Physician to the King

This week’s blog focuses on the papers of the famous surgeon Sir James Rögnvald Learmonth (1895 – 1967) which are currently being catalogued by archive assistant Stephen.

Learmonth was born in Kirkcudbright and graduated from the University of Glasgow in 1921. In 1924 he was awarded a Rockefeller medical scholarship and spent a year at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota. Learmonth was later invited to go back to the Mayo clinic as a permanent member of the clinical staff from 1928 – 1932. Returning to Scotland in 1932, he was appointed as regius professor of surgery at the University of Aberdeen - the professorship selected by the King. In 1939, he was appointed professor of surgery at the University of Edinburgh and in 1946, regius professor of clinical surgery. This meant that he could be called upon to treat the King, particularly when he visited Scotland. Therefore, from 1932 Learmonth started keeping newscuttings of George V and later George VI (there is no mention of Edward VIII), charting some of their health problems. In 1949 Learmonth conducted a lumber symphathectomy on George VI to improve blood supply to the monarch’s foot. For this, Learmonth was made Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (KCVO) and the collection includes copies of letters written by George VI and his wife Queen Elizabeth, thanking him for his help.

 

Learmonth, centre, at Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland, April 1955

After George VI died in 1952, Learmonth continued to be available for service to Elizabeth II and was appointed an extra surgeon to the Queen in Scotland from 1960. One of the cuttings books contains an invite to the wedding of Princess Elizabeth to Phillip Mountbatten in 1947, now Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Phillip. Other cuttings and photographs present include Learmonth’s visits to Norway and France for medical conferences, and obituaries relating to colleagues.

 

Royal wedding order of service, 1947

In his later years, Learmonth was greatly respected by the medical community and some of the papers include details of visits to New Zealand and Canada in 1954 to inspect medical facilities. The April 1967 edition of Mayo Alumnus, included in this collection, contains a series of correspondences between Learmonth and the editor where he offers to write an article on his scientific philosophy though he thinks it ‘would be a trifle old-fashioned’ since he has been retired for ten years. The editor assures him that what he says will be read with interest and Learmonth’s article follows in that edition. Learmonth was diagnosed with lung cancer and passed away on 27 September 1967, but his legacy remains in his papers (Acc 06/15) and case notes held at LHSA.

On the horizon...

We’re delighted to be welcoming two new interns to the LHSA team next week. Our second round of internships will follow a similar programme to those that we ran earlier in the year, providing project based work to help the interns expand their skills after qualifying along with some wider experience of working in the archive sector too.

We’ll also be carrying out the informal interviews for a brand new research based internship next week. This is an exciting time - seeing increased work on LHSA material and giving us an opportunity to pass on some of our experience and knowledge of both the collections and the archive/conservation fields to those new to the profession.

We’ve recently added a photo journal to our Flickr stream to represent some of the work of our first two interns, Fiona and Charlotte(http://www.flickr.com/photos/49439570@N08/sets/72157635875916173/). We’re looking forward to seeing more of the same for this round and our interns will be blogging regularly, so watch this space!

Dott the draughtsman...

This week, our Project Archivist, Louise, talks about Norman Dott’s skill in draughtsmanship…

As I look through Norman Dott’s neurosurgical case notes, the many different ways of conveying information, diagnoses and treatment methods never fail to amaze me. From the typed case summaries and charts that you might expect from loose-leaf case notes in this period, folders can contain photographs, x-rays, greetings cards, slides, off-prints and press cuttings.

Some of my favourite things to find in the case notes are surgical sketches, uncovering Dott’s methods in visual form. Some sketches were made by professional artists for use in publication or clinical demonstration, and you may recognise some of the examples below from the LHSA website:

LHB1 CC/20/PRI.682 – artist sketch showing operation for removal of cyst

 

 

Artist sketch showing ligature of intracranial aneurysm (from LHSA Norman Dott clinical drawing collection)

The visual communication of his specialism for learning and teaching purposes was obviously very important to Dott: he planned Ward 20 in the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh (which was to become Scotland’s first dedicated neurosurgery ward, opening in 1938) with artist and photographic studios. However, behind many of the surgical sketches made by artists were drawings made by Dott himself, both as templates for artists to make more detailed representations and for consultation in their own right. Before a motorcycle accident led him to pursue a medical career, Dott was to begin an apprenticeship as an engineer, and perhaps this led to his fondness for using sketches in clinical notes. This drawing demonstrates a procedure for which Dott was a pioneer, in the treatment of intracranial aneurysm by the application of a ligature:

LHB1 CC/24/PR2.3601 (patient details have been redacted)

Whereas this sketch portrays the approach to removing a brain tumour from a young patient:

LHB1 CC/20/PR1.289

Dott was an assiduous record-keeper, not only keeping meticulous clinical notes that were frequently complimented by his peers, but preserving information related to his patients in many forms, from cards sent in thanks from grateful patients to handwriting samples and articles clipped from newspapers. Dott’s own sketches are an essential part of his substantial clinical archive, explaining in visual form the progression of his thoughts and his perception of the life-threatening illnesses which he so often encountered.