Sir Hugh William Bell CAIRNS KBE

CAIRNS, Hugh William Bell

Service Number: 4501
Enlisted: 11 May 1915, Sydney, New South Wales
Last Rank: Captain
Last Unit: Army Medical Corps (AIF)
Born: Port Pirie, South Australia, 26 June 1896
Home Town: Riverton, Clare and Gilbert Valleys, South Australia
Schooling: Riverton High, Adelaide High School, University of Adelaide, South Australia
Occupation: Neurosurgeon
Died: Natural causes (cancer), Oxford, England, 18 July 1952, aged 56 years
Cemetery: St Cross Churchyard Cemetery, Oxford
Oxfordshire, England
Memorials: Adelaide Grand Masonic Lodge WW1 Honour Board (1), Adelaide Grand Masonic Lodge WW1 Honour Board (2), Adelaide High School Great War Honour Board, Adelaide University of Adelaide WW1 Honour Roll, Riverton Pictorial Honour Board
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World War 1 Service

11 May 1915: Enlisted AIF WW1, Private, 4501, Sydney, New South Wales
15 May 1915: Involvement AIF WW1, Private, 4501, 3rd Australian General Hospital - WW1, Enlistment/Embarkation WW1, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '23' embarkation_place: Sydney embarkation_ship: RMS Mooltan embarkation_ship_number: '' public_note: ''
15 May 1915: Embarked AIF WW1, Private, 4501, 3rd Australian General Hospital - WW1, RMS Mooltan, Sydney
9 Nov 1917: Involvement AIF WW1, Captain, Medical Officers, Enlistment/Embarkation WW1, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '23' embarkation_place: Melbourne embarkation_ship: HMAT Port Sydney embarkation_ship_number: A15 public_note: ''
9 Nov 1917: Embarked AIF WW1, Captain, Medical Officers, HMAT Port Sydney, Melbourne
31 May 1920: Discharged AIF WW1, Captain, Army Medical Corps (AIF), Discharged in England to further his studies

Biography

Published Biographies

The Australian Dictionary of Biography
http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/cairns-sir-hugh-william-bell-5464/text9283
by E. T. Williams

Blood Sweat and Fears: Medical Practitioners and Medical Students of South Australian who served in World War 1. Verco, Summers, Swain and Jelly 2014.

‘Bell Family’, ISBN 7 86252 262 6, 1986 Bell Family Committee (pages 111 and 112)

The three published biographies relating to Hugh give a good account of Hugh’s life and work and war service. The additional photographs and newspaper articles below have been added to highlight Hugh’s early life and some of his latter successes.

Biography – additional details

Early Life

Hugh William Bell Cairns was born on the 26th June 1886 at Port Pirie, SA, the only child of William Cairns and Amy Florence Cairns nee Bell. The family lived at Port Pirie then at Riverton, SA.

Schooling

Hugh was educated at Port Pirie then at Riverton High School where he won a bursary to attend Adelaide Boys High School. While at AHS, Hugh played tennis, cricket and football. Hewas a member of the 1910 Rifle Team, co-editor of the AHS School magazine in 1911 and a Lance Corporal in the Cadets in 1911.

Further details of his scholastic, sporting and other achievements while at AHS were reported when Hugh later won the 1917 Rhodes Scholarship.

Adelaide University

Hugh commenced studying studied medicine at the University of Adelaide in 1912. Having completed third year medicine he enlisted for WWI but after 10 months service he was discharged and returned to Adelaide to complete his medical degree. In 1916 he was the acting Government patholigist for two weeks, house surgeon at the Childrens’ Hospital (three months) and assistant at the Venereal Department of the Adelaide Hospital. Hugh graduating MB BS in July 1917, in a special ceremony for medical graduated before enlisting in the Australian Army Medical Corps.

While at Adellaide University Hugh was actively involced in sporting and other activities which were well documened in the newspaper reports (below) when he won the South Australian Rhodes Scholar 1917 (Oxford). He was secretary and treasurer of the University students’s conference and procession in 1913.

At the completion of fourth year Hugh was awarded a Davies Thomas Scholarship, and in addition to the Rhodes Scholarship he was awarded the the Everard Scholarship in 1917.

Hugh performed in a character sketch at the December 1913, University Students’ Concert, performaing alongside fellow medical student Alan Morey.

Adelaide University Sport

Adelaide University Sports Association
Hugh was a delegate to the AUSA in 1915 and in 1916. He was the Treasurer of the AUSA and a member of the finance committee of the AUSA.

Tennis
Hugh played C Grade Tennis wit the AUTC in 1912.

Rowing
Hugh was a member of the AUBC (1913-15). In addition to rowing regularly in local regattas, Hugh was on the committee of the Boat Club for three years and he represented Adelaide University at the Intervarsity in 1914.

Football
On his return from active service to complete his medical degree, Hugh played football for the AUFC in the A and B grades in 1916.

Lacrosse
Hugh commenced playing C Grade Lacrosse for the AULC in 1912, and was a member of the 1912 B Grade Premiership team. In 1913 and 1914 he played A grade lacrosse for Adelaide University and represented the University at Intervarsity in those years. In 1913 Hugh was a member of the Junior Metropolitan Team.

