Dr Barbara Webster Adams

Personal Details

Dr Barbara Webster Adams MBBS CPH FFARCS MRCS LRCP DA 

Maiden name: Gerrard 

22/04/1921 to 27/06/2016

Place of birth: Whitby, Wirral, Cheshire, England

Nationality: British

CRN: 491707

Education and qualifications

General education

Queens School, Chester. 1929-39

Primary medical qualification(s)

Royal Free Hospital, School of Medicine, University London 1939-44.

Initial Fellowship and type

FFARCS by Election

Year of Fellowship

1953

Other qualification(s)

MRCS LRCP 1944, MBBS 1944, CPH (L’pool) 1947, DA 1951

 

Professional life and career

Postgraduate career

Barbara Adams’ (née Gerrard) initial family home was near Ellesmere Port in the Wirral. Her father was a general practitioner. After her school years in Chester, she qualified from the Royal Free Medical School in 1944. Her first house surgeon post was at The Three Counties Hospital, Arlesey, Bedfordshire in 1944, followed by a house physician post in York. Following this she undertook short positions as a GP in Ellesmere Port and HP at the Childrens Hospital in Nottingham. In 1947-48 she became a house officer in anaesthesia at the Newcastle General Hospital. From 1948-51 she worked as a registrar in anaesthesia at St. Peters Hospital, Chertsey, followed by a senior registrar post at the Royal Northern Hospital in London until 1953.

In 1953 she married her husband James Finlayson Adams, a physician and appears to have moved to Glasgow, where they are both recorded in the GMC register.
From 1953-58 she worked as a SHMO in anaesthesia at the Victoria and Hairmyres Hospitals in Glasgow. In 1959 she took up a clinical assistant position in anaesthesia at the Gartnavel Hospital until 1986 which was her 65th year of age.
She had three children and her career path probably is a reflection of the social norms in place for a married woman with children for her generation.

Professional interests and activities

Barbara published a paper entitled “Lignocaine Spinal Analgesia in Transurethral Prostatectomy” in Anaesthesia 1956;11: 297-302. No other information is available about her professional interests or any published obituaries. 

Other biographical information

According to Barbara’s self submitted “Boulton biographical college form” she enjoyed tennis, badminton and gardening. She had visited several countries including Hong Kong. Barbara  records in her self submitted form that  she had three children but subsequently only mentions two of her daughters who were qualified in medicine and veterinary medicine. She appears to have passed away aged 95 in Glasgow.

Author and sources

Author: Innes Simon Chadwick

Sources and comments: 

Information obtained from Barbara’s self submitted college “Boulton Form” dated 1988. Any further information would be welcome.
Unable to find any further published obituaries whilst researching.
Biographical information confirmed with  Ancestry.com accessed Jan 2022.
GMC Register 1954 and 1958 accessed via Ancestry.com