot advanced against it. The French general expected to enter Rome without firing a shot; he brought no cannon with him, and his men carried unloaded rifles, Garibaldi, who had planted guns on the French road of approach outside the city, repulsed the invaders with great loss, and took 300 prisoners. An ambuscade was formed in the gardens of the Vatican, where for a short time the fight was very bloody, and many students and other young men of the Roman States were slain. About thirty of the prisoners who were brought within the walls were badly wounded. They were conveyed to the Hospital della Spirito Santo. The beds which they occupied were arranged along one side of the ward, whilst their enemies, the wounded Italians, were placed along the opposite side. After this exploit the French retreated to Palo, there to await reinforcements. The French prisoners had not sufficient faith in their victors to trust their bodies to the Italian surgeons, and in consequence requested that they might be attended by any foreigner who chanced to be in Rome. The triumvirs, of whom Mazzini was chief, made this request known to the English then residing there, and added their own desire that they should undertake the duty. This was agreed to. But after the event of April 30th strangers were anxious to get away, and departed as fast as they could; so that in a short time only a few were left. Brodhurst agreed to remain with a non-medical friend to see the end of the matter, and during the greater part of the siege, which continued until June 30th, they were, with the exception of a few artists and three or four other English residents, the only English remaining in Rome. Thus it devolved upon Brodhurst to superintend the treatment of the wounded. When it is mentioned that on the side of the French 5000 men were slain, wounded, or prostrated by malaria, it will at once be seen that the siege of Rome afforded a good opportunity for observations in military surgery. The invading army consisted of 45,000 men. On leaving Rome Brodhurst was presented with the cross of the Legion of Honour by the Commander-in-Chief of the French troops, Marshal Baraquay d’Hilliers. Lord Palmerston is said to have offered him a baronetcy for his services. Returning to London, he was elected in 1852 a Surgeon on the staff of the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital, and in 1862 was elected Assistant Surgeon at St George’s Hospital. In 1869 he intimated his inability, owing to pressure of private practice, to continue to devote so much time to hospital work, and he was then elected Surgeon with Orthopaedic Wards and held this post till 1874. He was Surgeon to the Orthopaedic Hospital at the time of his death. He was also for a time Lecturer on Orthopaedic Surgery at St George’s, and was on the staff of the Royal Hospital for Incurables, and Consulting Surgeon of the Belgrave Hospital for Children. For many years he had the chief orthopaedic practice in England, and he roused some jealousy in the profession by what were then thought to be unduly high fees for his operations. He was well known abroad, and was an Associate of the Academy of Sciences of Rome, and Corresponding Member of the Medical Societies of Lyons, Odessa, and Rome, of the Chirurgical Society of Paris, and of the American Orthopaedic Association. His London address was first at 14 Brook Street, Grosvenor Square, then at 20 Grosvenor Street for many years, and finally at 21 Portland Place, W. He died on January 30th, 1900. Publications:- Brodhurst’s extensive bibliography includes: *Of the Crystalline Lens and Cataract*, 8vo, 2 plates, London, 1850. *On Lateral Curvature of the Spine, its Pathology and Treatment*, 8vo, London, 1855; 2nd ed., 1864. “*On the Nature and Treatment of Club-foot and Analogous Distortions involving the Tibio-tarsal Articulation*, 8vo, London, 1856. “On the Restoration of Motion by Forcible Extension and Rupture of the Uniting Medium of Partially Anchylosed Surfaces,” 8vo, London, 1858; reprinted from *Med. Times and Gaz*. *The Deformities of the Human Body: a System of Orthopoedic Surgery*, 8vo, illustrated, London, 1871. *Lectures on Orthopoedic Surgery delivered at St George’s Hospital*, 8vo, illustrated, London, 1876. *On Curvatures and Disease of the Spine*, 8vo, illustrated, London, 1888 (4 editions). *On the Nature and Treatment of Talipes Equinovarus or Club-foot*, 8vo, London, 1893. “On Congenital Talipes Equinovarus, with Observations on Tarsectomy,” 8vo, London, 1894; reprinted from *Prov. Med. Jour*. *Practical Observations on the Diseases of the Joints involving Anchylosis, and on the Treatment for the Restoration of Motion*, 8vo, London, 1861; 4th ed., 1881. “Gonorrhoeal Rheumatism” in Reynold’s *System*, i, 1866. “Congenital Dislocation and Intra-uterine Fracture” in Holmes’s *Surgery*, iv, 1864, 1871, and 1883. *Observations on Congenital Dislocation of the Hip*, 8vo, London, 1896 (3 editions). Many contributions to English and foreign medical journals. In a paper read before the Royal Medico-Chirurgical Society he advocated the exhibition of mercury and arsenic in cases of hydrophobia. His paper on ankylosis read before the same Society (*Trans. Med.-Chin Soc.*, 1857, xl, 125) gave rise to a very lively discussion, Mr Coulson contending that the cases were not correctly reported, and that such results were impossible. Fortunately, however, a young officer who had been operated on was present – he of whom it had been said by Sir Benjamin Brodie that “he must take his stiff hip with him to the grave!” Coulson examined him, and then withdrew his statement in complimentary terms. But the patient made them all laugh by expressing his surprise, not only that Sir Benjamin should have reported of him as he did, but that Coulson should have made such observations, seeing that he had as good a hip-joint as ever he had in his life.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000972
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Brodie, William Haig (1857 - 1910)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

First Title value, for Searching Brookes, Andrew Good (1814 - 1894)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

First Title value, for Searching Brookes, William Penny (1809 - 1895)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

First Title value, for Searching Brookes, William Philpot (1819 - 1865)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

First Title value, for Searching Brookhouse, Joseph Orpe (1835 - 1905)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

First Title value, for Searching Broughton, Francis (1817 - 1882)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

First Title value, for Searching Brown, Arthur Thomas F. (1865 - 1893)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

First Title value, for Searching Brown, Frederick James (1824 - 1879)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

First Title value, for Searching Brown, George (1801 - 1870)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-11-30 2009-05-07
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000300-E000399
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372488372488
Occupation ENT surgeon
Details Ian Robin was a distinguished London ear, nose and throat consultant. He was born at Woodford Green, Essex, on 22 May 1909, the son of Arthur Robin, a Scottish general practitioner, and Elizabeth Parker née Arnold, his American mother. He was educated at Merchiston Castle School, in Edinburgh, and at Clare College, Cambridge, where he achieved a half blue in cross country running (once getting lost in the fog) and gained a senior science scholarship to Guy’s Hospital, London. There he won the Treasurer’s gold medal in both clinical surgery and clinical medicine, the Charles Oldman prize in ophthalmology and the Arthur Durham travelling scholarship. At Guy’s he returned to rugby, in which sport he had won a school cap at Merchiston, and subsequently captained the hospital’s first XV. He also played regularly for the United Hospitals and the Eastern Counties. After graduating in 1933 he became house physician to Sir Arthur Hirst and Sir John Conybere and house surgeon to Sir Heneage Ogilive and Sir Russell Brock at Guy's and house surgeon to Sir Lancelot Barrington-Ward at the Royal Northern Hospital, during which time he passed the FRCS. He was so highly thought of that in 1937 he was invited back to the Royal Northern to become a part-time ENT consultant whilst still working as a senior ENT registrar and chief clinical assistant at Guy's Hospital, where he was much influenced by W M Mollison, T B Layton and R J Cann. In the same year he started his private practice, which he continued until 1994. In 1947 Ian Robin was appointed consultant ENT surgeon to St Mary's Hospital, Paddington. He served both St Mary's and the Royal Northern until his retirement in 1974. At the onset of the Second World War Ian was invalided out of the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve because of his left total deafness (the result of mastoid surgery as a child) and served with the EMS Sector 3 London Area seconded to the Royal Chest Hospital. He put his disability to good use and, always a practical optimist, he used to remark that ‘if he turned in bed onto his good ear he did not hear the guns and doodle bugs.’ Although he, together with J Golligher, in 1952 performed the first colon transplant in the treatment of post cricoid cancer, he was principally an otologist and was deeply concerned about deaf people and those who cared for them. A member of the medical and scientific committee and one-time vice chairman of the Royal National Institute of the Deaf (from 1954 to 1958) he was also, in 1953, a founder member of the Deaf Children's Society (later the National Deaf Children's Society) and, through the British Association of Otolarynoglogists, of which he became president in 1972, he fought hard for improved recognition and pay of audiological technicians and was the first chairman of the Hearing Aid Technicians Society. Determined to relieve children of the burden of body-worn hearing aids, Ian tried to convince the then Secretary of State for Health (Barbara Castle) that the newly available post-aural aids should be issued to children. In the Royal Society of Medicine Ian Robin was vice-president of the section of otology (from 1966 to 1969) and president of the section of laryngology (from 1967 to 1968), where his presidential address on ‘snoring’ raised much public interest. He gave the Yearsley lecture on ‘the handicap of deafness’ in 1967 and the Jobson Horne lecture in 1969. He jointly wrote *A synopsis of otorhinolarynoglogy* (John Wright, Bristol, 1957), and chapters on deafness in the second and third editions of *Diseases of the ear, nose and throat*. His last article, entitled ‘Personal experience of deafness’ was published in ENT News in 2003. Always popular with his colleagues and loved by his patients, he treated his juniors with great friendliness, regarding them as equals. He also took an active part in many student activities at St Mary’s Hospital. In his long retirement Ian Robin was able to continue his hobbies of golf, bowls, gardening, furniture restoration and painting, where he was an active exhibiting member of the Medical Art Society. In later retirement he progressively lost his sight and remaining hearing, but this did not stop him at the age of 90 becoming singles champion of Rutland Blind Bowls Club or completing a computer course to learn a voice activated programme. His first wife Shelagh (née Croft), whom he married in 1939, died suddenly in 1978. In 1994 Ian happily married Patricia Lawrence (Pat), who was the first patient that he operated on when he became a consultant at the Royal Northern Hospital when he was aged 28 and she 13. Neil Weir
Resource Identifier RCS: E000301
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-11-30
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000300-E000399
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372490372490
Occupation Obstetrician and gynaecologist
Details Sir John Peel was perhaps the most celebrated obstetrician and gynaecologist of his era. Born in Bradford on 10 December 1904, he was the son of the Rev J E Peel. From Manchester Grammar School he went to Queen’s College, Oxford, going on to his clinical studies at King’s College Hospital where, after junior posts in surgery and obstetrics and gynaecology, he was appointed to the consultant staff in 1936, and to Princess Beatrice Hospital the following year. During the Second World War he was surgeon to the Emergency Medical Service, and in 1942 was put on the staff of Queen Victoria Hospital, East Grinstead. Together with Wilfred Oakley, he studied the management of women with diabetes, research that led to a reduction in maternal and infant mortality. A council member of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists in 1955, he was president in 1966, when he chaired a debate on reform of the abortion law, driven by his anxiety to reduce the morbidity of illegal abortion. In 1971 he was the author of a report that recommended that all women should give birth in hospital and remain there for several days, a report which wrought a great change in maternity practice, though it did not go unchallenged. Peel assisted at the birth of Prince Charles and Princess Anne, and in time succeeded Sir William Gilliatt as surgeon-gynaecologist to the Queen, in which capacity he delivered Prince Andrew and Prince Edward (all these, paradoxically, being home deliveries). A quiet, unflappable Yorkshireman, Peel was unfazed by media interest in his royal patients. He married Muriel Pellow in 1936, and divorced her in 1947, to marry Freda Mellish, a ward sister. Their long and happy marriage was terminated by her death in 1993. He married for the third time in 1995, to an old family friend, Sally Barton. He died on 31 December 2005, leaving her and a daughter by his first marriage.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000303
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-11-30
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000300-E000399
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372491372491
Occupation Urologist
Details Christopher Rennie was a consultant urologist at Bromsgrove. He was born in Port Dixon, Malaysia, on 10 April 1948, the first son of Douglas David and Kathleen Mary (Dinah) Rennie. Douglas was an insurance underwriter for Manufacturers Life for the majority of his working life and Dinah was a GP in the same practice as her father, James Alexander Brown. She later worked in family planning in the Birmingham area. Chris was educated at Edgbaston Preparatory School and at King’s School in Canterbury. Influenced by his grandfather, whom he frequently accompanied on rounds from the age of five, he decided on a medical career. He went to medical school in Birmingham, obtained a BSc in anatomy in 1969 and graduated in 1972. He gained his FRCS in 1977, and initially trained as a general surgeon in the West Midlands, switching to urology as his chosen specialty in the early eighties. Chris became the sole urologist in Bromsgrove in 1985 and, before his early death, was instrumental in the transition to an amalgamated unit of five consultants. He was programme director for the West Midlands training programme in urology and was keen on expanding all aspects of training. Chris married twice, to Bridget (née Main) and Yvette (née Downing). He leaves a partner, Helen Kingdon, and a son, Alexander Harry James. Chris died suddenly from a heart attack on 14 September 2005.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000304
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-11-30
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000300-E000399
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372492372492
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon
Details John Gibson Taylor, known as ‘Ian’, was a consultant orthopaedic surgeon at Norfolk and Norwich Hospital. He was born on 8 June 1918, three months before the end of the First World War, the only child of Scottish parents Kate and William Taylor. Ian’s father was an engineer employed at the Royal Aeronautical Establishment, Hampshire. Brought up in Fleet, Ian went to the local grammar school. Deciding on a medical career, he entered St Mary’s Hospital Medical School. Much of his time was spent at Amersham, where the medical school was evacuated during the Second World War. After a year on the house, during which time he was house physician to Sir George Pickering, he joined the RNVR. His first posting was to the destroyer HMS Zetland, which hunted U-boats. After a year he served on HMS Vindex, an escort carrier. Through many hard winters over the next four years on the treacherous North Sea, the ship escorted convoys to Russia. He was discharged as a surgeon lieutenant commander in June 1946. On demobilisation he returned to St Mary’s as a registrar to V H Ellis, the orthopaedic surgeon, who was soon joined by John Crawford Adams, with whom Ian retained a lifelong friendship. After passing the FRCS Ian became first assistant to the accident service at the John Radcliffe Hospital, being greatly influenced by Edgar Somerville, Robert Taylor and Joe Pennybacker, who taught Ian spinal surgery. In 1954 he was appointed consultant orthopaedic surgeon in Norwich, joining Ken McKee and Richard Howard. The unit served not only Norwich but was also responsible for most of the orthopaedic and trauma services in Yarmouth and Lowestoft. Ian embraced the introduction of new methods of joint replacement, holding clinics with Neil Cardoe and Gilson Wenley for rheumatoid and other arthritic problems, at first in an old workhouse, St Michael’s Hospital in Aylsham. Later a stable block was converted into an operating theatre – much of the money raised by voluntary donations from the Norfolk community. In this unlikely setting Ian performed knee and metacarpo-phalangeal joint replacements. Much sought-after as a teacher, he was involved with the rotation between Bart’s, Norwich and the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital, and encouraged many of his trainees to publish their first papers. In 1965 Sir Herbert Seddon asked him to help out in Nigera, where he spent several months. In 1956 he met Fodhla Burnell, an anaesthetist. They were married a year later in Norwich Cathedral. They had many shared interests – sailing in the North Sea was one, a cottage in the Perthshire hills another. He was an accomplished skier, using this method of transport to get him to hospital during the hard winter of 1979. He was a keen member of the Percivall Pott Club and regularly attended meetings of the British Orthopaedic Association (BOA). One of his last major trips abroad was to Murmansk in 2001. This commemorated the arrival of the first Russian convoy sent from the UK during the Second World War. Ian and others who had survived were welcomed by the Russians and given a medal of honour for the enormous risks taken 60 years previously. Over his last few years he developed progressive muscle disease, and died on 24 August 2005.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000305
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-12-19
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000300-E000399
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372493372493
Occupation General surgeon
Details Rowland Williams was a former consultant surgeon at East Glamorgan Hospital. He was born in Merthyr and educated at St John’s College, Cambridge, and University College Hospital. After junior posts, including a registrarship at the Royal Marsden Hospital, he was appointed consultant surgeon at East Glamorgan in 1964. He was an active member of the BMA, representing Wales on its council and serving on numerous committees, for which work he was made a fellow in 1977. He was a member of the General Medical Council and medical ombudsman for Wales. He was a keen collector of porcelain, becoming a world authority on the subject and writing a book on his superb collection. He was married to Beulah and had one daughter, Jill. He died on 12 October 2005.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000306
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-12-19
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000300-E000399
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372494372494
Occupation Ophthalmologist
Details Michael Walsh qualified in Perth in 1964 and after junior posts was RMO at the Sir Charles Gairdner and the Princess Margaret hospitals, where he specialised in ophthalmology. He went to England as a registrar at the Royal Victoria Hospital, Newcastle on Tyne, followed by posts in Leeds and Bradford. He returned to Perth as visiting medical officer at the Royal Hospital in 1972 and by 1987 had become director of the ophthalmic department at the Sir Charles Gardner Hospital, and had set up the Claremont Eye Clinic. He died in April 2005 leaving a widow, Ann.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000307
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-12-19
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000300-E000399
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372495372495
Occupation General surgeon
Details Kelvin Thomas was a consultant surgeon at Nottingham General and King Mill hospitals. He was born in Hong Kong on 11 November 1926, the son of George Harold Thomas, a surgeon, and Nora née Gourdin. His father was formally admitted as a fellow by election by Sir Arthur Porritt in 1961, who went to Hong Kong to confer this honour on his way back from New Zealand. During the Second World War, following the fall of Hong Kong, Kelvin was sent to the Woodstock School in Mussoorie, India, from which he went on to Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore. He trained at Guy’s Hospital and after qualification became house surgeon to Sam Wass, and later senior registrar to Philip Reading. He did junior posts at St Olave’s Hospital, Rotherhithe, was an anatomy prosector at the College under Stansfield, and then specialised in ENT, doing posts at Tunbridge Wells, Addenbrooke’s and Guy’s. He was appointed consultant to the Nottingham General Hospital and King Mill Hospital in 1966, retiring at the age of 65. He was a very talented sculptor, exhibiting regularly at the Medical Art Society and winning prizes at the Royal Society of British Artists. His bust of the Prince of Wales stands in the entrance hall of the Queen’s Medical Centre, Nottingham, but he was more generally admired for his graceful and delicate bronze nudes. A short, quiet modest man, he had great charm. His latter years were marred by myocardiac infarctions and he underwent by-pass surgery. In 1956 he married Diana Mary Allen, a schoolteacher. They had two children, a son, Stephen Austin Thomas, who became a urologist, and a daughter, Anna Rachel, a ceramic artist. Kelvin wrote his memoirs, *My father’s coat*, for private distribution. He died on 13 November 2005, some eight months after a fall from a tree from which he never regained consciousness.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000308
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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 Cheatle, Arthur Henry (1866 - 1929)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

