This is a list of London medical students who assisted at Bergen-Belsen concentration camp after its liberation at the end of the Second World War. [1] There were 96 in total. [2] [3] Most of the students were in their penultimate year of medical education and were recruited from nine medical schools in London. [4] [5]
They were a feature of a BBC Open Space programme in 1984. [6]
Name | Birth/death | Comments | reference |
---|---|---|---|
Daniel Oliver Davies, also known as Dan Davies | Died 2 March 1977 (age 52) | Became a general practitioner who co-founded a health centre in Whitstable, established a GP course in Canterbury, was secretary of the East Kent Division of the British Medical Association and served with the Zambia Flying Doctor Service. | [8] |
Michael Gwynne Douglas Davys | 1922 – 12 June 2002 | Became a psychiatrist in Harrow on the Hill, who specialised in depression in children. | [9] [10] |
Dennis Henry Forsdick | 1924 – 9 December 2016 (age 92) | Became a general practitioner at the Friarsgate Medical Centre. | [11] [12] |
John Langford Hayward | 26 April 1923 – 24 February 2013 | Became a breast surgeon who researched treatment for advanced breast cancer. | [13] [14] |
David Sells Hurwood | 1924 – 22 May 2005 | Contracted tuberculosis at Belsen. Later, became a general practitioner in Syston and was a founder member of the Royal College of General Practitioners. | [15] |
John Spencer Jones | 1924 – 11 March 2007 | Became a chest physician. | [16] |
John Vernon Kilby | Became a GP after a starting a career in anaesthetics. | [13] [17] | |
John Eric Mandel | [13] | ||
James Andrew Turner | [13] | ||
David Maurice Rahilly | born 1922 | Became a general practitioner in Suffolk | [13] [18] [19] |
David McPherson Strange | [13] | ||
David George Arthur Westbury | 12 September 1923 – 7 June 1983 (age 59) | Became a forensic psychiatrist at Winterton Hospital. | [13] [20] |
Name | Birth/death | Comments | reference |
---|---|---|---|
Michael James Forth | [13] | ||
James Learmonth Gowans | 7 May 1924 – 1 April 2020 | Later specialized in immunology and became professor of experimental pathology at Oxford. He also pursued a research career at the Medical Research Council and showed that lymphocytes play an important role in transplant rejection. | [21] |
Alan John Kenny (A. J. Kenny) | [13] | ||
Norman Lees | In September 1948 he married Pamela Fawcus and joined a general practice (with Dr Rhoades Buckton) in Wymondham, Norfolk, in 1950. | [13] [22] | |
Bernard William Meade | [13] | ||
Thomas Pimblett | Contracted typhus at Belsen which delayed his medical training by a year. | [23] | |
John Towers | Became a RMO at the Royal West Sussex Hospital in 1946, followed by a psychiatrist at Graylingwell in 1950, where he completed his thesis on temporal lobe epilepsy and mental illness, and was then appointed consultant psychiatrist in 1955. He developed a scheme for community care of the elderly and promoted co-ordination with social services. | [13] [24] [25] | |
Ian Clifford Leonard White | [1] | ||
Gwyn Williams | [13] | ||
Sidney Clifford Brookfield Yorke | 1922–2007 | Became a psychiatrist at the Maudsley Hospital and later took over from Anna Freud at the Hampstead Clinic. | [26] [27] |
Colonel E.E. Vella reported that there were eight students from Middlesex Hospital: [28]
Name | Birth/death | Comments | reference |
---|---|---|---|
Gordon Dutton | Became a psychiatrist. | [13] [29] | |
Philip David Alexander Kent | [13] | ||
Humphrey Bohun Kidd | His journal is held at the National Archives. | [13] [30] | |
John Goff Kilner | Became a general practitioner in Epsom. | [31] | |
Gerald Raperport | His account of his experience at Belsen was published in 1945 edition of The Middlesex Hospital Journal. | [32] [33] [34] [35] [36] [37] | |
Peter Watts Rowsell | [13] | ||
David Andrew Thomas Tizard | 1922 | Became a general practitioner in London. Son of Sir Henry Tizard. | [13] |
George Gordon Walker | [13] | ||
In 1981, in parliament, Eldon Griffiths calculated that nine students volunteered from St Bartholomew's Hospital. [38]
Name | Birth/death | Comments | reference |
---|---|---|---|
David Cordley Bradford | 1922–2002 | Became a general practitioner and founded the first purpose built surgery in Gloucestershire. | [39] |
Leslie William Clarke | [13] | ||
John Roger Bertram Dixey | [40] [41] | ||
Andrew Ernest Dossetor | Died 5 December 2013 | Due to typhus, his return home from Belsen was delayed. He later became a general practitioner and his case was once discussed in the House of Commons. | [42] [43] |
