Hicks , John Herbert , 1915-1992 , surgeon

John Herbert Hicks was born in Bristol in 1915. He studied medicine at Birmingham University, obtained his Fellowship in 1942 and served as a ship's surgeon in the Merchant Navy, 1942-1946. He became surgical registrar and resident surgical officer at Birmingham General Hospital. He obtained the MCh (Orth) from Liverpool in 1950. He was appointed surgeon to the Birmingham Accident Hospital in 1951, where he proved to be an innovative exponent of accident surgery. Hicks' outstanding contribution was in the rigid fixation of fractures, and his work on the composition of metallic implants and the dangers of corrosion; the management of infected fractures; the treatment of non-union; and elucidation of the structure and function of the foot. He was a teacher, a botanist of distinction (he joined an expedition to Bhutan and had two plants named after him) and the author of provocative articles in medical journals. He died in 1992.