Buxton , Dudley Wilmot , 1855-1931 , anaesthetist

Dudley Wilmot Buxton, born in 1855, was educated at University College London and University College Hospital, qualifying MB and BS in 1882 and MD in 1883. He held residents posts at UCH, and worked with Sydney Ringer, Professor of Medicine at University College. At this time, their work concerned the action of certain drugs on the heart. However, from 1885 Buxton confined his work to anaesthetics. In 1901 the British Medical Association appointed him Honorary Secretary of the Special Chloroform Committee, which presented its final report in 1910. During his career he worked in anaesthetics at the National Hospital, Queen Square; the Hospital for Women, Soho Square; the King George V Hospital (during the First World War) and latterly at UCH and The Royal Dental Hospital. He retired in 1919.

Buxton's influence was considerable: he believed that every doctor entering practice should have a competent knowledge of anaesthetics, a subject that had not been taught until the end of the nineteeth century. He married Louisa Clarke in 1884 and they had three sons. Buxton died on 28 June 1931.