Sir Geoffrey Keynes Tributes on His Goth Birthday
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Annals of the Royal College of Surgeons of England (1977) vol 59 Sir Geoffrey Keynes Tributes on his goth birthday SIR GEOFFREY KEYNES AT NINETY If anyone had said to me that Sir Geoffrey ence was held in London in I960 he was the was go years old I should have laughed out- natural choice for the first Dunhill Orator right. Only last month in the College I saw and he very kindly asked me and my wife his sparse figure with that soldierly gait walk- to spend the weekend with him so that we ing briskly out of the Council Room, where could help, perhaps, with the preparation of he had been attending a meeting of the his speech. It was a great privilege staying Hunterian Trustees. We had a talk about the in his home, which had books in every room, pictures for which he has cared so lovingly especially the bedrooms where there were large for so long and it would have been impossible white bookcases with marvellous contents. He to realize that he was just about to attain had a unique collection of Blake's works and three score and thirty years. a story to tell about each of them. There were When I thought about it I realized it was drawers full of pictures of all kinds, especially in I 934 that I had first seen Sir Geoffrey etchings. His home was a veritable Aladdin's at St Bartholomew's. I had slipped out of Cave. At intervals one of his sons would the dissecting room and gone up to the gallery arrive and he would discuss such subjects as of the operating theatre and he was removing exploration in Africa and then merchant a thyroid gland. He was beautifully neat and banking, followed by physiology and finally precise in his movements and there was no surgery-what a remarkable family he pro- nonsense about his surgery. If I had ever had duced! The meal times with Lady Keynes to have an operation on the thyroid I would presiding were absolute joy and might have have wished him to have been the surgeon. been taken from the pages of her sister Gwen His name will always be associated with the Raverat's book Period Piece. Needless to say thyroid and the thymus, in both of which fields we were all so busy and so splendidly enter- he was supreme. tained that we never did get down even to But it was not only as a surgeon that he mentioning the subject of the Dunhill Oration. attained international fame. From his earliest I need hardly add that Sir Geoffrey gave a davs he was a great scholar and became the superb talk on the appointed day. accepted authority upon William Blake and Remembering how much we owe to Geoffrey John Donne, not forgetting William Harvey. Keynes for all he has done for our College His versatility was a legend; he really en- Library and the great love and care which he compassed an extraordinarily wide field and, has expended on the pictures, let us give thanks amongst other things, created the ballet 'Job'. and send our warmest birthday greetings to a If ever there was justification for the use of wonderful go-year-old. the word 'polymath', then surely Sir Geoffrey is just that. SELWYN TAYLOR When the International Thyroid Confer- Surgeon 30-8 Si'r Geoffrey Keynes Head in bronze of Sir *Geoffrey Keynes in his nine- tieth year by Mr Nigel ~~ ~ Boonham. Presented to the College by Professor P M Daiel in memory of his father, Peter Daniel FRCS. SIR GEOFFREY KEYNES, HONORARY LIBRARIAN, HONORARY CURATOR OF PORTRAITS AND PAINTINGS, AND A TRUSTEE OF THE HUNTERIAN MUSEUM, ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS OF ENGLAND Throughout the history of the College many First World War, and was appointed a Fellows have given generously of time and Hunterian Professor in I923 and I1930. Closer knowledge, over and above their work in the connection with College affairs began when Council or the Court of Examiners, to en- he was elected to the Council in I 944. During hance its life and to increase and care for the his eight years as a Council Member he- treasures in its buildings, Museum, and Li- served as Chairman of the Library Committee, brary. Sir Geoffrey Keynes, whose ninetieth was appointed a Hunterian Professor for the birthday is acclaimed by all his friends and third time, and gave a fascinating description admirers, has been preeminently active in of the portraits of William Harvey in the detailed and productive support for many of Vicary Lecture for I948-this was published the College's domestic affairs. as a monograph by the College in I949. Sir Geoffrey obtained the FRCS in 1920 Sir Geoffrey acted as the College's Visitor after active service in France through the to the Council of the Royal College of Sir Geoffrey Keynes 309 Obstetricians and