Dr Brian Rait-Smith
Personal Details
Dr Brian Rait-Smith
25/12/1903 to 14/07/1903
Place of birth: Strixton, Northamptonshire
Nationality: British
CRN: 715401
Education and qualifications
|
General education |
All Hallows School, Honiton; Jesus College, Cambridge, playing for the first XV; Saint Bartholomew’s Hospital Medical School |
|---|---|
|
Primary medical qualification(s) |
MRCS LRCP, 1929 |
|
Initial Fellowship and type |
FFARCS by Election |
|
Year of Fellowship |
1948 |
|
Other qualification(s) |
BA, Cambridge, 1926; DA(RCP&S), 1935 |
Professional life and career
Postgraduate career
Appears to have started training in anaesthesia straight after qualifying, working as resident, then senior resident at Bart’s until he joined the honorary staff in 1937, a position he held until his early death in1949. He was in the very first group to pass the DA and also held appointments at Hammersmith, Brompton & Papworth Hospitals as well as being consultant anaesthetist to the then LCC. During WW2 served in the EMS at Hill End Hospital, and afterwards became full-time at Bart’s.
Professional interests and activities
A highly skilled, imperturbable clinician he specialised in anaesthesia for neuro- and cardio-thoracic surgery, making original observations on the latter (see Lancet 1948; 251: 674-6). A valued teacher, especially of neuroananesthesia, he also pursued interests in obstetrics, curare and trichlorethylene. His work was one of the major reasons for the success of Hill End Hospital during WW2.
Other biographical information
Rait-Smith suffered a sub-arachnoid haemorrhage in 1942 and he underwent two major surgical procedures, but died suddenly after working earlier in the day with the aneurysm considered to be the cause. He was married twice (first to Alice Irene Spencer, second to Marie Lorraine Clifford), but no children have been traced.
Author and Sources
Author: Dr Robert Palmer & Prof Tony Wildsmith
Sources and any other comments: Obituaries. BMJ 1949; ii: 234 & Anaesthesia 1949; 4: 198-9| Archives of Jesus College, Cambridge (ref JCHR/1/3) | Ancestry.co.uk | A photograph may be seen at onlinelibrary.wiley.comdoi/10.1111/j.1365-2044.1949.tb05842.x/epdf