William Hugh Cowie Romanis

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 ...

MRSC FRCSE (1889–1972) was a 20th-century British surgeon and medical author. He was a pioneer of thoracic surgery in the 1920s. Friends and colleagues knew him as Hugo Romanis.

Life

He wa born at

Godalming Godalming is a market town and civil parish in southwest Surrey, England, around southwest of central London. It is in the Borough of Waverley, at the confluence of the Rivers Wey and Ock. The civil parish covers and includes the settleme ...

on 8 November 1889 the first son of Rev Francis William Romanis, preacher to

Charterhouse School (God having given, I gave) , established = , closed = , type = Public school Independent day and boarding school , religion = Church of England , president ...

, and his wife, Annie Ellen Cowie. William was educated at

Charterhouse School (God having given, I gave) , established = , closed = , type = Public school Independent day and boarding school , religion = Church of England , president ...

. He went to

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by Henry VIII, King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge ...

, originally to read Mathematics than transferring to Natural Sciences in 1911. Getting a new-found interest in medicine he went to

St Thomas' Hospital St Thomas' Hospital is a large NHS teaching hospital in Central London, England. It is one of the institutions that compose the King's Health Partners, an academic health science centre. Administratively part of the Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foun ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

for some clinical training, gaining a Diploma in 1914. He served the first six months of 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 ...

as a casualty officer at St Thomas before joining 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 ...

, serving in France at No.6 and No. 44 Clearing Stations. He returned to St Thomas in the winter of 1917/18 to take on the role of surgical registrar, working with Sir Percy Sargent. In 1919 he became a consultant surgeon and began also to serve peripheral hospitals. Around 1925 he succeeded

Hugh Morriston Davies Hugh Morriston Davies (10 August 1879 – 4 February 1965) was a Welsh thoracic surgeon, the first to perform a dissection lobectomy in the world, and the first to perform a thoracoplasty in the United Kingdom, both firsts achieved in 1912. Early ...

as consultant surgeon at the City of London Hospital for Diseases of the Heart and Lungs. He also became consultant to

Tooting Tooting is a district in South London, forming part of the London Borough of Wandsworth and partly in the London Borough of Merton. It is located south south-west of Charing Cross. History Tooting has been settled since pre- Saxon times ...

Neurological Hospital. In 1926 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 Charles Stewart Hunter,

Frederick William Price Frederick William Price FRSE (13 March 1873 – 19 March 1957) was a 20th-century British cardiologist and medical author. Life He was born on 13 March 1873 in Weston Rhyn in Shropshire, the son of William Price, a master tailor, and his wife Cath ...

John William Henry Eyre Prof John William Henry Eyre FRSE (1869–1944) was a British bacteriologist and ophthalmologist, specialising in the bacteriology of the eye. Life He was born in London on 18 July 1869 the son of John Eyre. He was educated privately and at Wh ...

and Sir

John Smith Flett Sir John Smith Flett (26 June 1869 – 26 January 1947) was a Scottish physician and geologist. Early life Born in Kirkwall, Orkney, the son of James Ferguson Flett, a merchant and baillie, and Mary Ann (née Copland). He was educated at Kir ...

. He resigned from the society in 1951. He retired from active surgery in 1954.St Thomas's Hospital Gazette 1955 With a parallel interest in law he served as a

Justice of the Peace A justice of the peace (JP) is a judicial officer of a lower or ''puisne'' court, elected or appointed by means of a commission ( letters patent) to keep the peace. In past centuries the term commissioner of the peace was often used with the sa ...

(JP) in Godalming. In 1954 he was additionally elected an advocate (aged 64). He was county surgeon to the

St John's Ambulance Brigade St John Ambulance is the name of a number of affiliated organisations in different countries which teach and provide first aid and emergency medical services, and are primarily staffed by volunteers. The associations are overseen by the internat ...

. He was an ardent freemason and supporter of the Freemason Hospital. He liked model railways and driving sports cars. He died at home in Godalming on 25 January 1972.

Family

In 1916 he married Dorothy Elizabeth Burnett, daughter of Rev Canon Robert Burnett of

Ferns Cathedral The Cathedral Church of St Edan is a cathedral of the Church of Ireland in Ferns, County Wexford in Ireland. It is in the ecclesiastical province of Dublin. Until 1949, the designation of the cathedral was the Cathedral Church of St. Ædan, a v ...

in Ireland. They had one son and two daughters.

Publications

*''The Science and Practice of Surgery'' (1927 and later editions) with P H Mitchiner *''The Compleat Surgeon: The Autobiography of the Surgeon W H C Romanis''

References

1889 births 1972 deaths People from Godalming British surgeons British Freemasons People educated at Charterhouse School Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 20th-century surgeons Military personnel from Surrey Royal Army Medical Corps officers British Army personnel of World War I {{UK-med-bio-stub