William Fletcher Shaw

Sir William Fletcher Shaw (born April 13, 1878 in Manchester , † November 14, 1961 there ) was a British surgeon , gynecologist and obstetrician .

Live and act

William Fletcher Shaw was born in Manchester. He received his education at the Manchester Grammar School . He then studied medicine at Owens College , later the Victoria University of Manchester , where he received his Bachelor of Medicine (BM) degrees and the Conjoint Diploma in 1903. He began his professional career at the Manchester Royal Infirmary , but later moved to St. Mary's Hospital for Women and Children in Manchester. Here he played a crucial role in establishing a pathology laboratory. He received the Doctor of Medicine (MD) in 1906 for his theses on chronic uterine inflammation, for which he received a gold medal. In 1912 he was elected an honorary member of St. Mary's Hospital . Fletcher Shaw later became an honorary member of the Manchester Royal Infirmary and, in 1920, Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Manchester. Here he worked until his retirement in 1943. In 1942 he was raised to the nobility as a Knight Bachelor and from then on carried the suffix "Sir".

Together with William Blair-Bell (1871-1936) William Fletcher Shaw founded in 1929 the British College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists , which later became the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists . Fletcher Shaw had already discussed the idea of ​​this association with Blair-Bell in 1924. In 1938 he became president of the society, which he headed until 1943.

He was married twice and had three sons from the first marriage. His first wife died in 1937, the second in 1947. His two eldest sons were also gynecologists, the second oldest of whom, William Meredith Fletcher Shaw, died in Normandy in 1944 during World War II . The college established the William Meredith Fletcher Shaw Memorial Lecture in his honor .

William Fletcher Shaw died in 1961 after a brief illness at the age of 83.

Fonts (selection)

• Chronic metritis: its pathology and its relation to chronic endometritis. Sherratt, 1906
• Report on the obstetrical and gynecological services of New Zealand. New Zealand Obstetrical and Gynecological Society, 1948
• The birth of a college: the Lloyd Roberts Memorial Lecture delivered at St. Mary's Hospital, Manchester, on October 10th, 1950. John Sherratt and Son, 1950
• Twenty-five Years: The Story of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, 1929-1954. Churchill, 1954
• The College: Its Past, Present and Future. The William Meredith Fletcher Shaw Memorial Lecture. BJOG 61 (1954), 557-566, doi : 10.1111 / j.1471-0528.1954.tb07524.x

Awards

• Fellow of the American College of Surgeons 1936
• Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians 1939
• President of the British College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists 1938–1943
• Mastership of Midwifery honoris causa of the Society of Apothecaries 1947
• Honorary Doctorate from Queen's University of Belfast in 1948
• President of the North of England Obstetrical and Gynecological Society
• President of the Obstetrics and Gynecology Section of the Royal Society of Medicine

literature

• Obituary: Sir William Fletcher Shaw, MD, LL.DFRCP, FRCOG, MMSA, FACS Br Med J 5264 (1961), 1437–1438, online (PDF document; 752 kB)
• John Peel: The lives of the Fellows of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, 1929-1969. Heinemann Medical Books, 1976, pp. 38-40.