Robert Wilfred Scarff CBE FRCS

FRSE Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy of science and letters, judged to be "eminently distinguished in their subject". This soci ...

(1899–1970) was a 20th-century British surgeon and pathologist.

Life

He was born in Dalmuir west of Glasgow on 18 October 1899 the son of Robert William Scarff, a sea captain, and his wife, Katherine Agnes Russell, from

Orkney Orkney (; sco, Orkney; on, Orkneyjar; nrn, Orknøjar), also known as the Orkney Islands, is an archipelago in the Northern Isles of Scotland, situated off the north coast of the island of Great Britain. Orkney is 10 miles (16 km) north ...

with four brothers who were doctors. The family moved to Ilford in London in 1906 when his father got a job in

Tilbury Docks The Port of Tilbury is a port on the River Thames at Tilbury in Essex, England. It is the principal port for London, as well as being the main United Kingdom port for handling the importation of paper. There are extensive facilities for contai ...

. He and his two brothers were educated in the Classics at the City of London School. He entered the Middlesex Hospital Medical SWchool in 1918 and gained a Diploma in 1924. He then entered the Bland-Sutton Institute of Pathology under the directorship of James McIntosh. Here he assisted S. L. Baker in the Department of Morbid Pathology and Histology. When Baker went to Manchester in 1931 Scarff replaced him as head of Department. The role necessitated further study to obtain a full medical degree and he then qualified MB BSc. In 1944 (during the war) he was elected a Fellow of the

Royal Society of Edinburgh The Royal Society of Edinburgh is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity that operates on a wholly independent and non-partisan basis and provides public benefit throughout Scotland. It was established i ...

. His proposers were

Alan William Greenwood Alan William Greenwood CBE FRSE (29 June 1897 – 4 May 1981) was a Scottish zoologist and geneticist, who helped pave the way to creating Dolly the Sheep. He served as Director of the Poultry Research Centre from 1947 until 1962. Life He ...

, Sir

Edward Charles Dodds Sir Edward Charles Dodds, 1st Baronet (13 October 1899 – 16 December 1973) was a British biochemist. Personal life He was born in Liverpool in 1899, the only child of Ralph Edward Dodds, a shoe retailer, and Jane (née Pack) Dodds. The family ...

James Edward Nichols Prof James Edward Nichols FRSE (22 November 1902 – 28 March 1972) was a Welsh geneticist. Life He was born in Southport in Lancashire on 22 November 1902. He was educated at Carlisle Grammar School then studied at Durham University graduati ...

, and

Peo Charles Koller Pius Charles Koller FRSE (in hungarian: Koller Károly Pius; 4 March 1901 – 29 June 1979), known as Peo Charles Koller, was a Hungarian-born cytologist and cytogeneticist. Life Koller was born in Nagykanizsa, Hungary on 4 March 1901. He studie ...

. In 1946 he was created Professor of Morbid Pathology. In 1948 he replaced James McIntosh as Director of the Bland-Sutton Institute. In 1958 he was Secretary General of the 7th International Cancer Conference in London, and was created a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) by Queen Elizabeth II in 1960 as a consequence. He retired in 1963 and died at Middlesex Hospital in London following a short illness on 17 January 1970. He was unmarried and had no children.

References

1899 births 1970 deaths British pathologists Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh {{UK-med-bio-stub