Dr Reginald Austin Binning
Personal Details
Dr Reginald Austin Binning MA FFARCS MRCS LRCP DA
26/08/1908 to 19/11/1988
Place of birth: Southampton
Nationality: British
CRN: 722630
Also known as: Rex
Education and qualifications
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General education |
King Edward’s Grammar School, Southampton; Wycliffe College, Gloucestershire, winning Hearson Prize; St John’s College, Cambridge; St George’s Hospital Medical School, winning Devitt Pendlebury Prize |
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Primary medical qualification(s) |
MRCS LRCP, 1934 |
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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) |
BA, Cambridge, 1931 (MA, 1944); DA(RCP&S), 1945 |
Professional life and career
Postgraduate career
Binning was interested in anaesthesia from the start of his career, but the economic realities of being a newly qualified doctor meant that he entered GP in Hove first. However, in 1937 he was appointed honorary anaesthetist to the Royal Alexandra Hospital for Sick Children and clinical assistant in anaesthetics to the Royal Sussex County Hospital, both in Brighton.
He served as a Major through WW2, landing in Cherbourg with the BEF within a week of the outbreak of war. Later he served with a maxillo-facial unit in Alexandria, accompanying the 8th Army in its advance to Tunisia, working with a field surgical unit in Italy, landing in France on D-Day and accompanying the advance as far as Nijmegan where he contracted viral pneumonia and was invalided home to be ‘Mentioned in Dispatches’ in 1945. He returned to Brighton and, with the inception of the NHS, was able to devote himself entirely to anaesthesia, retiring in 1973.
Professional interests and activities
Chairman or President of South Eastern and Southern Societies of Anaesthetists, Mid-Sussex Branch of the BMA, and Brighton & Mid-Sussex Medico-Chirurgical Society, he also served on many committees related to anaesthesia in Brighton, was a member of Councils of both AAGBI (1964-7) & RSM Section of Anaesthetics, and chaired the BMA’s Anaesthetists Group.
Establishing one of the best ‘provincial’ departments in the country, he worked to improve accommodation for trainee staff and forged links with London Teaching Hospitals. He was a pioneer in training the public in CPR techniques, and made the original proposal for a trainee group at the AAGBI. An excellent host, he was noted for his concerns for both contempories & trainees.
Other biographical information
He was married three times: 1936, Sylvia Tylden, one son, one daughter; 1949, Nancy Green (or Repard), no children; 1959, Geraldine Matthews, one son, one daughter. He had many interests, notably sailing (Commodore of the Lighthouse Club; member of the Brighton Marina Yacht Club Committee), other outdoor pursuits, photography, antiques, history (general, medical & anaesthetic), food and wine. In retirement he was an elected Councillor on Hove Borough Council and President of Hove Civic Society.
Author and Sources
Author: Dr Robert Palmer and Prof Tony Wildsmith
Sources and any other comments:
‘Boulton' Form | Obituaries. BMJ 1989; 298: 43 & Proc Hist Anaes Soc 1989; 5: 76 | Ancestry.co.uk | Boulton TB. The Association of Anaesthetists of Great Britian and Ireland 1932-1992. London: AAGBI, 1999 | Mrs Fiona Colbert, Biographical Librarian, St John’s College, Cambridge