Ian McArthur Jackson | [44] | ||
Edward Deryk Marsh | [13] [45] | ||
Ian Reginald Davidson Proctor | [13] [46] | ||
Laurence Geoffrey Rowland Wand | (1924 – 23 November 2012) | Also known as Laurie. After the war was colonel in the Territorial Army. Retired from general practice in 1990. | [13] [47] [48] |
Students from St Mary's Hospital Medical School included:
Name | Birth/death | Comments | reference |
---|---|---|---|
Robert Armatage | [13] [28] | ||
Thomas Colin Lyall Brown | [13] [28] | ||
John Hankinson | 10 March 1919 Died 9 March 2009 | Prof of Neurosurgery , Newcastle upon Tyne | [13] [28] |
Thomas Desmond Hawkins | 22 May 1923 – 2 January 2015 | After the war he undertook specialist training in radiology in Oxford and Manchester, was elected a Fellow of the Royal College of Radiologists in 1959 and then moved to Addenbrooke’s in 1960. He become a pioneer of interventional neuroradiology and between 1979 and 1984 was the Dean of Cambridge University’s school of clinical medicine. | [13] [28] [49] |
Peter Derek Campbell Jackson | [13] [28] | ||
Gerald Woolf Korn | [13] [28] | ||
Andrew B. Matthews | Died 1995 | [50] [51] [52] | |
John McLuskie | [13] [28] | ||
Alan Vandyke Price | Later married Pamela Vandyke Price. | [53] [54] | |
Gordon Caton Thick | [13] [28] [55] | ||
Roger W. Watson | [13] [28] | ||
John Leslie Clarence Whitcome | [13] [28] | ||
Twelve students went from St Thomas' Medical School. [56] included:
Name | Birth/death | Comments | reference |
---|---|---|---|
Eddie Boyd | died 13 February 2013 | Caught typhus at Belsen, returned to England and recovered after six months. Retired from medicine at age 52 and wrote popular romance novels under the pseudonym Esther Boyd. | [13] [57] [58] |
Alan David Rowan MacAuslan | 1921 – 25 May 2018 | In 2005, at the age of 83, his story was reported in the BBC News. | [56] [59] [60] |
Michael Harold Farnham Coigley | Upon return in 1946, with John Stephenson, wrote a paper on treating starvation with protein hydrolysate. He later became a general practitioner. | [13] [61] [62] | |
Keith Maxwell Fergusson | [13] | ||
Peter J. Horsey | 1924–2015 | Became a consultant anaesthetist at Southampton. | [13] [63] |
Alex Paton | 2 March 1924 – 12 September 2015 | Became a gastroenterologist, writer and postgraduate dean for North-West London hospitals. He specialised in alcohol misuse and became the first chairman of the medical committee of Alcohol Concern. His book, ABC of Alcohol , went through four editions. | [13] [64] |
John Anthony Reynolds | [13] | ||
John Stephenson | Upon return in 1946, with Coigley, wrote a paper on treating starvation with protein hydrolysate. | [13] [61] | |
Peter Barr Taylor | Previously P. B. Taylor, he later appears in the Medical Register as Peter Barr-Taylor. In 1973 he was promoted from flight lieutenant to squadron leader. | [13] [65] [66] | |
Arthur Thompson Cook | Became a British Army physician. | [13] [67] [68] | |
Claude Dempster | 1924 – 6 March 2001 | Became a pathologist at the King Edward VII Hospital, Windsor. | [69] [70] |
Ian Whimster | 3 September 1923 – 18 January 1979 | Gained international recognition for his study of comparative anatomy and experiments with reptiles, particularly observing their colour patterns in relation to their nerve supply. He defined keratoacanthoma, the distinction between pemphigus and pemphigoid and made descriptions of melanocytes and malignant melanoma. He died in a road traffic accident at the age of 55. | [13] [28] [71] |
One account states there were twelve students from the London Hospital. [72]
Name | Birth/death | Comments | reference |
---|---|---|---|
Thomas Chometon Gibson | 30 April 1921 – 2 May 2020 [73] | Reported on his frustrations at treating inmates at Belsen with lack of resources. Became professor of medicine at Robert Larner College of Medicine. | [72] [40] [28] [74] [75] |
John Arthur Harland Hancock | 1923 – 7 June 1974 | Contracted typhus in Belsen. Later, he became a dermatologist and then a venereologist and edited the British Journal of Venereal Diseases . He wrote on non-gonococcal urethritis and reactive arthritis, then known as Reiter's disease. | [72] [76] |
Francis Herbert William Johnson | [13] | ||
Charles Alexander Kyndt | 28 August 1921 - 8 November 1987 | According to his journal entry, he was assigned hut No. 207 containing 700 or more women. He became a general practitioner in East London and honorary consultant dermatologist at the Royal London Hospital. | [72] [77] [6] |