First Title value, for Searching Chicken, Rupert Cecil (1850 - 1925)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2011-04-20 2013-08-07
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001100-E001199
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373342373342
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born in Nottingham about the year 1850, and was educated at Guy's Hospital, where he was House Surgeon and Resident Obstetric Assistant. He was afterwards Registrar at the Evelina Hospital for Children, and acted as Prosector at the Royal College of Surgeons. He then entered into partnership in Nottingham with Isaac Watchorn, who, dying in the early eighties, left Chicken in charge of a large and varied general practice. Much surgery came his way, and he was able to keep up his operative skill, for he was essentially a surgeon. He was elected to the staff of the Nottingham General Hospital in October, 1891. For a period of from ten to fifteen years he became a very active surgeon both at the hospital and in private. He was elected President of the Nottingham Medico-Chirurgical Society in 1892, and contributed a long succession of papers which demonstrate the wide range of his surgical interests. He was appointed Consulting Surgeon to the hospital in December, 1907, on his retirement from the staff and from practice on account of long-continued ill health. After leaving Nottingham he acted as a ship's surgeon for a year or more in the hope of regaining health. During the War (1914-1918) he was Surgeon to Whipps Cross War Hospital at Leytonstone. He resided also at Hemel Hempstead, Chichester, and lastly at Sunnybank, Sandgate, Kent. His death occurred on October 3rd, 1925, and he was survived by his wife, one son, and two daughters. Chicken was a sound and careful surgeon, well abreast of the knowledge and technique of his day. He did not adopt new methods without careful consideration and conviction of their utility. If he pinned his faith to sponges after the era of swabs had come in, he could claim with justice that his wounds remained free from sepsis. If he refused to treat his fractures along lines which at the time were new and revolutionary, he lived to see the day when some leading surgeons are advocating a return to older methods. He was a man of wide culture and reading, a collector of old oak and silver. He took much interest in local history and archaeology, as is witnessed by his published *Index to Deering's History of Nottingham* (1899), and by his booklet entitled, *Excavations at the Nottingham General Hospital during the Building of the New Wing* (1899). Publications: In addition to the works mentioned above, Chicken also wrote:- *The Treatment of Hernia: an address delivered to the Nottingham Medico-Chirurgical Society*, Nov 2nd, 1892, 8vo, Nottingham, 1892. This was his Presidential Address. "Treatment of Advanced Cancer." - *Quart. Med. Jour.*, 1894-5, iii, 46. "Enterotomy." - *Ibid*., 1895-6, iv, 248.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001159
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Childe, Charles Plumley (1858 - 1926)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2011-04-20
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001100-E001199
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373343373343
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born in South Africa, the eldest son of the Rev G F Childe, MA Oxon., Professor of Mathematics at the South African College and Assistant Astronomer of the Royal Observatory, Cape Town. He received his education at the University of the Cape of Good Hope, where he graduated with honours in Arts, and obtained the Maynard Scholarship and University Exhibition in 1877. He then entered Magdalene College, Cambridge, of which he was a Scholar. He received his medical training at King's College, London, where he gained a Warneford Scholarship. He started in general practice at Southsea early in 1886, being later joined in partnership by his former friend, John Lister Wright. He soon devoted himself entirely to surgery, and after taking the Fellowship, was appointed Assistant Surgeon to the Royal Portsmouth Hospital, where he rapidly made a reputation as one of the leading surgeons in the South of England. He was greatly instrumental in raising the hospital to its modern standard of efficiency, and when in obedience to the age regulations he retired in 1923, he was appointed Senior Hon Consulting Surgeon and Chairman of the Committee of Management. In addition to his brilliant and laborious work at the hospital, he was Surgeon to the Hampshire and Isle of Wight School for the Blind, and had been Surgeon to the Home for Sick Children, Southsea, Anaesthetist to the Portsmouth and South Hants Eye and Ear Infirmary, and Senior Surgeon to the South Hants Medical and Surgical Home for Women. In 1912 his medical colleagues pressed him to take part in municipal affairs, and he became representative of the Mile End Ward on the Town Council. In 1919 he was made Chairman of the Health Committee, and as such was able to influence the Council in the direction of greatly improving the housing conditions in Portsmouth. He was a most painstaking investigator of all questions which came before his committee and a most incisive speaker, and there is no doubt that Portsmouth owes much to his labours. During the Great War (1914-1918) Childe was for some time in charge of the 5th Southern General Hospital, and held the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel in the RAMC (T). He was devoted to the interests of the British Medical Association, being President of the Southern Branch in 1912, and Chairman of the Portsmouth Division in 1914, having previously been Hon Secretary and Treasurer for three years and Clinical Secretary from 1910. At the Portsmouth Meeting in 1899 he was Secretary of the Section of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, and at the meeting there in 1923 he was elected President of the Association. The meeting, greatly owing to his efforts, was a success, and in July, 1925, he was elected a Vice-President. He was much interested in the prevention and cure of cancer, and strongly advocated early diagnosis and removal. Slight of build, Childe was none the less a man of unbounded energy, a keen follower of cricket and tennis matches, an ardent golfer, founder of the Childe Challenge Cup for medical players of the game; a charming companion. In all his work thoroughness was his characteristic. He died at Monte Carlo on Jan 30th, 1926, from influenza and pneumonia, and was buried at Highland Road Cemetery, Southsea, on Feb 10th, 1926. He practised at Cranleigh, Kent Road, Southsea. Publications: *The Control of a Scourge, or How Cancer is Curable,* 8vo, London, 1907. The book was an attempt to substitute sound knowledge and hope for ignorance and despair. *Operative Nursing and Technique: A Book for Nurses, Dressers, House Surgeons, etc.*, 12mo, 9 plates, London, 1909; 2nd ed, 1916; 3rd ed, 1920. "Operative Treatment of Intra-Oral Cancer." - *Brit. Med. Jour.*, 1909, i, 6. "Cancer, Public Authorities, and the Public." - *Ibid.*, 1914, i, 643. "The Area of Acute Abdominal Conflux, and the Incision of Incidence." - *Lancet*, 1907, i, 936. This is a notable paper. "Abdominal Panhysterectomy for Carcinoma of Cervix Uteri by Clamp and Cautery." - *Brit. Jour. Surg.*, 1914-15, ii, 119. Cancer leaflets, now (1926) often issued by Health authorities, doubtless originated with Childe, who caused the Portsmouth Health Department to issue the first educational leaflet on cancer.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001160
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Childs, Archibald Prentice ( - 1881)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

First Title value, for Searching Humphreys, John (1925 - 2010)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

by N Alan Green
Publication Date 2011-05-05
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001100-E001199
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373345373345
Occupation General surgeon
Details John Humphreys was a greatly respected consultant general surgeon in Southport from 1961 to 1990. His main interest was in gastro-intestinal surgery, but he was also a competent urologist. Fully committed to patients under his care, he visited them at weekends to check on their progress. In view of his popularity, it was inevitable that he was recognised by many families on the streets of Southport. He served the College as a surgical tutor, and was also a valued examiner for the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. During his time in the North Sefton Merseyside region, he was a lecturer in surgery at Liverpool University and a regional adviser to the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. He was born in Liverpool on 25 November 1925, the son of William Ernest Humphreys, a pharmacist and lecturer, and Gladys née Monaghan, a housewife. His early education was at Dovedale Road Primary School, Liverpool, and, apart from six months when he was evacuated to Wales during the Second World War, he studied at Quarry Bank High School before entering Liverpool University for his medical training. Here he was awarded prizes in surgery. He recorded his admiration and gratitude to some memorable teachers, including Lord Cohen of Birkenhead, Sir Thomas Jeffcoate and Sir Cyril Clarke. As a student the lighter side of his life became apparent when he gained an enviable reputation for his skill in walking on upturned beer glasses. The final year as a medical student was in many ways a defining time in John's life and occurred towards the end of the Second World War. He was sent to Liverpool railway station to meet a train full of soldiers who had been injured in the Normandy landings and in the fighting in France. On the platform he saw a beautiful young nurse who was helping the wounded from the carriages. This was his first brief encounter with Marjorie, or 'Maggs', his future wife. On qualifying, John held house appointments in the Liverpool region, before entering National Service in the Army, having had previous cadet corps experience. He became a regimental medical officer in the West African Frontier Force in Ibadan, Nigeria, before the country gained independence. There was no major fighting other than inter-tribal 'scuffles'. With time on his hands, he was able to write several papers on topics relating to tropical medicine after careful field studies. Highly appropriate to his work was 'gaining' personal experience of a nasty bout of malaria. One of his medical consultations took place at the palace of the Alaafin of Oyo, chief of the Yoruba. The grateful ruler suggested that the young doctor might like to see a private collection of carved statues, recently put together for the British Museum. His visit to inspect the figurines was somewhat truncated when the hut holding these treasures was shaken by angry tribesmen. They needed strong reassurance from the Alaafin himself that John was a doctor and not a missionary, and therefore would not be burning these valuable objects! On the flight back to the UK, the engines failed and the pilot was forced to make an emergency crash landing in the North African desert. Fortunately there were no casualties. The main concern was that there was no water on board, but happily the nearby French Foreign Legion came to their aid. These escapades did not lessen John's enthusiasm for military service, as he continued in the Territorial Army, reaching the rank of lieutenant colonel. When settled in consultant life he enjoyed spells overseas in Germany and Hong Kong, and was awarded the Territorial Decoration for his services. John married Marjorie ('Maggs') Bromwell in 1953. When he came back from Africa after two years of National Service he had lost weight and had an extremely sallow complexion, and did not look at all like the handsome final year medical student she knew. She soon had his features and figure back to normal, and continued to work as a nurse during the early years of their marriage. His surgical mentors were giants in the profession. One was Charles Wells, who started the academic unit in Liverpool and was well known at home and abroad, having strong links with the Mayo Clinic, USA. Another was J B Oldham, who was a perfectionist in surgery, at times outspoken, but respected as an excellent clinical teacher of postgraduate students: he helped many studying for higher diplomas by his careful tuition. As a continuation of his surgical training, John Humphreys spent two years as a research assistant at the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, USA (from 1957 to 1959), in gastro-intestinal work. He produced many publications on peptic ulcer and was stimulated by the vast array of clinical teaching sessions. Marjorie, and their two very young children, Lee and Jane, went with him, and she was able to help the finances by nursing at nights in the clinic. Returning to the UK, he continued his surgical training at the Walton Hospital until the time he was appointed to his definitive post in Southport. He continued his pursuit of excellence, regularly attending meetings of the Association of Surgeons, the British Association of Urological Surgeons, the Liverpool and North West Surgical Society and North West Urological Society. From his very early days John was fond of travel. Before embarking on definitive surgical training he crossed the Atlantic to New York as a ship's surgeon in a merchant vessel of the Cunard Line. Family holidays were spent travelling abroad in the family car. Embarking at Dover, they visited France, Germany, Austria and Italy, following an itinerary with selected hotels, all chosen in advance. The children did not necessarily share their parents' enthusiasm for visiting yet another cathedral, or seeing more architectural delights. Outside medicine, John enjoyed a wide range of interests. At home he was a good carpenter and, although not a sailor himself, he made a wooden dinghy for Lee and Jane to pursue and enjoy this out of doors activity. He was a keen photographer and in early years developed and printed his own films. He brewed his own beer and made enjoyable wines long before supermarkets sold cheap and reasonable quality wines. His enjoyment of various forms of art was very apparent and included abstract painting. He was a competent artist himself, particularly in line drawing. He created and tended a garden with the same care he lavished on his patients. He took occasional physical exercise in a game of golf, but enjoyed walking much more and was a keen fly-fisherman. More cultural interests were expressed in the Liverpool Medico-Literary Society and in the pursuit of local, medical and military history, and he was particularly interested in the connections between Liverpool and the slave trade. He was a knowledgeable medical philatelist and in retirement continued as a magistrate in Southport and Liverpool for a further five years. Although a quiet man by nature, he was an excellent raconteur with a marvellous sense of humour. Their son, Lee, gained a place at Oxford University and obtained a BA in philosophy and physiology: he works in Paris. Jane followed her father into medicine and studied at St George's Hospital. After working as a consultant paediatrician she moved to the Medical Protection Society for 13 years. When their children left home, John and Marjorie were able to travel further afield to the Caribbean, Sri Lanka, India, Egypt and to revisit the USA. A few of these trips were for scientific meetings with the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. John always relied on his wife for everything outside his professional life. She planned home and social activities, family gatherings and entertaining friends and colleagues. As John aged he became increasingly dependent on Marjorie and their mutual affection and loyalty to each other was very apparent. They elected to move from Southport and settled in Handforth. Although this meant leaving many longstanding friends, it had the attraction of being near their married daughter, Jane, and her husband, Dick Cowan, and their family. John and Marjorie enjoyed seeing their grandchildren grow up. He died on 1 September 2010, predeceasing his wife of 57 years by a few weeks. They both requested small and quiet funeral services. They left a son, Lee, their married daughter, Jane Cowan, and three grandchildren.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001162
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Shepherd, Rolf Carter (1926 - 2010)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

by Sir Barry Jackson
Publication Date 2011-05-05
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001100-E001199
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373346373346
Occupation General surgeon
Details Rolf Carter Shepherd was a general surgeon with an interest in vascular surgery. He established the peripheral vascular service for Bournemouth, Dorset and Jersey in the early 1960s and for 15 years ran this service single-handed. He was born in Cardiff on 8 June 1926, where his father, Charles Woolley Shepherd, was a general practitioner. Both his paternal and maternal grandfathers were also doctors. His mother, Augot Wishman, was Norwegian by birth. He was educated first at Brean House Preparatory School in Weston-super-Mare, and from there won a scholarship to Epsom College, where he excelled, winning a major open scholarship to read botany at Caius College, Cambridge, in 1944. At Caius he transferred to read natural sciences and then proceeded to St Thomas' Hospital Medical School, London, for his clinical studies, graduating MB BChir in 1950. After house jobs at St Thomas' and the Rowley Bristow Hospital, Pyrford, he enlisted as a junior surgical specialist in the RAMC for his National Service. This was spent in Singapore and Malaya. Returning to civilian life, he worked at High Wycombe and Shoreham-by-Sea before passing his FRCS and obtaining a registrar post back at St Thomas'. He was soon spotted by John Kinmonth and was recruited to the surgical professorial unit, where peripheral vascular surgery was in its infancy. He was a lecturer in surgery for three years, before spending a year as a fellow in vascular surgery at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, Boston, working with Richard Warren. On his return to St Thomas' he became a senior surgical registrar, during which time he passed the Cambridge MChir, and then was appointed as a resident assistant surgeon. This was a notoriously busy post, the incumbent being resident seven days a week and responsible for all emergency surgical admissions while acting independently as a consultant. In 1962, against strong competition, he was appointed as a consultant surgeon with an interest in peripheral vascular surgery to Bournemouth and East Dorset district, working principally at Poole Hospital. Before his appointment there was no vascular surgery in the area. Rolf quickly established a vascular service, which within a year encompassed Jersey, the whole of Dorset and parts of Wiltshire. As a single-handed vascular surgeon these were years of an enormous workload, with many night calls and long operating lists. In theatre he was tireless and exceedingly popular with the nursing staff, all of whom were keen to scrub for him such was his excellent technique and reputation for good results. In 1968 he established a dedicated varicose vein unit, which treated up to 1,000 patients in some years, many by injection sclerotherapy. For 10 years between 1972 and 1981 he was a College surgical tutor and in 1972 became a clinical teacher in surgery to the University of Southampton. He was an enthusiastic and charismatic teacher and much enjoyed this aspect of his work. He took his part in local hospital administration and also in the wider surgical world through his membership of the Vascular Surgical Society, the Peripheral Vascular Club, the South West Vascular Surgeons' Group and the Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland. He was also a keen member of the Grey Turner Surgical Club. In retirement he was able to spend more time pursuing the many interests he had outside of surgery. He was an accomplished pianist, playing in a trio and a quartet, a keen and proficient sailor of small boats, a highly skilled gardener with a special talent for garden design (he achieved a City and Guilds award in this subject) and was also a competent golfer and shot. Above all, he was a devoted family man, happily married to Joy, née Paterson, an artist, for 49 years. They had three sons, Charles (a submariner in the Royal Navy), Christian (a smallholder) and Dominic (an artist). Of relatively small stature but with a very big heart, Rolf Shepherd was a man with a zest for life, an enthusiast for everything he did and a true and much loved friend of so many. He died on 22 July 2010, aged 84, in Poole Hospital after a fall at home.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001163
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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

First Title value, for Searching Young, George Ivan (1926 - 2009)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

First Title value, for Searching Bearn, Andrew Russell (1886 - 1927)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

First Title value, for Searching Bearpark, George Edmundson (1806 - 1871)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

First Title value, for Searching Chilver, Thomas Farquhar (1805 - 1875)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2011-05-25
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001100-E001199
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373350373350
Occupation General surgeon
Details Was for many years in general practice at 14 New Burlington Street, London, where he was at one time in partnership with Osbert Fishlake Cundy (qv), and then with Septimus William Sibley (qv) and with Joshua Plaskitt (qv). He died at Upper Brunswick Place, Hove, on August 15th, 1875.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001167
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Beaumont, Thomas Mills (1812 - 1879)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

