Dr Gerald Hochschild

Personal Details

Dr Gerald Hochschild FFARCS MRCS LRCP DA

1900 to 1971

Place of birth: Cape Town, South Africa

Nationality: South African

CRN: 725887

Education and qualifications

General education

South African College School; St Thomas’s Hospital Medical School, London

Primary medical qualification(s)

MRCS LRCP, 1923

Initial Fellowship and type

FFARCS by Election

Year of Fellowship

1954

Other qualification(s)

DA(RCP&S), 1935, passing the very first examination

Professional life and career

Postgraduate career

No information has emerged on early appointments, but he is thought to have returned to South Africa soon after qualifying, and eventually became honorary anaesthetist to both Somerset Hospital and the Free Dispensary in Cape Town. He is recorded as returning to London circa 1930/1, but again there are no details until 1934 when the Medical Directory notes him as honorary anaesthetist to All Saints, East Ham War Memorial, Golden Square Throat, Italian & Queen Mary’s (for the East End) Hospitals. These appointments continued, but at various times he also worked at Queens Square, University College, the London Chest and the Royal Northern Hospitals. During WW2 he served in the Emergency Medical Service, notably its Thoracic Unit, and then in 1945/6 went back to South Africa and specialist practice in Johannesburg. He retired from this in 1960, but then spent 7-8 years as a GP/Anaesthetist with a mining company in Zambia.

Professional interests and activities

Published papers on a range of anaesthetic subjects before WW2, and involved himself very enthusiastically with the newly formed South African Society on his return in 1945, serving as president for 1951-2.

Other biographical information

Married Anne (known as Nan) Wild in 1929, but she predeceased him. Described as the perfect gentleman, an excellent host and a popular, outstanding & respected colleague.

Author and sources

Author: Prof Tony Wildsmith

Sources and any other comments: Obituary. S Afr Med J 30 Oct, 1971: 1124 | Parbhoo N. Five Decades: The South African Society of Anaesthetists 1943-93. Johannesburg: South African Sociaty of Anaesthetists, 1993 | Medical Directory | Ancestry.co.uk