Violet Lesley Lutwyche and Vivien Ursula Lutwyche
Violet (pictured left), a former medical superintendent at St Barnabas, Ntlaza, Transkei, South Africa (b near Cambridge 1907; q Cambridge/Royal Free 1938; MRCS), died on 12 March 2001. Her younger sister Ursula (pictured right), a former consultant chest physician at Epping and Harlow hospitals (b Great Shelford, Cambridge, 1910; q Cambridge/Royal Free 1942; DCH, FRCP), died from cerebrovascular disease 12 hours later on 13 March. Ursula had looked after Violet, or Dr Peter as she was known, uncomplainingly for the previous nine years.
After qualifying, both sisters worked at Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Hospital, London. Dr Peter went on to work in Nottingham before going out to St Barnabas Mission Hospital in 1946 to give her services unpaid. In 1948 she went to Uganda to learn paediatric surgery. During her time at St Barnabas, it flourished as a hospital with a busy outpatient department and four clinics, one 40 miles distant. Transport consisted of an old ex-army ambulance. Travelling distances over rutted tracks, through thick mud if it was wet and clouds of dust if it was dry, needed skill and physical endurance. At the clinic Peter might find 200 to 300 patients waiting to be seen; mothers with sick children would make a two to three day journey to get help. Occasionally she had assistance to manage the heavy workload, but sometimes she would be running the hospital singlehanded, with as little as three to four hours sleep a night. Inpatient numbers increased, nursing staff increased, grants were applied for and received, including the governor general's War Memorial Fund. The Cape Province Health Department gave approval for rebuilding, and with the great financial generosity of Peter, her sister, and their cousin, the new hospital became a reality and soon became famous throughout the region. It was such a joy for Peter, aged 83 and registered blind, to return to St Barnabas for the centenary celebrations in 1993, where she was feted with speeches and feasts in her honour.
Ursula moved to Willesden and Neasden after the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson and in 1954 was appointed consultant chest physician at Epping and Harlow when tuberculosis was endemic. Following retirement in 1975, Ursula looked after her cousin, who died in 1992, and then continued to care for her sister, Peter, who was almost completely blind and suffered all the frustrations of having an active and lucid brain in a weakening body. This was a real testing time for them both, but Ursula just quietly got on with caring for her sister over the remaining nine years of their life together. Ursula, too, had macular degeneration and was registered blind in 1999.
Both sisters were avid and knowledgeable birdwatchers, going off to the Drakenburg mountains every two years when Ursula visited her sister in South Africa, and later to Norfolk, Suffolk, and Cumbria. Ursula supported many charities, and was tireless in her support for village activities.
Wilfrid Seymour Coltart
Former general practitioner Chichester 1934-78 (b Oswestry 1908; q Birmingham 1931), d 8 February 2001. The son of a doctor, he took over a run down singlehanded practice in 1934 and built it up to four partners by the time of his retirement. His main medical interest was obstetrics, and he was held in high esteem performing countless home deliveries in remote downland villages. He was a clinical assistant in anaesthetics at the Royal West Sussex Hospital from 1936 to 1973. He disliked medical politics, but was chairman of the Chichester Marriage Guidance Council and a school governor for many years. Outside medicine, his main interests were his family and sailing. Although mild mannered, he was a tough and successful racing helmsman in dinghies and keel boats in Chichester harbour and the Solent. Predeceased by his wife soon after he retired, he leaves three children and eight grandchildren.
by Stewart Coltart
K R “Claude” Dempster
Former consultant pathologist King Edward VII Hospital, Windsor (b 1924; q St Thomas's 1945; MD, FRCPath), d 6 March 2001. He was baptised Kenneth Robertson, but known almost universally as “Claude.” He was mentioned in Wisden in 1943 after dismissing Edrich and Ames, Test cricketers, while playing for Epsom Town against the Royal Air Force. In 1945, he was one of a group of medical students to be sent with the Red Cross to Belsen immediately after its liberation. After qualification and national service in Fort George, Scotland, he returned to St Thomas's as registrar and then lecturer before being appointed consultant pathologist to Windsor in 1957. Retiring in 1989, he suffered a severe stroke the following year. Though severely disabled, he was nursed at home by his wife, Mary. He leaves Mary; four children; and 10 grandchildren.
by David Dempster
Marcia Hall
Paediatrician Great Ormond Street Hospital 1941-69 (b Woodford Green 1909; q Cambridge/King's College Hospital 1934; MD), died from Alzheimer's disease on 16 November 2000. Marcia's father died when she was young and she was supported at Cambridge by an uncle who would not at first allow her to study medicine. However, after her first year, he relented and she went on to become one of the earliest female clinical students at King's College Hospital. She elected to join the firm of Sam Hall because he was the least fierce of the teachers. She subsequently married him. During the war she was seconded as a dermatologist to the Canadian Army Hospital in Cuckfield. This post included genitourinary medicine, and her lack of any more than a rudimentary knowledge of dermatology combined with the wild nature of the clientele made this an interesting experience. Marcia's particular interest was in chest medicine, especially tuberculosis. She travelled to Scandinavia to study the new BCG vaccine and administered it to the children of the Royal Family. She always had a great interest in country life and especially riding, and retired to Brendon in north Devon where she and her husband did much to organise the building of the village hall. A descendant of Elizabeth Fry and the daughter of a clergyman, she retained a staunch Christian faith throughout her long life. Predeceased by her husband, she leaves three children and seven grandchildren.
