Dr Selwyn Grahame de Clive-Lowe

Personal Details

Selwyn Grahame de Clive-Lowe

1904 to 19/02/1977

Place of birth: Auckland, New Zealand

Nationality: British

CRN: 723523

Education and qualifications

Professional life and career

Postgraduate career

After qualifying de Clive-Low undertook house posts at Dunedin followed by a period in country practice. He then moved to Auckland where he specialised in obstetrics and anaesthesia. At the outbreak of the Second World War he was mobilised as a Captain in the New Zealand Army Medical Corps. In May 1940 he arrived in England as regimental medical officer to the 2nd New Zealand Expeditionary Force in which he served in Egypt, Greece and Crete, being mentioned in dispatches. Captured in Crete, he spent the next four years as a prisoner of war in Germany; in Stalag VIIIB he was senior British officer and anaesthetist, responsible for 35000 British troops. Freed and demobilised in 1945, he settled at Guildford, England where he was appointed anaesthetist to the local Surrey hospitals and also set up as a partner in private anaesthetic practice. After the start of the NHS he was appointed Consultant Anaesthetist to the Guildford Group of Hospitals, in which post he remained until his retirement in 1969.  

Professional interests and activities

In the 1950s he published on induced hypotension and intravenous lidocaine anaesthesia. He was active in the RAMC, Territorial Army, promoted to Colonel and becoming assistant director of medical services in the 44th Home Counties Division; he received the Territorial Decoration (TD) and retired in 1956. At Guildford he formed the first training school for Operating Theatre Technicians and was president of their Association in 1963. He was a founder member of the Southwest Metropolitan Regional Anaesthetic Society, becoming its chairman in 1961 and president for 1968-75. Much involved in establishing an intensive care unit at the Royal Surrey County Hospital, he became medical co-ordinator of the Guildford Hospitals. After retirement from the NHS in 1969, he undertook locums and continued private practice until 1974.

Other biographical information

He married Pamela Taylor in 1953 and they had two sons and four daughters. A man with many interests, including music and cricket, his busy schedule allowed little time to enjoy these. He was predeceased by his wife, but survived by his children.

Author and sources

Author:

Dr Alistair McKenzie

Sources and comments:

[1] Obituary. British Medical Journal 12 March 1977; I: 720 (with photograph).
[2] Medical Registers and Directories.
[3] Marriage details from www.ancestry.co.uk.