Sir Denis Browne, K.C.V.O., F.R.C.S.

Sir Denis Browne, K.C.V.O., F.R.C.S. The news of the sudden and completely unexpected death of Sir Denis Browne at the age of 74 will be mourned by his many friends all over the world. Pediatric surgery has lost one of its foremost exponents and England has lost a man of genius who can be truly described as the founder of modern British pediatric surgery. Denis Browne was born in Australia, where he went to school and studied medicine at the University of Sidney, New South Wales. He qualified in 1914 and immediately volunteered for the Australian Expeditionary Force. He spent the whole of the 1914-18 war in France as an Army Medical Officer and came to England after the armistice. In England, Denis Browne continued his surgical training at the London and Middlesex Hospitals and trained in orthopedic surgery under Sir Robert Jones in Liverpool. The surgery of childhood had always fascinated him. He joined the staff of the Hospital for Sick Children, Great Ormond Street, London, as registrar and resident surgical officer. He was elected as a consultant surgeon to that hospital in 1928. He retired from hospital practice in 1957 but continued with remarkable vigor in private practice until the week before his death. Denis Browne was the first surgeon in England to confine his practice to children, and his firm conviction that pediatric surgery was a specialty in its own right and the candid, vigorous manner in which he defended his opinions against the opposition of his seniors were perhaps the reasons why recognition and honors for his outstanding pioneer work were bestowed upon him relatively late in his brilliant career. After the Second World War the fame of his work had spread all around the globe, and young pediatric surgeons from all parts of the world came to him to learn. The devotion and loyalty of his many pupils testifies to his outstanding qualities as a teacher and as a man. He was one of the founders and the first president of the British Association of Pediatric Surgeons, and by his numerous lecture tours he promoted the progress of pediatric surgery in many lands. In 1957 the Surgical Section of the American Academy of Pediatrics awarded him the Ladd Medal for his service to pediatrics and pediatric surgery. In that same year he was elected president of the Pediatric Section of the Royal Soeietv of Medicine. He was awarded the honorary Fellowship of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons when l~e returned on a visit to the country of his birth almost 50 years after he had left it. In 1961 he was knighted for his service to pediatric surgery, and in the same year the French Government made him a Chevalier of the Legion d'Honneur. Denis Browne had a truly original mind and left his mark on virtually every branch of pediatric surgery. His numerous contributions cannot possibly be commented upon here. Among them are his operations for harelip and 97

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cleft palate in plastic surgery, his work on talipes and congenital dislocation of the hip in orthopedic surgery, his operation for hypospadias and undescended testicle in urology, his work on the anatomy of the tonsil and the technique of tonsillectomy in otolaryngology, his investigations and operations for anorectal malformations in proctology and many, many more. One of his great, lifelong interests centered around the causation of malformations in utero, and he was as ingenious and original in developing theories as he was in developing operative techniques, surgical instruments and splints. He was a lucid and brilliant teacher, thanks to his astonishing command of the English language. His love for discussions and taking part in a controversy and his candid and forthright manner of defense of his opinion as well as his imposing presence caused many to hold him in awe, but those who knew him better knew of his great kindness, his readiness to help the oppressed and his humility. Sir Denis Browne's wife, Lady Moyra, who was inseparable from him regardless of how far he toured the world and how arduous the journey, one son and two daughters survive him. PETER P. RICKttAM