Thomas , Kenneth Bryn , 1915-1978 , anaesthetist

Born in Sutton, 1915; attended Swansea Grammar School from c1930; began pre-clinical medical studies at Swansea University College; entered King's College London, 1933; completed his medical education, which included clinical work at Charing Cross Hospital, and qualified as a Member of the Royal College of Surgeons and Licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians, 1939; soon after the outbreak of World War Two (1939-1945), enrolled in the Emergency Medical Service and served at Great Ormond Street Hospital; volunteered for war service with the Royal Air Force, 1940; posted to Hullavington and subsequently to RAF Hospital Bridgnorth, Shropshire, where he was designated a specialist anaesthetist; Diploma in Anaesthetics, 1941; posted to Singapore, 1945; demobilised, 1946; joined the anaesthetic staff at Ashford Hospital, Middlesex; Consultant Anaesthetist to the Royal Berkshire Hospital, Reading, and the Reading Group Hospitals, 1947-1978; a medical historian with a particular interest in the history of anaesthesia; Honorary Librarian of the Reading Pathological Society, 1949-1976; elected to the Fellowship of the Faculty of Anaesthetists of England, 1954; member of the Osler Club of London, 1956, and President, 1969; Council member of the Royal Society of Medicine Section of the History of Medicine, 1957, Secretary, 1959-1972, and President, 1970-1972; appointed Curator of the Charles King Collection of Historical Anaesthetic Apparatus of the Association of Anaesthetists of Great Britain and Ireland, 1966; organised the Historical Section of the 4th International Congress of Anaesthiologists in London, 1968; appointed Assistant Curator of the Hunterian Society, 1971; President of the British Society for the History of Medicine, 1972-1974; member of Council of the Association of Anaesthetists of Great Britain and Ireland, 1972-1974; elected to the Royal Society of Medicine Section of Anaesthetics Council, 1974; died, 1978. Publications include: James Douglas of the Pouch and his pupil William Hunter (Pitman Medical Publishing Co, London, 1964); Curare: its history and usage (Pitman Medical Publishing Co, London, 1964); 'The A Charles King Collection of early anaesthetic apparatus', Anaesthesia, vol xxv, no 4 (Oct 1970); The development of anaesthetic apparatus: a history based on the Charles King collection of the Association of Anaesthetists of Great Britain and Ireland (published for the Association by Blackwell Scientific Publications, Oxford, 1975).