Dr Mark Mortimer Crosse
08/01/1939 to 14/05/2023
Place of birth: Haverfordwest, Wales
Nationality: British
CRN: 497978
Education and qualifications
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General education |
Eaton House Preparatory School; Westminster School; Queens’ College, Cambridge; St Bartholomew’s Hospital Medical College |
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Primary medical qualification(s) |
MB BChir (University of Cambridge), MRCS LRCP (Conjoint Board) 1965 |
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Initial Fellowship and type |
FFARCS by Election/Examination (later FRCA) |
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Year of Fellowship |
1970 |
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Other qualification(s) |
MA (Cantab) 1965 |
Professional life and career
Postgraduate career
House Physician and House Surgeon, Harold Wood Hospital, Essex, Jan-Dec 1966; Senior House Officer in Anaesthesia, St George’s Hospital, May 1967-May 1968; Senior House Officer in Anaesthesia, St Bartholomew’s Hospital, Aug 1968-Sep 1969; Registrar, The Westminster Hospital, Jan 1970-Mar 1971 (including 6 months seconded to Serafima Lasarettet, Stockholm); Senior Registrar, The Westminster Hospital, Mar 1971-Mar 1973; Senior Registrar, Southampton, Apr-Aug 1973.
Professional interests and activities
Mark was appointed to Southampton as a vascular and paediatric anaesthetist, though he also anaesthetised for many surgical specialties including urology, general surgery, ENT, gynaecology and dentistry. He was Chairman of the Shackleton Department of Anaesthesia at Southampton University Hospitals from 1990 to 1995. His main interest was in teaching. With John Edwards he developed a rigorous and thorough novice training programme which he ran for 30 years from the mid-1970s. Former trainees describe him as respected, inspirational and a ‘legend’. He was also the Coordinator of Wessex Regional Registrar Training. His publications were often written with his trainees, to help them get publications for their CVs. He also co-authored a chapter on Vascular Surgery in The Ageing Surgical Patient (1992), and acted as an Anaesthetics Advisor for the 1992-93 NCEPOD Report. Towards the end of his career he developed a breathing circuit to enable rapid changes in anaesthetic gas concentrations at low gas flows, but, despite the encouragement of Bill Mapleson, this was never put to clinical use. He was awarded the Association of Anaesthetists’ Evelyn Baker Medal in 2002.
Other biographical information
Mark was the second of four sons of Captain (later Brigadier) John Crosse, an army doctor, and Olive née Dodwell. The family lived in North Wales until Mark was about five, when they moved to London. At Westminster School he was House Captain and a School Monitor. Mark was a good sportsman, playing in the football 1st XI at Westminster. He later played table tennis for Cambridge. He was a keen member of the Air Force cadets at school, and he qualified as a pilot before he could drive. He was awarded an RAF Flying Scholarship to go to Cranwell, but turned this down to read medicine at Cambridge, where he continued flying with the University Air Squadron (much to the detriment of his exam results). He enjoyed walking holidays in North Wales, near where he grew up. At St George’s he met Suan Kee Kan, a theatre nurse. They married and had two sons – Alexander, who is a university lecturer in physics, and David, an anaesthetic trainee.
Author and sources
Author:
David Crosse