First Title value, for Searching Beaumont, William Rawlins (1803 - 1875)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2009-12-11
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000700-E000799
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372982372982
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born in Beaumont Street and entered as a student at St Bartholomew’s Hospital, where he gained the favourable notice of John Abernethy, and subsequently of Amussat, under whom he studied anatomy in Paris. He was for a time Surgeon to the Islington Dispensary. In 1841 he settled in Toronto and was appointed Professor of Surgery in King’s College, now the University, in 1843, retaining the Chair until 1853, acting at the same time as Dean of the Faculty of Medicine. He succeeded Dr Widmer as Consulting Surgeon to the Toronto General Hospital, and had charge of the hospital at Port Colborne during the Fenian raid in 1866. Whilst he was Surgeon to the Islington Dispensary he invented an instrument for the insertion of quilled sutures in cases of vesicovaginal fistula. It is described and figured in the *London Medical Gazette*, 1836-7, xix, 335, and also in *Medico-Chirurgical Transactions*, 1838, xxi, 29, P1. 1. The instrument had scissor handles and lock, the blades were curved like calipers; one blade ended as a curved pointed-eyed needle and was armed with a loop of thread. The other arm ended in a slot. On closing the instrument the pointed end penetrated the two margins of the fissure and carried the suture loop through the slot. On the outer side of the slot was a slide ending in a blunt point, which being pushed down, the point passed into and held the loop as the instrument was reopened. A quill could be passed through the loop, and the free ends of the sutures were then knotted over a second quill on the opposite side of the approximated fissures. The title of the paper in the *Medico-Chirurgical Transactions* adds a use for cleft palate. The operation was limited to the soft palate of young children. For this the instrument appears unsuitable. But Beaumont invented a modification, or rather a different instrument altogether, of which an example is preserved in the College Museum (D 34), entitled “Beaumont's Sewing Machine Suture Carrier for Operations on Cleft Palate”. It is a straight instrument carrying a needle, like the present sewing-machine needle armed with thread; the thread was caught by a fine hook and held as the needle was drawn back. At right angles are two flat jaws closing like a bracket by pushing down a slide. These grasped the margins of the cleft palate, and the needle carried the loop of thread through them. The hook held the loop as the needle was withdrawn, and on shifting the grasp on the palate and again protruding the needle, a chain stitch was made by the second loop passing through the first. This is apparently the instrument referred to by Sir James Paget as tried by Mr Lawrence at St Bartholomew’s Hospital. An annotation in the *Lancet*, 1866, i, 302, stated that Singer took his idea from the Beaumont instrument exhibited in the shop of Freeman, a surgical instrument maker in New York. But the statement is not confirmed by the *Encyclopoedia Britannica*, Art. “Sewing Machine”. (*Vide* A E J Barker.) Beaumont also described and figured in the *London Medical Gazette*, 1837, xx, 122 (Figs. 1, 2) a vaginal speculum which revived an idea found in Hippocrates. He had used it in his vesicovaginal fistula operations. Five steel blades were hinged at one of their ends, much as the ribs of an umbrella. The place of the projecting stick of the umbrella was taken by a rounded cap, over the ends of the blades. After the instrument had been passed closed into the vagina, a handle occupying the place of the stick of an umbrella, was rotated to separate the blades, after which the handle was withdrawn and the fistula came into view between two of the separated blades. Beaumont also published papers in 1833, “On the Treatment of Fracture of the Leg and Forearm by Plaster of Paris”, and in 1838, “On Polypi of the Uterus, Nose, and Ear”. In 1841 he went to Canada, and in 1843 was elected Surgeon to the University, then of King’s College, later of Toronto; and Surgeon to the Toronto General Hospital, where he gave Clinical Lectures. He described in the *Medico-Chirurgical Transactions*, 1850, xxxiii, 241, with woodcut, the case of a boy, aged 7, from whom he had removed a cartilaginous tumour weighing 8 oz and measuring 3 4/16 x 2 8/10 in in diameter. The tumour first noticed three months before, being then the size of a nutmeg, had replaced completely the left side of the mandible, except the condyle and its neck, as far forwards as the second bicuspid tooth. The boy healed quickly after disarticulation of the left half of the lower jaw. Increasing difficulty of vision ending in blindness enforced Beaumont’s retirement in 1873, and he was elected Emeritus Professor of Surgery at the University of Toronto. He died on Oct 13th, 1875, in Toronto. Beaumont was an accomplished anatomist, perfectly versed in surgery, most painstaking and correct in diagnosis, most skilful in the use of the knife, engrossed in his subject, and capable of communicating knowledge. As a man he was singularly polite, as gentle as a woman, neat in person, and possessed of a charity which thinketh no evil. His work at the Toronto General Hospital, where he delivered his clinical lectures, was worthy of his great teacher Abernethy. Publications: In addition to the articles already mentioned, Beaumont also published: Clinical lectures on *Traumatic Carotid Aneurysms*, 1854, and on *The Several Forms of Lithotomy*, 1857. Beaumont’s Lithotomy Knife is preserved in the Museum of the College (G 106 and 8). In the *Med.-Chir. Trans.*, 1863, xlvi., 174, drawing, p.176, Beaumont described a variation of Langenbeck’s and Graefe’s iridectomy hook or forceps. A fine pointed hook protected by a guard was passed through a corneal puncture, and on withdrawing the guard the hook caught in the iris. In 1862 he described a wound of the orbit penetrating 5 1/2 in, yet followed by recovery.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000799
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Rose, William senior (1814 - 1890)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2012-11-14
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E003000-E003999/E003100-E003199
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/375331375331
Occupation General surgeon
Details Studied at Guy's and St Thomas's Hospitals, and practised for many years at High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, where he was Medical Officer of No 1 District of the Wycombe Union, Surgeon Major in the Royal Bucks King's Own Militia, and Surgeon to the Great Western Railway Provident Society. Later he was appointed Surgeon to the Wycombe Cottage Hospital. He retired to Dalton, Bournemouth, and died on March 29th, 1890. William Rose, junr (qv), Surgeon to King's College Hospital, was his son.
Resource Identifier RCS: E003148
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Rose, William junior (1847 - 1910)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2012-11-14 2013-02-01
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E003000-E003999/E003100-E003199
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/375332375332
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born at High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, on July 18th, 1847, the son of William Rose (qv) and nephew of Sir Philip Rose. He came of a race of surgeons, and, as his biographer, Sir John Cockburn, KCMG, says - "He affords a striking instance of the coincidence of an hereditary faculty with circumstances peculiarly favourable to its development.... He was nursed in an atmosphere of the healing art. Long before he entered as a medical student at King's College he had learnt from his father, the leading surgeon in High Wycombe, something more than the rudiments of the profession, with the result that having the end in view, he was able to appreciate more thoroughly than the younger and less experienced students the meaning and bearing of the teaching facilities which a great medical school affords. Endowed by nature with an exquisite sense of touch and manual skill, he lost no opportunity of cultivating a wonderful dexterity in manipulation, which made him a most expert operator. "As a boy he was the fortunate possessor of a fine turning lathe and well-equipped workshop. Here he spent most of his leisure, and served his appren¬ticeship in handicraft. The hand that for the first time touched the instruments of surgery was already ripe with experience in handling all manner of tools. "William Rose was not one who required to practise with the saw on the human femur. He was possessed of prodigious strength. It was one of the sights of student days to see him with one hand grasp a heavy chair by the top rail, extend it at arm's length, and by sheer power of wrist raise it to a horizontal position. But this strength was tempered and regulated with a wonderful tactile sensibility. His touch conveyed a sense of restrained power, which commanded confidence and rallied the recuperative power of a patient. There was a veritable virtue in the laying-on of his hands." William Rose entered the Medical School of King's College Hospital in his twentieth year and was a resident pupil with Henry Power (qv) during his student life. After taking the Fellowship in 1874 he acted for a time as House Physician at the Brompton Hospital. Early in his career he attracted Sir William Fergusson's (qv) attention, and assisted that great operator in his private practice, taking rooms, by his advice, in Old Cavendish Street instead of carrying on the family practice at High Wycombe as his father had hoped. Having been successively House Surgeon and Surgical Registrar to King's College Hospital, he was appointed Assistant Surgeon in 1876, became full Surgeon in 1885, and Consulting Surgeon in 1902. During the five-and-twenty years that Rose served on the staff of King's College Hospital he built up for himself a great reputation as a practical surgeon, while his name became familiar to many generations of students because of his participation in the authorship of a most popular textbook on surgery. From being Fergusson's dresser he rose to be his colleague, participating with the master in all his great operations. A colleague, once his dresser, has described Rose's marvellous dexterity, his skill with his instruments, and his jealous care of them. To an onlooker who knew how instruments should be used it was a great pleasure to watch Rose operating. Though he had large and apparently clumsy fingers, they were in reality extraordinarily dexterous. To see his fingers working inside a small mouth when operating upon a cleft palate, or to watch him using the finest catgut in the finest curved needle in a hare-lip operation, was to feel that one had met a master surgeon - one in whom co-ordination between brain and finger-tips was absolutely perfect. His kindness to patients under his care was seen best by the house surgeons in charge of his beds or by the ward-sisters, for he was not a man to make any display of this side of his character. He would often come to the hospital at the dinner hour or at teatime in order to see for himself how the patients fared. It was no good telling Rose that such-and-such a patient took his food well, for to say this was to create a suspicion in his mind that there was something wrong, and nothing would satisfy him but to see for himself. This was a little point upon which he was often misunderstood. He would seem to disbelieve what was told him by house surgeons and dressers, sisters and nurses. In reality, he was not so much testing their accuracy as their judgement; he was training them to be sound in making reports, and in the value of evidence which lay before their eyes. Rose was devoted to animals, and his love of horses was well known. He was a first-rate whip - "A coach team or tandem were as a plastic mass in his hands." He was constantly seen driving his four-in-hand, and is said to have caused a window to be made at the end of his hall, through which he could look at his beloved horses in their presumably very clean stable. He shot well and his hall was adorned with antlered trophies. He was a musician and played the drum admirably! His hospitality was boundless, and his dinners to his dressers were grand events in these young men's lives. He had a keen sense of humour: told a story well, and his laugh, which could be heard in the next street, was infectious. His common sense often stood him in good stead. As Surgeon to the Great Eastern and London, Brighton & South Coast Railways he was an expert witness in railway cases, and often saved the Companies from being imposed upon in Maims for damages. Asked, for instance, to report on a case of alleged spinal concussion, he found the patient in bed and apparently bedridden. Rose had been kept waiting a long time before being admitted to see the patient, but was able to diagnose the case as one of flagrant malingering, when on putting his hand into one of the man's boots under the bed he found it was warm! In 1880 he married Marian, youngest daughter of Mr Robert Clark, solicitor, but had no children. A portrait of Professor Rose accompanies his biography in the *Lancet*. His London address was 17 Harley Street, W, and his country house was at Penn, near High Wycombe. Here he dispensed hospitality and was much beloved by his poorer neighbours, whom he charitably benefited by his surgical skill and experience. He died on May 29th, 1910, and at the time of his death was Emeritus Professor at King's College, as well as Member of its Council and Hon Fellow, these honours having been conferred on him at his retirement from the Professorship of Surgery in 1902, when, as before mentioned, he was made Consulting Surgeon at King's College Hospital. He was also Consulting Surgeon at the Royal Free Hospital, and to the Stanhope Street Dispensary, the London, Brighton and South Coast and the Great Eastern Railway Companies, St John's Hospital, Twickenham, the High Wycombe Cottage Hospital, and the Eagle Insurance Company. He was at one time Consulting Surgeon to the Westminster General Dispensary and Senior Surgeon to the Actors'Association. Publications: *A Manual of Surgery for Students and Practitioners* (with ALBERT CARLESS, FRCS), 12mo, London, 1898; 12th ed, 8vo, plates and illustrations, London, 1927. Professor Rose's literary reputation is securely founded on this classic. It was the best text-book of surgery in the English language for students not aiming at the highest examinations, and was frequently republished in New York. "Case of Double Hare-lip in Man aged 30." - *Brit Med Jour*, 1883, i, 202. "Recurrent Aneurism of the Superficial Femoral Artery after Ligature of the External Iliac, treated by Excision of the Sac," 8vo, London, 1885; reprinted from *Med Soc Proc*, 1884, vii, 75. "Gunshot Wound of Knee-Joint." - *Med Soc Proc*, 1888, xi, 355. "Wound of Median Nerve; Suture." - *Ibid*, 1889, xii, 300. "Severe Injury of the Wrist-joint, with Division of Nerves, Vessels and Tendons, treated by Conservative Surgery," 8vo, London, 1887; reprinted from *Med Soc Proc*, 1887, x, 348. "Removal of the Gasserian Ganglion for Severe Neuralgia." - *Lancet*, 1890, ii, 914. (This operation was done by the maxillary route, which was afterwards superseded by the Hartley-Krause route.) *On Harelip and Cleft Palate*, 8vo, illustrated, London, 1891. "General Surgery."-*Year Book of Treatment*, 1895-6. "A Few Details in the Operative Treatment of Inguinal Hernia," 12mo, London, 1892; reprinted from *Med Press and Circ*, 1891, lii, 546, etc. *The Surgical Treatment of Neuralgia of the Fifth Nerve* (*Tic Douloureux*), 8vo, London, 1892. All these papers "display him as the careful, skilful, practical surgeon".
Resource Identifier RCS: E003149
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Moynihan, Sir Berkeley George Andrew, Lord Moynihan of Leeds (1865 - 1936)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-05-18
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000200-E000299
Details Born at Malta on 2 October 1865 the only son of Captain Andrew Moynihan, *V.C*., and Ellen Anne, his wife, daughter of Thomas Parkin, a cabinet maker at Hurst, near Ashton-under-Lyne. His father was the son of Malachi Moynihan, originally from southern Ireland, who died at Sefton Park, Liverpool in 1837. As a sergeant in the 90th Light Infantry Andrew Moynihan was awarded the Victoria Cross on 24 February 1857 for his bravery during the Crimean War. On 8 September 1855, during an attack on the Redan, he personally encountered and killed five Russians and afterwards under heavy fire rescued Lieutenant Swift and Ensign Maude, who had fallen near the fortress. After serving in India, he died at the age of thirty-seven in Malta on 19 May 1866 of Malta fever, with the rank of captain in the 8th foot (the King’s Regiment). There is a portrait of him in *The History of the Victoria Cross* by Philip A. Wilkins. Mrs Moynihan came to Leeds in December 1867 with a pension of one pound a week on which to support two daughters and a son. She joined forces with her childless sister who was married to Alfred Ball, a police inspector, living at Millgarth Street. Moynihan’s education thus began in Leeds, and was continued at the Blue Coat School, then in its original quarters in Newgate Street, London. He entered the school in September 1875 with a presentation from H.R.H. Field-Marshal the Duke of Cambridge, and was placed in Ward 16. He left in April 1881 being then in no higher form than “Little Erasmus”. During his school career he was undistinguished, except that he did well in swimming and football. From the summer term of 1881 to 25 July 1883 he was at the Royal Naval School, Eltham, and from there proceeded to the Medical School at Leeds, where he lived with his maternal uncle, his mother and two sisters. He remained closely attached to Leeds for the rest of his life. The medical school was a part of the Yorkshire College which afterwards became one of the three constituents of the Victoria University. He graduated M.B. at the University of London in 1887 and became a Member of the College the same year. He passed the examination for the Fellowship in 1890 and for Master of Surgery in 1893, being awarded the gold medal. After serving as house surgeon to A. F. McGill at the Leeds General Infirmary in 1887, he acted as demonstrator of anatomy in the Medical School from 1893 to 1896. He was elected assistant surgeon to the infirmary in 1896, was surgeon from 1906, and consulting surgeon from 1927 until his death. He was lecturer in surgery from 1896 to 1909, and from 1909 to 1927 he was professor of clinical surgery in the University of Leeds. At the Royal College of Surgeons Moynihan was appointed an examiner in anatomy on the board of examiners in anatomy and physiology for the Fellowship in 1899. He gave three lectures as Arris and Gale lecturer in 1899 on *The anatomy and surgery of the peritoneal fossae*, and three lectures in 1900 on *The pathology of some of the rarer forms of hernia*. In 1920 he gave a single lecture as Hunterian professor of surgery and pathology on *The late surgery of gunshot wounds of the chest*, and in the same year delivered the Bradshaw lecture on *The surgery of diseases of the spleen*. He was Hunterian Orator in 1927, speaking on *Hunter’s ideals and Lister’s practice*. He served on the council of the college from 1912 to 1933 and was elected president for six years in succession, 1926-31. In this position he was the second provincial surgeon to fill the office, the first being Joseph Hodgson of Birmingham, who was president in 1864. The war found him with the rank of major *à la suite* attached to the 2nd Northern General Hospital of the Territorial R.A.M.C., with a commission dated 14 October 1908; on 28 November 1914 he was gazetted temporary colonel, A.M.S., and was serving in France. On demobilization in 1919 he was holding the rank of major-general, and had been chairman of the Army Advisory Board form 1916 and chairman of the council of consultants 1916-19. He made a marked impression on a tour in America, when speaking on behalf of the British cause. He was in his energy and frank ambition and his gift of oratory more like an American than the traditional reserved and self-depreciatory Englishman. He married on 17 April 1895 Isabella Wellesley, daughter of Thomas R. Jessop, F.R.C.S., of Leeds. Lady Moynihan died suddenly on 31 August 1936, leaving a son and two daughters. He felt the loss acutely, had a cerebral haemorrhage on 6 September 1936 and died on 7 September, without recovering consciousness, at his home Carr Manor, Meanwood, Leeds, formerly Sir Clifford Allbutt’s house. He was buried at Lawnswood cemetery, and memorial services were held in Leeds parish church and at St Martin’s-in-the-fields, London. An offer was made that he should be buried in Westminster Abbey, but it was declined for family reasons. Moynihan was fortunate in the accidents of his place, his period, and his personality. Leeds had long been a centre of good surgery. It had a teeming population, and was too far removed from London and Edinburgh to be greatly influenced by either. Surgery, which had been previously performed by general practitioners, was becoming specialized and Moynihan was private assistant in 1887-88 to Mayo-Robson, a pioneer in abdominal surgery in Leeds. Foreseeing the trend of surgery Moynihan trained himself deliberately to anticipate its arrival. He went to Berlin as a postgraduate student, and for many years spent his holidays in visiting the schools of surgery first in Europe and later in the United States. He was a brilliant and bold operator and early accepted the teachings of Lister. Gentle in his handling of tissues or, as he expressed it, “caressing” them, and a master of technique, his results were unusually satisfactory. He regarded every operation as a religious rite or sacrament, He felt the magnitude of the patient’s surrender of the whole future and even his life to the judgement and manual skill of a perhaps hitherto unknown surgeon. Himself a master of his craft, he taught that there must be the same high standard of achievement in every detail, and that at no stage of an operation should anything be left to chance. Operations on the liver and gall-bladder, upon the stomach, and “short-circuiting” for duodenal ulcer, more especially interested him, and he made his results widely known by means of articles, addresses, and communications to the medical press. He learnt from observation that the appearances in the living tissues differ widely from those in museum specimens. He was thus led to consider the whole subject of surgical pathology, popularized Allbutt’s phrase “the pathology of the living”, and was insistent that an institution should be founded where experimental surgery could be studied, to supplement the morbid surgical anatomy usually taught in the schools. In this he was successful during the latter years of his life when he was president of the College. Largely at his instigation and with the munificent assistance of Sir George Buckston Browne, an experimental surgical farm was founded at Downe in Kent. It was affiliated to the College and was placed under the mastership of Sir Arthur Keith, F.R.S., who had been conservator of the Hunterian Museum. Moynihan realized early in life that English surgeons knew little about the work of their colleagues and less about the progress of surgery abroad. He therefore established in 1909 a small visiting club, the members of which travelled from surgical centre to surgical centre, watched and commented upon the methods of their colleagues and confrères, and cemented many friendships. This visiting surgical club changed its name in 1929 and became the Moynihan Chirurgical Club. He was an excellent expositor and even dramatic in his showmanship for visitors to his own clinic. He knew how to advertise his work, but it was of the very best. He was instrumental in calling into existence the Association of Surgeons to bring together the surgeons of Great Britain and the Dominions; in this he was much helped by H. S. Pendlebury. He took a leading part in founding the *British Journal of Surgery* in 1913, and held the important office of chairman of the editorial committee from its beginning until his death; Ernest Hey Groves and George Cask were his chief supporters in this work. Under this guidance the venture proved successful, and in July 1936 the subscribers presented him with a statuette, wrought by Omar Ramsden, in silver, and a cheque for one thousand guineas. The cheque he handed to the College for the benefit of its library, and presented a replica of the statuette to stand on the table at meetings of the editorial committee. As a man Moynihan was fairly tall, strong and well made, and in youth his hair was of a fiery red colour. He was always on the alert, with a pleasant smile, and a ready repartee for any friendly attack. He spoke well in a soft voice and liked speaking, for he had a fund of humour, an attractive delivery, and a real feeling for language. His pupils were devoted to him, and his lectures were always well attended. He was interested and well informed in painting, literature, and music. He had visited most of the European galleries, where his anatomical and surgical knowledge enabled him to detect many pathological facts unwittingly recorded by the great artists of the renaissance and later periods. He retained his love of swimming and practised it until his life’s end. Many honours came to Moynihan. He was a member or fellow of the chief medical societies throughout the world. The University of Leeds made him an honorary LL.D. on the occasion of its twenty-fifth jubilee in 1924. He was elected a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons in 1917, and he delivered the first Murphy memorial lecture at Chicago in 1920 and presented a great mace “from the consulting surgeons of the British Armies to the American College of Surgeons in memory of mutual work and good fellowship in the European War 1914-18”. He delivered the Romanes lecture at Oxford in 1932, and the Linacre lecture at Cambridge in 1936. He was created a baronet in 1922, and seven years later was called to the House of Lords with a patent as Baron Moynihan of Leeds. Amongst his other activities was his work in connexion with the Cancer Research Campaign fund at Leeds, when a sum of £150,000 was raised. As president of the Voluntary Euthanasia Legislation Society he had undertaken to introduce a Euthanasia Bill in the autumn session of 1936 in the House of Lords. Shortly before his death he had joined the Board of Directors of Droitwich Spa, and had intended to devote himself to its development as a centre for the cure of rheumatism. Moynihan’s name is inscribed in the Town Hall, Leeds among the Freeman of the City, and a ward has been named after him at the General Infirmary. His instruments are in the museum of the Leeds Medical School. His portrait, three-quarter length seated, was painted by Richard Jack, R.A., in 1927. The likeness is good but the hands do credit neither to sitter nor painter. The painting hands in the Board Room of the General Infirmary at Leeds; his own replica he presented to the Royal College of Surgeons shortly before his death. It hangs in the first hall, and beneath it is an inscribed silver tablet worked by Omar Ramsden. The same craftsman made the chain and badge of office, which Moynihan gave for the presidents of the Association of Surgeons. A bust by Sir William Reid Dick, R.A., in a setting designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens, P.R.A., stands half-way up the main staircase facing the main entrance to the General Infirmary at Leeds; it was unveiled in the autumn of 1939. A bronze cast of his hands is in the library of the Leeds Medical School, with a replica in the City Art Gallery. The Medical School also possesses a bronze bust by F. J. Wilcoxson; the Royal College of Surgeons has a marble bust by Wilcoxson, presented by Lord Moynihan’s son. Starting as the son of a poor widow, Moynihan left a very large fortune due entirely to his own exertions; but he was no grasper after money, as was shown by the numbers of patients upon whom he operated in private either gratuitously or for a greatly reduced fee. He left bequests for eponymous lectures at Leeds University and the Royal College of Surgeons. The first Leeds biennial Moynihan lecture was delivered by Gordon Gordon-Taylor in October 1940; the first Moynihan lecture at the College by E. W. Hey Groves on 14 March 1940. Moynihan made time by early rising for much excellent writing during his busiest years of practice. His articles on clinical subjects were masterly, progressive, and clear. His later addresses on medico-political or historical subjects were full of knowledge and wisdom, and inspiring to his hearers. He had a natural gift for the short, memorable phrase, and cultivated his skill in selecting and arranging words. His surgical writings deal mainly with abdominal conditions and the appropriate treatment. Sir Arthur F. Hurst in his Harveian Oration for 1937, dealing with the physiology of the stomach, draws attention to the clinical picture of duodenal ulcer drawn by Moynihan; he says “It is as much a piece of original research as the discovery of a new element or a new star, and equally deserving of recognition”. *Principal publications*: Mesenteric cysts. *Ann. Surg*. 1897, 26, 1-30. On the anatomy and pathology of the rarer forms of hernia. Arris and Gale lectures. *Lancet*, 1900, 1, 513-521; *Brit. med. J*. 1900, 1, 435-441 and 503-508. The surgery of chronic ulcer of the stomach. *Brit. med. J.* 1900, 2,1631. Pancreatic cysts. *Med. Chron.* 1902, 2, 241-284. Tumours of the mesentery. *Ibid.* 1902, 3, 345-371. The operative treatment of gastric and duodenal ulcers. *Med.-Chir. Trans.*, 1903, 86, 513-557. *Gallstones and their surgical treatment*. Philadelphia, 1904; 2nd edition, 1905. *Abdominal operations*. London, 1905; 4th edition, 2 vols. 1926. Surgery of the pancreas, in Keen’s *Surgery,* 1908, 3, 1035-1067. Surgery of the spleen. *Ibid.* pp.1068-1093. *Duodenal ulcer.* London, 1910; 2nd edition, 1912. *The pathology of the living and other essays.* London, 1910. On the treatment of gun-shot wounds. *Brit. med. J. *1916, 1, 333-337. *The spleen and some of its diseases,* Bradshaw lecture, R.C.S. 1920. London, 1921. Cancer of the stomach. *Practitioner*, 1928, 121, 137-148. *Addresses on surgical subjects*. London, 1928. A full bibliography by S. Wood is in the College library; it was published in *Univ. Leeds med. Soc. Mag*. 1937, 7, 111-116.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000226
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Thomas, John Llewellyn (1864 - 1957)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-05-18 2014-07-18
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/372414372414
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born in 1864 he was educated at St Bartholomew's Hospital, where he served as house surgeon. He was resident medical officer at Farringdon General Dispensary, and medical superintendent of the Mildmay Mission Hospital at Bethnal Green. He went to Colombo, Ceylon as a medical missionary about 1901, but returned to Barnet, Herts after the first world war. He was for a time medical superintendent of the Bristol Medical Missionary Society, living at Clifton; then practised for some twelve years at Foulsham, Norfolk; and finally retired to Barnet about 1938. He died there on 22 February 1957 aged 92, survived by his wife Mary McLeod and three daughters. Mrs Thomas died at Cheddar on 17 July 1962 aged 95, and was buried at Barnet.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000227
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Wallace, Sir Cuthbert Sidney (1867 - 1944)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-05-18 2023-01-13
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/372415372415
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born at Surbiton, Surrey, on 20 June 1867, the fourth and youngest son of the Rev John Wallace, of Weysprings, Haselmere, and his wife Marion Kezia Jane Agnes Greenway, the daughter of Francis Howard Greenway, a convicted forger and later a prominent architect in Australia. He was educated at Haileybury, 1881-86, and at St Thomas's Hospital. After taking the Fellowship in 1893 he went on, the following year, to the London M.B., B.S. examination, at which he won the gold medal in obstetric medicine and qualified for the gold medal in surgery. At St Thomas's Wallace served as house surgeon, senior obstetric house physician, and surgical registrar 1894-96, and in 1897 was appointed resident assistant surgeon. In this post he began the introduction of the strictest asepsis into the Hospital's practice, and by his enthusiasm and practical ability persuaded the senior staff and the governors to carry through the necessary re-equipment of the operating theatres and the modernizing and electrifying of the wards. The material needs of this pioneer policy were supplied by the Gassiot bequest. As a result of this modernization, hospital authorities and surgeons of many countries came to look to St Thomas's and to Wallace for inspiration and advice in similar problems. In the middle of this work Wallace volunteered for active war service in South Africa. He served 1899-1900 as surgeon to the Portland Hospital under his friend Anthony Bowlby of Bart's, won the medal, and recorded his experiences jointly with Bowlby in *A civilian war hospital*, published in 1901. His experience of the surgery of war-wounds came to stand him in good stead for later, greater campaigns. Returning to London he developed a brilliant career. Wallace's hands were particularly in demand in cases of enlarged prostate and of acute appendicitis; his surgery was marked by skilled economy of time and perspicacious common-sense. At St Thomas's he passed through the offices of assistant surgeon 1900, surgeon 1913, and lecturer on surgery. He was also surgeon to the East London Hospital for Children. He was dean of St Thomas's Hospital Medical School in 1907, a post to which he returned more than ten years later. On the outbreak of the war he went to France as consulting surgeon to the First Army, British Expeditionary Force, with the temporary rank of colonel, Army Medical Service, dated 29 April 1915; he was promoted major-general on 19 December 1917. Bowlby as consultant to the Second Army at St Omer had oversight of the First as well. Authority disapproved of surgical interference in gunshot wounds of the belly; but Wallace was sympathetic to the urgent appeals of his juniors, and "smuggled" the necessary instruments to the front when inspecting casualty clearing stations; thanks to his encouragement the field surgery of abdominal wounds quickly vindicated itself in practice. John Campbell made the first successful operation for gunshot wound of the stomach, Owen Richards, F.R.C.S. the first successful small-intestine resection, and Claude Frankau, F.R.C.S the first successful resection of the colon for gunshot injury. Wallace's survey of these and further results in his *War surgery of the abdomen*, 1918, became a classic textbook, in demand on the renewal of war in the next generation. He also published jointly with Sir John Fraser, K.C.V.O., *Surgery at a casualty clearing station*, illustrated by Lady Fraser, 1918. While in France, Wallace took a major share in the disposition and administration of the base hospitals. On 28 October 1915 he was called to attend King George V, who had been thrown from his horse while inspecting the R.F.C. aerodrome at Hesdigneul; the King was seriously injured, but resumed full activity in the following February. Wallace was nearly captured at St Venant, when his driver took a wrong turn during the German spring offensive of 1918. For his war service Wallace was created C.M.G in 1916 and C.B. in 1918, and promoted K.C.M.G. in 1919; he had been several times mentioned in despatches, and was also awarded the American Distinguished Service Medal. It was in these years that Wallace found scope for the fullest exercise of his great abilities both surgical and administrative. On his return to St Thomas's he served as senior surgeon and director of the surgical unit for several years, being then elected consulting surgeon, and was dean of the medical school for a record period. He was also dean of the Medical Faculty of the University of London. At the Royal College of Surgeons he was elected both to Court and Council in 1919, and served on the Court for ten years and on the Council for twenty-four years till within a few months of his death. In 1923 and 1929 he was appointed an examiner in surgery on the Dental Board; he gave the Bradshaw lecture in 1927, and the Hunterian oration in 1934. He was a vice-president in 1926-27, and president 1935-38. In 1937 he was created a Baronet. Wallace was elected a trustee of the Hunterian collection in 1942. In February 1943 he put before the Council an informal memorandum on the Fellowship. He gave the College library a specially typed copy of the unpublished autobiography of Sir George Makins, under whom he had long served at St Thomas's, at the College, and in France; he had it finely bound by Mrs Loosely, sister of Sir D'Arcy Power, one of the best bookbinders in the country. Wallace's counsel was much in demand. He served on the Radium Commission and the Medical Research Council, and was chairman of the M.R.C. radiology committee; from 1930 he was director of medical services and research at the Mount Vernon Hospital, Hampstead, under the M.R.C. and the Radium Commission. From 1920 he was a hospital visitor under King Edward's Hospital Fund for London, and later a member of its general council and distribution committee. He was also chairman of several committees of the British Empire Cancer Campaign; and for nine years (1935-44) chairman of the London and Counties Medical Protection Society. During the official visit of British surgeons on 5 and 6 July 1937 to the newly reconstituted Académie de Chirurgie in Paris he was decorated an Officer of the Legion of Honour by the President of the Republic. In 1929 he was gazetted honorary colonel of the 47th (2nd London) Unit of the R.A.M.C. (T.F.). On the outbreak of the second world-war Wallace was appointed chairman of the consultant advisers to the Ministry of Health's emergency medical service; he was also a member of the Army Medical Advisory Board, and in June 1940 was appointed chairman of the Medical Research Council's committee on the application of the results of research to the treatment of war wounds. He received honorary degrees from Oxford, Durham, and Birmingham Universities, and was an honorary Fellow of the American Surgical Association. He took an active interest in the welfare of his old school, Haileybury. Wallace married on 6 July 1912 Florence Mildred, youngest daughter of Herbert Jackson of Sussex Place, Regent's Park, who survived him but without children. He had lived at 5 Cambridge Terrace, Regent's Park N.W., and died in Mount Vernon Hospital on 24 May 1944, less than a month before his seventy-seventh birthday. He was privately buried and a memorial service, arranged by the Royal College, St Thomas's, and Mount Vernon, was held in the chapel of Lincoln's Inn on 8 June 1944. His country house was at Whipsnade, near Dunstable, Bedfordshire. Wallace was a brilliant surgeon whose *obiter dicta*, such as "the surgeon who does not trust the peritoneum if not fit to do abdominals", or "the key to gastrectomy is the mobilisation of the lesser curvature", were treasured by those who heard them. He made his way to a unique place among his fellow surgeons by sheer ability and honest practical shrewdness, coupled with a warm-hearted wish to help, whether as surgeon, teacher, or counsellor. He was of middle height and upright carriage, and in later years with his bright complexion and white hair had the air of a distinguished solider, accentuated by his pepper-and-salt suit and blue-and-white spotted bow-tie. He was an excellent chairman, as economic of time here as he had been in the operating theatre. His somewhat brusque manner and speech were belied by his humour and his ability to win the affection of all with whom he worked. *Publications*: Wallace contributed in early years to *St Thomas's Hospital Reports* and to the *Transactions* of the Clinical and Pathological Societies. His writings include: *A civilian war hospital, being an account of the work of the Portland Hospital and of experience of wounds and sickness in South Africa* [issued anonymously, with A. Bowlby]. London, 1901. *Prostatic enlargement*, with section on *Bacteriology* by Leonard S. Dudgeon. London, 1907. A study of 1200 cases of gunshot wounds of the abdomen. *Brit. J. Surg.* 1917, 4, 679-743. *War surgery of the abdomen*. London, 1918. *Surgery at a casualty clearing station*, with Sir John Fraser; illustrated by Lady Fraser. London, 1918. *Surgery of the war*, edited jointly with Sir Wm. Grant Macpherson, Sir A. A. Bowlby, and Sir T. Crisp English, in the official War Office *History of the Medical Services in the Great War of 1914-18*. H.M.S.O., 1922, 2 vols. A review of prostatic enlargement, Bradshaw lecture, R.C.S. *Lancet*, 1927, 2, 1059-1064. *Medical education 1760-1934*, Hunterian oration, R.C.S., 1934. Not published, the author's transcript is in the College library. *Thoughts on the Fellowship*, 1943. Unpublished memorandum laid before the College Council, February 1943. **This is an amended version of the original obituary which was printed in volume 2 of Plarr’s Lives of the Fellows. Please contact the library if you would like more information lives@rcseng.ac.uk**
Resource Identifier RCS: E000228
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Lett, Sir Hugh (1876 - 1964)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-05-18 2012-03-14
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URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372416372416
Occupation General surgeon
Details Hugh Lett came of an Anglo-Irish family but was born on 17 April 1876 at Waddingham, Kirton, Lincolnshire, where his father Richard Alfred Lett (M.B. Dublin 1869) was in general practice; his grandfather had also been a doctor. He was educated at Marlborough College and kept a close connection with the school, becoming a life governor and chairman of the school club and helping to compile the Record of the Old Marlburians. His surgical career was spent at the London Hospital, where he came as a student from Leeds Medical School in 1896. He qualified from Leeds in 1899, took the Conjoint Diploma in February 1901, and the Fellowship in June 1902. He was appointed surgical registrar at the London in 1902, becoming assistant surgeon 1905, surgical tutor 1909-12, surgeon 1915, and consulting surgeon 1934 when he retired. In the first world war Lett served from its outbreak (1914) in France, and later in Belgium and Egypt, was promoted Major, R.A.M.C., and awarded the CBE in 1920. Though his main interest was urology, he was always a general surgeon and his writings, while not frequent, covered many topics. He was one of the first to advocate adequate operation for appendicitis, to prevent recurrence. Between the wars Lett began to find operating sessions wearisome, and it was noticed that in the theatre he lost his usual imperturbability. Fortunately he had great abilities as an administrator and medical statesman, which he became free to use for the benefit of his colleagues and the country by retiring relatively young. Lett's association with the College was long, close, and extremely valuable. He served on the Court of Examiners 1923-25 and on the Council 1927-43. He was elected President in 1938 and held office for the customary three years, which were sadly spoiled for him by the anxieties and disasters of the war. Already before war broke out he was taking a personal initiative in safeguarding the College's treasures. He travelled to Aberystwyth in the summer of 1939 and arranged the removal of the most valuable paintings, books and other treasures to the National Library of Wales, and during 1940 secured a generous grant from the Rockefeller Foundation to evacuate the library to the west country. In May 1941 the Museum was bombed and much of the collection destroyed, in spite of Lett's provision of a deep vault to protect thousands of the Hunterian specimens. After this disaster he actively supported his successor Sir Alfred Webb-Johnson (as he then was) in planning to restore the Museum. He became a Hunterian Trustee in 1942, was the first permanent Chairman of Trustees 1955-59, and lived to see the Museum successfully renewed. He had been Bradshaw Lecturer in 1936, speaking on "The early diagnosis and treatment of tuberculous disease of the kidney", and was Thomas Vicary Lecturer in 1942, when he described "Anatomy at Barbers' Hall", an address based on original research. Lett married in 1906 Nellie, only daughter of (Sir) Buckston Browne F.R.C.S., a leading London urologist and afterwards one of the College's most munificent benefactors. Lett took an active interest in his father-in-law's two foundations at Downe: the Darwin Museum and the Surgical Research Farm. Sir Buckston had also endowed a dinner at the College, and in the year of Lett's Presidency he gave each guest a silver box full of snuff. Lady Lett died before her husband, on 9 August 1963, and Sir Hugh was survived by their three daughters. Lett was created a Baronet in 1941 while President of the College, and KCVO in 1947 to recognise his work for King Edward's Hospital Fund for London, where he had been one of the honorary secretaries since 1941. He was particularly concerned with the King's Fund's work for nurses and was the first chairman of its Staff College of Ward Sisters. He had previously been President of the Hunterian Society in 1917, and its Orator in 1919, President of the Sections of Surgery and of Urology at the Royal Society of Medicine in 1932-33, and Master of the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries in 1937-38. He was Chairman of the war-time Committee of Reference for allocation of medical man-power, and in 1946 succeeded his former surgical colleague Sir Henry Souttar as President of the British Medical Association. In this position his wise statesmanship proved invaluable to the profession and the nation in preparing for the start of the National Health Service. Lett was a tall man of serious demeanour, kindly and affable, utterly without affectation, and upright in all his ways. He was meticulous and regular in business, firm but courteous in personal contacts, and made an admirable chairman, with a wealth of experience and innate common sense. As a young man he enjoyed fencing and golf, but music was his favourite recreation, for he was an accomplished cellist. Lady Lett gave the College the portrait of her husband by Sir James Gunn R.A., which admirably catches his reserved, but slightly quizzical look, and gave a different portrait by the same artist to the Society of Apothecaries. Sir Hugh Lett died at his home at Walmer on 19 July 1964 at the age of 88. He had been so active and prominent in professional affairs that he was still widely known and held in affectionate regard by many colleagues much younger than himself, although he had retired from surgery thirty years earlier. Throughout his long life "he nothing common did or mean", but remained a pattern of unobtrusive and unselfish virtue.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000229
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Webb-Johnson, Sir Alfred Edward, Lord Webb-Johnson of Stoke-on-Trent (1880 - 1958)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-05-25 2012-04-12
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URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372417372417
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born on 4 September 1880 eldest of the two sons and two daughters of Samuel Johnson (1846-99), Medical Officer of Health for Stoke-on-Trent and Julia his wife, daughter of James Webb. Mrs Johnson died only in 1931; her children had all adopted her maiden surname, Webb, before their father's name. Dr Johnson came of North Irish Presbyterian stock and had graduated M.D., M.Ch at Queen's College in the old Royal University, Belfast. (There is an obituary notice in *Transactions of the Obstetrical Society*, London, 1900, *42*, 71.) Alfred Webb-Johnson was educated at the Victoria University of Manchester, winning prizes and scholarships in surgery, and graduated in 1903; he then became surgical registrar at the Royal Infirmary. Coming to London he was appointed resident medical officer to the Middlesex Hospital in 1907, and rapidly made his mark as a brilliant operator. He also won the life-long friendship of Sir John Bland-Sutton, then one of the leading personalities on the Hospital's staff. He became Assistant Surgeon in 1911 and ultimately consulting surgeon, but played a larger part in the Hospital's administration than in its purely clinical work. He was Dean of the Medical School 1919-25, and chairman of the rebuilding committee 1925-35, when he successfully raised very large sums of money and attracted influential support with the help of the slogan "Middlesex Hospital is falling down". He was later a Governor and finally Vice-President of the Hospital. A ward was named after him in his life-time, and his widow gave a stained-glass window to the Chapel in his memory in 1964. He was also consulting surgeon to Chesham, Southend, and Woolwich Hospitals. Webb-Johnson was a keen territorial officer; he served at Wimereux on the French coast during the first world war and was awarded the D.S.O. and the C.B.E. for his distinguished work "in connection with military operations in the field". He rose to the rank of Colonel, Army Medical Service, and later served on the Army Medical Board, becoming its chairman in 1946. During the second world war he was, among other public services, President of the Anglo-Soviet Medical Committee from September 1941. He was a personal friend of Queen Mary, and Her Majesty's surgeon in the years of her widowhood, 1936-53. He was an honorary Freeman of the Barbers Company (1949), and President of Epsom College from 1951. He was also for many years President of the Royal Medical Benevolent Fund. In the Order of St John of Jerusalem he was a Knight of Justice, Hospitaller from 1946, and one of the three Bailiffs Grand Cross from 1955. He was an honorary Fellow of many British and foreign surgical colleges and societies, and a member of several clubs, particularly favouring the Garrick, where a dinner was given in his honour in 1955. He was a Deputy Lieutenant for the County of London, and Lord High Steward of Newcastle-under-Lyme. At the College he was a Hunterian Professor in 1917 and enlarged his lectures on *Surgical Complications of Typhoid and Paratyphoid Fevers* to form a book of 190 pages (Oxford University Press 1919). Although a good public speaker and amusing in conversation, he was not a frequent writer but took infinite pains to prepare interesting lectures such as his Syme Oration (1938) at the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons on the history of British surgery, and his Bradshaw Lecture (1940) "Pride and prejudice in the treatment of cancer". He served on the Court of Examiners 1926-36 becoming its chairman, and also examined for Cambridge. He was a Member of Council 1932-50, was elected President in 1941 just after the bombing of the College and was re-elected annually seven times, resigning in 1949. He was awarded the Honorary Medal in 1950, elected a Hunterian Trustee also in 1950, and chosen for the first Court of Patrons in 1956. As President, Webb-Johnson threw his energies into gathering support to rebuild the College and extend its activity; his efforts were as successful here as they had been at the Middlesex Hospital. The enlarged and beautified College house, improved ceremonial, monthly dinners to increase and maintain interest among Fellows and Members, a regular programme of teaching and research, formation of special Faculties and endowment of professorships were achieved through his masterful management, though he sometimes took credit for improvements devised by others. He was a difficult man to serve since he was jealous of rivalry from his colleagues and overbearing to his officials. Several of the College Professors resigned rather than work under him, and at the Royal Society of Medicine, where he was President 1950-52, he discharged the Secretary who had served the Society with success for twenty-five years. Webb-Johnson married in 1911 Cecilia Flora, daughter of Douglas Gordon McRae. She supported all her husband's interests and many charitable causes of her own, both personally and with her wealth. She endowed the Hunterian Museum with the McRae/Webb-Johnson Fund in 1952 in memory of her parents and to record her husband's work. After his death she made many generous gifts of furniture, books, portraits etc. to the College and took an active share in the work of the Committee for Artistic and Historical Possessions. She was elected to the Court of Patrons (1956), awarded the Honorary Medal (1956), and was the first woman to be a Hunterian Trustee (1966). Lord Webb-Johnson died on 28 May 1958 and Lady Webb-Johnson on 15 March 1968.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000230
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Wakeley, Sir Cecil Pembrey Grey (1892 - 1979)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-05-25 2012-03-08
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URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372418372418
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born the eldest son of 12 children on 5 May 1892 at Meresborough House in the country near Rainham, Kent, Cecil Wakeley always looked upon himself as a countryman born and bred and would recall riding his own pony at the age of four. In 1904 he started attending King's School, Rochester, as a day boy travelling by train and in 1906 was severely ill with pneumonia. In 1907 the family moved to Dulwich where he entered the College and three years later in 1910 he went to King's College Hospital, with which he was to be identified for the rest of his life. He qualified in 1915 and joined the Royal Navy for the next four years as Surgeon-Lieutenant, spending most of his time aboard the hospital ship *Garth Castle* at Scapa Flow. His link with the Navy lasted all his life, first as a consultant and in the second world war as Surgeon Rear-Admiral when he worked at the Royal Naval Hospital, Haslar. The rolling gait with which he traversed the corridors at King's and the Royal College of Surgeons, his two great loves, was that of a seafaring man. Success and honour came early in life to him and he lived long enough to enjoy them to the full. In 1922 he was appointed to the staff at King's and was senior surgeon by the age of 41, remaining so for the next quarter of a century. He was consultant to the Belgrave Hospital for Children, the Royal Masonic and the Maida Vale Hospital for Nervous Diseases. In addition he was a member of Council of the College and eventually President from 1949 to 1954, at a period of immense importance since it witnessed the completion of the College's very ambitious rebuilding programme, the establishment of the Faculties of Dental Surgery and Anaesthesia and the setting up of the academic units and their laboratories. His limitless vitality and splendid powers of leadership were shown to their best at that time. In addition to all his other duties he found time to be President of the Association of Physiotherapy, Hunterian Society, Medical Society of London and the Royal Life Saving Society. He examined for both the Primary and Final Fellowship examinations as well as the medical degrees at many universities in the UK and overseas. He was also a Hunterian Orator, Hunterian Professor five times and Erasmus Wilson, Bradshaw, and Thomas Vicary Lecturer. He was Chairman of the Trustees of the Hunterian Collection and received the College's Gold Medal for his services. Wakeley was a first class teacher and his legible, bold handwriting was an indication of his clear, uncluttered thinking. He was wonderfully cheerful and never seemed to forget a face or a name. He had a kind word of encouragement for everyone and never failed to give sound and practical advice to any doctor, nurse or student who came to him for help. He was a very positive, swift surgeon and the length of his operating lists and the variety of problems he tackled was legendary. Sir Cecil was the author of many textbooks and edited 'Rose and Carless' for a generation. For twenty years he edited the *British journal of surgery* and in 1947 he founded the *Annals of the Royal College of Surgeons of England* which he continued to edit until 1969. He was for a long time editor of the now defunct *Medical press and circular*. In addition to his own prolific output he always encouraged younger workers to write and helped them to get their work published. He was devout practising Churchman and long presided over the Lord's Day Observance Society. The service of thanksgiving for his life's work which was held at All Saints', Langham Place, London and was attended by the President and Council of the College, was a particularly happy occasion and reflected very faithfully his joy of living and the great contribution he had made in his 87 years. In 1925 Wakeley married Elizabeth Muriel Nicholson-Smith and there were three sons, two of whom are medically qualified, his eldest son is a consultant surgeon in Chester. In 1975 they celebrated their golden wedding anniversary. Sir Cecil died on June 5, 1979.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000231
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Platt, Sir Harry (1886 - 1986)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-05-25 2012-03-13
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URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372419372419
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon
Details Harry Platt, the eldest son of Ernest Platt, a master velvet cutter, and of Jessie Cameron Platt (née Lindsey), was born at Thornham, Lancashire, on 7 October 1886. His father later became chairman of United Velvet Cutters, Ltd, and both parents lived to be nonagenarians. Harry's life was dominated by the development of a tuberculous knee joint at the age of five, though the diagnosis was somewhat delayed. As a result of this he was frequently confined to bed and his early education, which was notably catholic, was undertaken privately at home. He read widely and became quite fluent in French and German, as well as a highly proficient musician and pianist. The knee trouble precluded any active participation in sport though his three younger brothers excelled in athletics. Despite the knee problem he had a very happy childhood; but it is significant that, in later life, he remarked that his parents found it far harder to come to terms with his physical handicap than he himself did. Fortunately he was referred to Robert Jones, the internationally renowned orthopaedic surgeon, for whom he formed a deep affection and from whom he received some of his later training. Music became the passion of Harry's childhood, and in 1903 he prepared three compositions for the Mendelssohn scholarship which was won that year by George Dyson (later Sir George) who went on to become a distinguished composer and Principal of the Royal College of Music in London. After momentary indecision, and partly influenced by Robert Jones, Harry opted for medicine. On entering the Victoria University of Manchester without previous scientific training he had great difficulty with physics and chemistry. He was in the same year as Geoffrey Jefferson, the distinguished neurosurgeon, and they remained lifelong friends. They recall that there were three women student contemporaries who were then kept completely separate in their studies! After an outstanding undergraduate career, he qualified in 1909 from both Victoria and London Universities and secured the gold medal in London. After resident and registrar appointments at Manchester Royal Infirmary with Sir William Thorburn, he demonstrated anatomy in Grafton Elliot Smith's department at Manchester. He later passed the mastership and fellowship examinations, and secured the MD, Manchester, with gold medal, for his thesis on peripheral nerve injuries. His orthopaedic training was mainly at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital in London, and in Boston, USA, with Elliot Brackett and R. B. Osgood at Massachusetts General Hospital and the Children's Hospital, whilst he also observed Harvey Cushing's neurosurgery at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital. In the days before travelling scholarships he depended upon his father's support and recalled how he had sailed from Liverpool to Boston on *S. S. Franconia* for £15 in a small first-class cabin. Whilst in Boston he read voraciously the orthopaedic journals in English, French and German, and deeply savoured the musical and operatic life. On returning to England in 1914 he was appointed surgeon to Ancoats Hospital, Manchester, where he organised the first special fracture department in Great Britain. On the outbreak of the first world war he became a Captain RAMC and was appointed by Sir Robert Jones, the then Army consultant in orthopaedics, to be surgeon-in-charge of a military orthopaedic centre in Manchester. It was there that he acquired his considerable experience of nerve injuries and undertook studies in bone-grafting. He showed great organising ability and later described himself very truthfully as a contemplative man, more of a physician, and "not naturally a great craftsman." He later fostered many other institutions - the Ethel Hadley Hospital, Windermere, and the Children's Hospital at Biddulph Grange, Staffordshire. In 1920 he became consultant orthopaedic surgeon to Lancashire County Council and surgical director of the Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital, Oswestry, and in 1932 orthopaedic surgeon to the Manchester Royal Infirmary, subsequently to become its first Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery in 1939. He held all of these posts until his retirement and, with the inception of the NHS, he also served on the Board of Governors of the Manchester Royal Infirmary from 1948 to 1963. Between the two world wars Harry sometimes claimed that he had won the Ashes for England in 1932, having declared one of Harold Larwood's knees as fit for the notorious "bodyline" tour. During the second world war he was consultant adviser in orthopaedic surgery to the Emergency Medical Service and an active member of innumerable government committees and other public bodies after the war. He had been elected to the Council of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1940, serving there for eighteen years and being Vice-President 1949-50 and President 1954-1957. He had received the accolade of Knight Bachelor in 1948 and, as was then the custom, was awarded a baronetcy on completing the Presidency of the College. He also became a member of the Court of Patrons of the College and an honorary Fellow of the Faculty of Dental Surgeons and, quite exceptionally, continued to serve on one College committee until well into his eighties when he was also appointed a Knight of the Order of St John. He received honorary degrees from the Universities of Berne, Manchester, Liverpool, Belfast, Leeds and Paris; honorary fellowships of the surgical colleges of American, Canada, South Africa, Australasia and Denmark, and honorary membership of the orthopaedic associations and societies of most countries in the western world and of Latin America. He had been a founder member of the British Orthopaedic Association in 1916, its President in 1934-5 and ultimately an honorary Fellow. A founder member of the Societé Internationale de Chirurgie Orthopaedique et de Traumatologie in 1929, he was its President from 1948 to 1953; he was also President of the International Federation of Surgical Colleges 1955-1966, and its honorary President from 1970. He had been a founder member of the Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland in 1919 and was President of the Royal Society of Medicine from 1931 and 1932. He contributed to nine textbooks on orthopaedic surgery and peripheral nerve injuries, and a list of all his publications is recorded in the *Journal of bone and joint surgery*, Harry Platt Birthday Volume, 48-B, No.4, November 1966. As a man, Sir Harry displayed formidable energy and drive, both physical and mental, despite the handicap of a much shortened leg supported by an appliance. In early years he had a rather shy nature, married to considerable intellectual arrogance, making it difficult for many folk to get to know him well though friends became more numerous as increasing age brought greater intolerance. Many were greatly amused and enlightened by his astringent - often acidulous - comments on colleagues and affairs in general. Privately it was his firm belief that a committee of one was the quickest way to get things done! But his many great qualities of mind and heart, his organisational ability and his far-seeing philosophical outlook more than compensated for any abruptness of manner on first encounter. He married Gertrude Sarah Turney in 1917 and they had one son, who is a barrister, and four daughters. His wife predeceased him in 1980 after 63 years of marriage though for some time prior to her death she had been under institutional care. He continued to live alone with an ever lively mind and intellect, and he had a prodigious memory, even as he approached his century. Shortly before that he gave a five hour interview to a reporter from the *British medical journal* in which he showed a remarkable recollection of names and past events. His birthday was marked by an orthopaedic festschrift attended by surgeons from many countries - not a few of international renown. A dinner was held at Manchester University on the evening of Tuesday 7 October 1986, attended by a company of 338, with all of whom he insisted on shaking hands while seated in his wheel-chair. After several speeches and presentations had been made the hardy old warrior stood up and spoke for 25 minutes in a firm voice and without a note. A month later, in a last visit to his surgical alma mater he was entertained to dinner in the council room by the President and Vice-Presidents, and by four of the five surviving fellow Past-Presidents. When he died a few months later on 20 December 1986 he was survived by his son, who inherited the baronetcy, and by his four daughters. A memorial service was held in Manchester Cathedral on 6 March 1987 at which the address was given by A.H.C. Ratcliff, FRCS. A portrait by Sir William Oliphant Hutchison PRSA hangs in the College.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000232
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Bryan, Edward Langdon ( - 1872)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

