- Email: [email protected]
The RCoA ‘Lives’ Project: Update & Outcome; Methods & Encouragement
The RCoA ‘Lives’ Project: update & outcome; methods & encouragement Tony Wildsmith, Robert Palmer, Nigel Roberts PII: DOI: Reference:
S2352-4529(17)30175-5 doi: 10.1016/j.janh.2017.10.011 JANH 155
To appear in:
Journal of Anesthesia History
Please cite this article as: , The RCoA ‘Lives’ Project: update & outcome; methods & encouragement, Journal of Anesthesia History (2017), doi: 10.1016/j.janh.2017.10.011
This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting proof before it is published in its final form. Please note that during the production process errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain.
ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT The RCoA ‘Lives’ Project: update & outcome; methods & encouragement Tony Wildsmith1, Robert Palmer2, Nigel Roberts3
RI PT
1. Professor Emeritus, University of Dundee, [email protected], 2. Retired Consultant Anaesthetist, Wessex. 3.Professor Emeritus in Political Science, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. Two years after its formal launch, the Royal College of Anaesthetists’ ‘Lives of Fellows’ project is making slow, but steady progress. Biographies of 102 of the first
SC
170 Fellows elected between 1948 & 1952 have now been produced, as well as a brochure (http://www.rcoa.ac.uk/system/files/HeritageBrochure2017.pdf) focusing on
NU
the members of the original Board of Faculty. Biographies of another 31 from later years have also been published, and 38 living Fellows have submitted their own details for subsequent use. Although this has required a considerable amount of work,
MA
the total number represents little more than 1% of the nearly 15,000 individuals who have received the UK Fellowship in Anaesthesia since 1948.
PT ED
More individuals are needed to help with the process, and this presentation aims to encourage such involvement, after all there is no shortage of subjects! Some have found the data collection form a little off-putting, the reason being the inclusion of ‘hidden’ software to enable display of the material on the website. Thus a simpler version has been introduced, and in future the material collected will be transferred to
CE
the display version as part of the editorial process. Like a number of individuals, one of us (RP) has focused on an area of interest, sometimes an aspect of the specialty or,
AC
as in his case, the NHS region in which he worked. He will outline how he does it, particularly in terms of involving other colleagues. It is hoped that such ‘reporters’ might be found in other areas. Finally, arguably the most important aspect of the project is finding fascinating material which is often too extensive to include in the limited space afforded by the project itself, or not directly relevant. To help with this, the RCoA’s Bulletin column ‘As we were’, written until recently by the late Dr. David Zuck, is to continue under the auspices of the RCoA’s Heritage Committee, one of its main aims (but not the only one, submissions are welcome from all – enquiries to [email protected]) being to allow exploration of a period in the specialty’s history which we should be studying in more detail. If an event from 70 or so years ago isn’t history now, what is? To illustrate this, the major focus of this presentation will be an account of the life of Dr F W (Bobby) Roberts, 93rd recipient of the FFARCS, so elected on the 23rd June,
ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT 1948. The search for material for his biography revealed that one of us (NR, his son) possessed an unpublished autobiography of his father (1911-2005). This describes fascinating personal events such as swimming in the Rhine with the lady who was to
RI PT
become Boris Johnson’s (yes, that one!) grandmother, and anesthetic experiences as disparate (to say nothing of historically significant) as training and staff work at the Middlesex Hospital before World War II, being a partner with Robert Macintosh and others in the ‘Mayfair Gas Company’ (aka ‘Gas, fight & choke’), surviving London
SC
during the ‘blitz’ (giving anesthetics all the while), going on to help establish the Dutch and South African Societies, working with Albert Schweitzer in Lambarene,
NU
settling in Tasmania to establish anesthetic services there, and finally (for an ‘encore’) returning to Africa before retiring in Australia - some Life! Suggestions on how this
AC
CE
PT ED
MA
material might be made more readily accessible will be welcome.
S2352-4529(17)30175-5 doi: 10.1016/j.janh.2017.10.011 JANH 155
To appear in:
Journal of Anesthesia History
Please cite this article as: , The RCoA ‘Lives’ Project: update & outcome; methods & encouragement, Journal of Anesthesia History (2017), doi: 10.1016/j.janh.2017.10.011
This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting proof before it is published in its final form. Please note that during the production process errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain.
ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT The RCoA ‘Lives’ Project: update & outcome; methods & encouragement Tony Wildsmith1, Robert Palmer2, Nigel Roberts3
RI PT
1. Professor Emeritus, University of Dundee, [email protected], 2. Retired Consultant Anaesthetist, Wessex. 3.Professor Emeritus in Political Science, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. Two years after its formal launch, the Royal College of Anaesthetists’ ‘Lives of Fellows’ project is making slow, but steady progress. Biographies of 102 of the first
SC
170 Fellows elected between 1948 & 1952 have now been produced, as well as a brochure (http://www.rcoa.ac.uk/system/files/HeritageBrochure2017.pdf) focusing on
NU
the members of the original Board of Faculty. Biographies of another 31 from later years have also been published, and 38 living Fellows have submitted their own details for subsequent use. Although this has required a considerable amount of work,
MA
the total number represents little more than 1% of the nearly 15,000 individuals who have received the UK Fellowship in Anaesthesia since 1948.
PT ED
More individuals are needed to help with the process, and this presentation aims to encourage such involvement, after all there is no shortage of subjects! Some have found the data collection form a little off-putting, the reason being the inclusion of ‘hidden’ software to enable display of the material on the website. Thus a simpler version has been introduced, and in future the material collected will be transferred to
CE
the display version as part of the editorial process. Like a number of individuals, one of us (RP) has focused on an area of interest, sometimes an aspect of the specialty or,
AC
as in his case, the NHS region in which he worked. He will outline how he does it, particularly in terms of involving other colleagues. It is hoped that such ‘reporters’ might be found in other areas. Finally, arguably the most important aspect of the project is finding fascinating material which is often too extensive to include in the limited space afforded by the project itself, or not directly relevant. To help with this, the RCoA’s Bulletin column ‘As we were’, written until recently by the late Dr. David Zuck, is to continue under the auspices of the RCoA’s Heritage Committee, one of its main aims (but not the only one, submissions are welcome from all – enquiries to [email protected]) being to allow exploration of a period in the specialty’s history which we should be studying in more detail. If an event from 70 or so years ago isn’t history now, what is? To illustrate this, the major focus of this presentation will be an account of the life of Dr F W (Bobby) Roberts, 93rd recipient of the FFARCS, so elected on the 23rd June,
ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT 1948. The search for material for his biography revealed that one of us (NR, his son) possessed an unpublished autobiography of his father (1911-2005). This describes fascinating personal events such as swimming in the Rhine with the lady who was to
RI PT
become Boris Johnson’s (yes, that one!) grandmother, and anesthetic experiences as disparate (to say nothing of historically significant) as training and staff work at the Middlesex Hospital before World War II, being a partner with Robert Macintosh and others in the ‘Mayfair Gas Company’ (aka ‘Gas, fight & choke’), surviving London
SC
during the ‘blitz’ (giving anesthetics all the while), going on to help establish the Dutch and South African Societies, working with Albert Schweitzer in Lambarene,
NU
settling in Tasmania to establish anesthetic services there, and finally (for an ‘encore’) returning to Africa before retiring in Australia - some Life! Suggestions on how this
AC
CE
PT ED
MA
material might be made more readily accessible will be welcome.