Gynaecologists from I950 to seventeenth century. I953, went as official Visitor from the Conjoint Board to the Faculty of Medicine at Khartoum In parallel with his care for the Library in I952, and during I956 and I957 toured Sir Geoffrey was also Curator of Portraits East and West Africa and also Canada as Sir and Paintings from I952 to I972. He gave Arthur Sims Commonwealth Surgical Pro- detailed attention to the restoration of the fessor. He delivered a vivid and memorable portraits of famous surgeons-Hunter, Pott, lecture 'Moynihan of Leeds', which was Astley Cooper, and many others-by such printed in the Annals in January I966, when famous artists as Hogarth, Reynolds, Romney, the College celebrated the centenary of that and Lawrence which adorn the College and great surgeon and former President whose equally to the remarkable series of paintings personal assistant he had been. of human racial types and exotic animals commissioned by John Hunter from leading Sir Geoffrey did not seek re-election when artists of his day, including George Stubbs. As his term on the Council ended in I952, but Chairman of the Trustees of the National the Council, eager to retain his interest and Portrait Gallery Sir Geoffrey enlisted the help support, appointed him Honorary Librarian, and advice of experts when at his suggestion a personal office previously created only for I compiled a catalogue of the paintings and Sir D'Arcy Power, one of his predecessors also sculpture in the College. It is needless to say as a consulting surgeon to St Bartholomew's. that his own knowledge and encouragement As Librarian till I968 I look back with warm- were invaluable too, and he steered the cata- est gratitude on the years in which he gave logue to publication with full illustration in me unfailing inspiration and friendly encour- I960. The finest achievement of his curator- agement, and I know that this support is still ship was in vindicating the authenticity of extended to my successor Eustace Cornelius Holbein's group portrait of King Henry VIII and his staff. Sir Geoffrey's knowledge and presenting the charter of union to the Barbers expertise as a book collector and literary and Surgeons of London. This had been con- scholar, combining with his alert watch on the sidered a late and imprecise version of the rare-book market, have always been readily great panel painting which has belonged to available to the College Library. In addition the Worshipful Company of Barbers since to his personal gifts to the College, he has Holbein painted it in the I540s. Thorough opened opportunities for the Library to acquire exploration and reconditioning, undertaken at many additions for its historical collection. Sir Geoffrey's instigation by the Courtauld Through his good offices, for instance, the Institute of Art, proved that the College's ver- College, acting on his advice to 'collect from sion is painted over Holbein's original basic strength', added outstanding rarities to its cartoon-drawing of his design. series of editions of Andreas Vesalius's famous Fabric of the Human Body. The College's Sir Geoffrey has filled a third role in the early medical books, which include the best affairs of the College as a Hunterian Trustee collection of anatomy books in the country, since I957. During the restoration of John were sadly neglected in the first half of the Hunter's Museum after the disasters of the century. Thanks to Sir Geoffrey's persuasive last war the Trustees have assumed most active advocacy and informed advice they have been interest in directing and improving the repaired and rehoused and now form one of Museum as a stimulating educational display, the College's prime treasures, accessible and not a mere monument to Hunter's genius. In useful to medical historians. His constant this department too Sir Geoffrey has been an care to enhance the value and usefulness of inspiring encourager of the curators and the Library culminated last year in the munifi- shared in promoting the publication of the new cent gift of his entire collection of books on catalogues which make the Museum widely blood transfusion, a unique collection which known. He has always enjoyed bringing inter- he alone has had the skill and knowledge to esting and interested visitors to admire or gather over many years, recording in original examine Hunter's specimens and works of art. editions the long story of tranfusion since the The College awarded him its Honorary Gold 3IO Sir Geoffrey Keynes Medal in I 969 for his outstanding achieve- him here greets him on his ninetieth birthday ments in many fields of surgery and literature, with affectionate gratitude and heartfelt with grateful recognition of his long-main- congratulations.