John Thomson-Walker
Sir John William Thomson-Walker, OBE, DL, FRCS (born 6 Aug. 1871, died 5 Oct. 1937, aged 67) was a Scottish surgeon,[1][2] Hunterian Professor of Surgery at the Royal College of Surgeons of England and a leader in the field of urology.[3] He was knighted in 1922, was President of the Urology Section of the Royal Society of Medicine in 1922,[4] president of the Medical Society of London in 1933[3] and president of the Société internationale d'Urologie Congress in 1933.[5]
Career
Thomson-Walker was born in Newport-on-Tay, Fife, Scotland and was educated at the High School of Dundee, The Edinburgh Institution and Edinburgh University where he obtained his medical degree.[6] He did post graduate work in Jena, Germany, and Vienna, Austria where he became interested in urology.[4][3] He joined St Peter's Hospital for Stone[7] in London in 1905 and also worked at the Cancer Laboratories of the Middlesex Hospital.[5]
He was a Surgeon Lieutenant to the East London (Tower Hamlets) Royal Engineers (Volunteers) from April 1902.[8] During the First World War, with the rank of Captain, he was consulting urologist to King George V Red Cross Hospital, King Edward VII Hospital for Officers, and the Star and Garter Home for disabled soldiers.[3] Treatment of wounded soldiers convinced him that there was a high chance of infection and death, when "spinal bladders" were treated by catheterisation. He promoted widely instead the early use of cystoscopy which dropped deaths from 80 to 20%.[4] With his surgical skill he was able to reduce the mortality rate of prostate removal from the previous high rate down to 2%.[3] He treated Philip Snowden, 1st Viscount Snowden, David Lloyd George, Robert Baden Powell, and the first Lord French.[4][5]
He married Isabella Nairn, daughter of Sir Michael Nairn, 1st Baronet in 1909 and had a son and daughter by her.[3]
References
- ↑ ‘THOMSON-WALKER, Sir John William’, Who Was Who, A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 1920–2014; online edn, Oxford University Press, 2014 ; online edn, April 2014 accessed 8 May 2014
- ↑ Sir John Thomson Walker (obituary). The Times (London, England), Thursday, Oct 07, 1937; pg. 16; Issue 47809. (376 words)
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 (27 November 2013) Thomson-Walker, Sir John William (1871 - 1937) The Royal College of Surgeons, Retrieved 30 September 2014
- 1 2 3 4 Sir John Thomson-Walker Famous Urologists, The British Association of Urological Surgeons, Retrieved 30 September 2014
- 1 2 3 Morson, C. (1949). "Editorial, Sir Peter Freyer and Sir John Thomson Walker" (PDF). Postgraduate Medical Journal 25 (286): ii. doi:10.1136/pgmj.25.286.ii.
- ↑ The British Medical Journal, Vol. 2, No. 4006 (Oct. 16, 1937), p. 779
- ↑ St Peter's Hospital for Stone The British Association of Urological Surgeaons, Retrieved 1 October 2014
- ↑ The London Gazette: no. 27425. p. 2510. 15 April 1902.