Richard Burkewood Welbourn, MA, MD, DSc.(Hon), FRCS (born 1 May 1919, Rainhill

Rainhill

Rainhill is a large village and civil parish of the Metropolitan Borough of St Helens, in Merseyside, England.Historically a part of Lancashire, Rainhill was formerly a township within the ecclesiastical parish of Prescot, and hundred of West Derby...

, Lancashire

Lancashire

Lancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England. It takes its name from the city of Lancaster, and is sometimes known as the County of Lancaster. Although Lancaster is still considered to be the county town, Lancashire County Council is based in Preston...

 — died 3 August 2005, Reading, Berkshire

Reading, Berkshire

Reading is a large town and unitary authority area in England. It is located in the Thames Valley at the confluence of the River Thames and River Kennet, and on both the Great Western Main Line railway and the M4 motorway, some west of London....

) was a British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 scientist and educator, specializing in surgical endocrinology

Endocrinology

Endocrinology is a branch of biology and medicine dealing with the endocrine system, its diseases, and its specific secretions called hormones, the integration of developmental events such as proliferation, growth, and differentiation and the coordination of...

. He was Professor and Chairman of the Department of Surgery at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School, Hammersmith Hospital

Hammersmith Hospital

Hammersmith Hospital is a major teaching hospital in West London. It is part of Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, and is associated with the Imperial College Faculty of Medicine...

.

Career

Welbourn was educated at Rugby School

Rugby School

Rugby School is a co-educational day and boarding school located in the town of Rugby, Warwickshire, England. It is one of the oldest independent schools in Britain.-History:...

, Emmanuel College, Cambridge

Emmanuel College, Cambridge

Emmanuel College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge.The college was founded in 1584 by Sir Walter Mildmay on the site of a Dominican friary...

 and Liverpool University. In 1942 after graduating he worked as a Casualty Officer at the Royal Southern Hospital. In January 1943 he was called to duty with the Royal Army Medical Corps

Royal Army Medical Corps

The Royal Army Medical Corps is a specialist corps in the British Army which provides medical services to all British Army personnel and their families in war and in peace...

 Field Dressing Station, which followed the D-day

D-Day

D-Day is a term often used in military parlance to denote the day on which a combat attack or operation is to be initiated. "D-Day" often represents a variable, designating the day upon which some significant event will occur or has occurred; see Military designation of days and hours for similar...

 landings in France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

, and the Low Countries

Low Countries

The Low Countries are the historical lands around the low-lying delta of the Rhine, Scheldt, and Meuse rivers, including the modern countries of Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and parts of northern France and western Germany....

.

In 1951 he earned a Fulbright scholarship to the Mayo Clinic

Mayo Clinic

Mayo Clinic is a not-for-profit medical practice and medical research group specializing in treating difficult patients . Patients are referred to Mayo Clinic from across the U.S. and the world, and it is known for innovative and effective treatments. Mayo Clinic is known for being at the top of...

. He joined the staff of Queen's University, Belfast (QUB) in 1952. In 1958 he was named as Professor of Surgical Science. In 1962 he was invited to the Royal Postgraduate Medical School, Hammersmith Hospital and garnered attention for his work on phaeochromocytoma.

Publications

• Clinical Endocrinology for Surgeons (1963)
• Medical and Surgical Endocrinology (1975; co-written with Professor D. Montgomery)
• The Dictionary of Medical Ethics (1977; co-edited with Prof. A. Duncan and Prof. G. Dunstan)

Affiliations

• Fellow, Royal College of Surgeons
• President, Surgical Research Society
• President, British Association of Endocrine Surgeons
• President, International Surgical Group
• Vice-President, Institute of Medical Ethics and the Section of Surgery, RSM
• Visiting Research Fellow, UCLA (1990, where he wrote The History of Endocrine Surgery

Awards

• The Distinguished Service Award of the International Association of Endocrine Surgeons (Stockholm, 1991)

External links

• http://hnn.us/roundup/entries/15757.html "Richard Welbourn Dies: Pioneer And Historian Of Endocrine Surgergy; source: The Independent (London; 14 September 2005)
• http://jhmas.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/38/2/239-a.pdf Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences Online (subscription required)