Dr Sidney Frank Durrans

Personal details

Dr Sidney Frank Durrans FFARCS MRCS LRCP DA

20/10/1897 to 18/02/1984

Place of birth: Marylebone, London

Nationality: British

CRN: 715458

Also known as: Sidney Frank

Education and qualifications

Professional life and career
Postgraduate career

Initial appointments were at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge: casualty officer, resident anaesthetist and house surgeon. After a period, during which he may have worked as a ship’s surgeon, he was house physician at the Royal Devon & Exeter Hospital in 1927. Two years later (possibly working as a ship’s surgeon again in the interim) he was appointed honorary assistant anaesthetist at Cornelia Hospital, Poole, also working at the Dorset Hospital in Poole from 1942. He remained in Poole until he retired in 1962 as consultant anaesthetist to the Wessex Regional Hospital Board.

Professional interests and activities

Actively involved in his hospital’s management throughout his career, he was “always on the ball, and the first to spot the humorous or ridiculous”. Published a description of a stand for anaesthetic equipment before WW2 and on retirement, tried to sell a succor his personal anaesthetic 'machine' - mounted on bicycle wheels! From 1943 was Honorary Life Member of the British Red Cross, presumably for contributions to first aid instruction.

Other biographical information

His parents divorced in 1909, and his mother remarried and moved from London to Bedford where he went to school. He served in the Tank Regiment during WW1, starting as a private, but later being commissioned as an officer. He married Margaret Ferrier in 1929 and they had a son, Peter.

Author and sources

Author: Prof Tony Wildsmith

Sources and any other comments: Medical Directory | Ancerstry.co.uk | Mary L Price, genealogist & distant relative | John Gill, archivist, Poole General Hospital | Recollection of Dr Mike Skivington