Hugh was a member of the AULC committee (1914-16) including the roles of Secretary and Treasurer in 1916. He was the AULC’s delegate to the SA Lacrosse Association in 1916.

World War I

Refer to the excerpt from Blood Sweat and Fears: Medical Practitioners and Medical Students of South Australian who Served in World War 1. Verco, Summers, Swain and Jelly 2014.

A letter from Hugh to the teachers and students of AHS which was published in the AHS School Magazine in 1915. (see VWMA).

Hugh’s personal thoughts on his early WWI service are recorded in ‘Diary of Hugh William Bell Cairns, Acting Lance-Corporal, AAMC, No.3 AGH. January - February 1916”. This is an unpublished document typed from loose papers in a diary of February-September 1918 sent to G.J. Fraenkel by Dr. Margaret Yekutiel (Hugh’s daughter) in December, 1987. It begins with the evacuation of No. 3 AGH from Lemnos after the Dardanelles campaign and ends with his departure for Sydney, where he was discharged to complete his medical course. (https://trove.nla.gov.au/version/220885493).

Oxford University
From http://www.whonamedit.com/doctor.cfm/3166.html

‘In January 1919 he obtained leave from the army in order to begin studies at Oxford. He entered Balliol College but also found time for another serious occupation, rowing. He was president of the Balliol Boat Club and distinguished himself by representing Oxford as a bow in the University boat race of 1920. The race was won by Cambridge.

After six months in the Radcliffe Infirmary as house surgeon, he utilized his Rhodes scholarship to begin his long connexion with the London Hospital, first in the pathology institute, then in the surgical unit, becoming F.R.C.S. in 1921.

He was greatly admired by the family of A. L. Smith, the Master of Balliol, and by Lady Sherrington and Lady Osler, through whom he first med Harvey Williams Cushing (1869-1939). While staying with the Smiths at their house in Northumberland he became engaged to their youngest daughter Barbara, a graduate in history from Girton College, Cambridge. They were married in Oxford in November 1921, the day after Cairns passed the first FRCS examination.’

Marriage and Family

Hugh married Barbara Foster Smith in 1921. They had four children, Hugh (b 1922), David (b 1926), Margaret (b 1928) and Elizabeth (b 1933). All four children graduated from Oxford and their qualifications, career and children (at about 1985) are detailed in the excerpt from ‘Bell Family’ (see document).

Career

Hugh’s career is fully detailed in the published biographies (see document). The following are some newspaper articles from Australian papers relating to his career. (see document)

World War II

Refer to the excerpt from Blood Sweat and Fears: Medical Practitioners and Medical Students of South Australian who Served in World War 1. Verco, Summers, Swain and Jelly 2014.

Hugh was appointed Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire in June 1946.

Death

Hugh died in Oxford, England on 18 July 1952.

In Memoriam Sir Hugh Cairns, K.B.E., D.M., F.R.C.S. (1896–1952)
First published: September 1952 https://doi.org/10.1002/bjs.18004016018
(see document)

Legacies

United Kingdom
The Cairns Library (one of the Bodleian Libraries) at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford and the medical school Hugh Cairns Surgical Society in Oxford are both named for Hugh. The Sir Hugh Cairns Memorial Trust and the Cairns Memorial Lecture.

Adelaide University
The Sir Hugh Cairns Memorial Scholarship was originally established in 1953 by a donation of $2,100 to the University by the Committee of the Sir Hugh Cairns Memorial Association for the purpose of founding a prize to perpetuate the memory of Sir Hugh Cairns, a former student of the Adelaide High School. The Endowment now supports a scholarship for a student of the Adelaide High School who is commencing a Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery Degree at the University of Adelaide.

Motorcycle helmets
When Colonel T.E. Lawrence (“Lawrence of Arabia”) was fatally injured in a motorcycle accident in May 1935, one of the several doctors attending him was a young neurosurgeon, Hugh Cairns. He was moved by the tragedy in a way that was to have far-reaching consequences. At the beginning of the Second World War, he highlighted the unnecessary loss of life among army motorcycle dispatch riders as a result of head injuries. His research concluded that the adoption of crash helmets as standard by both military and civilian motorcyclists would result in considerable saving of life. It was 32 years later, however, that motorcycle crash helmets were made compulsory in the United Kingdom. As a consequence of treating T.E. Lawrence and through his research at Oxford, Sir Hugh Cairns' work largely pioneered legislation for protective headgear by motorcyclists and subsequently in the workplace and for many sports worldwide. Over subsequent decades, this has saved countless lives.