James Horace Sidney Morgan | [13] [78] | ||
Richard David Pearce | [28] | ||
David Robertson Smith | Became a haematologist Royal Berkshire Hospital. | [79] | |
P. W. G. Tasker | 19 May 1924 – 2 March 1960 | Assisted as a pilot during the Malayan Emergency and performed some of the earliest studies of the causes of anaemia using radioactive tracer techniques. He later became a general practitioner. | [80] |
John Brian Walker | 1924 – 15 October 2014 | Became an eye surgeon and then a general practitioner. Later became known for his skill in sailing with the Hornet dinghy fleet. | [81] |
Eirian (Bill) Williams | 7 May 1925 – 1 March 1991 | Became a physician at Withybush Hospital, Haverfordwest, and wrote on brucellosis. | [82] [83] |
Those from UCL Medical School [84] included:
Name | Birth/death | Comments | reference |
---|---|---|---|
Brian William Barras | [13] | ||
Paul Walter Clements | [13] | ||
Thomas Crisp | [85] | ||
Richard Kingsley Jones | [13] | ||
John Henry Raphael | [13] | ||
Mark J. Raymond | [13] | ||
Douglas Ivor Roberts | [13] | ||
Geoffrey Basil Rooke | [13] [86] | ||
Roger Sheridan | [87] | ||
Roger Silverberg | Also known as Morris Roger Silverberg. | [13] | |
Philip Metcalfe Yeoman | Became a consultant to the Bath Orthopaedic Hospital and the Royal National Hospital for Rheumatic Diseases. | [13] [28] [88] [89] | |
Westminster Hospital Medical School's tercentenary booklet states that they sent eleven students, [90]
Name | Birth/death | Comments | reference |
---|---|---|---|
Russell William Andrew Charles Barton | Became a psychiatrist, who in 1968 wrote a controversial article in Purnell's History of the Second World War based on his experience at Belsen. In 1976 his book titled Institutional Neurosis was published. | [91] [92] [93] [94] | |
Ronald Eric Citrine | Born 19 May 1919 | Registered as a medical practitioner in New Zealand in 1955, and lived at Paihia. | [90] [95] [96] |
Kenneth Charles Easton | 1924 – 8 February 2001 | Pusued a career focussed around the development of prehospital care and emergency medicine. | [97] [98] |
Lionel Kentish Garstin | 1923-2010 | [90] [99] | |
Andrew David Moore | [90] | ||
Eric James Trimmer | Also known as Harry. | [90] [100] [101] [102] | |
Derek Geoffrey Wells | [90] | ||
George Millington Woodwark | 1923 – 4 June 2012 | Became a cardiologist who moved to Vancouver Island. | [90] [103] |
John Richard Everett Jenkins | Known as ‘Dick’ Everett Jenkins, co-authored Practical Anaesthesia for Lung Surgery (1967) | [90] [104] | |
David Phillip Bowles | [90] | ||
Michael Hargrave | 8 December 1923 – 25 July 1974 | Became a general practitioner in Wootton Bassett, Wiltshire. His memoirs, written for his mother, were used by historian Ben Shephard in his 2005 book After Daybreak: The Liberation of Belsen, 1945 , and were later published by Imperial College Press in 2014, in a book titled Bergen-Belsen 1945: A Medical Student's Journal . | [105] [106] |
Kamran Abbasi is the editor-in-chief of the British Medical Journal (BMJ), a physician, visiting professor at the Department of Primary Care and Public Health, Imperial College, London, editor of the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine(JRSM), journalist, cricket writer and broadcaster, who contributed to the expansion of international editions of the BMJ and has argued that medicine cannot exist in a political void.
Daniel K. Sokol is a barrister and medical ethicist known for his academic and journalistic writings on the ethics of medicine.
Ian Wesley Whimster MRCPath was a reader of dermatology histopathology at St Thomas' Hospital, London. He gained international recognition for his study of comparative anatomy and experiments with reptiles, particularly observing their colour patterns in relation to their nerve supply. He was part of the medical student team that went into Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in 1945, after it was liberated by British troops. On return, he made numerous contributions to dermatology, including the definition of keratoacanthoma, the distinction between pemphigus and pemphigoid and descriptions of melanocytes and malignant melanoma. He died in a road traffic accident at the age of 55.
Arnold Peter Meiklejohn was an English physician and academic, specializing in nutrition.
Alexander Paton was a British gastroenterologist, writer and postgraduate dean for North-West London hospitals, who was a specialist in alcohol misuse.
