James Learmonth

Sir James Rognvald Learmonth (born March 23, 1895 in Gatehouse of Fleet , Scotland , † September 27, 1967 in Broughton ) was a Scottish surgeon .

Life

Learmonth was the son of a school principal. He studied medicine at the University of Glasgow from 1913 , interrupted his service as an officer (most recently a captain) with the Kings Own Scottish Boarders during World War I in France. In 1921 he graduated ( Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery , BMChB), receiving the University's Brunton Memorial Prize for his outstanding achievements. This was followed by specialist training at the Western Infirmary in Glasgow (1921/22) and he was among other things assistant to the Regius Professor of Surgery in Glasgow William Macewen . This was followed by a stay in 1924/25 as a Rockefeller scholar at the Mayo Clinic. There he researched the nerves of the bladder and the physiology of urination, which earned him international recognition. He then went back to the Western Infirmary in Glasgow and also pursued a degree as a surgeon, with a Master in Surgery (ChM) degree in 1927. In 1928 he became a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh and then spent four years in the USA Mayo Clinic at the invitation of William James Mayo . In 1932 he became Regius Professor of Surgery at the University of Aberdeen and from 1939 as successor to David Wilkie Professor of Systematic Surgery at the University of Edinburgh . He stayed in Edinburgh until his early retirement in 1956, and also from 1946 as Regius Professor of Clinical Surgery, succeeding John Fraser. In addition to his operations and teaching activities, he led a research group at Gogarburn Hospital on injuries to the peripheral nerves and blood vessels. In 1948, in Edinburgh, he also regularly instituted the first systematic surgical audits in Great Britain on Saturday mornings , in which surgeons across the city attended.

After having operated on the British King George VI in 1949 , who suffered from vascular inflammation ( endangiitis obliterans ), he became Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (KCVO). He also officially became the king's surgeon in charge of Scotland (Surgeon to the King in Scotland) or, after his death from 1952 to 1960, with the Queen.

He was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (1944), Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England (1949), whose Lister Medal he received in 1951, Knight of the Legion of Honor, Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE, 1945 ) and multiple honorary doctorates (Strasbourg, Paris, St. Andrews, Oslo, Edinburgh, Sydney and an honorary doctorate in law in Glasgow). He was an honorary member of the American College of Surgeons, the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, and the Royal Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow.

Learmonth had been married since 1925 and had a son and a daughter.

Web links

• Acknowledgments from Ian F. MacLaren, pdf