First Title value, for Searching Bryan, John Morgan (1809 - 1894)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2010-05-26
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001000-E001099
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373192373192
Occupation General surgeon
Details Was apprenticed to Dr Clark at the age of 19, after which he completed his medical training at St Bartholomew’s and Guy’s Hospitals. Settling in practice in Northampton, he became well known locally. He was a strong supporter of the British Medical Association, and from 1860-1877 was Co-Secretary and from 1880-1883 Treasurer of the South Midland Branch. He was President of the Branch in 1873, and represented it for a time on the General Council and on the Parliamentary Bills Committee of the Association. On retiring from the secretary-ship in 1877 he was presented with a testimonial (a silver salver with inscription) by his fellow-members. His whole heart and soul were in his Association work, for which his social qualities peculiarly fitted him. He was for seven years Surgeon to the Northampton Royal Victoria Dispensary, and at the time of his death was Hon Local Secretary to the Birmingham Medical Benevolent Association, Medical Officer and Public Vaccinator for the All Saints’ District of the Northampton Union, and Medical Examiner for Govern¬ment and other Insurance Societies. He died in April, 1894. Publications: “Case of Poisoning by Strychnia: Recovery.” – *Brit. Med. Jour*., 1857, 604. “Protracted Miscarriage.” – *Ibid.*, 1858, 885. “Cynanche Trachealis vel Stridula.” – *Ibid.*, 1860, 519.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001009
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Bryant, Walter John (1813 - 1888)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2010-05-26
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001000-E001099
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373193373193
Occupation General surgeon
Details Was apprenticed to his father, Dr John Bryant, for many years a successful practitioner in the Edgware Road. He was entered as a student at University College Hospital in 1834, where he studied under Liston, Samuel Cooper, Jones Quain, and Elliotson, and among his fellow-students were Richard Quain, Morton, Erichsen, and W Wood. He was House Surgeon under Liston, with whom he formed a strong and enduring friendship. He married in 1840 the daughter of Major Parris, entered into partnership with his father, and on the retirement of the latter in 1843 moved to Sussex Square, where he acquired a large and remunerative practice. Bred up in the old school, he had great faith in the value of drug treatment, whilst leaving no stone unturned to benefit his patient in every other direction. His ingenuity in contriving means of relieving pain, and in the general management of the sick-room, was of striking value to him. At the bedside he was always cheerful and optimistic, and socially he made his mark as a well-informed man possessed of a fund of anecdote. He was especially successful as an obstetrician and in the care of children, but unfortunately has left no records of his great experience. He withdrew from practice little by little, and about the year 1870 took up his residence at a house which he had built at Burghfield, near Reading. He came up to town thenceforward three or four times a week in order to see patients. He suffered from chronic cystitis, and in March, 1888, developed senile gangrene. He died on May 14th, 1888, leaving a widow and six children, of whom the eldest, John Henry Bryant, MRCS, was at the time Medical Officer of Health in Gibraltar. Walter John Bryant's addresses were 23a Sussex Square, and High Woods, Burghfield Hill, Reading. At the time of his death he was Hon Local Secretary of the Medical Benevolent College and Medical Officer of the Great Western Hotel, and was for some years Consulting Physician to the Home for Incurable Children, Maida Vale, as well as Surgeon Major to the Royal Bucks Yeomanry.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001010
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

