Dr Stanley Arthur Mason

Personal Details

Dr Stanley Arthur Mason  MRCS MB BS FFARCS DA

Known as: Shorty

26/04/1917 to 29/07/2004

Place of birth:  South London

Nationality: British

CRN: 509884

Education and qualifications

Professional life and career

Postgraduate career

After graduating in 1942 Mason was a Resident Medical Officer and Surgical House Officer at the Royal Blind School Hospital in Leatherhead and King’s College Hospital, as part of the wartime emergency medical service. Immediately after completing these posts in 1942, Stanley joined the Royal Army Medical Corps, “in which he trained and served as a specialist anaesthetist until 1947. He was an anaesthetist to a Field Surgical Unit of 9th Beach 21st Army Group, 3rd Army, which landed on Gold Beach on D-Day, the 6th of June 1944. During the  dive bombing at Caen, whilst operating in a quarry outside the city his unit was bombed in spite of the Red Cross clearly shown on the tent. The surgeon he was working with was killed and all the other ranks were injured or burnt. He was the only one who escaped injury. He was mentioned in despatches for devotion to duty under enemy fire.

Further wartime army service took him to  India and the Far East, returning to the UK in late 1946 with the rank of major. Following the war he  returned to King’s College Hospital and the anaesthetic department to complete his training, passing the Diploma in Anaesthetics in 1947.”

In 1949 he was appointed a Consultant at King’s College Hospital. “His new role as a consultant enabled him to expand his clinical practice and he developed an interest in cardio-thoracic work”. In March 1955 he was appointed to the South East Cardio-thoracic Unit based at Brook Hospital. He eventually became Senior Anaesthetist at King’s and chairman of the hospital medical committee, retiring in 1981.

Professional interests and activities

During his clinical career Stanley was involved with developments in open-heart surgery, liver transplantation, kidney and finally lung transplantation. Alongside this he had wide ranging professional interests. At the same time as his appointment as a consultant, he was appointed “to the first Board of the Faculty of Anaesthetists of the Royal College of Surgeons as members’ representative until he was elected to the Fellowship in 1953”.

During his career he made several overseas trips. “In 1948 he visited Holland to advise on the use of intravenous anaesthesia for ear surgery. In 1954 he was invited to join a medical team under the Colombo Plan, the post-war multinational cooperation set up to provide support to South and South East Asia. He visited many medical centres advising and lecturing on modern anaesthetic practice”. He made further visits to Holland to advise on the safety of anaesthesia for paediatric tonsillectomy. He undertook  a further lecturing and teaching visit to India in 1969-70.

During his career he  contributed chapters to several standard textbooks on anaesthesia for ear surgery and transplant surgery.

As head of the department at King’s “he involved himself directly with the welfare of trainees and encouraged the pastoral care of the juniors by the other consultant staff”. He and his wife having the philosophy that the department should behave as a “big happy family”, under “his guidance the juniors were frequently invited to the homes of consultants and whilst working hours were long, the sociability of the department was widely known and envied”.

Stanley “believed that the anaesthetist must participate in the total care of the patient and was ahead of his time in encouraging the trainees to not only carry out proper pre-operative visits but also emphasising the need for post-operative visits” to ascertain the outcome of one’s technique as otherwise “there could be no advance in the anaesthetist’s skills”.

He had a long involvement with the Association of Anaesthetists from his election to the Council in 1969;  he served as the Honorary Treasurer for 1974-78  and then President for 1978-80. “He worked tirelessly with his successor as Hon. Treasurer, Prof Michael Rosen and the Honorary Financial Advisor Edward Warburton, to build up the funds that enabled the Association of Anaesthetists to purchase its first independent premises at 9 Bedford Square in London.

“He was outspoken in promoting the need for the establishment of a Royal College of Anaesthetists at a time when such a concept was not universally popular”.
“In the seventies, he joined the Council of the charity, the Royal Medical Benevolent Fund, eventually becoming Honorary Treasurer, a position he held for twelve years, carrying on into his retirement in Somerset.”

“In 1994 he was honoured with a French medal for medical services rendered to the French during WWII which was presented to him by the Mayor of St. Martin des Brocages.”

In an  interesting vignette discovered in a local newspaper cutting,  Stanley early in his career  in 1942,  gave a lecture  that one can surmise might have presented his most   challenging audience, when he was invited to give a talk entitled  ‘The Physiology of Sex’ to a local church youth group of teenage boys in Dulwich.

Other biographical information

Born to parents Solomon and Mary Mason, he was one of three siblings.

Stanley married Marjorie Florence Robinson in 1947. Marjorie was a State Registered Nurse who also  trained at King’s College Hospital and attended Mary Datchelor School in Camberwell. Their first child was born in 1948. Following his appointment as consultant the couple settled in Sanderstead, Croydon in South London, shortly followed by the birth of three more boys.

In retirement Stanley and Marjorie moved to Somerset, where they were active in church and village affairs. He was also a Liveryman of the Society of Apothecaries, Freeman of the City of London and a Senior Lecturer Emeritus of London University.

Their retirement was saddened by the untimely death, in 1983, of one of their sons Christopher who was a General Practitioner  based near Liverpool.

Stanley  passed away in 2004 at the age of 87 near Glastonbury in Somerset. He was survived by his wife, the 3 surviving sons, 4 daughters-in-law and 10 grandchildren.

Author and sources

Author:

Dr Innes Simon Chadwick

Sources and comments:

Text in “quotation marks” is from: Ward ME and Boulton TB. Obituary:  Stanley Arthur Mason. Anaesthesia, 2005; 60: 92-93 accessed online 2024.

Biographical Information accessed online Ancestry.com.
Birth Certificate 1917 accessed  General Registry Office UK
UK Medical and Dental Student Register 1936. Accessed online Ancestry.com
Medical Register 1942 accessed online Ancestry.com
Medical Directory 1942 accessed online Ancestry.com
Medical Directory 1954 Accessed at  Edinburgh University by Dr A McKenzie 2024.

Mason J. Obituary: Stanley Arthur Mason. BMJ 2004; 329: 1048 (published 28 October 2004) accessed on line 27 Feb 2024.
Surgical Management of the Aged. A survey of results of major surgery  in 99 patients
over 70.  Childs P, Mason SA. Br Med J 1949; 2.1389.
Anaesthesia for Fenestration Operation. Letter. Mason  SA.  Br Med J 1950 Mar 11; 1(4653): 609.
“The Colombo Plan”. Overseas trip. Newspaper article. Bristol Evening Post. 14 Dec. 1954 p4. Accessed via FindmyPast.
Newspaper article . Wedding of Stanley Mason. South London Observer , Camberwell.  3 Oct 1947. Accessed via FindmyPast.
“Doctor Discusses Sex Problems” ; South London Observer. 22 May 1942. P2. Accessed via FindmyPast.
“Man Drives Off For Liver Transplant” : Birmingham Daily Post 28 oct. 1968 p27. Accessed via FindmyPast.
“Surprise Party for Couple”. Retirement:  Central Somerset Gazette 9 April 1981. Accessed via FindmyPast.