Dr Kenneth John Powell

Personal Details

Dr Kenneth John Powell MRCS LRCP MB BS FFARCS DA

Known as: John

06/01/1914 to 12/03/1990

Place of birth: The Belgian Congo, Africa (Democratic Republic of Congo)

Nationality: British

CRN:  514446

Education and qualifications

Professional life and career

Postgraduate career

On qualifying  from University College Hospital London in 1937, he initially became a resident medical officer at Wembley Hospital in London; then in 1939 he moved to Sheffield where he became a junior resident medical officer at the City General Hospital. Following this he entered  Military War Service. Commissioned as a 2nd Lieutentant Royal Army Medical Corps in February1940, he served in the Middle East and Italy achieving the rank of major and becoming a specialist anaesthetist. On demobilisation in 1946 he was appointed as an anaesthetist at the City General Hospital and Thoracic Unit in Sheffield. Soon after he was appointed as a Consultant Anaesthetist, Sheffield Royal Infirmary. He subsequently moved in 1951 to become a  Consultant Anaesthetist at the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospitals, along with some affiliated smaller hospitals in Exeter, where he remained until his retirement in 1979.

Professional interests and activities

In 1955 at Exeter Dr Powell was involved in the management of two young patients diagnosed with tetanus. The patients were managed with curarisation and ventilation; he co-authoring a case report on their treatment. During his career he  also co-authored publications about thoracic anaesthesia and subglottic oedema as a consequence of endotracheal intubation. He was  subsequently inspired  to become involved in developing a new intensive care service at the Exeter Hospitals. He also  became involved in the commissioning of a new hospital development for Exeter and Devon (opened in 1975) within his roles as chairman of the hospital’s medical executive committee and chairman of the district management team. He was also Chairman of the Department of Anaesthesia at Exeter for several years. Outside of Devon during his career, he had other professional areas of interest as a Member of the Council of theAssociation of Anaesthetists of Great Britain & Ireland 1965-68, Examiner for the Diploma in Anaesthetics, and served as President of the Society of Anaesthetists of the South West Region 1971-2.

One of his departmental colleagues, who authored Dr Powell’s obituary, described him as a counsellor, pre-eminent teacher and outstanding chairman who oversaw a large expansion of anaesthetic services enhancing the departmental reputation.

Other biographical information

Kenneth John Powell was born during the colonial era in the then named Belgian Congo in Central Africa, where his father was a Baptist minister and missionary, but had moved to England with his parents by 1921. During his clinical career Dr Powell studied to become a priest  and was ordained in 1962, becoming a curate. Upon his retirement from the hospital he became curate of Broadhembury with Payhembury where his unruffled, compassionate manner and his humour and manifest devotion was much appreciated by his parishioners.

Dr Powell married Rhona Stanworth in 1939 in Sheffield. She was a state registered nurse. They had two sons and two daughters and at the time of his death seven grandchildren. Dr Powell was pre-deceased by one of his daughters, who died as a consequence of a traffic accident, and his wife who died in 1989. He died in a care home in Exeter at the age of 76.

Author and sources

Author:

Dr Innes Simon Chadwick

Sources and comments:

Obituary, Rev KJ Powell, British Medical Journal 1990; 300: 1192 (with photograph).
Bibliographic information accessed online at Ancestry.com.
1921 Census , accessed Findmypast.
Medical Register UK 1942 and The Medical Directory 1942 accessed online at Ancestry.com
The Medical Directory, Churchill, 1968 vol2 p950.
Medical Directories 1946-52 accessed at University of Edinburgh Library by Dr A.G. McKenzie.
The London Gazette Supplement, 15 March 1940, 38413 p1624.
Mazzoni P, Powell KJ. Anaesthesia for thoracic surgery. Archivo Chir Torace 1948; 3: 303-315 (article in Italian).
Haines AM, Powell KJ. Acute Sub-glottic Oedema of the Larynx as a Sequel to Endotracheal anaesthesia. British Journal Anaesthesia, 1955; 27: 257-259. 
Powell KJ, Brimblecombe FSW, Stoneman MER. Treatment of Severe tetanus by Curarisation and Intermittent Positive-Pressure respiration. Lancet, 1958; I: 713-716.
“Does this kind of Parson really shock you? “. Newspaper article. The People, London.  2nd December 1962,  page 5. Accessed online  FindmyPast and newspaper archives.