British Journal of Neurosurgery
ISSN: 0268-8697 (Print) 1360-046X (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/ibjn20
The history of neurosurgery at the Royal Free Hospital London: Some corrections Michael Powell To cite this article: Michael Powell (2015) The history of neurosurgery at the Royal Free Hospital London: Some corrections, British Journal of Neurosurgery, 29:3, 444-444, DOI: 10.3109/02688697.2014.996528 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.3109/02688697.2014.996528
Published online: 22 Dec 2014.
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Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=ibjn20 Download by: [University of Prince Edward Island]
Date: 05 November 2015, At: 16:00
British Journal of Neurosurgery, June 2015; 29(3): 444 © 2014 The Neurosurgical Foundation ISSN: 0268-8697 print / ISSN 1360-046X online DOI: 10.3109/02688697.2014.996528
LETTER TO THE EDITOR College Hospital. He had a hard life there on his own, but was a skillful and much liked surgeon whose other duties were as an endocrine surgeon taking out parathyroid tumours and phaeochromocytomas. He was alive until at least a couple of years ago, and was a fascinating source of important information. So to the final correction, the history misses me out. I was appointed to an Honorary Consultant appointment in the mid 1990s to take on transsphenoidal surgery, at the request of the professor of endocrinology, but with the support of Bob Bradford, then clinical director, as neither he nor his colleagues had ever really been trained in the most modern pituitary techniques. I was to come up from Queen Square every month for a multidisciplinary clinic and to do an afternoon list on alternate Wednesdays, following on from Colin Shieff ’s morning list. I must have done at least one hundred transsphenoidals there in my time. I was never paid for this, nor was I ever formally ‘discharged’ but handed over the practice to Neil Dorward on his appointment, although he asked me to come up there a few times whilst he was finding his feet, although, truth be told, he never really needed my help.
Downloaded by [University of Prince Edward Island] at 16:00 05 November 2015
The history of neurosurgery at the Royal Free Hospital London: Some corrections Ah! The dangers of writing a history1 when some of the protagonists are still about and, worse still, retired with some time on their hands. I certainly found out the hard way when I wrote about the history of Queen Square, and later of Valentine Logue. Some corrections are required. Firstly, the first neurosurgeon at the Royal Free was Eric Radley Smith (1910–2003), appointed in about 1949 after war service at Haywards Heath and in the Royal Air Force. He spent a year with Olivecrona at the Karolynska, in Sweden, before taking up his position in the Royal Free Hospital, where he dabbled in leucotomies and hypophysectomy to control metastatic breast and prostate cancer (an operation just ‘going out’ when I was a new consultant in the mid 1980s). Radley Smith was trained at King’s and was a house surgeon at Queen Square. Of course, many of his generation were, like him, appointed to ‘General’ surgical posts, but his activities were without a question, in part, neurosurgical. Then Bernard Harries (note the extra ‘e’). He would be mortified if he heard that he was not considered a neurosurgeon. He trained with another minor forgotten great, Julian Taylor, and both he and his mentor had an ‘unlucky’ war, being captured and spending time as prisoners of war. On their return, Cairns shut them out of the Society of British Neurological Surgeons and only allowed them associate status as both had ‘General’ surgical duties at University
Michael Powell Retired Consultant Neurosurgeon NHNN Queen Square and Archivist for the SBNS London, UK
Reference 1. Pulhorn H, Bradford R, Dorward N, et al. History of Neurosurgery at The Royal Free Hospital in London. Br J Neurosurg 2014;28:387–9.
444
ISSN: 0268-8697 (Print) 1360-046X (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/ibjn20
The history of neurosurgery at the Royal Free Hospital London: Some corrections Michael Powell To cite this article: Michael Powell (2015) The history of neurosurgery at the Royal Free Hospital London: Some corrections, British Journal of Neurosurgery, 29:3, 444-444, DOI: 10.3109/02688697.2014.996528 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.3109/02688697.2014.996528
Published online: 22 Dec 2014.
Submit your article to this journal
Article views: 22
View related articles
View Crossmark data
Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=ibjn20 Download by: [University of Prince Edward Island]
Date: 05 November 2015, At: 16:00
British Journal of Neurosurgery, June 2015; 29(3): 444 © 2014 The Neurosurgical Foundation ISSN: 0268-8697 print / ISSN 1360-046X online DOI: 10.3109/02688697.2014.996528
LETTER TO THE EDITOR College Hospital. He had a hard life there on his own, but was a skillful and much liked surgeon whose other duties were as an endocrine surgeon taking out parathyroid tumours and phaeochromocytomas. He was alive until at least a couple of years ago, and was a fascinating source of important information. So to the final correction, the history misses me out. I was appointed to an Honorary Consultant appointment in the mid 1990s to take on transsphenoidal surgery, at the request of the professor of endocrinology, but with the support of Bob Bradford, then clinical director, as neither he nor his colleagues had ever really been trained in the most modern pituitary techniques. I was to come up from Queen Square every month for a multidisciplinary clinic and to do an afternoon list on alternate Wednesdays, following on from Colin Shieff ’s morning list. I must have done at least one hundred transsphenoidals there in my time. I was never paid for this, nor was I ever formally ‘discharged’ but handed over the practice to Neil Dorward on his appointment, although he asked me to come up there a few times whilst he was finding his feet, although, truth be told, he never really needed my help.
Downloaded by [University of Prince Edward Island] at 16:00 05 November 2015
The history of neurosurgery at the Royal Free Hospital London: Some corrections Ah! The dangers of writing a history1 when some of the protagonists are still about and, worse still, retired with some time on their hands. I certainly found out the hard way when I wrote about the history of Queen Square, and later of Valentine Logue. Some corrections are required. Firstly, the first neurosurgeon at the Royal Free was Eric Radley Smith (1910–2003), appointed in about 1949 after war service at Haywards Heath and in the Royal Air Force. He spent a year with Olivecrona at the Karolynska, in Sweden, before taking up his position in the Royal Free Hospital, where he dabbled in leucotomies and hypophysectomy to control metastatic breast and prostate cancer (an operation just ‘going out’ when I was a new consultant in the mid 1980s). Radley Smith was trained at King’s and was a house surgeon at Queen Square. Of course, many of his generation were, like him, appointed to ‘General’ surgical posts, but his activities were without a question, in part, neurosurgical. Then Bernard Harries (note the extra ‘e’). He would be mortified if he heard that he was not considered a neurosurgeon. He trained with another minor forgotten great, Julian Taylor, and both he and his mentor had an ‘unlucky’ war, being captured and spending time as prisoners of war. On their return, Cairns shut them out of the Society of British Neurological Surgeons and only allowed them associate status as both had ‘General’ surgical duties at University
Michael Powell Retired Consultant Neurosurgeon NHNN Queen Square and Archivist for the SBNS London, UK
Reference 1. Pulhorn H, Bradford R, Dorward N, et al. History of Neurosurgery at The Royal Free Hospital in London. Br J Neurosurg 2014;28:387–9.
444
