Seddon , Sir , Herbert John , 1903-1977 , Knight , surgeon

Sir Herbert John Seddon was born in Derby, in 1903. He spent his childhood in Manchester and then entered St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical College. He became MRCS (with the Conjoint Diploma) in 1925, and graduated in 1928 with honours, becoming FRCS in the same year. He was appointed instructor in surgery to the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, in 1930. He then took up the appointment of resident surgeon at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital, Stanmore, 1931-1939. He mostly worked with children suffering from bone and joint infections. There was an epidemic of poliomyelitis in 1938. He was appointed Nuffield Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery at Oxford in 1939, and undertook work on peripheral nerve injuries. During the World War Two, he became concerned with the epidemic poliomyelitis in Malta and Mauritius, making observations on the mode of infection and developing a technique for simple splint design and manufacture. He became Director of Studies at the Institute of Orthopaedics in London in 1948. He subsequently became the first Professor of Orthopaedics in the University of London. He became a member of the Medical Research Council for 4 years, and was a member of the Advisory Medical Council of the Colonial Office, leading to extensive tours of Africa for which he was awarded the CMG in 1951. He was awarded the Robert Jones Medal and gave the Robert Jones lecture in 1960. He was Honorary Secretary, and later President of the British Orthopaedic Association. He was knighted in 1964. He planned and implemented the Medical Research Council's investigation into tuberculosis of the vertebral column, carried out in Bulawayo, Hong Kong, Korea and South Africa. He also carried out advisory work for the Lebanese Army. He died in 1977.