Journal of Anatomy, Vol. 95, Part 3

LORD STOPFORD OF FALLOWFIELD

(Facing p. 437) [ 437 1

IN MEMORIAM LORD STOPFORD OF FALLOWFIELD, K.B.E., M.A., M.D., Sc.D., D.Sc., LL.D., D.C.L., F.R.C.S., F.R.C.P., F.R.S. John Sebastian Bach Stopford was born at Hindley Green, near Wigan, on 25 June 1888 and he died in his sleep on 6 March 1961, at Arnside, Westmorland. He was educated at Liverpool College and Manchester Grammar School and in 1906 he became a medical student at Manchester University. During his under- graduate career he gained a number of distinctions and prizes and he graduated M.B., Ch.B. with Honours in 1911. After serving as a House Surgeon at Rochdale Infirmary and as an Assistant Medical Officer at Manchester Royal Infirmary he became in 1912 a Junior Demonstrator in Anatomy under Prof. (later Sir) Grafton Elliot Smith in his Alma Mater. Thereafter he became a Senior Demonstrator and in 1915 he was promoted to a Lectureship. In the same year he received the degree of M.D. with a gold medal for a thesis of outstanding merit on 'The arteries of the pons and medulla'. At this time and until the end of the First World War he also served as neurologist in turn to the Second Western General Hospital and the Grange- thorpe Hospital where he started his researches on sensation; his services were recognized by the award of the M.B.E. Following Elliot Smith's departure to University College Hospital, London, J. S. B. Stopford was appointed to succeed him (1919) as Prof. of Anatomy in Manchester at the early age of 31. His students had been so impressed by his energy, personality and teaching ability that they organized spontaneously a mass testimonial in support of his election. Five years ago a later generation of students founded an annual 'Stopford Lecture' in his honour, and it is interesting that the only other such lecture founded by the Medical Students' Representative Council is in memory of Frederick Wood Jones. 'Jock' as he was known to all, and that was a true measure of his popularity and humanity rather than of familiarity or disrespect, was invited on three occasions to accept other anatomical chairs, but he preferred to remain in Manchester. During his period as professor he twice acted as Dean of the Medical School (1923-27 and 1931-33) and from 1928-30 he was Pro Vice-Chancellor. In 1934 when the then Vice-Chancellor, Sir Walter Moberley, left Manchester to become Chairman of the University Grants Committee, Stopford was appointed temporary Vice-Chancellor for six months 'until permanent arrangements are made'. Stopford rose to his new responsibilities with such conspicuous success, however, that neither Senate nor Council had any doubts that he was the best man and they and the University Court confirmed him in the post which he adorned for the next 22 years. By common consent he was the finest Vice-Chancellor Manchester University has ever had and Sir Hector Hetherington, Principal of Glasgow University, described him in 1956 as 'the best of us all' (the 'all' refers to the members of the Committee of Vice-Chancellors and Principals). He was appreciated as highly by his colleagues in the Arts and other faculties as by those in his own profession, but this is not the place 28 Anat. 95 438 In Memorial (even if I were competent to do so) to detail his numerous imaginative and im- portant contributions to the progress and expansion of his University. Suffice it to say that he guided it with signal skill through the difficult years of the Second World War and during the post-war period of rapid development when it doubled in size within three years. His administration was marked by wisdom, honesty, tact and sympathy, yet when the occasion demanded he could be firm and even brusque, but he was always fair, and he enjoyed the affection and respect of his colleagues to a degree that must have been almost unique. He combined his duties as Vice-Chancellor and Prof. of Anatomy until 1938 when he resigned from his Chair and was succeeded by Frederick Wood Jones. Thereafter he was appointed to a personal Chair in Experimental Neurology; he was prevented by the pressure of administrative duties from continuing his teaching and research, a situation he always regretted, but he always placed duty above pleasure and he felt his responsibility to the University as a whole took precedence over his personal desires. In 1956 when he retired he was made an Emeritus Professor. His ability as a scientist was recognized by his election to the Fellowship of the Royal Society in 1927 and he was the first Manchester medical graduate to achieve this high distinction. Under the inspiration of Elliot Smith his research interests were predominantly neurological and usually they had a distinct applied flavour. He collaborated successfully with several of his surgical friends and colleagues, notably Sir Harry Platt, Sir Geoffrey Jefferson and Profs. John Morley and E. D. Telford, in the elucidation of various problems. Throughout his academic career, and especially during and after the First World War, he frequently visited the hospital wards and in consequence he was elected Honorary Advisory Anatomist to the Manchester Royal Infirmary. Stopford's research work can be divided roughly into three phases-his investigations on the blood supply of the brain-stem and some other parts of the brain, his anatomical and clinical studies on sensation based mainly on the examination of many patients with periperhal nerve injuries (a large number resulting from war wounds), and his explorations of the structure and functions of various parts of the autonomic nervous system. He published over sixty papers and a monograph on 'Sensation and the Sensory Pathways' (1930), besides contributing sections to several text-books. A bibliography ofhis original publications is available in the Manchester University Medical School Gazette (1956, 35, no. 3, pp. 108-109). As Vice-Chancellor he was unable to indulge his flair for correlating basic and clinical research, but had he continued his anatomical career he would undoubtedly have enhanced his already high reputation as a scientist. His worth was recognized both nationally and locally and one can mention only the more important of his many appointments other than those mentioned above. At various times he was a member of the University Grants Committee and was once Chairman-elect of this body (illness caused his resignation before he could assume office), he was a member of the General Medical Council and Chairman of its Business Committee, Chairman of the Universities Bureau of the British Empire, Vice-Chairman of the Trustees of the Nuffield Foundation, Vice-Chairman of the Nuffield Hospital Fund, Vice-Chairman of the Interdepartmental Committee on Medical Schools, Deputy Chairman of the Committee of Vice-Chancellors and In Memorial 439 Principals, Vice-President of the Anatomical Society (he was also one of our Life Members), a member of the Medical Advisory Committee of the University Grants Committee, a member of the Ministry of Health Advisory Committee on Distinction Awards for Consultants, a member of the Home Office Advisory Committee on the Administration of the Cruelty to Animals Act, a member of the Council of the Royal College of Physicians, a member of the British Elective Committee of the Commonwealth Fund, a member of the Committee on Higher Agricultural Education, first Chairman of the Manchester Regional Hospital Board, Chairman of the Man- chester Royal College of Music, Chairman of the John Rylands Library, a member of the Board of Governors of the United Manchester (Teaching) Hospitals, a member of the Board of Governors of Manchester Grammar School, a member of the Man- chester College of Technology Sub-Committee of the Manchester Education Committee and Chairman of the Manchester, Salford and Stretford Joint Hospital Board. This last-mentioned Board, which Stopford was instrumental in forming to co-ordinate the activities of the local hospitals, later assumed considerable im- portance because the success of this venture influenced those who planned hospital organization under the National Health Service. His experience in this post doubt- less explained his outstanding success as first Chairman of the Manchester Regional Hospital Board. Prof. Stopford was the recipient of many honours. He was awarded honorary degrees by the Universities of Dublin (Sc.D., 1937), Leeds (D.Sc., 1939), Cambridge (Sc.D., 1951), Manchester (LL.D., 1951; M.A., 1957), Liverpool (LL.D., 1953) and Durham (D.C.L., 1957). He was elected F.R.S. in 1927 and was granted Honorary Fellowships of the Royal College of Physicians in 1942 and of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1955. He was knighted in 1941, created a K.B.E. in 1955, he became a Freeman of Manchester in 1956 and his name was included in the first list of life peers in 1958. He was a stimulating and lucid lecturer who helped to rescue anatomy from the topographical morass into which it had fallen and he did much to narrow the gap which had developed between the basic medical sciences themselves and also between them and clinical practice. He began using radiological methods to teach living anatomy in 1919 and he was the first anatomist in this country to take over from physiology the full responsibility for teaching histology. To the end of his life he retained an interest in everything appertaining to education and his knowledge of teaching and research in all their manifold aspects was utilized, as the abbreviated list of his appointments indicates, by many governmental and other bodies. It is not generally recognized that he was the chief inspiration for many of the far- sighted reforms in medical education recommended in the 'Goodenough Report'. With so many commitments Stopford had little leisure time, but he was never too busy to meet and discuss problems with members of his staff and students. He had an easy amiability which made him equally at home with the young and the old, the obscure and the famous, and he was a frequent and welcome participator in the informal discussions and arguments in the university common room. Latterly he had to contend with several serious illnesses, yet such was his sense of duty that he largely ignored medical advice to curtail his activities. He did resign from some of his many honorary appointments, but he carried an immense administrative load 28-2 440 In Memoriamn until the day he retired. He was a keen gardener and on Saturdays he sometimes relaxed by visiting the university sports fields or by attending a football match. As a young man he was an ardent soccer player and he was a lifelong supporter of the Manchester City and Manchester United teams. He was an influential member of the Presbyterian Church of England and officiated at many functions on its behalf. He married Lily Allan, another Manchester medical honours graduate, in 1916 and she and one son survive him. Theirs is the greatest loss; but we who served under him revere the memory of a distinguished anatomist and a supreme administrator and marvel that one who had gained so many honours could remain so human, unaffected and kind. Manchester University was singularly fortunate in having three out- standing men-ElliotSmith, Stopford andWoodJones-insuccession as itsProfessors of Anatomy, and while Elliot Smith and Wood Jones attained greater reputations in the scientific field, neither equalled Stopford in his versatility or in his accomplish- ments. We have lost one of the great anatomists of this century. G. A. G. MITCHELL