First Title value, for Searching Clerke, (or Clerk) Jonathan ( - 1869)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2011-06-02 2013-08-07
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001100-E001199
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373381373381
Occupation General surgeon
Details Practised first at Rathmines, and then at Castlemartyr, Co Cork, where he died June 29th, 1869.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001198
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Clifton, Nathaniel Henry (1818 - 1881)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2011-06-02
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001100-E001199
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373382373382
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born on November 29th, 1818, in the house in Cross Street, Islington, where his father and his grandfather had practised before him. He was educated at the Islington Proprietary School and at Charterhouse. He entered St Bartholomew's Hospital in 1837, and was made a Governor of the institution on Nov 26th, 1846, acted as Steward in 1852, as Auditor in 1853, and was put on the House Committee, in 1857. After qualifying in 1841 he took a week's holiday, and then joined his father in practice. Thereafter he went for thirty-seven years without twenty-four hours' holiday. His holiday, which consisted chiefly of a few hours' fishing, was always preceded by a day's work. Within these sharply defined limits he found time to dine with a friend or take part in public affairs. He made a point, in the late hours of the night, of making up his books and his list of patients for the morrow. If he were disturbed at night, as he was very often, he never went back to his bed, but took such rest as he could get in an easily extemporized position in his study. His practice was indeed very large and very arduous, and included many obstetric cases. At the time of his death Clifton was a Justice of the Peace for Middlesex, Consulting Surgeon to the Islington Dispensary, and a cordial supporter of the Medical Benevolent College and kindred institutions. He founded the Islington Medical Society. His father was the founder of the Islington Savings Bank, and he was for many years its Treasurer. In politics a Conservative, and an active member of the party, he yet conducted his contests, political and even ecclesiastical, with a characteristic absence of acerbity. He was genial, kindly, and quietly benevolent, with an underlying strength of character that compelled the respect of men of all parties, and especially of members of his own profession, by whom he was looked up to as a guide and friend. He himself was a model of professional behaviour. A man of large and powerful frame, he showed signs of failing health for several years before the end. He was for long ill of diabetes and albuminuria, being affectionately nursed by his sisters, and died unmarried at the old family house, 20 Cross Street, Islington, on Friday, January 21st, 1881. For many years he was in partnership with his father, Nathaniel Clifton, and latterly with Frank Godfrey. His portrait is in the Fellows' Album. The following interesting note on the association of an old family practice is from the *Lancet*, 1881, i, 195: "Some practices are the creation of one man. A larger number represent a principle of continuity, not to say heredity. The name of Mr Clifton carries the people of Islington back more than a hundred years. And yet over all this time a large section of the people of Islington have enjoyed the privilege of being attended by Mr Clifton or his immediate ancestors. It is not the least credit of the family that for this more than century of work only three successive members of the family have been necessary. The subject of our present notice was wont to tell how his grandfather took up his abode, lodging with a worthy baker, in Cross Street, Islington, over a hundred years since. Mr Clifton's grandfather was born in 1751, and was in practice before 1778. He died in 1822 in Cross Street, and was succeeded by his son, Nathaniel Clifton, who was born in 1786 and died in 1861 - all in Cross Street. Here too Mr Nathaniel Henry Clifton was born. "There is an element of permanence, a faithfulness to groove and place, in most good families, which is not to be unnoted. Cross Street, as it exists now, may not seem to passers through a romantic spot to which to fix one's existence, but to a man of Mr Clifton's character, with its historical baker's shop - which, by the way, still, we believe, survives - it had a claim and a charm to which the new-built villa has no pretensions."
Resource Identifier RCS: E001199
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Clippingdale, Samuel Dodd ( - 1925)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2011-06-07
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001200-E001299
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373383373383
Occupation General surgeon
Details The son of Samuel D Clippingdale, who practised in Colet Place, Commercial Road East. He received his medical education at the University of Aberdeen and at the London Hospital, where he was Surgical Scholar and House Physician. He was at one time a candidate for the Surgical Registrarship in competition with Sir Frederick Treves. He was for a considerable period Surgeon to the Kensington Dispensary and Children's Hospital, and was at one time President of the West London Medico-Chirurgical Society and Vice-President of the Section of Balneology and Climatology of the Royal Society of Medicine. He was also Police Surgeon for Kensington, and came before the public in his official capacity in the sensational Kensington murder trial, when a jealous husband, an Army officer, shot his wife's lover, but was subsequently proved to be of unsound mind due to shell-shock. Clippingdale was a familiar and respected figure in London medical circles and in the College Library. He possessed much charm of manner, being sympathetic and courteous after the fashion of the old school. As a medical biographer and antiquarian he belonged to the small body of those who devote themselves, with very little hope of reward or recognition, to the history of the profession. As a biographer he went into minute detail, relying much upon pedigrees, inscriptions on tombstones, and wills. He was a diligent searcher among the registers at Kensal Green Cemetery, where numbers of medical men, including Fellows of the College, lie buried. Heraldry, particularly medical heraldry, especially interested him. On the occasion of the bicentenary of the death of Joseph Addison, Mr Victor G Plarr bethought him of an idea which would at once interest and gratify this most charming modern representative of eighteenth-century amenities. He obtained leave, through Miss Nauen, the Secretary and Librarian to Lord Ilchester at Holland House, to be present with Dr Clippingdale in Addison's death-chamber at the same hour and minute when 'Mr Spectator' passed from this world. Addison died in the afternoon of June 17th, 1719, and late in the afternoon of June 17th, 1919, Dr Clippingdale and Mr Victor G. Plarr sat in the room in Holland House where the death occurred. Clippingdale had resided during his active years at 36 Holland Park Avenue, W, but after his retirement went to live at 17 Malvern Road, Hornsey, N. He died of enlarged prostate in the wards of the London Hospital on June 6th, 1925. Publications: "The Clay and Gravel Soils of London and the Relative Advisability of Dwelling upon them." - *Jour. Balneol. and Climat. Soc.*, 1902, vi, 14, 38, etc. "West London Rivers Extant and Extinct, and their Influence upon the Fertility and Salubrity of the Districts through which they Pass or Passed." - *West Lond. Med. Jour.*, 1909, xiv, 1. "A Medical Roll of Honour - Physicians and Surgeons who remained in London during the Great Plague," 8vo, London, 1909; reprinted from *Brit. Med. Jour.*, 1909, Feb. 6th. "Medical Parliamentary Roll (1558-1909)," 8vo, London, 1910; reprinted from *Brit. Med. Jour.* "Medical Baronets, 1645-1911," 8vo, London, 1912; reprinted from *Brit. Med. Jour.*, 1912, May 25th. "The Crest of Thomas Greenhill, Surgeon. An Heraldic Tribute to Human Fecundity," illustrated; reprinted from *West Lond. Med. Jour.*, 1914, xix, 286. "Heraldry and Medicine," original proof-sheets with illustrations of article in the *Antiquary*, 1915, Nov-Dec. (A printed copy of this is all that represents the author in the Surgeon-General's Library.) "Medical Court Roll, Physicians and Surgeons and some Apothecaries, who have attended the Sovereigns of England from William I to George V, with a Medical Note on Harold"; MS, 2 vols, fol. The two foregoing books were specially presented to the Library by the author. To the *London Hospital Gazette* he contributed a series of very careful biographies of former members of the Staff of the London Hospital, of whom a dozen were Fellows of the Royal College of Surgeons. - *London Hosp. Gaz.*, xix, xx, xxii, 1912. In the College Scrap-Book is a portrait of Margaret Nicholson, who attempted to assassinate George III. This was presented by Clippingdale and is accompanied by one of his careful biographical notes. "Quackery in Hammersmith in the 18th Century." - *West Lond. Med. Jour.*, 1909, xiv, 74.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001200
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Close, Anthony William ( - 1863)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

First Title value, for Searching Clover, Joseph Thomas (1825 - 1882)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2011-06-07
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001200-E001299
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373385373385
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born at Aylsham, Norfolk, and educated at Grey Friars Priory School, Norwich. He was apprenticed to Mr Gibson, a surgeon of high standing in the city, and became a Dresser at the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital in 1842. He served for two years, but was absent for four months of this period on account of pulmonary tuberculosis. He entered University College Hospital in 1844, where he filled the posts of Physician's Assistant and House Surgeon to Thomas Morton (qv) and to James Syme (qv) in January, 1848. He was appointed Resident Medical Officer at University College in August, 1848, and Syme thought so highly of his work as to offer him a similar position at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary. Clover declined the invitation, and he passed through the cholera epidemic of 1849 in London, which severely taxed the resources of the hospital, without visible impairment of health. He had perhaps been present in the operating theatre of the University College Hospital on that memorable Dec 21st, 1846, when Robert Liston, with the assistance of William Cadge (qv), of Norwich, amputated the thigh of a patient who was rendered insensible with open ether given by Peter Squire - the first time an anaesthetic was given in England for a major operation. Clover's attention was attracted by this exhibition, and the rest of his life was devoted to the administration of anaesthetics. He had settled in practice at 3 Cavendish Place in 1853 and remained there until his death on September 27th, 1882. Clover took a notable part in rendering safe the administration of an anaesthetic. His inventive faculty was of a high order, and after many trials and much experimenting he constructed an 'inhaler' consisting of a metal receiver, surrounded by a waterjacket, for ether, the receiver being traversed by a tubulure to which a rubber bag was attached. Nitrous oxide could be made to enter the bag and the proportion of gas and ether could be regulated at will. He elaborated the face-piece, with great care and made it fit accurately by the use of air cushions. He also made an exhausting bottle and catheter for the removal of calculus débris from the bladder after lithotrity. The idea of employing suction for this purpose belongs to Sir Philip Crampton (1777-1858), but to Clover is due the credit of perfecting the apparatus by which to accomplish it, whilst to H J Bigelow (1818-1890) belongs the thought of using it, and thus reducing the number of sittings required, to remove the whole of a crushed stone. The original instruments which were used by Sir Henry Thompson (qv) are preserved in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons (G 226-229), to which they were presented by George Buckston Brown, FRCS. He also invented the instrument now known as 'Clover's crutch' for maintaining a patient in the lithotomy position. At the time of his death Clover was Lecturer on Anaesthetics at University College Hospital and Administrator of Anaesthetics at the Dental Hospital. He married Mary Anne, a daughter of the Rev T G Hall, Prebendary of St Paul's, who survived him with four children; she died June 9th, 1929. Publications: Clover made various contributions to the medical journals on the administration of ether, nitrous oxide, and chloroform. Notices of his inhalers are to be found in the *Lancet* for 1802 and in the *Brit. Med. Jour.* for 1868 and 1876. There is an excellent article on Anaesthetics by him and G H Bailey in Quain's *Dictionary of Medicine*, pp41-5. It appeared after his death in 1882.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001202
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Sellors, Sir Thomas Holmes (1902 - 1987)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-06-01 2012-03-09
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/372424372424
Occupation Cardiothoracic surgeon
Details Thomas Holmes Sellors, the only son of Dr Thomas Blanchard Sellors, a general practitioner and of Anne Oliver Sellors (née McSparron) was born on 7 April 1902, at Wandsworth. A few years later his father moved his practice to Southend-on-Sea and Tom, as he was always known, went to Alleyn Court Preparatory School at Westcliff-on-Sea, before moving to Loretto School, Musselburgh, and then to Oriel College, Oxford. He secured a university entrance scholarship to the Middlesex Hospital and qualified there in 1926. Following resident medical and surgical appointments at the Middlesex and Brompton Hospitals, he was surgical registrar to Gordon Taylor at the Middlesex. During this period he was the first recipient of the G.H. Hunt Travelling Scholarship, awarded by Oxford University in 1928, and was able to spend some time at surgical centres in Scandinavia. After a thorough grounding in general surgery, during which period he later recorded his indebtedness to Sir Gordon Gordon-Taylor, R.V. Hudson, Tudor Edwards and the physicians R.A. Young and Evan Bedford, he decided to specialise in chest surgery. He was an excellent technician and, with the contemporary rapid developments in anaesthesia, he was keen to devote himself to the specialty. He surprised some of his seniors when his book *Surgery of the thorax* was published in 1933. In the early 1930's few of the London teaching hospitals, or the large general hospitals, offered opportunity for the newly emerging surgical specialties. But opportunity came with his appointment to the staff of the London Chest Hospital in 1934, followed by further appointments to the Royal Waterloo Hospital and Queen Mary's Hospital, Stratford. He also secured appointments at various London County Council hospitals and sanatoria, and started chest units at the Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford, and at Leicester Royal Infirmary which entailed much travelling by car and an immense workload. Such was the peripatetic and scattered character of thoracic practice in a period when tuberculosis was principal preoccupation of a chest surgeon. On the outbreak of the second world war he was appointed adviser in thoracic surgery to the North West Metropolitan Region, based on Harefield Hospital, Middlesex, where he worked most happily and productively until his retirement. Shorttly after the war, in 1947, he was appointed thoracic surgeon to the Middlesex Hospital where he developed close and cordial relationships with the cardiologists Evan Bedford and Walter Somerville, to whose skilful assessment of cardiac problems he always paid warm tribute. From this time onwards, both at Middlesex Hospital and Harefield, cardiac surgery progressively displaced most of his earlier pulmonary and oesophageal work. As a result of this, in 1957, he was appointed as consultant surgeon to the National Heart Hospital when cardiac surgery became a rather belated funcition of that institution. In the second half of his surgical life he set up open heart surgery units at these last three hospitals. But he never allowed cardiac surgery at the Middlesex to threaten the work of other departments, such was his concern for the interests of his colleagues. A number of the other hospitals to which he had previously been attached provided opportunity for several of his trainees to establish thoracic and cardiac surgical centres. Ever courteous in the operation room, he was superb craftsman and a master of sharp dissection. He was never known to raise his voice, nor did he ever blame anyone else when things went wrong. A clumsy assistant might received his favourite admonition "Juggins!". But he had a devoted and enthusiastic band of trainees, some of whom became internationally renowned and several of whom predeceased him. To all of them he was affectionately known as "Uncle Tom." He was up at daybreak, or earlier, often visiting a ward before the residents or day staff were around. His gentlemanly style and good manners ensured excellent rapport with nursing staff and gave immense confidence to his patients. He worked with deceptive rapidity and economy of effort, seldom wasting time with idle chatter, so much so that an astute trainee - anxious to secure his shrewd advice under rather pressing conditions - once hopped into his car and took an unplanned trip from Harefield to London with him. Despite being in the forefront of cardiac surgery in this country, he showed a healthy conservatism in avoiding frankly experimental procedures. Nevertheless, having set out to do a Blalock operation, which proved quite impossible due to dense lung adhesions in a man with bilateral pulmonary tubercule, and noting the tightness of the valvular obstruction, he calmly borrowed a tenotomy knife from a nearly orthopaedic theartre and did the first direct operation for the relief of pulmonary stenosis. It is worthy of report that, on hearing of this operation, one of his rivals then emulated him and got into print first. He learnt his hypothermic technique from Henry Swann and then closed some five hundred atrial septal defects, in which procedure his results were unrivalled at that time. He next unashamedly learnt his cardiopulmonary by-pass technique from John Kirklin, by which time his rapid technique became relatively less essential to a successful outcome. He had retired before coronary artery by-pass was established and later frankly admitted that he had believed the successful anastomosis of such small vessels to be impracticable. From the inception of the National Health Service in 1948 he was active in the medico-political field. This was almost an inadvertent development, surprising in a man who was so deeply involved in his surgical work, but largely due to his public spiritedness and readiness to serve his colleagues. He was chairman of the North West Metropolitan Consultants' and Specialists' Committee for some years; was a member of the Central Consultants' Committee form its inception and its chairman for five years. He was elected to Council of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1957. The following year he became Chairman of the Joint Consultants' Committee in succession to Lord Brain, a demanding task which he undertook for eleven years, having received the accolade of Knight Bachelor in 1963. A year after demitting office as chairman of JCC, and having been Vice-President for one year, he was elected President of the Royal College of Surgeons from 1969 to 1972. Earlier at the College he had been Tudor Edwards and Gordon-Taylor lecturer, and was then Bradshaw lecturer in 1968 and Hunterian Orator in 1973. He also served as President of the British Medical Association and was awarded its Gold Medal. After demitting office at the Royal College of Surgeons he was elected a College Patron and an Honorary Fellow of the Faculty of Dental Surgery. He was also a member of the Board of Trustees of the Hunterian Collection and ultimately its Chairman. Despite his intensely busy surgical life he travelled widely abroad, lecturing and demonstrating in Europe, India, Russia and South America. He also visited the United States, Canada, Japan and South Africa, becoming an honorary fellow of the surgical colleges of South Africa and America, the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh and the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. He was elected to the FRCP London and to honorary membership of the European Cardiological Society, the Academy of Medicine in Rome and the Royal Academy of Medicine in Belgium. Whilst giving a number of eponymous lectures in the course of his travels he received honorary degrees at Groningen, Liverpool and Southampton, as well as the Medaille de la Reconnaissance Française, and became an officer of the Order of Carlos Finlay, Cuba. He had a strongly international outlook and did much for the generality of surgery and in particular for the International Society of Surgery, of which he was President from 1977 to 1979. Well after retirement from hospital and private practice he supported many good causes. He was Chairman of the Royal Medical Benevolent Fund for five years; Chairman of the National Heart Foundation; Chairman and later President of the Medical Council on Alcoholism. Apart from the publication of his textbook at an early age, he wrote many papers and edited a number of other cardiothoracic works. He had a capacity for graceful living and was a keen gardener and a proficient painter in water colours. Few were privy to the personal tragedies he suffered during a long life of service. In 1928, aged 26, he had married Brenda Lyell, who died of appendicitis a few weeks later. In 1932 he married Elizabeth Cheshire by whom he had a son and a daughter; but, when both children were in their 'teens their mother developed a stroke and hypertension. She died in 1953 when Tom was at one of the most demanding periods of his life. He married his secretary, Marie Hobson, in 1955, a union which was to last thirty years. Ironically, as the non-smoking wife of a thoracic surgeon, she developed lung cancer and died nearly two years before him. When he died on 13 September 1987 he was survived by his daughter, Susan, and by his son, Patrick, who is a fellow of the College and Surgeon-Oculist to Her Majesty the Queen. A service of thanksgiving was held at St Clement Danes Church, on 2 December, 1987 when the address was given by Sir Reginald Murley, PPRCS.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000237
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Beckingsale, John Edgar (1810 - 1885)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2009-12-11 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/372986372986
Occupation General surgeon
Details Educated at St. Bartholomew's Hospital. He was a member of the British Medical Association and Medical Officer of the Coastguard in the Isle of Wight. He practised at Newport, IOW, and died there on August 10th, 1885.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000803
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Beddard, James ( - 1889)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

