Richard Burkewood Welbourn, MA, MD, Hon DSc., FRCS (born 1 May 1919, Rainhill, Lancashire, England, UK - died 3 August 2005, Reading, Berkshire, England, UK) was a British scientist and educator, specializing in surgical endocrinology. He was Professor and Chairman of the Department of Surgery at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School, Hammersmith Hospital.^[1]

In 1951 as a Fulbright Scholar at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, he developed an intense interest in endocrinology after witnessing the use of the then new drug cortisone by the Nobel prize-winners Drs Kendall and Hench. Richard Welbourn joined the staff of Queen's University, Belfast (QUB) in 1952. Six years later he was named as Professor of Surgical Science there.

In 1962 he was invited to the Royal Postgraduate Medical School, Hammersmith Hospital and garnered attention for his work on the ectopic ACTH syndrome, phaeochromocytoma. He went on to lecture, reaching five continents.

Contents 1 Early years 2 Publications 3 Affiliations 4 Awards 5 Family 6 References 7 External links

[edit] Early years

He was educated at Rugby School, Emmanuel College, Cambridge and Liverpool University. In 1942 after graduating he worked as a Casualty Officer at the Royal Southern Hospital. Called up in January 1943, his RAMC Field Dressing Station followed the D-day landings into France and the Low Countries.

[edit] Publications

• Clinical Endocrinology for Surgeons (1963)
• Medical and Surgical Endocrinology (1975; with Professor D. Montgomery).
• The Dictionary of Medical Ethics (1977; edited with With Professors A Duncan and G Dunstan)

[edit] Affiliations

• Fellow, Royal College of Surgeons
• President, Surgical Research Society
• President, British Association of Endocrine Surgeons
• President, International Surgical Group
• Vice-President, Institute of Medical Ethics and the Section of Surgery, RSM
• Visiting Research Fellow, UCLA (1990, where he wrote The History of Endocrine Surgery

[edit] Awards

• The Distinguished Service Award of the International Association of Endocrine Surgeons (Stockholm, 1991) was bestowed on Dr Welbourn "in recognition of his many pioneering efforts in the field of Endocrine Surgeons, ... his early recognition of the importance of international postgraduate training and the initiation of the first international course in Endocrine Surgery".^[2]

[edit] Family

In 1944 he married Rachel Haighton; they had five children (one son and four daughters).^[3]

[edit] References

1. ^ Obituary, QUB website
2. ^ Ibid.
3. ^ Biodata

[edit] External links

• http://hnn.us/roundup/entries/15757.html
• http://jhmas.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/38/2/239-a.pdf
• http://almaz.com/nobel/medicine/1909a.html