Dr Harald Norris Webber

Personal Details

Dr Harald Norris Webber BChir MA FFARCS MRCS LRCP DA

09/07/1881 to 12/12/1954

Place of birth: Brighton

Nationality: British

CRN: 715279

Education and qualifications

General education

Brighton Grammar Shool; St John’s College, Cambridge; University College Hospital, London

Primary medical qualification(s)

MRCS LRCP, 1912

Initial Fellowship and type

FFARCS by Election

Year of Fellowship

1948

Other qualification(s)

BA, Cambridge, 1903 (MA, 1919); BChir, Cambridge, 1928

Professional life and career

Postgraduate career

After obtaining his BA, Webber remained in Cambridge helping WHR Rivers with research on the effects of alcohol, caffeine and other drugs on fatigue and muscular performance. He started his clinical training in 1908, qualified in 1912 and worked as house surgeon, house physician and resident medical officer at the West London Hospital. He served in the RAMC during WW1, some of the time in Egypt, and attained the rank of major. On demobilisation he was assistant medical officer to the London Fever Hospital and, from 1922, resident medical officer at UCH, a post which involved him in the administration of anaesthetics. Deciding to specialise he was appointed anaesthetic registrar in 1924, and to the staff after six months, but also working at several other hospitals. He remained at UCH with the Emergency Medical Service during WW2, retiring from the hospital in 1946, but continuing in private practice for a while thereafter.

Professional interests and activities

After his Cambridge research days Webber published little, the main exception being the textbook ‘Anaesthesia and Anaesthetics’ written with Dr F S Rood that became a standard work. A prominent member of the RSM section he was both secretary (1935-7) and president (1940-1). Scrupulous in his care of patients, he visited them before and after surgery, unusual for the time. He was awarded the DA(RCP&S) without examination in 1936.

Other biographical information

Little is known of Webber’s personal life, other than his marriage to Madeleine Mary Ryder, and that during WW2, having been bombed out of two previous homes, he moved into TOP floor flat in a building next to UCH!

Author and Sources

Author: Prof Tony Wildsmith

Sources and any other comments: Obituary. BMJ 1955; i: 172 | Venn J, Venn JA (Eds). Alumni Cantabrigienses 1954; 2 (part 6): 389