Sir Robert Jones (1961)

this portrait was given to me by a lady probin jones who as you know of course was the daughter-in-law of Sir Robert and incidentally his niece socially what I think is a very characteristic mood it was painted when he was about 53 years of age it was a little time later that I became a egg to prove his inner fool but you I believe came in contact with him when you were a child quite true I think two knee joint trouble I was under Robert's care for a number of years but I didn't see him again until the summer of 1913 during the a meeting of the International Congress of Medicine in London he was president of the orthopaedic section of that mammoth Congress mammoth in terms of those days later in the year I went up to Liverpool to see him at work of the Royal southern hospital Saturday afternoon with his regular outpatient clinic day Wednesday afternoon his operating session I remember one occasion for various reasons that gallant young men Neuros Travis who was later to get a VC a double VC in fact with his house surgeon yes one of the two sons of the bishop of Liverpool I suppose that Saturday afternoon clinic was quite typical great numbers of patients coming through quickly rapid examinations and accurate diagnosis that extraordinary insight which Robert had remember all his beaming personality and the aura of Hope she radiated I think he saw about 80 patients in in two hours yes I can picture that very well and he was interestingly enough although doing off Pedic surgery till appointed as a general surgeon yes and he held that status until the day of his retirement but he had an assistant surgeon Theodore Armour who did the general surgery which came to the unit but Alma was also an orthopedic surgeon oh and he succeeded Sir Robert II he was it became entirely orthopedic in his interest at the time you were there as Sir Robert was associated with two general surgeons of a new quack well a new Bolton Douglas Crockford and they did the general surgery well Robert was very busy of course at that time but I don't think he reached the height of his fare although in 1913 the man who'd been selected to be president of the orthopedic section of a great international Congress obviously was then a well figure in orthopedic surgery but he became still more internationally famous after the first world war nevertheless in 1913 the man who had been selected to be president of the orthopedic section of that great International Congress of Medicine was already a well figure in orthopedic surgery because that was the last Congress that society ever to be held because it is usually held in Berlin in 1914 and by that time Robert had gone into uniform and it wasn't long before he had gathered round him a team a magnificent team of young men he was it was their leader and the greatly there wasn't he true and he in doing this he found great opposition there were very few men available who could devote themselves to what we called materials Pedic surgery he wanted a few young men whose background and training he could trust his own pupils came first and foremost and only hate liverpool branch of the first Western General Hospital there he had Theodore Armour and TB McMurray both men of experience matters in 1915 later at Axford he placed Edelsten in the orthopedic section of the territorial General Hospital now he extracted or Wynn Smith from the Canadian Forces in France Owen Smith had been his house surgeon and private assistance once and already had earned the DSO in the field he pressed Owen Smith in charge of the unit at Cardiff well where did Norton done come into the picture Norton done I think had gone east as a battalion medic lobster but on the way home invalid he was in hospital in one of the Greek islands there he met water rarely Bristow also in believing out after the evacuation of goodness earlier on arrival in England Dan was recruited by Sir Robert and sent the Birmingham charge of the unit there and Bristow was put on the staff at Shepherds Bush now shepherd's bush ultimately became the largest military Orthopaedic Center although older he remained the pioneer unit a chiapas bush and the original team there was 8 King once Roberts house surgeon and then his private assistant in his London practice and Reginald Elms live but there was no sense of product of the local school and then later WH Strathearn of guides what a character mm was wasn't he I member sitting next to me at a br a dinner and he said that you could write the whole of orthopedic surgery on me on the back of the menu card and then structuring a little he said no you could write it on half the menu card and then he said damn it you could write it on a postage stamp function that's orthopedic surgery you remind me Brian one of those exciting occasions when tooth on was demonstrating clinical cases at the Royal National feeding Hospital in London during meeting the British orthopedic Association he was talking about relapsed clubfoot you may remember he was exponent of the open operation he considered the use of the Thomas wrench was a barbarous attack on the human foot he said that he thought up the ligaments by the roots instead of dividing them in the clean fashion there said Sir Robert adjusting his pants nay and beaming and smiling I am met a great many famous men in my long professional life but never a more tolerant man but I can remember another story about Hasan he was protesting vehemently against the lengthening of the tender killers in a good-looking young woman he said that if you lengthen the tendon because the calf was muscles was short then the calf went high and she might be walking along the road and behind her a young man wondering why on earth one calf was higher than the other Hassan was a master of the open correction law he had several hands however we're wondering from the theme of the Robert Jones and the First World War we've talked about Aitken Gaveston Elmslie and truth urn there was myself in münster Robert placed me in charge of what was quite a small unit and we mustn't forget Scotland we're at Bangor on the outskirts of Edinburgh there were sahara styles running a unit with the assistance of more Forester Brown who did such excellent work on peripheral nerve injuries there was a small unit I remember in Everdene and then came the American reinforcements of orthopedic surgeons of considerable standing for the United States who were distributed to various centres Liverpool Birmingham Leeds Edinburgh and so on in Birmingham those Frank Dixon of Kansas city and an Edinburgh moment during his stay introduced an operation involving resection the piece of the owner in cases of fusion of the inferior radio on the joint to restore reputation and then of course there was Robert Osgood in charge of the health contingent who became Robert Jones chief administrative staff officer as well as most extraordinary