Woolmer , Ronald Francis , 1908-1962 , anaesthetist

Ronald Francis Woolmer was born in 1908. He was educated at Rugby School; University College, Oxford; and St Thomas's Hospital where he attained B M, B Ch in 1932. He took up anaesthetics and became Senior Resident Anaesthetist at St Thomas's in 1934. He then became Resident Medical Officer and St Thomas's Home from 1936-1938 and then became Anaesthetic Registrar at Westminster Hospital in 1939. During World War Two, he served in the Royal Navy, attaining the rank of Surgeon Commander. After the War, Woolmer obtained an appointment as Senior Lecturer and then Reader in Anaesthetics in Bristol University. During this time he helped with the foundation of the South Western Society of Anaesthetics. He took over the Research Department of the Faculty of Anaesthetists in the Royal College of Surgeons in 1957, becoming Professor in 1959. He was founder and first President of the Biological Engineering Society, a Vice-President of the International Federation for Medical Electronics, and a founder member of the Anaesthetic Research group. He became the first medical man to deliver the Kelvin lecture to the Institute of Electrical Engineers in 1961. He published a book, The Conquest of Pain (1961), which was aimed at lay audiences, and was also awarded the Henry Hill Hickman medal of the Royal Society of Medicine in 1962. He died in 1962.