by Desmond Hall and Marcia Hall
Harold Witcomb Everley Jones
Former consultant paediatrician Wolverhampton, West Bromwich, and Dudley (b London 1910; q St Thomas's 1934; OBE, FRCP), died from cardiac failure on 9 January 2001. After posts in London, he joined the Royal Army Medical Corps, where he was rapidly promoted and served in Egypt as lieutenant colonel from 1942 to 1945. With the return of peace, he declined the offer of a consultant post at St Thomas's, preferring to pioneer in pastures new in the West Midlands. In 1947, before the birth of the NHS, he singlehandedly set up a children's service, involving Bridgnorth, Wolverhampton, Dudley, Walsall, and West Bromwich. In 1961, Birmingham University appointed him clinical lecturer and area director in postgraduate education. Known to his many friends and colleagues as EJ, he kept fit by cycling. A bachelor, he retired to a cottage in North Wales, but continued a close association with his older contemporaries in the West Midlands.
by J A Seymour-Jones
Margaret Elizabeth Lace (née Morgan)
Former consultant Family Planning Association (b Dowlais, South Wales, 1912; q Bristol 1938), d 1 June 2001. After medical and surgical posts at Bristol Royal Infirmary, she became the general practitioner in Porthcawl during the war years. She then returned to Bristol and worked part time running antenatal and infant welfare clinics. Here she came face to face with the welfare and social problems confronting large families. Birth control became an important issue, and Betty had further training under the auspices of the Family Planning Association. One of the family planning pioneers in Bristol, she became a member of the FPA Council and a recognised teacher in family planning at Bristol University. She also worked for the Bristol and South West Regional Blood Transfusion Service. Following retirement in 1984, she maintained an active interest in the affairs of her old school. She celebrated her diamond wedding anniversary last August. She leaves a husband, Edward; two children; and six grandchildren.
by Gaston Pawan
Eric Taylor Murray
Surgeon (b 1922; q Aberdeen 1944; FRCS), died from left ventricular heart failure on 11 April 2001. From 1952 he worked as a registrar on rotation at Luton and Dunstable, Central Middlesex and the Royal Free hospitals. In 1959 he took up a consultant position, initially at Tilbury and Billericay in Essex, and then at Basildon, Orsett, and Brentwood Nuffield hospitals until 1977 when he suffered a major heart attack. Still keen to continue his work for the NHS, he became a part time radiologist at Basildon hospital before retiring in 1983. He was an avid player of golf, his crowning achievement being a hole in one for which his club awarded him a special tie. He also enjoyed playing bridge and collecting antiques. Given the severity of his heart attack in 1977, it is a credit to the medical staff who attended to him and also the controlled diet and lifestyle that he then followed that he survived another fairly active 24 years. Predeceased by his wife, Laurie, he leaves three sons and four grandchildren.
by Philip R Murray
Alan George Sherman
Former occupational health doctor Worth (b Croydon 1934; q University College Hospital 1957; DObst RCOG), died from pancreatic cancer on 15 May 2001. After house jobs in east London, he entered general practice in Horley, Surrey. But, plagued for many years by low back pain, he decided in the 1980s on a change of direction and entered occupational medicine through a distance learning course. He then set up an ultimately thriving occupational health practice based at his lovely house at Worth on the Surrey-Sussex border. Many small and not so small firms sought his expertise. Only last year did he finally decide on retirement so that he and his wife, Brenda, could pursue their love of caravanning.
by Roy Archibald
John Jeffrey Shipman
Former consultant surgeon Lister Hospital, Stevenage (b London 1917; q University College London 1942; MS, FRCS), died from the effects of a severe viral neurological disease on 1 April 2001. He joined the army in 1942 and became regimental medical officer. John risked serious trouble with the commanding officer by making a clinical diagnosis of diphtheria in a soldier, thus delaying the departure of his regiment for France, but he was proved correct. He was an excellent teacher, and generations of his residents were turned into capable surgeons. All will remember being stung to do better by his tongue-in-cheek rebuke “Failed” if they got an answer wrong. John was the author of Operative Surgery Revision and Mnemonics and Tactics in Surgery and Medicine. He served on the Joint Consultants Committee and was far ahead of his time by proposing a single grade of training registrar instead of the complicated registrar/senior registrar system then in operation. A witty conversationalist, John was always the centre of attraction at social gatherings. He leaves a wife, Betty; a son; and three grandchildren.
by Roger H Armour
Allan Beaumont Swarbreck
Former private practitioner Johannesburg, Rhodesia, and Zambia (b Middleburg, South Africa, 1905; q University College Hospital 1927), d 24 May 2001. During the 1922 strike, he stoked the Flying Scotsman from London to York and back. He entered the Colonial Service as a medical officer in Kenya and left to enter private practice in Johannesburg. During the second world war, he saw service in the East African campaign and later in the desert. In 1944, he was demobilised as unfit and returned to his practice. In 1946, he returned to England to advance his interests and qualified as MRCOG in 1949. He returned home to practice in Johannesburg, and later in the then Rhodesia and Zambia. Among his patients were Joshua Nkomo and Kenneth Kaunda. He retired from medicine in 1977 to live in Natal. Predeceased by his wife, he leaves two children and two grandchildren.
by R W B Swarbreck