things about Robert and I should think one that had as much influence on British and on world orthopaedic surgery as anything else what is it is inherent capacity for attracting men of ability not only did he detect them picked them out as it were but he attracted them and they were pleased to be around him and to be with him to watch him and listen to him and his first disciples built British orthopedic surgery after the war I remember there was quite an substantial Irish contingent and Baldy Horton used to sing at the dinners very sweetly indeed I remember Haughton quite well he was an old fashioned orthopedic surgeon on the staff of that little orthopedic hospital in Dublin also a general surgeon at Stephens hospital William Nichols a wheeler became an attache of Sir Roberts all sorts of conditions of men they wanted to come within his orbit murky Anson of Leyden one of his most devoted friends once described Robert as the Sun man a man who radiated joy and light and the great putti of bolonia regarded Robert as a master went to America in with him I went to America in 1921 on the same boat mr. Robert to attend the American orthopedic Association and I remember the reception he received and they all would which he was regarded by the American orthopedic surgeons he was indeed a well figure I learned the most lovable characteristics of this great man well his humility his sincerity and his simplicity above all a sincerity but he had a pleasant impish wit and I remember and I think you'll remember as well a meeting the VLA in I think the Royal Society the medicine in Wimpole Street with the great deal of traffic outside and a rather boring paper being read in a dull monotonous way on a dull boring subject at least the reader made it seem so and to make matters worse every time that anything passed in the street outside he stopped well Robert saw that we were getting all very fidgety and on edge and finally when the tension was becoming unbearable Robert tapped the reader only the arm and with a most disarming and apparently innocent smile said shall I stop the traffic well it's 32 years ago but it's in my mind's eye as Paris can be well it brings up another memory and I'm afraid this is rather a sad one Robert came over to Manchester to broadcast in the BBC studio for the appeal for the Royal Southern Hospital Liverpool I think it was the hospital centenary they tried to get him to broadcast in Liverpool but in those days there were very few studios and so he had to come over and he stayed the life of this and I went down to the studio with him and assisted on going in but first they wanted to turn me out in case I made the noise or rustle some papers and I stood quite quietly during his broadcast and I remember that his voice came over rather as the voice of a sick man he was then of course beginning to fail I took him back to our house he wouldn't eat very much and my wife thought he went early to bed the next morning we took him to the station and put him on the train for Liverpool that was in 1932 because he died in January 1933 and he was never really professor of off police said no no no the height of his post-war activities he was really I think beyond the statutory age for a professor and but he did become the director of orthopedic studies they made him that and they created in his honor a degree in orthopedic surgery and they also made a memorial lectureship in the University of Liverpool but because there he was still alive the they met they call the lectureship the lady jones lectureship and one of my earliest recollections when I did orthopedic style wasn't qualified very long was of putti delivering the lady Jones lecture and interestingly enough it was on a subject which he called Narada sheeta's which today is called a disc lesion did Robert to much formal teaching in the postgraduate course well not a great deal I remember very well he's lecturing to us as post graduates but he was best in a series of clinical reminiscences each of which made some point of importance I remember also that he was perfectly delightful as an examiner in the mastership degree this untold oh it had been created in his honor and although there was a board of orthopedic studies for some time there wasn't much of a course for years until all of a sudden in 1923 an Australian applied to join the course so they had to make one the name of the Australian who's Vance and he gained his degree in 1924 the border wall speedy studies at that time included Sir Robert Kelly Sid or Armour Thurston Holland TP McMurray and of course Sir Robert himself the last three were internal examiners for the degree the first external examiner was Thomas Fairbanks and it's not without interest that until this that this spring during this spring of the people who took part in that first examination including the candidate all were dead except Sir Thomas Fairbanks and as you know he he died only very recently and from such a beginning 36 years ago this school is the charge of keeping McMurray and now under yourself has told orthopedic surgeons coming from and practicing in countries far overseas how many masters will Pedic surgery on there about 225 well that is a remarkable achievement unless today you Great Britain the United States throughout the world the spirit of Robert Jones lives on it is a great heritage and we are the men will follow in the path of the great master because Robert Jones worked and lived there are now in Great Britain increasing opportunities for young author Pedic surgeons they devote considerable part of their time the teaching and research the University departments in Royal Colleges and in the great special orthopedic hospitals if Robert Jones could see the picture of orthopaedics as you and I see Brian and perhaps he is looking down upon us he would indeed have rejoiced hey that is a just and lovely tribute and now just to end I think you'd enjoy a recollection I have Robert in the first series of the mastership examinations a patient of mine a child will shooter hypertrophic muscular paralysis a very suitable case test case for the clinical part of the examination was wanted but his mother had been very reluctant to bring him and I persuaded her by explaining that not only would she be have a child examined by the great specialist from London but by Sir Robert Jones himself but I told Robert of this and of course he immediately agreed to have a word with her and I can see him in my mind's eye now beaming and as you say radiating sunshine I see him talking to the mother about this relatively hopeless case and saying well now mother is he getting any worse and she replied well no he isn't any worse and he said I always find in these cases that if they don't get any worse it is very satisfactory where has she believed him or not I don't know but she went away a happy woman grateful for having been allowed to see this great man