Lt Colonel William Hamilton Scriven

Personal details

Lt Colonel William Hamilton Scriven MBE MA FFARCS FFARCSI MRCS LRCP DA

03/05/1903 to 07/01/1985

Place of birth: Dublin

Nationality: British

CRN: 715525

Also known as: Bill

Education and qualifications

General education	Repton School, Derbyshire; Trinity College, Cambridge; King’s College Hospital Medical School
Primary medical qualification(s)	MRCS LRCP, 1927
Initial Fellowship and type	FFARCS by Election
Year of Fellowship	1949
Other qualification(s)	BA, Cambridge, 1924 (MA, 1929); DA(RCP&S), 1937

Professional life and career

Postgraduate career

Clinical assistant in orthopaedics at King’s, and house surgeon at Belgrave Hospital for Children in London before joining the RAMC, he served in the Sudan and India before WW2, becoming a specialist anaesthetist in 1934. He was a member of the BEF in France (1939-40), and after Dunkirk commanded a series of Field Ambulances and a Casualty Clearing Station in Africa, Italy, France and Germany. Post-war, as a Lt Colonel, he was adviser in anaesthetics at the Royal Army Medical College (1945-8), his last appointment before resigning his commission (he later commanded a TA Field Ambulance Unit) because he wished to continue in clinical practice. He was appointed consultant anaesthetist to the Farnham group of hospitals, also working at Lord Mayor Treolar's Hospital, finally retiring in 1968.

Professional interests and activities

Mentioned in Despatches (1943) and awarded the MBE (1946), he was a Foundation Fellow (1961) of the Irish, as well as the English, Faculty. An early member of the AAGBI he was chairman, then president, of the Southern Society of Anaesthetists (information on it would be welcome). Vigilant, a keeper of good records and effective in a crisis, he visited patients before and after surgery, and was always courteous to trainee and nursing staff.

Other biographical information

Son of a doctor, he also married one, Jeanne Mary Edwards, with whom he had four children. He enjoyed hunting, squash, rugby (his father played for Ireland, and captained the team twice) and touch football with his family.

Author and Sources

Author: Prof Tony Wildsmith