Dr Kenneth Bryn Thomas
Personal Details
Dr Kenneth Bryn Thomas FFARCS FFARACS(Hon) MRCS LRCP DA
30/09/1915 to 22/9/1978
Place of birth: Sutton, south west London
Nationality: British
CRN: 722647
Also known as: Bryn
Education and qualifications
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General education |
Initially in Sutton, later at Swansea Grammar School, winning trophies for singing, reciting& cello playing; pre-clinical studies at University College, Swansea; clinical at Charing Cross Hospital, London |
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Primary medical qualification(s) |
MRCS |
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Initial Fellowship and type |
FFARCS by Election |
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Year of Fellowship |
1953 |
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Other qualification(s) |
DA(RCP&S), 1941 |
Professional life and career
Postgraduate career
He qualified just before the outbreak of WW2 and immediately enrolled in the Emergency Medical Service, working at Great Ormond Street Hospital. In 1940 he volunteered for the RAF and served at Hullavington, Bridgenorth (where he was designated a specialist anaesthetist) and Singapore towards the end of the war. Demobilised in 1946 he worked at Ashford Hospital, Middlesex until the following year when he was appointed a consultant to the Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading, a post he held until his sudden death in 1978.
Professional interests and activities
Clinically he was a generalist, and he had a wide range of interests, medical & non-medical – he was described as a “polymath of dazzling virtuosity”. However, the history of medicine, and of anaesthesia in particular (he was one of the first in the UK to pursue it as a major topic) was his major focus.
Other biographical information
Bryn met his wife Nancy (Nan) while a student (she was reading French) in London, they had three children (a son & two daughters), and latterly lived in a beautiful house overlooking the Thames. His non-medical linterests included music, drama & literature.
Author and Sources
Author: Dr Robert Palmer
Sources and any other comments: Rollin HR. Kenneth Bryn Thomas – An appreciation. Proc Hist An Soc 1990; 7: 22-5 |