Brock , Russell Claude , 1903-1980 , Baron Brock , surgeon

Russell Claude Brock was born in 1903. He was educated at Christ's Hospital, and entered Guy's Medical School, with an arts scholarship, at the age of 17. He won the Treasurer's Gold Medal both in medicine and in surgery, and the Golding Bird Medal in pathology. He also won the BMA Prize Essay in 1926. After qualifying with the Conjoint Diploma he sat the London MBBS examination a year later and obtained honours in medicine, surgery and anatomy. He became Hunterian Professor in 1928, and was awarded a Rockefeller Travelling Fellowship in 1929. He joined the department of Evarts Graham in St Louis, from which he developed his interest in thoracic surgery. On his return he became surgical registrar and tutor at Guy's, and a research fellow of the Association of Surgeons of Great Britain, in 1932. He won the Jacksonian Prize in 1935, and in the same year was appointed consultant thoracic surgeon to the London County Council. He was appointed to the staff of Guy's in 1936, and the Brompton Hospital, and Surgeon to the Ministry of Pensions at Queen Mary's Hospital, Roehampton. During World War Two he was thoracic surgeon and regional advisor in thoracic surgery to the EMS. After the war he was elected to the Council of the College. He served successively from 1949-1966 as a member of Council, Vice-President and finally President, 1963-1966. During this period he delivered the Bradshaw Lecture in 1957, and the Hunterian Oration in 1960. After relinquishing the Presidency he became a member of the Court of Patrons and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Hunterian Collection. On retirement from his hospital posts in 1968, he continued to devote himself to his private patients and to his researches as Director of the College's Department of Surgical Sciences which he had promoted while President. He was active in promoting the Private Pensions Plan, of which he was Chairman, 1967-1977, and President in 1978. He received twenty or more honorary Fellowships and Doctorates from the British Isles, Europe and North and South America, as well as numerous prizes and gold medals. He was President of the Thoracic Society in 1951, President of the Society of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland in 1958 and President of the Medical School of London in 1968. He died in 1980.