Dr Hugh Augustine Richards
Personal Details
Dr Hugh Augustine Richards MA FFARCS MRCS LRCP DA
11/08/1884 to 22/01/1949
Place of birth: Llangollen, Wales
Nationality: British
CRN: 715267
Education and qualifications
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General education |
Rossall School, Lancashire; Clare College, Cambridge; King’s College Hospital Medical School |
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Primary medical qualification(s) |
MRCS LRCP, 1913 |
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Initial Fellowship and type |
FFARCS by Election |
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Year of Fellowship |
1948 |
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Other qualification(s) |
BA, Cambridge, 1906 (MA, 1920) |
Professional life and career
Postgraduate career
Worked as a ship’s surgeon for the Orient Line after qualifying, continuing as medical officer to HM’s troopships during early part of WW1 (1914-16) before serving as a Captain in the RAMC (1916-20). He worked in France (at a casualty clearing station), Flanders & the Rhine, and during this time developed his interest in anaesthetics. Appointed first to the staff of his teaching hospital as assistant anaesthetist (when he also worked at St Mark’s Hospital), he became anaesthetist in 1921, and senior anaesthetist in 1935, holding this appointment until retirement in 1946. During WW2 he worked for the Emergency Medical Service at Horton Hospital.
Professional interests and activities
Known primarily as an excellent, if somewhat dogmatic, teacher of basic principles, he was an advocate for, and skilled user of, ether. Served as honorary secretary (1927-9), then president (1935-6) of the Section of Anaesthetics, RSM, and was an early supporter of the AAGBI (member of council 1934-7). Awarded DA without examination in 1936.
Other biographical information
He took a great interest in student activities, serving first as Treasurer, and then President, of King’s College Hospital’s students’ clubs and societies union. He married only late in life.
Author and Sources
Author: Prof Tony Wildsmith
Sources and any other comments: Obituaries. BMJ 1949; 1: 287-8 & Anaesthesia 1949; 4: 95-6 I thank archivists at Rossall School, Cambridge University and Clare College for additional information.