First Title value, for Searching Beddoe, David Morgan (1869 - 1921)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2009-12-11
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/372988372988
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born in December, 1869, the son of William Beddoe, solicitor, of Merthyr Tydfil, Glamorganshire. Educated at Brecon College and at Guy’s Hospital, where he was House Surgeon and Resident Obstetrician. He also won the Treasurer’s Prize Essay and the Prize of the Guy’s Physical Society. He specialized in diseases of the throat and was for a short period House Surgeon at the London Throat Hospital, but was soon appointed Resident Medical Officer at the Newport Hospital. Here he contracted a severe illness, which ultimately necessitated his removal to a warm climate. For a time, however, he practised at 1 Courtland Terrace, Merthyr Tydfil, or appears so to have done, for he retained his Welsh address after going abroad. He visited Egypt, and as the outbreak of the South African War had created a shortage of medical men in Cairo, he worked for some time for the Army at the citadel. He then settled in general practice in Cairo, and soon made his mark. He became eventually Surgeon to the Anglo-American Hospital, and for many years was Examiner in Surgery at the Kasr-el-Aini Hospital. Latterly he had been compelled to relinquish the last-mentioned post owing to the calls of a large practice. His address was at 34 Sharia Kasr-el-Nil, and he was a prominent member of the Cairo community. He died unmarried, on a Sunday in March, 1921. Publications: *A War Surgeon at the Red Cross Hospital*, Cairo. A number of short stories for English magazines, and two novels *The Honour of Henri de Valois* and *The Last of the Mamelukes*. At the time of his death two other novels had been accepted by the publishers.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000805
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Bedford, Edward Samuel Picard ( - 1875)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

First Title value, for Searching Collard, Frederic Stuartson (1873 - 1929)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

First Title value, for Searching Colledge, Thomas Richardson (1796 - 1879)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

First Title value, for Searching Bedwell, Henry ( - 1873)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

First Title value, for Searching Beecroft, Samuel (1821 - 1880)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

First Title value, for Searching Beevor, Charles (1805 - 1872)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

First Title value, for Searching Belcher, Robert Shirley ( - 1901)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2009-12-17 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/372993372993
Occupation General surgeon
Details Educated at Trinity College, Dublin, Guy's and St Thomas's Hospitals. Practised at Burton-on-Trent, where for many years he was Surgeon and then Consulting Surgeon to the Infirmary. After his retirement he lived for some twenty years at 'The Heath', Stapenhill, Burton-on-Trent, and died in 1900-1901.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000810
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Bell, Hugh ( - 1897)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

First Title value, for Searching Bell, Hutchinson Royes (1842 - 1886)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2009-12-17
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/372995372995
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born in Sydney, New South Wales; he came of a Yorkshire family long established near Leconfield in the East Riding, and of the large estate once possessed by them, he retained to the last a small portion. Educated at a private school in Jersey, after his family had returned to England, and at King’s College School, he entered King’s College as a medical student in 1859 and was a private pupil of Henry Smith (qv). He obtained the Leathes’ Prize and held various offices at the Hospital and College, including the House-Surgeoncy and then the Assistant Demonstratorship of Anatomy, the Surgical Registrarship and Administratorship of Anaesthetics. He was also Prosector at the Royal College of Surgeons. On his return to London after a period of professional study in Vienna and Paris, he came under the observation of Sir William Fergusson, who made Bell his constant associate in private practice. The two remained friends till Fergusson’s death, and Bell always spoke of Fergusson with the utmost reverence. He was appointed Surgeon to the St Pancras and Northern Dispensary, and, in 1877, Surgeon to King’s College Hospital with charge of out-patients and several beds. He was also appointed, in 1877, Demonstrator of Operative Surgery. In January, 1886, he fainted in the presence of his class when giving his customary demonstration, and on Whit Monday, 1886, when on a visit to Folkstone, he had a cerebral haemorrhage, and died on June 15th, 1886, sixteen hours later without recovering consciousness. He was buried at the Brompton Cemetery. His address latterly had been 12 Queen Anne Street, W. Bell was unmarried, and his two sisters had resided with him. Of his two brothers, at the time of his death, one was a medical practitioner in the Isle of Wight and the other was Lieut-Colonel Mark Bell, VC, RE. Besides the offices above mentioned at King’s College, Mr Royes Bell had been Hon Secretary, Hon Librarian, and Lettsomian Lecturer of the Medical Society of London. He was also a member of the Pathological Society of London. Publications: “Injuries and Diseases of the Male Genital Organs” in Ashhurst’s *Encyclopaedia of Surgery*, vi [published after his death]. Lettsomian Lectures on “Diseases of the Testis and their Coverings,” 1882. “Case of Excision of Proximal Phalanx of Right Thumb for Enchondroma.” – *Lancet*, 1872, ii, 346. Various papers in the *Med. Times and Gaz*. and *Lancet*.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000812
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Muir, Sir Edward Grainger (1906 - 1973)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-06-01 2013-11-25
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/372425372425
Occupation General surgeon
Details Edward Grainger Muir was born on 18 February 1906 in North China where his father was a medical missionary. He was educated at Eltham College, and the Middlesex Hospital Medical School where he distinguished himself by winning the Senior Broderip Scholarship and qualifying with the Conjoint Diploma at the early age of 21, and graduating MB, BS (Lond) in 1928. After resident appointments he passed the FRCS examination before he was old enough to receive the diploma, and in 1932 he won the gold medal in the London University MS examination. At Middlesex Hospital was influenced particularly by Lord Webb Johnson, Sir Gordon Gordon-Taylor and Sir Eric Riches, and after junior clinical appointments there he spent two years between 1930 and 1932 in the laboratories of the Royal College of Surgeons as the Bernhard Baron Research Scholar. He then returned to the Middlesex Hospital as assistant pathologist, and later surgical registrar, which prepared him for the appointments of consultant surgeon to King's College Hospital, the Queen Victoria Hospital, East Grinstead, and King Edward VII Hospital for Officers. From 1940-1945 he served in the RAMC with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel and was later consultant surgeon to the Army. Muir was a general surgeon with a special interest in the surgery of the colon and rectum. He regarded the training of his house surgeons and registrars as one of his principal tasks, and he made a significant contribution to post-graduate education when he was a member of the Council of the Royal College of Surgeons and was appointed Dean of the Institute of Basic Medical Sciences. Edward Muir's association with the College extended over the greater part of his professional life, dating from his Bernhard Baron Scholarship, then Hunterian Professorship in 1934, membership of the Court of Examiners and finally of the Council, becoming Vice-President in 1971 and President in July 1972, just over a year before he died. Besides his College activities he held many other distinctions, having been President of the Harveian Society and of the Medical Society of London, and in the Royal Society of Medicine he was President of the Proctological Section and of the Section of Surgery. In 1954 he was appointed Surgeon to the Royal Household, in 1964 Surgeon to the Queen, and shortly before his death Sergeant Surgeon. He was knighted in 1970. In spite of all these distinctions Muir was a modest, retiring person, a hard worker entirely dedicated to the care of his patients and the advancement of the science and art of surgery. He was devoted to his family, very fond of music, and took a special delight in driving motor cars, even in London. In 1929 he married Estelle Russell and they had two sons; the elder, a consultant pathologist and microbiologist was tragically killed in a road accident, and the younger became the professor of cardiology at the Welsh National School of Medicine. He died in the National Hospital, Queen Square, after a subarachnoid haemorrhage on 14 October 1973.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000238
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Parks, Sir Alan Guyatt (1920 - 1982)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-06-01 2012-03-13
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/372426372426
Occupation Colorectal surgeon
Details Alan Parks became President of the College but died while in office. He was born on 19 December 1920. After education at Sutton High School and Epsom College he proceeded to Brasenose, Oxford, in 1939, graduating BA in 1943. He was due for enrolment at Guy's for clinical training, but was one of a small wartime group selected for further training in America, becoming a Rockefeller Student at Johns Hopkins, Baltimore, in 1943. He was medical intern there and graduated MD in 1947 before returning to Guy's to complete his BM, BCh in the same year. He served as house surgeon to Sam Wass and Sir Heneage Ogilvie, passed the MRCP in 1948 and FRCS in 1949. There followed two years in the RAMC, when he was a graded surgeon and served in Malaya, Japan and Korea. On returning home he was resident surgical officer at Putney and then registrar and senior registrar at Guy's from 1953 to 1959, having obtained his MCh in 1954. Parks was an only child, and himself believed that this made it difficult for him to adjust socially. At an early age he developed a wide interest in crafts and hobbies, his later attraction to surgery was largely attributable to this. He was head boy at Epsom and a good athlete who earned his place in the rugby XV. He was a big man and at wartime Oxford, when blues were not awarded, he was captain of athletics and a forward in the university XV. Early in his career he decided which field of surgery was to become his life's work. At Guy's Hospital his study of 'thick sections' of the anal canal enhanced the knowledge of anatomy, leading to papers on fistulas, the development of the submucosal plane of dissection, and submucosal harmorrhoidectomy. His first published work appeared in 1954 with the anatomical study of the anal canal in the *Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine*. This was followed with a thesis on the surgical treatment of haemorrhoids for the degree of Master of Surgery at Oxford University. Alan's interests at this stage also included fibroadenosis of the breast, in which he collaborated with Sir Hedley Atkins, when he was research assistant, and the lymphovascular systems of the leg. His main interest, however, remained in the lower bowel; papers on submucous haemorrhoidectomy (1959) were followed by others on fistula-in-ano (1961), pelvic floor physiology (1962), pharmacokinetics of the intestinal wall musculature (1963), per-anal removal of rectal tumours (1970), techniques of colo-anal anastomosis (1976) and the 'pelvic pouch' operation after pan-proctocolectomy (1980): each of these introduced a new field or altered surgical practice. It is a truly astonishing list and a full bibliography was published in a commemorative supplement by the *Annals of the Royal College of Surgeons of England* 1983. He joined St Mark's in 1959, the only consultant surgeon to be appointed without having been a resident. Soon after this his interest switched to a better understanding of anorectal physiology in relation to continence. Parks gathered around him experts, neurophysiologists and neuropharmacologists and young men clamouring to work with him. He left a devoted band form all parts of the globe with a better understanding of the function of pelvic-floor muscles. He perfected the technique of colo-anal anastomosis and ileoanal anastomosis with a reservoir (Parks' pouch) - a technique dependent upon his work on sub-mucosal dissection and an understanding of pelvic physiology. In these two procedures his technique as a master surgeon is well exemplified, it was perhaps in the operating theatre that he was able to teach at his best, demonstrating his special techniques and instruments. In addition to his demanding clinical commitments he undertook a heavy load on behalf of the profession and shortly after being elected to Council in 1971 he became an honorary secretary of the Joint Consultants' Committee, being elected Chairman the following year. Few but those closest to him realised how much time, energy, and personal expense he devoted to this work; for this and his seminal contributions to surgery he received the accolade of knighthood in 1977. He was elected President of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1980 having previously been Hunterian Professor in 1965; he was to be Hunterian Orator in 1983. He was consultant surgeon to the Army, had been President of the Section of Proctology at the Royal Society of Medicine, an examiner for Cambridge University, and chief medical adviser of BUPA. He was particularly proud and delighted by the award in 1980 of the Ernst Jung Prize in medicine in recognition of his signal contributions to colorectal surgery and physiology. In 1981 the University of Geneva awarded him the Nessim Habif Prize and he was later awarded Honorary Fellowships of the Edinburgh, Australasian, and American Colleges of Surgeons and of the Royal Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow and Canada. He was corresponding member of the German Surgical Society, and honorary member of the American Society of Colon and Rectal Surgeons, and, only a few days before the onset of his fatal illness was admitted to Honorary Fellowship of the Italian Surgical Society. He possessed a deep faith which pervaded all his activities. He was at the time of his death President-elect of the Christian Medical Fellowship. He would always do what he conceived to be his duty, even when exhausted, Sir Alan was blessed by a supremely happy marriage to Caroline Cranston, herself a medical graduate, who survived him with their four children. They much enjoyed visits to their seaside home in Dunwich, Suffolk, bird watching. Parks' own hobbies included craftwork with old books, binding and particularly engraving. In October 1982 Sir Alan suffered a myocardial infarct when in Rome. Later he was moved to London and died on 3 November after emergency cardiac surgery at St Bartholomew's Hospital.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000239
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Phillips, Hugh (1940 - 2005)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-06-08 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/372427372427
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon
Details Hugh Phillips, the first surgeon from Norfolk to become president of the Royal College of Surgeons, died within his first year of office. A past president of the British Orthopaedic Association and the orthopaedic section of the Royal Society of Medicine, Hugh influenced every aspect of orthopaedic surgery. Voted Trainer of the Year in 1990 by the British Orthopaedic Trainees Association, he was committed to surgical training and later became chairman of the Orthopaedic Specialist Advisory Committee. Hugh earned a reputation for fairness both as an examiner and in the arrangements for rapid response teams reporting on major concerns in hospital practice. He was appointed vice-president of the College in 2003 and elected president the following year. Hugh's principal clinical interest was surgery of the hip. He founded the British Hip Society, was influential in establishing the National Joint Registry, and was said to have carried out over 6,000 joint replacements in his career. Hugh's family came from Treorchy in the Rhondda, where his grandfather and father were miners during the depression of the 1930s. His father, Morgan Phillips, a member of the Treorchy Male Voice Choir, resolved not to produce another generation of miners and walked to London where he became a manager at UGB Charlton, a thermoplastics company in south east London that made Bakelite. His mother, Elizabeth Evans, came from north Wales and contributed to Hugh's rather strict upbringing. Hugh was born on 19 March 1940 in Blackheath, the youngest of three children in a Welsh-speaking family. His older brother and sister returned to Wales during the Blitz, but his father's work was important to the war effort and Hugh remained with his parents. His earliest memories were of bombs and air raid shelters. While proud of his Welsh roots he considered himself a Londoner and commented once that he had "only been to Wales twice and it rained both times". He attended Henwick Primary School and the Roan Grammar School in Greenwich, where he became a prefect. He was a Queen's Scout. Hugh followed his eldest brother into medicine, winning a state scholarship to Bart's and completing a BSc in physiology. The life of a medical student in the 1960s was relaxed by the standards of later years and Hugh embraced it to the full. An all-round sportsman, he played cricket for Bart's, was captain of soccer and a member of the Vicarage Club. For a short period he generated additional income by working as a waiter on the liner *Pendennis Castle*, an experience that left him with a fund of anecdotes. Surprisingly, this most gregarious of men later listed "avoidance of all clubs" among his recreations in *Who's Who*. In 1966 he married Trish (Patricia Ann Cates Kennard), a physiotherapist at Bart's who later became chair of the Chartered Society of Physiotherapists. They had three daughters, Jane, Katie and Susie, and at the time of his death they had six grandchildren. Hugh owed much to his Welsh background, including a love of music. He was an excellent pianist and a former head choirboy at St James, Kidbrooke, often performing as a soloist at the Royal Festival Hall and elsewhere. He also inherited a strong sense of social justice and a dogged determination that did not permit him to leave a task unfinished, a trait he once described as "a black streak of Celtic bloody-mindedness". In 1970 he was appointed to the new higher surgical training programme in orthopaedics at Bart's and in the same year was found to have Hodgkin's lymphoma, which in those days had few survivors. After a harrowing period of intensive chemotherapy under the care of Gordon Hamilton Fairley, a pioneer of chemotherapy, Hugh Phillips became one of those few. The treatment, always at weekends so that he could be back at work on Monday, lasted two and a half years, when Hugh decided it should be terminated because nobody could tell him how long it should be continued. He never sought special consideration because of his illness and took a full share of workloads that would now be considered unacceptably heavy even for healthy people. In 1975 Hugh Phillips was appointed as the fifth orthopaedic consultant at the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital, where he is remembered as a hard worker, a loyal colleague and an outstanding surgeon. A man of great personal charm with a disarming sense of humour, Hugh was held in the highest regard by his patients, colleagues and trainees. He also displayed a natural flair for the politics of medicine and was a great exponent of the 'Delphic process', which allowed him to implement important changes at astounding speed without pointless discussion on the assumption that changes for the better would not be reversed. Although a Londoner, Hugh loved Norfolk and was intensely proud of his association with the county and its people. In 1996 he was appointed Deputy Lieutenant of Norfolk. Hugh Phillips was elected president because of his unrivalled understanding of training and education and his ability to achieve change, but his presidency was tragically curtailed. In the last minutes of a social occasion in Norwich on 26 June 2004 to celebrate both his achievement in becoming president and his retirement from clinical practice, a trivial injury caused a fracture that proved to be pathological. The incident occurred less than four weeks before he assumed office. Many would have taken the easy path and stepped aside but despite debilitating treatment, increasing ill health and the exhortation of friends and colleagues, Hugh chose to continue the task he had been elected to complete. He confronted a number of major professional issues with characteristic determination and scored some notable successes but his unavoidable absences for treatment were to make this a difficult year for the College. In his last presidential letter for the *Bulletin* he wrote, "I had not anticipated that my presidency would last only one year but, sadly, ill-health has determined that I should stand down, a matter of immeasurable personal regret." He may also be remembered for a casual remark in another presidential letter to the effect that surgeons might avoid a great deal of confusion if they called themselves 'Dr' rather than 'Mr', a comment that attracted much media attention. During April 2005, he completed a physically demanding College visit to every hospital in Wales by road within one week, the warmth of his personality making a great impression in hospitals where the College had been seen as remote and unapproachable. A few days after his return he suffered a pulmonary embolus and, despite intensive treatment, including thrombolysis, he did not recover and died at home in Norfolk on 24 June 2005, less than one year after the condition came to light. His funeral service, which filled Norwich Cathedral, was attended by representatives of the Colleges, orthopaedic surgery, hospital colleagues and staff, the County Lieutenancy, the Department of Health, patients and the people of Norwich. The presidential gown covered the coffin as the Lord Bishop of Norwich, a personal friend, gave the address and spoke warmly of both Hugh's humanity and his contribution to surgery.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000240
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Botting, Terence David John (1934 - 2005)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-06-21 2012-03-22
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Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000200-E000299
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372428372428
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon Trauma surgeon
Details Terry Botting was an orthopaedic and trauma surgeon. He was born on 3 January 1934 in Birmingham. His father, Royston Eric Jack Botting, was a machine tool setter, and his mother was Jessica Sarah née Tidmarsh. He was educated at Bablake School, Coventry, and Birmingham University. He became consultant and senior lecturer in orthopaedic and trauma surgery at Selly Oak and Birmingham Accident Hospitals. He was somewhat unconventional in appearance, with a penchant for wearing jazzy ties and white shoes: his patients would often place bets as to what he would be wearing on his ward rounds. He married Diane Kathleen née Walsgrove in 1956, by whom he had three sons (Adrian Royston, Trevor George and Stephen David St John). She predeceased him in May 1986 and in 1987 he married for a second time, to Eunice Ann née Burrows. He retired in 1992, spent six months in France and then a year on a philosophy course at Warwick University. He also made frequent visits to Australia to visit his grandsons. He was a keen watercolourist and enjoyed golf and fly-fishing. He died suddenly at home on 28 July 2005.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000241
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2010-11-11
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001000-E001099
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373251373251
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born on May 18th, 1808, the son of J Bulley, who came of an old Berkshire family long connected with Reading. His mother was a Blagrave, another ancient Reading family, which produced a regicide, distinguished mathematicians, and for three centuries the Reading Members of Parliament. Bulley's father and grandfather were well-known Reading medical men. His father, who was in practice there for fifty-five years, was Surgeon to the Gaol and to the Dispensary. After the usual classical school education, Francis Arthur Bulley began the study of the profession under his father, and was then apprenticed for five years to James Stocker, Resident Medical Officer of Guy's Hospital. He was soon elected Assistant Surgeon to the County Prison, Reading, where he succeeded his father as Surgeon in 1850. In 1839 he was elected a Surgeon of the Royal Berkshire Hospital, an institution which he had early promoted and for which he had raised a penny fund amounting to one hundred guineas. In conjunction with Dr Richard Thomas Woodhouse and others he was also the organizer of a Convalescent and a Samaritan Fund for the hospital, which rose to fame, both on account of its staff and of its internal arrangements, design, management, and of the fact that none but the poorest were allowed to benefit by it. Bulley was an inventor, and in Weiss's cabinet which obtained the Gold Medal at the Great Exhibition were many of his instruments. Perhaps the most useful of his additions to practical surgery were: (1) A splint for broken thighs, by which graduated extension is applied both by the foot and by a band around the thigh, just above the knee, the special advantages of which are the easy prevention of deformity and the absence of the looseness of the knee-joint which so frequently follows extension effected by the foot alone; (2) An apparatus for the application of pressure to the femoral artery in cases of popliteal aneurysm, in which, by means of two traversing screw-pads, the instrument may be so applied that there can be a relaxation of the pressure at either of the two points, for the retardation of the arterial stream, without the necessity of having to remove the apparatus when such alteration is desirable; (3) A tourniquet for arresting the flow of blood through the subclavian artery in shoulder-joint operations; (4) A uterine compress for arresting haemorrhage during or after labour, which may be employed either as a simple obstetric bandage or for the purpose of producing firm but at the same time easily regulated pressure upon the walls of the uterus. At the time of his death Bulley was Consulting Surgeon to the Royal Berks Hospital, Surgeon to the Berkshire County Constabulary, and to the Reading District of the Great Western Railway, and had been Surgeon to the Berkshire Dispensary. In appearance he was tall, well over six feet, and stout, but well-proportioned. His biographer notices that he did not neglect exercise as did many of his contemporaries, though he was fond of studying and the pursuit of his professional work. He was popular in Reading, the interests, institutions, and amusements of which he promoted. His death occurred at his residence, 40 London Road, Reading, on April 21st, 1883. There is a good woodcut portrait of him in the *Medical Circular*, 1853. (Bully in the Fellows' *Register*.) Publications: *Account of some Cases of the Epidemic Cholera, Treated by Hot Water Applications*, 8vo, London, 1850. "Cases of Urinary Calculus Dissolved in the Bladder by Means of Alkaline Internal Remedies." - *Med. Times*, 1849. Bulley published many papers in the *Medical Times*, most of which evince research, acuteness of perception, and practical knowledge. Among these may be specified several communications on scrofula; an account of malignant scarlet fever treated by diaphoresis produced by means of hot-water packing, the patient becoming convalescent in four days; papers on the nature and treatment of febrile diseases, in which he advocates the employment of the same means, in imitation of the natural efforts of the system, to produce a crisis of the disease by diaphoresis; the treatment of chronic trismus by mechanical dilatation, the instrument, which is peculiar, having been invented by himself; surgical reports from the Royal Berkshire Hospital; an account of a simple means of diminishing the effects of fire in the human body by the application of treacle and water to the burned part.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001068
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