MICHAEL KENT WRIGHT, M.B., Ch.B., B.Sc., B.Sc. (Hons. Anat.), M.Sc. On 14 January 1961, Dr Michael Kent Wright died at Manchester. Dr Wright was born of British parents in East Africa in 1923. He came to South Africa at the age of 7 years and, after an excellent school career, matriculated from Hilton College, Natal. He entered the Witwatersrand Medical School in 1940, having been refused enlistment in the armed forces on account of health. During the course of his medical studies he took a Medical B.Sc., a B.Sc. Honours and then a Master of Science degree, graduating as a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery at the end of 1947. Whilst a clinical student he served as a graduate demonstrator and as a lecturer in the Department of Anatomy. After qualifying, he had a wide experience, serving as a Lecturer in Anatomy from 1948 to 1950 and as Senior Lecturer until 1953. Thereafter, he filled the positions of Neuro-Physiologist to the Department of Applied Electrophysiology at the National Hospital for Nervous Diseases, Queen Square, London (1953-54); Registrar at Queen Square (1954); Medical Officer to the Neuro-Surgery and Neurology Depart- ments of the Johannesburg General Hospital, as well as Assistant Neurologist at Tara Hospital, Johannesburg. At the beginning of 1959 he resumed his position as Senior Lecturer in Anatomy at the University of the Witwatersrand, which he held until, in August 1960, he was appointed Lecturer in Experimental Neurology at the University of Manchester. Dr Wright's special field of interest was the nervous system. He had published some twenty-five works, ranging in subject matter from the pre-optic region of the mammalian brain to the electro-encephalographic correlates of consciousness. His text-book, Fibre Systems of the Brain and Spinal Cord, was first published in 1952 by the Witwatersrand University Press; it has since run to a second edition (1959). The presentation of the text illustrates Dr Wright's lucidity of expression, which made him an outstanding and engaging teacher.