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The Careers of Geoffrey Jefferson, Harry Platt and John Stopford, 1914–39

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The Careers of Geoffrey Jefferson, Harry Platt and John Stopford, 1914–39 ACADEMIC MEDICINE IN MANCHESTER 133 Academic medicine in Manchester: the careers of Geoffrey Jefferson, Harry Platt and John Stopford, 1914–39 STELLA V. F. BUTLER* In October 1939 John Stopford,Vice Chancellor of the University of Manchester, noted in his Annual Report that two new Chairs had been created in the Medical Faculty during the previous academic year.1 Harry Platt had become Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery, and Geoffrey Jefferson Professor of Neurosurgery. Both Chairs were grouped within a new Department of Surgery under the directorship of John Morley. Neither Platt nor Jefferson received any pay related to these posts. However, financial reward was of little significance within these appointments. Rather, the Chairs conferred status upon both for their contributions to surgery as specialist surgeons and so underlined the increasing differentiation of medical practice. The development of surgical specialisms during the 1910s and 1920s had been resisted by many within the profession.2 Platt and Jefferson had been risking much, therefore, when they confined themselves to relatively narrow clinical fields as soon as they were able after qualifying in 1909. Yet both were eventually fêted by their peers: Platt as President of the Royal College of Surgeons; Jefferson as a Fellow of the Royal Society.Their careers were inter-twined from the moment they met as students in *This paper forms part of a broader study of the career of Sir Harry Platt, Bart. I am grateful to Elizabeth Gow for her magnificent catalogue of the Platt Papers, completed as part of the Manchester Archives Project funded by the Wellcome Fund for Research Resources in Medical History. I am also grateful to John Pickstone for his comments on an earlier draft of this paper. 1 John Rylands University Library (JRUL), Special Collections, Annual Report of Council, University of Manchester, 1939, 7, University of Manchester Archives. 2 See Chapter 8 by Lindsay Granshaw, ‘Fame and fortune by means of bricks and mortar: the medical profession and specialist hospitals in Britain, 1800–1948’, in The hospital in history, eds Lindsay Granshaw and Roy Porter (London: Routledge, 1989), 199–221. 133 134 BULLETIN JOHN RYLANDS LIBRARY 1904.Their history illuminates much about the evolving structure of professional hierarchies and practices in the inter-war period.3 Jefferson, Platt and Stopford: Family Background and Medical Education Platt and Jefferson came from very different backgrounds. Platt’s father, Ernest, had developed a thriving textile business in Lancashire, eventually becoming Chairman of the Manchester- based United Velvet Cutters. In the late 1890s, the family had moved to a large, comfortable house in Wilmslow close to the railway station, convenient for Ernest’s daily journey into Manchester. In contrast, Jefferson’s family lived in a relatively modest Georgian house in industrial Rochdale. Arthur, Geoffrey’s father, had qualified in medicine in the 1880s and had moved to Rochdale in 1897 when he bought a busy general practice. The family home accommodated Arthur’s consulting rooms and the children were often expected to help by dispensing or delivering medicines to patients. With this family background, the choice of medicine as a career seemed fairly natural and straightforward for the young Jefferson, who had excelled as a pupil at Manchester Grammar School. Why Platt chose to become a doctor is less clear. He had contracted tuberculosis of the knee as a child and, in consequence, received most of his education at home during long periods of bed rest. He proved a talented musician and competed for the prestigious Mendelssohn Scholarship to the Royal College of Music. When he failed to win this, he decided to study medicine instead, joining Jefferson at the University of Manchester in October 1904.4 The University of Manchester had its origins in 1851 as Owens College under the will of a local hatting merchant, John Owens. Its medical faculty had been formed in 1874 when the local proprietary school amalgamated with the College as part of its bid to achieve university status.5 From the 1860s, Owens College had achieved a formidable reputation for research in the physical sciences and its medical school, embedded within the elite of the local profession, was well regarded. By 1904, Owens College had become the Victoria University of Manchester.There were over 300 medical students representing approximately a quarter of the total student population. Pre-clinical lectures and laboratory classes 3 For biographical information on Harry Platt see obituary, The Times, 22 December 1986, 14, also article in the Oxford dictionary of national biography (Oxford: Oxford Univ. Pr., 2004). On Jefferson see Peter H. Schurr, So that was life: a biography of Sir Geoffrey Jefferson, master of the neurosciences and man of letters (London: The Royal Society of Medicine Press, 1997). The JRUL holds personal papers associated with both men. 4 H.Platt, ‘1903–1904: medicine or music’, typescript, JRUL, Platt Papers, PLA/13/2. 5 Stella V.F. Butler, ‘A transformation in training: the formation of university medical faculties in Manchester, Leeds and Liverpool, 1879–1884’, Medical History 30 (1986), 115–32..
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