Dr Phyllis Mary Edwards
Personal Details
Dr Phyllis Mary Edwards BSc MBBS FFARCS MRCS LRCP DA
29/07/1911 to 24/01/2003
Place of birth: Clutton
Nationality: British
CRN: 561857
Previous/other family name: Baptised, and recorded by University of Western Australia & Medical Register, as ‘Phyllis Mary’, but school & medical school both have her listed as ‘Phyllis May’.
Education and qualifications
|
General education |
St Saviour’s & St Olave’s School, Southwark; Woodford County High School; University of Western Australia; King’s College Medical School, London |
|---|---|
|
Primary medical qualification(s) |
MRCS LRCP, 1937 |
|
Initial Fellowship and type |
FFARCS by Election |
|
Year of Fellowship |
1951 |
|
Other qualification(s) |
BSc(Hons), University of Western Australia, 1931 |
Professional life and career
Postgraduate career
Initial appointments included house surgeon at Princess Elizabeth of York Hospital for Children in London, house physician/obstetrician at Chelmsford & Essex Hospital, and working for the EMS at the County Infirmary, Cambridge. Early in WW2 she joined the RAMC and advanced from Lieutenant to half Colonel, working primarily in India. At the end of WW2 she worked for the EMS again in the King’s sector in London before being a registrar at King’s and then consultant to the West Middlesex Hospital from 1948. Between 1953 & 1958 she was Senior Lecturer, University College, Ibadan in Nigeria, before returning to London as consultant at Harrow Hospital. In 1968 she returned to Nigeria as professor & head of the anaesthetic department at Ahmadu Bello University, serving as dean of the medical faculty before retiring in 1971.
Professional interests and activities
She had a major involvement in the training of anaesthetists for other counrties, starting at the Anaesthesiology Centre in Copenhagen, founded by the World Health Organisation in 1950, and continuing with visits to many countries and her two appointments in Nigeria.
Other biographical information
Her father, a Clerk in Holy Orders, worked in Australia from 1926 to 1933. She does not seem to have married, but adopted, as 'Paulette Edwards', a young woman who had grown up in an orphanage.
Author and sources
Author: Prof Tony Wildsmith
Sources and any other comments: Obituary. BMJ 2003; 326; 398 where a photograph may be seen| Ancestry.co.uk | Archives of St Saviour’s & St Olave’s School, University of Western Australia, and King’s College, London | Boulton TB. The Association of Anaesthetists of GB&I 1932-1992 and the Development of the Specialty of Anaesthesia. London: AAGB&I, 1999