Dr Roger Percy Bliss

Personal Details

Dr Roger Percy Bliss MB ChB FFARCS DA

23/10/1898 - 09/03/1978

Place of birth: Forrest, Moray, Scotland

Nationality: British

CRN: 723845

 

General education	George Watson’s College, Edinburgh Medical School, University of Edinburgh, interrupting his studies in WW1 to serve in the King’s Own Scottish Borderers, and subsequently commissioned as a 2nd Lt. in the Royal Flying Corps – returning before November 1918.
Primary medical qualification(s)	MB ChB, University of Edinburgh, 1921
Initial Fellowship and type	FFARCS by Election
Year of Fellowship	1953
Other qualification(s)	DA (RCP&S), 1946

 

Professional life and career

Postgraduate career

After graduation Bliss undertook a house surgeon post at Wrexham Infirmary, followed by being a resident surgical officer at Chesterfield and North Derbyshire Infirmary. Next he spent a year as a medical officer in the Federated Malay States. On return to England he entered general practice in Derby and in 1926 was appointed Hon. Anaesthetist to Derbyshire Royal Infirmary. On the introduction of the NHS in 1948 he became a senior consultant in anaesthesia to the Derby Group of Hospitals. From 1951 he had sessions at the City and Kingsway Hospitals in Derby and the Orthopaedic Hospital in Bretby. He retired around 1963, but then worked as a part-time locum registrar in psychiatry at Kingsway Hospital until 1970.

Professional interests and activities

Bliss kept up to date with advances in anaesthesia by frequent visits to London and he introduced Magill’s methods to Derby. He served on the advisory committee on anaesthesia to Sheffield Regional Hospital Board. In 1948 he pioneered the use of relaxants in electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) at Kingsway Hospital, developing a close bond with the psychiatric staff. 

Other biographical information

He married Gladys Badger in 1926 and they had two sons. For leisure he enjoyed golf, skating and literature - history, classical novelists and Shakespeare. He died in Quarndon, Derbyshire at the age of 79, survived by his family. 

Author and Sources

Author

Alistair McKenzie

 

Sources and Comments For material which does not fit other categories

[1] Obituary R P Bliss MB, ChB, FFARCS (with photograph). BMJ 1978; I: 1059. 

[2] Medical Registers and Directories. 

[3] ancestry.co.uk