The life of Sir Robert Jones / [Frederick Watson].

  • Watson, Frederick, 1885-1935.
Date:
1934
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The life of Sir Robert Jones / [Frederick Watson]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    320/358 (page 294)
    On October 16th, 1932, he was able to make a broadcast appeal for the funds of the Royal Southern Hospital, an institution with which he had been connected for half a century. His appeal made a profound impression on those who heard, and was a model of its kind. But what moved his friends even more than the eloquence of an exhausted man speaking from his heart for the hospital where he had operated during so many years, was the delicacy with which he paid his final tribute to H. O. Thomas. “ Don’t let us forget,” he said, “ that in this Hospital were first practised those principles of orthopaedic surgery laid down by that surgeon of genius, Hugh Owen Thomas, which led to such remarkable develop¬ ments in the Great War.” Thomas had no connection with the Southern, but the intense loyalty of Robert Jones to his memory had never lost its early fire. Within this brief speech also he was able to say a word for his old colleague, Sir Ronald Ross, to whom in his last illness in London he had been a constant solace : “ Let me mention,” he said with reference to the distinguished staff of the hospital, “ Sir Ronald Ross, whose name is immortal as the discoverer of the cause and prevention of malaria. He became Director of the Tropical School, founded at the Hospital, and here for many years carried on his epoch-making research. Hundreds of thousands of lives have been and will yet be saved by his discoveries, and although the economic loss to the British Empire from malaria was estimated at £50,000,000 a year, neither then nor later did he receive any monetary recognition from any government. Can I persuade some of my listeners to subscribe as a memorial to one of the greatest men this or any generation has produced ?” In this dark time he heard from his old friend Sir Wilfred Grenfell, that his brother at Parkgate was critically ill : “ It is a long way,” said Grenfell, “ and when Sir Robert consented to help we begged him to think of himself. Yet next day, there he was at the head of my brother’s bed and McMurray standing at the foot. He looked so ill. But he