In early April 1945, at the request of the British Army, the British Red Cross and the War Office called for 100 volunteer medical students from nine London teaching hospitals to assist in feeding starving Dutch children who had been liberated from German occupation by advancing Allied forces. However, in the meantime, British troops had liberated Bergen-Belsen concentration camp and the students were diverted there on the day they were due to travel to the Netherlands. The students had previously spent most of the Second World War at school and in medical training.
John Brian Walker was a British general practitioner with a prior career in eye surgery. After studying at New College, Oxford and while studying medicine at The London Hospital in 1945, he was one of the London medical students who were sent to Bergen-Belsen concentration camp shortly after its liberation by British troops, to assist in the feeding of the severely malnourished and dying inmates, under the supervision of nutritionist Arnold Peter Meiklejohn. After gaining his medical degree, he was drafted into the army and sent to east Africa, where he became an eye surgeon. Following demobilisation, he returned to London with his wife Mary and took on his father's general practice. Walker was also known for his skill in sailing with the Hornet dinghy fleet throughout the 1950s to 1970s.
Michael John Hargrave was a British general practitioner in Wootton Bassett, Wiltshire, who in 1945 assisted British Army occupation forces at the recently-liberated Bergen-Belsen concentration camp when he volunteered as a medical student from Westminster Hospital at the age of 21.
Kenneth Robertson Dempster ,also known as Claude Dempster, was a British pathologist at the King Edward VII Hospital, Windsor, who in 1945, while studying at St Thomas' Hospital, assisted at Bergen-Belsen concentration camp when he volunteered as a medical student.
Kenneth Charles Easton, was a general practitioner; while studying medicine at Westminster Hospital in 1945, heassisted at Bergen-Belsen concentration camp as a voluntary medical student. His career later was focussed around the development of prehospital care and emergency medicine.
Dennis Henry Forsdick, was a British physician at the Friarsgate Medical Centre. In 1945, while studying medicine at Guy's Hospital, he assisted at Bergen-Belsen concentration camp as a voluntary medical student.
David George Arthur Westbury was an English physician. He was described in his obituary by the Royal College of Psychiatrists as a "founding father of British forensic psychiatry". In 1945, while studying medicine at Guy's Hospital, he assisted at Bergen-Belsen concentration camp as a voluntary medical student.
Michael Gwynne Douglas Davys, was a British psychiatrist in Harrow on the Hill, who specialised in depression in children. In 1945, while studying medicine at Guy's Hospital, he assisted at Bergen-Belsen concentration camp as a voluntary medical student.
John Spencer Jones was a British chest physician. In 1945, while studying medicine at Guy's Hospital, he assisted at Bergen-Belsen concentration camp as a voluntary medical student. Here, he developed tuberculosis. He later authored a number of articles in medical journals including "Telling the right patient" in the British Medical Journal (1981), where he reported that 50% of people with terminal disease "want to know that this is so".
David Sells Hurwood was a British general practitioner in Syston and founder member of the Royal College of General Practitioners. In 1945, while studying medicine at Guy's Hospital, he assisted at Bergen-Belsen concentration camp as a voluntary medical student. Here, he developed tuberculosis.
Daniel Oliver Davies, also known as Dan Davies, was a British general practitioner who co-founded a health centre in Whitstable, established a general practitioner course in Canterbury, was secretary of the East Kent Division of the British Medical Association and served with the Zambia Flying Doctor Service. In 1945, while studying medicine at Guy's Hospital, he assisted at Bergen-Belsen concentration camp as a voluntary medical student.
Alan David Rowan MacAuslan, was a British doctor who in 1945, while studying at St Thomas' Hospital, assisted at Bergen-Belsen concentration camp when he volunteered as a medical student. In 2005, at the age of 83, his story was reported in the BBC News.
Peter William Gedge Tasker was a British general practitioner who performed some of the earliest studies of the causes of anaemia using radioactive tracer techniques. During his studies at The London Hospital in 1945, he was one of the London medical students who were sent to Bergen-Belsen concentration camp shortly after its liberation by British troops, to assist in the feeding of the severely malnourished and dying inmates, under the supervision of nutritionist Arnold Peter Meiklejohn. During the Malayan Emergency, he assisted by taking on the role as a pilot.
David Cordley Bradford (1922–2002), was a British general practitioner who founded the first purpose built surgery in Gloucestershire. In 1945, he was one of the volunteer London medical students from St Bartholomew's Hospital sent to assist at Belsen following its liberation by British troops.
After Daybreak: The Liberation of Belsen, 1945, is a book authored by Ben Shephard, published in 2005 by Jonathan Cape and Random House, in which he details the liberation of Belsen by British troops in April 1945.