Sir Gordon Gordon-Taylor CB

KBE KBE may refer to: * Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, post-nominal letters * Knowledge-based engineering Knowledge-based engineering (KBE) is the application of knowledge-based systems technology to the domain o ...

FRCS FACS (''né'' William Gordon Taylor, 18 March 1878 – 3 September 1960) was a British surgeon He was born William Gordon Taylor, the only son of wine merchant John Taylor of London Bridge, but was moved to Aberdeen in 1885 after the death of his father. There he was educated at Gordon College and Aberdeen University (MA, 1903). The family returned to London and he entered the Middlesex Hospital school, graduating first-class honours B.Sc in anatomy in 1904. After working as a surgeon to out-patients at the

Royal Northern Hospital The Royal Northern Hospital was a general hospital on Holloway Road, London N7, near Tollington Way. It had inpatient, outpatient, accident and emergency facilities and was also a centre for postgraduate education. History The hospital was foun ...

in north London was appointed in 1907 Assistant Surgeon at the Middlesex Hospital. During the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

he was made a Captain in the RAMC in March 1915 and served first at home and then in France, where he was involved in the battles of the Somme and Passchendaele. Promoted to Major, he later acted as consulting surgeon to the 4th Army, and was awarded the OBE. After returning to England in December 1918, he established a worldwide reputation as a surgeon, pioneering the techniques of

blood transfusion Blood transfusion is the process of transferring blood products into a person's circulation intravenously. Transfusions are used for various medical conditions to replace lost components of the blood. Early transfusions used whole blood, but mo ...

. His main interests lay in the surgical treatment of breast, mouth and pharynx afflictions. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

he served as a Surgeon Rear-Admiral in the Royal Navy. After his retirement during the war he gave lectures to several medical societies and was elected President of the

Medical Society of London The Medical Society of London is one of the oldest surviving medical societies (being organisations of voluntary association, rather than regulation or training) in the United Kingdom. It was founded in 1773 by the Quaker physician and philanthrop ...

in 1941-42, the Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland in 1944-45 and 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 ...

in 1944-5. He was knighted CB in 1942 and

in 1946. He died in 1960 having been run over by a lorry outside

Lord's Lord's Cricket Ground, commonly known as Lord's, is a cricket venue in St John's Wood, London. Named after its founder, Thomas Lord, it is owned by Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and is the home of Middlesex County Cricket Club, the England and ...

cricket ground.Dead Surgeon "A Truly Great Man" Accidental Death Of Sir G. Gordon-Taylor (News) The Times Thursday, 15 September 1960; pg. 5; Issue 54877; col G He had married Florence Mary FRSA, FZS, eldest daughter of John Pegrume.

Published works

* ''The Dramatic in Surgery''. Bristol, Wright, 1930 * ''The Abdominal Injuries of Warfare''. Bristol, Wright, 1939. * ''Sir Charles Bell, his life and times'', with E A Walls. Edinburgh, Livingstone, 1958. * ''On Cancer of the Breast'', Br. Med. J. 1, 455. Mitchell Banks Lecture, 1959. * ''On Malignant Disease of the Testis'', Proc. R. Soc. Med. 41, 118, 1948. * ''On the Oro-pharynx'' Br. J. Surg. 35, 6, with N R Wyndham, 1947. * ''On Retroperitoneal and Mesenteric Tumours'', Proc. R. Soc. Med. 26, 889, 1933. * ''On the Hindquarter Amputation'', Roy. Melb. Hosp. clin. Rep. Centenary Volume, p. 189, 1948. * ''War injuries of the chest and abdomen''. Br. J. Surg., Supplement 3., 1955.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gordon-Taylor, Gordon 1878 births 1960 deaths Physicians of the Middlesex Hospital Alumni of the University of Aberdeen British surgeons Companions of the Order of the Bath Knights Commander of the Order of the British Empire Fellows of the Royal College of Surgeons Presidents of the Royal Society of Medicine