First Title value, for Searching Crowfoot, William Edward (1806 - 1887)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2011-09-07
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001300-E001399
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373531373531
Occupation General surgeon
Details The grandson of William Henchman Crowfoot (often cited as Henchman Crowfoot) (qv), and the elder son of William Edward Crowfoot (qv). The Crowfoots of Beccles were well known as medical men in East Anglia for more than a century, and each generation followed worthily in the footsteps of its fathers. Crowfoot was educated at Fauconberge School, Beccles, and then at Basle; he received his professional training at St Bartholomew's Hospital, where his student career was brilliant, for he won exhibitions and scholarships with ease. In 1857 he won the University of London Gold Medal in Anatomy and Physiology at the Intermediate MB examination, and in 1859 the Gold Medal in Comparative Anatomy, Physiology, and Surgery - carrying with it an Exhibition - and the Gold Medal in Midwifery. He was offered an appointment at St Bartholomew's Hospital immediately after graduating, but preferred to enter into practice with his father at Beccles, where he greatly increased an already large number of patients. He was for many years Surgeon to the Beccles Hospital, of which he was Hon Consulting Surgeon at the time of his death. As a medical practitioner he gained the affection and confidence of a large circle of patients. Always keeping himself abreast of medical knowledge and procedure, his opinions were received with marked attention by his colleagues, and his wide experience was always at the disposal of his younger brethren. Michael Beverley, MRCS, who was associated with him professionally for over fifty years, bore witness to his popularity in the medical circle at Norwich and to his high social and scientific qualifications. Crowfoot was an enthusiastic naturalist, botanist, and archeologist, and an early supporter of the Volunteer movement which started in 1860, and in which he held the rank of Hon Lieutenant-Colonel. He was a sound public man, both as a magistrate, and as a worker on Borough and County Councils and on Diocesan Committees. To the proceedings of medical meetings in Norwich he contributed many valuable papers, and among these his address as President of the East Anglian Branch of the British Medical Association was a signal success. He married Catherine Ann Bayly, by whom he had three sons and three daughters. One son, William Bayly, followed in his father's footsteps and joined him in practice, but died in 1907. One daughter married H Wood-Hill, practising in Beccles, and another daughter married N E Waterfield, FRCS. He died, after his retirement, at his residence, Blyburgate House, Beccles, on April 6th, 1918, and his funeral was attended by the Mayor and Corporation in state.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001348
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Bunch, Frank Vigers (1869 - 1894)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2010-05-26 2013-08-07
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001000-E001099
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373194373194
Occupation General surgeon
Details Was in general practice at 61 Broad Street, Ratcliff Cross, in 1847, then at Heath House, Commercial Road, E, where he was Surgeon to the Mercers' Almshouses, Stepney, to the Coopers' Almshouses, Ratcliff, and to the Government Vaccination Station, Stepney. By 1858 he had emigrated to New Zealand, where he died in or before 1877.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001011
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

by Sir Barry Jackson
Publication Date 2010-06-10 2018-05-10
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001000-E001099
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373195373195
Occupation General surgeon
Details Kenneth Whittle Martin, known as 'Poppy' to his family, was a general surgeon in Worthing with an interest in urology. He came from a long line of doctors dating back to at least 1774. He was born on 18 July 1917 in Singapore, the son of William Whittle Martin, an army ENT surgeon, and his wife Katie, née Partington, the daughter of a mill owner. When aged three, his family moved from the Far East to Hove in Sussex, a county in which he lived for almost all of the rest of his life. He attended Mowden School in Hove and then Charterhouse, where he was a senior scholar and captain of cricket. Following the family tradition, he decided to read medicine and went to St Thomas' Hospital Medical School, armed with a shilling a day pocket money given to him by his mother. Qualifying in 1940, he was house surgeon to W H C 'Hugo' Romanis and Norman 'Pasty' Barrett, before enlisting in the Royal Navy and serving as a surgeon lieutenant from 1941 to 1946. During his war service he served in hospitals at home and in the Indian Ocean on HMS *Fortune* and in the Far East on HMS *Duke of York*. Three years before his death he wrote an account of his wartime experiences in a privately published book entitled *Poppy's war*. After demobilisation, he returned to St Thomas' as a surgical registrar, during which time he passed the FRCS examination. He was then appointed as a resident assistant surgeon, a particularly busy post but one which gave him extensive operative experience. In 1954 he was appointed as a consultant surgeon at Worthing Hospital, allowing him to return to his Sussex roots, and he remained on the staff of that hospital for 28 years, retiring at the age of 65 in 1982. Although he practised a wide range of general surgery, he developed a particular interest in urology and had an enviable local reputation as *the* waterworks specialist. In retirement he enjoyed fishing and bridge and developed considerable expertise in investment management. He founded the Bosham Investment Club and became adept at tracking the movement of stocks and shares by complicated graphs on his computer. He also enjoyed overseas travel, both with his family and as a longstanding member of the Grey Turner Travelling Surgical Club. Ken married Daphne Esplin Stewart in 1941 and they had two sons and two daughters. He and Daphne were inseparable throughout their 68 years of marriage. Both were notably somewhat non-conformist and idiosyncratic. On one occasion Ken was asked to look after a leg which a colleague had amputated when the hospital incinerator was closed. He put the leg in the boot of his car and drove to a secluded area of the beach where he threw the limb into the sea, resulting in a police investigation after it was later washed up on the beach. He was wonderful company, being a fund of stories and good humour. Apart from increasing deafness, he retained good health throughout his long life until he died of old age on 22 July 2009, four days after his 92nd birthday.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001012
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Joseph, Laji (1930 - 2004)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

by Tina Craig
Publication Date 2006-12-21 2013-02-14
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/372510372510
Occupation General surgeon
Details Laji Joseph became a professor in Bangalore. He passed the fellowship of the College in 1961 and returned to India where he practised in Bangalore. In June 2004 the College was informed of his death.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000323
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Clarke, David Glyn (1950 - 2004)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2007-02-01
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/372511372511
Occupation Public health officer
Details David Clarke developed multiple sclerosis just before passing his surgical fellowship and never practised as a surgeon. He was able, despite his difficulties, to pursue a career in public health, and became project officer for public health and health policy for London, with the Lambeth, Southward and Lewisham Health Commission. He died of metastatic melanoma on 6 January 2004, leaving a widow, Susan Clarke, also a doctor.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000324
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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 Murley, Sir Reginald Sydney (1916 - 1997)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2007-03-08 2007-03-21
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/372520372520
Occupation General surgeon
Details Reginald Murley, known universally to friend and foe alike as ‘Reggie’, was a consultant surgeon at the Royal Northern Hospital and a former President of the College. He was born on 2 August 1916. His father, Sydney Herbert, was a fur trader and a general manager of the Hudson Bay Company. His mother, Beatrice, was a cousin of Lillian Bayliss, founder of the Old Vic theatre. Reggie was educated at Dulwich College, where some of the features of his rugged extrovert personality rapidly became apparent. In 1934 he entered St Bartholomew’s Hospital, then at its zenith as one of the leading teaching hospitals, where he won several prizes in anatomy and physiology. Anticipating that war was inevitable, he joined the Territorial Army early in 1939 and a week before the second world war began found himself in the No 168 City of London Cavalry Field Ambulance, and as a consequence had to wear breeches, spurs, and learn to ride a horse. He travelled widely in the Army, seeing service in Palestine, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Egypt, Sudan, Eritrea and Ethiopia, gaining invaluable experience, mainly in plastic surgery. He returned to England in 1944 and was posted as a surgeon to No 53 Field Surgical Unit in France, Holland and Germany, and gained extensive experience of the surgical aspects of modern warfare prior to his demobilisation as a Major. Following his return to civilian life, he was appointed as an anatomy demonstrator at Bart’s. From 1946 to 1949 together he was surgical chief assistant there, with clinical assistantships at St Mark’s and St Peter’s Hospitals. He passed the final FRCS examination in 1946. In the same year, he was appointed consultant surgeon to St Alban’s City Hospital, and in 1952 as consultant surgeon to the Royal Northern Hospital in London. He continued to serve both these institutions with distinction for the remainder of his professional life. He did some excellent research on Geoffrey Keynes’ conservative approach to breast cancer and demonstrated that it had advantages in survival rate over the then widely practised radical mastectomy. He also worked on the detection and prevention of venous thrombosis, was awarded an Hunterian Professorship on this subject, and became an early advocate of emergency pulmonary embolectomy. Although he always saw himself first and foremost as a practising surgeon, by the mid 1940s Reggie became increasingly apprehensive about the introduction of a National Health Service and his interest in, or rather his disillusionment with, medical politics dates from this time. As a senior surgical registrar at a special meeting of the Fellows of the Royal College of Surgeons just before the NHS began he had the courage and temerity to criticise the College and the President for “*a tactical blunder which had confused and divided the profession, weakened the position of the BMA and strengthened the hand of the minister*”. Though he and his fellow rebels lost the ensuing vote, Reggie remained opposed to ‘nationalised medicine’ and he firmly believed that the profession had been sold out by the machinations of a few senior members. He was a founder member of the Fellowship for Freedom in Medicine and was its President in 1974. As one of the College’s first surgical tutors and a regional adviser, he was elected to the Council in 1970, and as President on Bastille Day (14 July) in 1977. He devoted himself with his customary vigour to that office: he was frequently controversial, loyally adherent to his principles, acerbic but amusing, argumentative but endearing, and, above all, devoted to the College and its history. He was an accomplished public speaker and punctiliously disciplined in keeping to his allotted time span, which was remarkable given that he was an inveterate chatterer who attempted to dominate every conversation. Much as he enjoyed his three years as President, he came to feel in his latter years that his most important contribution to the College was his eight years as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Hunterian collection. John Hunter, the founder of scientific surgery, was Murley’s hero and his devotion to the collection of Hunter’s specimens knew no limits. Ever alert to the slightest whiff of a threat, he fiercely opposed any attempt to diminish the importance of Hunter in the College’s scheme of priorities. During a particularly difficult period, when his health was already in decline, he earned the unfailing support of the elected trustees during a long period of arduous meetings and only relinquished the chair when he felt that the ship was in calmer waters once more. Reggie’s appointment to the 1st Cavalry Division in 1939 was apposite, for this ambience suited his attributes well, and he remained a cavalryman at heart throughout his life. With his booming, resonant voice, accompanied by a hearty guffaw, staff and patients alike became aware of his arrival long before he appeared in person. Not for him the constraints of devious Machiavellian diplomacy which he generally termed ‘pussy-footing around’. He remained firmly wedded to the Cardigan principle of a full-blooded frontal assault, sabre drawn, no matter how great the odds. It was these very qualities which made him such a steadfast ally and stalwart opponent: no one was left long to linger in anguished doubt as to the respective camp to which they had been assigned. Reggie was without question a member of that rapidly dwindling band of men known as ‘characters’: a quality composed of a judicious mixture of intelligence, ability and individuality; difficult to define but instantly recognisable features common to many men who made our country great and now in very short supply. In 1947, he married Daphne Butler née Garrod who had been twice widowed in the war; he inherited a step daughter, Susan, and they had a further two daughters, Jennifer and Hilary, and three sons, David, Gavin and Anthony. There are nine grandchildren. Sadly his final years were clouded by steadily progressive disability and he died on 2 October 1997.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000334
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Selvachandran, Prince Selvadurai (1938 - 2009)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

by John Blandy
Publication Date 2011-06-16
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001200-E001299
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373435373435
Occupation General surgeon
Details Prince Selvadurai Selvachandran was head of surgery at the Green Memorial Hospital in Manipay, Jaffna, Sri Lanka, until it was virtually destroyed in the civil war. He was born on 4 January 1938, the son of S S Selvadurai, principal of the American Mission College, Udupiddy, treasurer of the Jaffna diocese of the Church of South India, and a leader of the Jaffna community. Selvachandran and his brother, Benjamin Selvarajan, were educated at their father's college and then at Jaffna College, Vaddukoddai. They then went on to train in medicine at the Christian Medical College in Vellore. There Selvachandran met his future wife, Brenda. Selvachandran then returned to Jaffna, to the Green Memorial Hospital, Manipay, the oldest medical school in Ceylon, which had been founded as an American mission hospital in 1848. There he continued to work, eventually becoming medical superintendent and head of surgery. He moved to the Channel Islands, to Jersey, in 1984, where he became an associate specialist in general surgery. Sadly, he developed Alzheimer's disease and died on 1 May 2009 leaving his widow Brenda and their three children, Brinthini, Suthan and Sashi.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001252
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Sieff of Brimpton, Rt Hon Lord Marcus Joseph, Baron Sieff of Brimpton (1913 - 2001)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

by John Blandy
Publication Date 2011-06-16
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001200-E001299
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373436373436
Occupation Businessman
Details A businessman and former chairman of Marks and Spencer, Marcus Sieff was elected to an honorary fellowship in 1984 in recognition of his contributions to the College. He was born in 1913, the younger son of Israel Sieff and Rebecca Marks, an ardent Zionist. Rebecca's father Michael had co-founded the retailer Marks and Spencer in Leeds in 1884. Marcus was educated at Manchester Grammar School, St Paul's in London and Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, where he read economics. He started working at Marks and Spencer in 1935. In the Second World War he served in the Royal Artillery, winning an OBE for gallantry and reaching the rank of colonel. From 1954, he was successively a director, assistant managing director, vice-chairman, joint managing director and deputy chairman of Marks and Spencer. He was chairman of the company from 1972 to 1984. He introduced schemes to improve the welfare of his employees, including profit sharing. He was created a life peer in 1980. He died in London on 23 February 2001.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001253
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Crockett, David John (1923 - 2009)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

