Sir James Gordon Robson (18 March 1921 – 23 February 2007) was a Scottish anaesthetist ‘ROBSON, Prof. Sir (James) Gordon’, Who Was Who, A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 2007; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 200
accessed 3 Sept 2013
/ref> He was born in Stirling, Scotland and educated at the high school in Stirling and at Glasgow University, where he graduated MB ChB in 1944, towards the end of the Second World War. After working in obstetrics for a few months he joined the

Royal Army Medical Corps The Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC) is a specialist corps in the British Army which provides medical services to all Army personnel and their families, in war and in peace. The RAMC, the Royal Army Veterinary Corps, the Royal Army Dental Corps a ...

and was posted to East Africa, where he began a career in anaesthetics. After the war he returned to Glasgow for four years as a Senior Registrar in anaesthetics. After a further two years in Newcastle he moved back to Scotland in 1954 as consultant anaesthetist at the

Edinburgh Royal Infirmary The Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, or RIE, often (but incorrectly) known as the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, or ERI, was established in 1729 and is the oldest voluntary hospital in Scotland. The new buildings of 1879 were claimed to be the largest v ...

. In 1956 he moved, this time to

McGill University McGill University (french: link=no, Université McGill) is an English-language public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter granted by King George IV,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill Universit ...

, Montreal as Wellcome research Professor of Anaesthetics, where he carried out research on halothane and the neurophysiology of anaesthetic drugs. In 1964, a final move took him to the Royal Postgraduate Medical School, Hammersmith, London as Professor of Anaesthetics, where he stayed until his retirement in 1986. He was knighted in 1982 and president of the

Royal Society of Medicine The Royal Society of Medicine (RSM) is a medical society in the United Kingdom, headquartered in London. History The Society was established in 1805 as Medical and Chirurgical Society of London, meeting in two rooms in barristers’ chambers ...

from 1986 to 1988. He died in 2007. He had married twice; firstly Martha Graham Kennedy, by whom he had one son and secondly Jenny Kilpatrick.

References

1921 births 2007 deaths People from Stirling Alumni of the University of Glasgow Scottish surgeons Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Fellows of the Royal College of Surgeons Fellows of the Royal College of Anaesthetists Presidents of the Royal Society of Medicine Deans of the Royal College of Anaesthetists 20th-century surgeons British Army personnel of World War II Royal Army Medical Corps officers {{Scotland-med-bio-stub