Seddon, Sir Herbert Seddon: Notes on Sir Winston S Churchill

Identity Statement

Reference code(s)	: GB 0114 MS0279
Held at	: Royal College of Surgeons of England   Click here to find out how to view this collection at https://www.rcseng.ac.uk/museums-and-archives/archives/ ›
Full title	: Seddon, Sir Herbert Seddon: Notes on Sir Winston S Churchill
Date(s)	: c1960-1963
Level of description	: Collection (fonds)
Extent	: 1 file
Name of creator(s)	: Seddon | Sir | Herbert John | 1903-1977 | Knight | surgeon

Context

Administrative/Biographical history:

Sir Herbert John Seddon was born in Derby, in 1903. He spent his childhood in Manchester and then entered St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical College. He became MRCS (with the Conjoint Diploma) in 1925, and graduated in 1928 with honours, becoming FRCS in the same year. He was appointed instructor in surgery to the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, in 1930. He then took up the appointment of resident surgeon at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital, Stanmore, 1931-1939. He mostly worked with children suffering from bone and joint infections. There was an epidemic of poliomyelitis in 1938. He was appointed Nuffield Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery at Oxford in 1939, and undertook work on peripheral nerve injuries. During the World War Two, he became concerned with the epidemic poliomyelitis in Malta and Mauritius, making observations on the mode of infection and developing a technique for simple splint design and manufacture. He became Director of Studies at the Institute of Orthopaedics in London in 1948. He subsequently became the first Professor of Orthopaedics in the University of London. He became a member of the Medical Research Council for 4 years, and was a member of the Advisory Medical Council of the Colonial Office, leading to extensive tours of Africa for which he was awarded the CMG in 1951. He was awarded the Robert Jones Medal and gave the Robert Jones lecture in 1960. He was Honorary Secretary, and later President of the British Orthopaedic Association. He was knighted in 1964. He planned and implemented the Medical Research Council's investigation into tuberculosis of the vertebral column, carried out in Bulawayo, Hong Kong, Korea and South Africa. He also carried out advisory work for the Lebanese Army. He died in 1977.

Content

Scope and content/abstract:

Papers of Sir Herbert John Seddon, c 1960-1963, comprising manuscript notes relating to Seddon's attendances on Churchill's fracture of the upper thoracic spine, 1960; fracture of the upper end of the left femur, 1962; abbreviated typescript versions of these notes, including notes on Seddon's attendances on Churchill's ischaemia of the left leg, 1963; and a letter from Dr Campbell Golding to Seddon, 17 Nov 1960, relating to Churchill's pelvis and spine.

Access & Use

Language/scripts of material:
English

System of arrangement:

As outlined in Scope and Content.

Conditions governing access:

By written appointment only.

Conditions governing reproduction:

No photocopying permitted.

Finding aids:

Archival Information

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

Donated by Mr P H Newman (FRCS) of Aldeburgh, Suffolk, after being given them by Lady Mary Seddon in 1978. Sir Herbert John Seddon had begun consulting the Churchill family about depositing the papers in 1977, but died before agreement was reached. They had however agreed that the papers could be deposited with the Royal College of Surgeons of England, but that nothing should be published during Lady Clementine Spencer-Churchill's lifetime, except by Martin Gilbert, the official biographer. Newman had operated on Churchill's broken leg in Monte Carlo, in 1962.

Allied Materials

Related material:

Publication note:

Description Notes

Archivist's note:
Compiled by Anya Turner.

Rules or conventions:
Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

Date(s) of descriptions:
Oct 2008