Dr James Fredrick Joseph Bereen
Personal Details
Dr James Fredrick Joseph Bereen BSc (Hons) MB BCh BAO FFARCS DA
Known As: Minty
06/07/1913 to 07/10/1987
Place of birth: Belfast, Northern Ireland
Nationality: Irish
CRN: 722628
Education and qualifications
| General education | Christian Brothers School. Queens University, Belfast, where he was president of the students’ representative council, vice president of the students’ union, and officer cadet regimental sergeant major in the officers training corps. |
|---|---|
| Primary medical qualification(s) | MB,BCh, Queen’s University Belfast, 1937 |
| Initial Fellowship and type | FFARCS by Election |
| Year of Fellowship | 1953 |
| Other qualification(s) | BSc (Hons), Queen’s University Belfast, 1934 BAO, Queen’s University Belfast, 1937 DA (RCP&S), 1940 |
Professional life and career
Postgraduate career
After graduation Bereen undertook house jobs at the Royal Victoria Hospital (RVH) in Belfast, followed by resident anaesthetist at Crumpsall Hospital in Manchester and anaesthetist at Stockport Infirmary. In 1940 he joined the Royal Army Medical Corps and served with the 8th Army in north Africa, attaining the rank of Major. After demobilisation, in 1947 he was appointed as an anaesthetist to the Neurosurgical Department of the RVH Belfast and the Neurosurgical Service of Northern Ireland. With the establishment of the NHS he was designated a Consultant Anaesthetist and also had sessions at the Hospital for Nervous Disorders in Belfast until his retirement in 1977.
Professional interests and activities
He was a member of the Association of Anaesthetists of Great Britain & Ireland, and of the Ulster Medical Society. In 1963 he was Chairman of the Northern Ireland Society of Anaesthetists. Among the pioneers in introducing suxamethonium as a muscle relaxant in electroconvulsive therapy in the 1950s, he was awarded the OBE in 1974.
Other biographical information
His marriage to Ada in 1940 produced a daughter (who sadly was killed by the bombing of Abercorn restaurant, Belfast in March 1972) and a son. He was remembered by his colleagues for his efficiency, calmness and kindness to young and inexperienced neurosurgeons. In retirement he moved to Ballycastle, Co. Antrim. He died at the age of 74 years, survived by his wife and son.
Author and sources
Author:
Alistair McKenzie
Sources and comments:
[1] Obituary JF Bereen (with photograph). BMJ 1987; 295: 1574.
[2] Medical Registers and Directories.
[3] Warde D, Tracey J, Cahill J. “Safety As We Watch: Anaesthesia in Ireland 1847-1998”. Dublin: Eastwood Books, 2022; 184.
[4] The Irish Times 9 March 1972, p11.
[5] ancestry.co.uk