by N Alan Green
Publication Date 2011-07-07
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001200-E001299
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373437373437
Occupation Plastic surgeon Plastic and reconstructive surgeon
Details David Crockett contributed greatly to the specialty of plastic surgery in the Sudan and then in Bradford as a consultant surgeon from 1964 until he retired in 1987. A very gifted man, he enjoyed many hobbies during his very busy professional life and was above all a family man. He was born in Northampton on 5 August 1923, the son of Leonard Marshall Crockett, a dental surgeon, and his wife, Eleanor Carol née Baker. Educated first at Winchester House School, Northamptonshire, he completed his school education at Charterhouse. He then went to Trinity Hall, Cambridge, before entering St Thomas' Hospital for his clinical training. In his undergraduate days at Cambridge David took up judo for recreation and this proved beneficial at a later date in the Sudan, where he instructed the Sudanese police in the art of self defence. Qualifying in 1946, he was a casualty officer and house surgeon at St Thomas' before becoming a senior house officer in orthopaedics at Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge, in 1947. He then entered National Service in the RAMC for two years with the rank of captain. Deciding on a surgical career, he undertook a general surgical senior house officer post at St Peter's Hospital, Chertsey, and then demonstrated anatomy at St Thomas' whilst studying for the primary FRCS. Having passed this hurdle, he continued in general surgery as a surgical registrar, first at Tilbury and then Alton, and passed the final FRCS examination. An interest in trauma was kindled at the Birmingham Accident Unit, by which time he was veering towards a career in plastic surgery. No doubt influenced by Douglas Jackson, he studied many aspects of burns. Of his early joint publications, 'Bacteriology of burns treated by exposure', was published in the Lancet in 1954 (ii 1157). He then undertook a research project on oedema and colloid replacement at the Middlesex Hospital from 1955 to 1956. Definitive training in plastic surgery took place at Mount Vernon Hospital, Northwood, from 1956 to 1959. David then accepted a post as a senior lecturer in general surgery at the University of Khartoum, working first with Julian Taylor. He remained in the Sudan for five years before returning to the UK. The time spent in Africa was a productive period, with publications on cancer, keloids and reconstructive procedures. His workload was enormous and his reputation amongst Sudan's medical fraternity was very high. He was an invited lecturer at many conferences of the Sudanese Association of Surgeons, including one held at the time of the celebrations of the 25th anniversary of the foundation of the Kitchener Medical School in 1974, giving a lecture on keloids. Also taking part were three other fellows present as examiners for the overseas primary FRCS (G W Taylor, Ian McColl and N Alan Green) and two working for WHO (Adrian Marston and Ivan Johnston). In 1964 David Crockett and his family returned to the UK, and he became a consultant plastic surgeon at the Bradford Royal Infirmary, St Luke's Hospital and Airedale Hospital. He retired in 1987 after a very full professional life punctuated by conferences in the UK. At St Thomas' Hospital he had met Anne Chalmers, a nurse, whom he married on 7 August 1947 at Quinton, Northamptonshire. As both of Anne's parents had died, David's parents proved very supportive during their courtship and for many years of their happy married life. Anne later trained as a medical social worker at Leeds University and then practised in the Bradford area. They had a family of four: Carolyn Mary, Paul Jonathan Marshall, Georgina Jane and Thurstan David. David and Anne enjoyed many educational and social trips in mainland Europe, the Indian subcontinent and Australasia. For some 18 years they had a bungalow retreat in Mullaghmore, County Sligo, Ireland. They kept a small boat there and enjoyed family holidays sailing, walking in the countryside, bird watching and cataloguing the many orchids that grew in the area. David made a collage of the varieties of orchid he found in Ireland and was very knowledgeable in various facets of natural history. He was a talented landscape painter and, as a creative carpenter, he made tables and chairs to furnish their home and garden. In retirement, David and his brother Clifden Crockett played serious bridge on a regular basis in Northampton, but the more friendly and 'family' variety was played at home with his wife. Snooker with many friends at his house was another form of relaxation. David John Crockett died on 28 June 2009. He had suffered a stroke on 11 June and was nursed at home by Anne with superb help from the local nursing and social services, and also from his granddaughter, Naomi, who had trained as a doctor at Leeds University. He could not speak, but was able to smile and recognised his family until he passed away. He was survived by Anne, their four children and seven grandchildren, Naomi, Tamara, Thomas, Victoria, Hannah, Kathryn and Jonathan.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001254
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Gleave, John Reginald Wallace (1925 - 2006)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2007-03-15 2011-12-20
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Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000300-E000399
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372524372524
Occupation Neurosurgeon
Details John Gleave was a consultant neurosurgeon at Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge, and an accomplished oarsman. He was born in Walsall, Staffordshire (now West Midlands), on 6 April 1925, the son of John Wallace Gleave, a priest, and his wife, Dorothy (née Littlefair). He was educated at Uppingham School, to which he won a scholarship in 1938. He then went to Magdalen College, Oxford, with an exhibition and took an honours degree in natural sciences, before completing his clinical studies at the Radcliffe Infirmary, where he won the Gask clinical prize in 1947. His house jobs were at the Radcliffe Infirmary with A Cooke, A Elliott- Smith and Sir Hugh Cairns (with whom he had done an elective period as a student). Cairns, Nuffield Professor of Surgery at Oxford, had established the neurosurgical department at Oxford before the war. Gleave completed his National Service in the neurological unit at Wheatley Military Hospital. There he worked under the neurologist Ritchie Russell, Honor Smith (who had done important research on the treatment of meningitis with Cairns) and the neurosurgeon Walpole Lewin. After his National Service, he became a registrar to the professorial surgical unit in Liverpool and then senior registrar in neurosurgery at Oxford. In 1962 he was appointed second consultant neurosurgeon at Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge, in the unit set up by Walpole Lewin. He remained there until his retirement in 1990. The department at Adenbrooke's became a large regional centre. When Lewin died in 1980, Gleave became the senior consultant and the department expanded with new appointments and the establishment of the Bayer chair of neurosurgery. Gleave was a skilful general neurosurgeon with a special interest stereotaxic neurosurgery, which he advocated for the accurate diagnostic biopsy of intracranial lesions. In 1990, together with R Macfarlane, he wrote a paper, which suggested that, while urgent surgery for acute central disc protrusion with cauda equina compression was wise, the unfavourable prognosis of the condition was determined so early in the course of the disease that unless delay was shorter than was ordinarily possible, it did not greatly influence the outcome. This suggestion, which had clear medico-legal implications, was resisted in the United States, where the paper was rejected on principle. It was, however, published in this country. Gleave was a fellow of St Edmund's College, Cambridge, from 1976 until 1990, praelector from 1982 to 2002, a tutor in neuroanatomy at Magdalene College between 1974 and 1992, and an examiner in surgery to the University of London from 1985 to 1991. He was a notable sportsman. He represented Oxford University in fives and squash, and played rugby for Oxfordshire and the Royal Army Medical Corps, but his great sporting interest was rowing. He was in the Oxford VIII for three successive years, and was invited to try for the Olympic crew in 1948, but his father vetoed this. He then rowed for Leander in crews that were beaten only in the final at Henley of the Stewarts' cup and the Silver Goblets in 1948, but in 1949 won the Grand Challenge cup in record time. In 1979 he won a gold medal in the veteran coxed fours at the World Championships. He coached Lady Margaret crews at Cambridge for a number of years with enthusiasm and success. Gleave was a classical scholar, accomplished in Latin and Greek. In retirement he undertook the translation of his own copy of Willis's *Cerebri anatome*, though he was unable to finish the last chapter because of illness. He married Anne Newbolt in 1953. There were six children. He died on 6 August 2006 from the effects of a carcinoma of the kidney.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000338
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Hadfield, James Irvine Havelock (1930 - 2006)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2007-03-15 2014-07-24
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000300-E000399
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372525372525
Occupation General surgeon
Details James Hadfield was a consultant general surgeon with a urological interest at Bedford Hospital. He came from a distinguished medical family: his father, Geoffrey Hadfield, was professor of pathology at the London School of Medicine for Women at the Royal Free Hospital. His mother was Sarah Victoria Eileen Irvine. His elder brother, Geoffrey John, became vice-president of our College and his elder sister, Esmé Havelock Hadfield, was an ENT surgeon at High Wycombe and Amersham hospitals. James was born at Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire, on 12 July 1930. He was educated at Winchester House School, Brackley, Radley College, and then Brasenose College, Oxford. He completed his clinical training at St Thomas' Hospital, qualifying in 1955 and winning the Clutton medal and the Beaney prize in surgery. At Oxford he rowed for his college and the Isis VIII, and gained an Olympic trial in 1952. He continued to row at St Thomas', becoming captain of the United Hospitals Boat Club in 1953 and of his hospital in 1954. James won the senior IV pairs sculls, and double sculls at the United Hospitals Regatta, competing in no fewer than ten races in one day. He was house surgeon at St Thomas' to R H O B Robinson, a general surgeon specialising in urology and one of the founder members of British Association of Urological Surgeons (BAUS). From 1962 to 1966 James was surgical tutor and first assistant in surgery, and George Herbert Hunt scholar to Oxford University in 1965. He was appointed consultant general surgeon at Bedford Hospital in 1966, and was medical director there for several years. In retirement he taught anatomy at Cambridge and was tutor to undergraduates at Jesus College. His main interests were in urology and the surgery of the parathyroid gland, and he had a great interest in training young surgeons from overseas. He examined for Oxford, Cambridge and the conjoint, as well as for the Royal College of Surgeons in Edinburgh. As an examiner he was fair, but sometimes a little fearsome in his approach to candidates. His publications reflected his surgical interests, including stone formation in the urinary tract, the management of bladder outflow obstruction and diseases of the parathyroid glands. He was an Arris and Gale lecturer at our College in 1973. James was a family man who enjoyed country pursuits, painting and collecting watercolours, as well as gardening. For a time he bred and trained gun dogs. In 1957 he married Ann Pickernell Milner, a sister-tutor at St Thomas', also from a medical family. They had three children. Esmé Victoria became a general practitioner in Birmingham, and married a consultant head and neck surgeon. Another daughter, Countess Helen Sarah Orsich, entered television as a producer, and their son Geoffrey Havelock became a translator. There were six grandchildren. He died on 17 May 2006 from carcinoma of the duodenum.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000339
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Harding-Jones, David (1936 - 2005)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2007-03-15 2014-04-09
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/372526372526
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon
Details David Harding-Jones was an orthopaedic surgeon in Carmarthen, Wales. He was born in Stratford, East London, on 3 August 1936, one of a pair of identical twins. His father, William, was a Presbyterian minister. His mother was Gertrude Alice née Roberts. He was educated at Bancroft's School, Woodford Green, and Charing Cross Hospital. After junior posts, he specialised in orthopaedics, becoming a registrar at the Westminster Hospital, rotating registrar at the Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital, Oswestry, and Hereford General Hospital, and senior registrar at the United Cardiff Hospitals. He was appointed consultant orthopaedic and trauma surgeon at the West Wales General Hospital, Carmarthen. At the College he was regional adviser in orthopaedics for south Wales. He died on 27 March 2005 after a short and sudden illness and is survived by his wife June née Hitchens, whom he married in 1960, and by his three sons (Andrew, Ian and Neil), two daughters (Alison and Fiona) and five grandchildren (Bethan, Thomas, Iestyn, Ella and Angus).
Resource Identifier RCS: E000340
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Amdrup, Erik (1923 - 1998)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2007-05-10 2014-08-07
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/372527372527
Occupation Gastroenterological surgeon
Details Erik Amdrup was director of surgical gastro-enterology and professor of surgery at Aarus Kommune Hospital, Denmark. He was born on 21 February 1923. His PhD thesis in 1960 was on the dumping syndrome. Later he developed a method of 'precise antrectomy' to avoid that complication and carried out research into the effect of vagotomy on parietal cell function, work which led to the Arhus county vagotomy trial. This won him international fame, the Novo Nordisk prize in 1977 and the *Scandinavian Journal of Gastroenterology* Prize for 1987. As a supervisor of research he was an unpretentious and highly regarded teacher, and published (together with J F Rehfeld) *Gastrins and the vagus* (London, Academic Press, 1979). In addition he had another career as an author of detective novels, several of which were made into films. Some of his short stories made their way into anthologies alongside Agatha Christie and Dorothy L Sayers. Erik Amdrup died on 22 February 1998, the day after his 75th birthday.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000341
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Challis, Margaret Thornton (1934 - 2005)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

First Title value, for Searching Downs, George (1807 - 1884)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

First Title value, for Searching Douty, Edward Henry (1861 - 1911)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2011-10-06
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001400-E001499
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373630373630
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born on December 17th, 1861, at Wilton, near Salisbury, the second son of Joel Douty, a well-known schoolmaster, whose address was Netherhampton House, and of Mary, daughter of J Donaldson, of Carlisle. He was educated at St Edmund's School, Salisbury, and at King's College, Cambridge, which he had entered as a Choral Scholar intended for Holy Orders. He graduated in Part I of the Natural Science Tripos in 1884. His father dying the day he took his BA, he went home to carry on the school, which he afterwards sold. In 1885 he returned to Cambridge and supported himself by coaching while reading medicine for a degree. During the next twelve years he worked incessantly and with restless activity, becoming Senior Demonstrator of Anatomy in 1887 and Supervisor of Medical Students at King's and Emmanuel Colleges. Indeed, it was said that at one time he was nearly elected a Fellow of King's with a view to his being made Dean. In 1889 he was House Surgeon at the Middlesex Hospital, having worked there in his vacations. Settling in practice at Cambridge with Hyde Hill, MRCS, he achieved great success in a short period. He had, indeed, already shown himself to be a very able teacher and had a large coaching connection. After a contested election, he became Assistant Surgeon at Addenbrooke's Hospital, as also Surgeon in charge of the Gynaecological Department there, and was appointed Lecturer in Midwifery at the University. He was elected to the Cambridge County Council, held a post in connection with the Cambridge District Nurses, and was Surgeon Captain in the Harwich Infantry Brigade. In 1890 he performed cholecystotomy, an unusual operation in East Anglia, and was supported at this operation by the presence of his senior, Sir George M Humphry, whom he resembled in his impressive manner and powers of teaching. In 1897, suffering from haemoptysis after influenza, he sent a specimen of his sputum to Professor A A Kanthack (qv), who, thinking it to be from some patient of Douty's, remarked to the latter that it was teeming with tubercle bacilli. Douty's Cambridge activities were ended by this announcement, and he became a wanderer in search of health. For a time he was a patient under Walther at Nordrach, and later settled in practice at Davos, where he carried out the Nordrach treatment at the Belvedere Hotel. After some years the excessive cold of Davos led him to seek a pleasanter climate. He settled eventually at Cannes, at the same time retaining rooms in Paris. Seeking to improve his position as a surgeon, he spent some months in London and passed the Fellowship in spite of severe intercurrent illness. He had wished to settle in London, where doubtless his connection among his old Davos patients would have been extensive, but his health would not permit this course. He returned to the Riviera and laid himself out for surgical practice. At Cannes he was Surgeon to the Asile Evangélique, and he was also Surgeon to the Queen Victoria Memorial Hospital at Nice. Douty was a man of many-sided character, outspoken, upright, with troops of friends, of whom some had not always understood his candid utterances. He had a facility for attracting and managing patients. A man of the world, of extraordinary versatility, he was a connoisseur in music, literature, and in almost every form of art. There were, indeed, few subjects on which he had not clear and independent views. With a mind exceptionally virile, and little inclined to bow to authority as such, he had a shrewd eye for humbug in high places and a generous appreciation for merit in unlikely subjects. His striking personality exerted a direct and wholesome influence over his pupils and patients, especially the undergraduates at Cambridge between 1885 and 1897. No one was less like the traditional don. His degrees and diplomas were so numerous that, at the time of his death, he was probably the best qualified medical man in the world. His foreign degrees were necessary to enable him to practise in France, and he told interesting stories of his examinations, particularly of his struggle for the Paris MD. After a long courageous fight with ever-increasing physical disabilities and a life of very arduous work, Douty succumbed to an attack of fever and to cardiac failure at the Villa Florence, Cannes, on May 27th, 1911. In 1909 he had married Kathleen, third daughter of Sir Frederick Wills, Bart., and was survived by this lady and an infant son. He was buried at Clifford Chambers, near Stratford-on-Avon. A portrait of Douty accompanies his biography by Sir Humphry Rolleston in the *Lancet*, 1911, i, 1618. Publications:- *Quicksilber bei Syphilis*, Davos, 1899. *Le Sanalorium Idéal*, Thesis, 8vo, 5 plates, Paris, 1904. "Case of Cholecystotomy." - *Trans. Cambridge Med. Soc.*, 1890. "Laparotomy for Post-Typhlitic Abscess." - *Ibid.*, 1893. "Case of so-called Super-foetation." - *Ibid.*, 1894. "Caesarean Section." - *Ibid.*, 1897. "Climate and Cure of Consumption." - *Brit. Med. Jour.*, 1899, ii, 56; *Lancet*, 1899, i, 1055. "Case of Traumatic Aneurysm of the Carotid Artery caused by a Sewing Needle." - *Lancet*, 1899, ii, 1584.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001447
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Butler, Cornelius (1789 - 1871)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

First Title value, for Searching Butler, Frederick John (1819 - 1882)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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/372657372657
Occupation General surgeon
Details Practised at Bedford in the firm of Harris & Son. He was co-proprietor with Henry Harris, LRCP Edin, Resident Physician, of the Springfield House Lunatic Asylum. He was also Surgeon to the Bedford General Infirmary, and Visiting Surgeon of Lunatic Asylums in Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire, and Huntingdonshire. He died on June 26th, 1861.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000473
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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

First Title value, for Searching Rowland, William (1803 - 1858)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2012-11-20
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E003000-E003999/E003100-E003199
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/375348375348
Occupation General surgeon
Details Became Physician to Swansea Infirmary, and Admiralty Surgeon and Agent for Swansea. He died at Swansea in 1858.
Resource Identifier RCS: E003165
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2012-11-20
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E003000-E003999/E003100-E003199
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/375349375349
Occupation General surgeon
Details Was at one time Visiting Surgeon to the Liverpool Dispensary. He afterwards practised at Wrexham, Denbighshire, where he was Surgeon to the Wrexham Infirmary and Dispensary. He died in March, 1862.
Resource Identifier RCS: E003166
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2012-11-20
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E003000-E003999/E003100-E003199
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/375350375350
Occupation General surgeon
Details Practised at Oldham, and was certifying Factory Surgeon and Medical Officer of the Oldham District Union. He died at his house in Church Street, Oldham, in 1860.
Resource Identifier RCS: E003167
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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

First Title value, for Searching Russell, James (1786 - 1851)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2012-11-21
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E003000-E003999/E003100-E003199
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/375363375363
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born on November 19th, 1786, at 1 Newhall Street, Birmingham, the son of George Russell by his wife Martha, daughter of John Skey. His father, a Birmingham merchant, ruined at the outset of the American War, was a Unitarian and a prominent member of the congregation of Joseph Priestley (1733-1804). Russell was educated at a private school near Warwick, and was apprenticed to Mr Blount, the Birmingham surgeon, on Nov 17th, 1800. He entered Guy's Hospital about 1806, and obtained the post of 'Visiting Apothecary' to the Birmingham Dispensary as soon as he had qualified. He resigned this post on Sept 30th, 1811, and spent the winter session 1811-1812 in London, attending the lectures of John Abernethy, although he had to borrow the money to pay his expenses. He returned to Birmingham in 1812 and settled in practice first at 67, and afterwards at 63, Newhall Street. On January 18th, 1815, he was elected Surgeon to the Birmingham Dispensary, and resigned on November 9th, 1825. He was also Surgeon to the town Infirmary, but was defeated, probably on account of his Unitarian principles, when he was a candidate for election as Surgeon to the General Hospital. For many years he acted as Sanitary Inspector for Birmingham, and organized important improvements in the condition of the town, more especially in regard to drainage and ventilation. In 1851 he wrote an elaborate report on the "Sanitary Condition of Birmingham" and gave evidence before the Parliamentary Committee on the Birmingham Improvements Bill. He was also especially interested in midwifery statistics, and left behind him notes of 2700 midwifery cases which he had attended. He took an active part in the establishment of the Medical Benevolent Society and of the Geological Museum in Birmingham, and was for many years Treasurer of the Philosophical Institution. He was a Liberal in politics, and publicly enrolled himself in 1831 as a member of the Birmingham Political Union under the leadership of Thomas Attwood. He died suddenly on December 24th, 1851, and was buried in the family vault under the old meeting-house. He married on May 5th, 1817, Sarah Hawkes, and by her was the father of three children, of whom the eldest, James Russell (d 1885), was Physician to the Birmingham General Hospital. An oil painting, which has been engraved, was in the possession of James Russell, of Edgbaston.
Resource Identifier RCS: E003180
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Acherley (or Ackerley), Richard Yates ( - 1862)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2009-07-31
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/372820372820
Occupation General surgeon
Details Practised at 6 Prince Edwin Street, Everton, Liverpool, and died on Dec 20th 1862. Publications:- “Tartar Emetic and Opium in Spasmodic Affections.” – *Lond.Med.Gaz.* 1837-8, i, 56. “Nature and Treatment of Puerperal Fever.” – *Ibid.*, 1837-8, ii, 463. “Hydrophobic Mania Successfully Treated with Chloroform” – (Subsequent correspondence elicited that the supposed incubation period was ten years and a few months and that the bite had been inflicted by a cat. It was not, therefore, an instance of rabies at all.) – *Lancet*, 1848, ii, 122, 299, 409.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000637
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Butler, Henry ( - 1885)

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2011-09-14
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001300-E001399
URL for Files https://scp.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373550373550
Occupation General surgeon
Details Came of a family well known in the neighbourhood of York, and was the son of R Dale, solicitor, of York. He was baptized at St Peter-le-Belfry. He was educated at St Peter's School, York, and at the University of Cambridge, where he began the study of medicine at Caius College, to which he was admitted on October 1st, 1874. He took an ordinary degree, probably in Natural Science, in 1878, and was at one time, after 1883, Assistant Demonstrator of Anatomy in the Medical School of the University. Entering the Medical School of St George's Hospital, he qualified in London, took his Cambridge Medical degree (MB), and then pursued a long course of study in Paris and Vienna. He next became House Surgeon at the Manchester Royal Infirmary, and eventually joined his uncle, George Peckitte Dale (qv), in practice in Scarborough. Frederic Dale practised at Park Lea, Belmont Road, Scarborough, from about 1887 onwards. He was for a long period on the staff of the Scarborough Hospital and Dispensary as Hon Surgeon and Hon Ophthalmic and Aural Surgeon, and was Consulting Surgeon at the time of his death, when he was also Hon Medical Officer of the Ida Convalescent Home for Children at Scarborough. He was Hon Consulting Medical Officer and Hon Ophthalmic and Aural Surgeon of the Kingscliffe Hospital in the town. He enjoyed a large practice and occupied a prominent position both professionally and in civic life. An active worker in the Conservative cause, he was for some time Ruling Councillor of the Scarborough Habitation of the Primrose League. He was likewise for some twelve years before his death an energetic magistrate. A year or two before the close of his life he went to reside at Haybrow, Scalby, while still carrying on in Scarborough, at Nicholas Parade, the practice he formerly had at Park Lea, Belmont Road. On October 25th, 1913, shortly after his return from a day's shooting, he died unexpectedly at Scalby. He was survived by Mrs Dale and a son and daughter. Publications: "New Style for Facilitating Treatment of Stricture of Lachrymal Duct." - *Lancet*, 1887, i, 30.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001367
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z

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

2025-08-02T10:43:12Z