Neurosurgery, Volume 50, Issue 1, 1 January 2002, Pages 176–180, Published: 01 January 2002
https://doi.org/10.1097/00006123-200201000-00026

For a more detailed story of the life of Sir Hugh Cairns see
• ‘Hugh Cairns: First Nuffield Professor of Surgery, University of Oxford’, Gustav Julius Fraenkel, Oxford University Press, 1991, ISBN 10: 0192620959 / ISBN 13: 9780192620958
• ‘The Caiirns Tradition’ Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry 1990; 53: 188-193 jnnp.bmj.com/content/jnnp/53/3/188.full.pdf

For the complete profile including photographs, newspaper articles, documents and sources prepared by Beth Filmer for the AUFC/AUCC WWI Memorial Project (with assistance from Rob O'Shannassy, Janne Filmer & Kym Beilby) please see the document attached or the Adelaide University site AdelaideConnect at
https://connect.adelaide.edu.au/nodes/view/25817

Hugh William Bell Cairns and the Filmer sisters are related via the Bell Family.



















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Biography contributed by Sharyn Roberts

Excerpt from Blood Sweat and Fears: Medical Practitioners and Medical Students of South Australian who Served in World War 1. Courtesy of the Authors

Hugh William Bell Cairns was born on the 26th June 1896 in Port Pirie, South Australia. He was the only son of William Cairns, a Scottish timber contractor, and Amy Florence, nee Bell. He was educated at Riverton High School and Adelaide Boys High School, where he was co-dux with John Besley Gillen, before his tertiary education at the University of Adelaide as an exhibition scholar. He reported that he spoke English and German.

Cairns joined the AIF on 11th May 1915 as a private soldier. He was nearly 19 years old and had already served in the 23rd ALH at Riverton for 11 months. He was 5ft 11ins and weighed 161lbs. He travelled with reinforcements for 3 AGH on HMAT Mooltan to the Middle East and joined his unit on Lemnos. He undertook medical orderly and nursing duties. He was promoted to Lance Corporal in September 1915 and, during this time, was admitted with influenza. He returned to Australia to complete his medical training on 13th March 1916 again performing nursing duties on the ship. He graduated from Adelaide University in 1917 as the Davies Thomas and Everard Scholar and South Australian Rhodes Scholar. He re-joined the army in August 1917 and on 9th November 1917 travelled on the Port Sydney to England and subsequently France where  he served with 2 AGH, 3 AGH, 47th British Division and 15 Fd Amb. 

He did not return to Australia following his service in France as he took up his Rhodes scholarship at Balliol College, Oxford in 1919. He rowed bow in the University Boat Race and was President of the Balliol Boat Club. He continued his training in pathology and then surgery at The London Hospital; he obtained the FRCS in 1921 and in this year married Barbara Forster the youngest daughter of AL Smith the Master of Balliol. His initial surgical interests were related to genito-urinary problems and he lectured on these topics at the RCS where he was the Hunterian Professor of anatomy. A growing interest in neurosurgery saw him take leave to study with Cushing in Boston in 1926-7. He returned to establish a neurological surgery unit at The London Hospital and with others established the new school of British neurosurgery. Cairns had an international reputation when TE Lawrence was fatally injured in a motor bike accident in 1935 and he was summoned to treat him. His enthusiasm for neurosurgery was instrumental in encouraging Lord Nuffield to endow the new Nuffield chair in Surgery in Oxford in 1937 to which Cairns moved from London. He rejoined the Army in WW2 rising to the rank of Brigadier; he was advisor to the Ministry of Health on head injuries, and stressed the advantages of early air evacuation of the injured, Cairns established mobile neurosurgical units early in WW2. Nearly 20,000 patients were treated by these units in which Cairns and Florey (Adelaide Rhodes Scholar successor) were amongst the first to use penicillin in neurological injury.  Widespread use of penicillin was born. A young RAMC surgeon, Dick Jepson, was in one of these units and later he moved to Adelaide and became the Professor of Surgery at the University of Adelaide and the Adelaide Hospital, 1958-1968. Early in the WW2 Cairns persuaded the army to make crash helmets for dispatch riders compulsory; this, now routine protection for bike riders, is one of Cairns many lasting legacies. He was appointed KBE in 1946 and the next year, when the Sims Commonwealth Professor appointed by the RCS, was awarded an honorary MD (Adelaide). Hugh William Cairns died of cancer in the Radcliffe Infirmary on 18th July 1952 leaving a widow, two sons and two daughters.

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Biography contributed by Annette Summers

CAIRNS Sir Hugh William Bell KBE DM MD FRCS

World War 2

1896-1952

 

Hugh William Bell Cairns was born on the 26th June 1896, in Port Pirie, South Australia. He was the only son of William Cairns, a Scottish timber contractor, and Amy Florence, nee Bell. He was educated at Riverton High School and Adelaide Boys High School, and began medicine at the University of Adelaide as an exhibition scholar.   He enlisted as a private soldier in WWI and served on Lemnos with 3 AGH, as a nurse, before returning to Australia and completing his medical studies and graduating, in 1917. Cairns was academically brilliant and was awarded the David Thomas and Everard Scholarships and was the South Australian Rhodes Scholar.  He also represented the University in rowing and lacrosse. He was commissioned as a captain and returned to France and served with several medical units for the rest of WW1, remaining in England on his discharge. Cairns then took up his Rhodes scholarship at Balliol College, Oxford University, in 1919. He initially studied Pathology and later, at London Hospital, he studied surgery, and obtained his FRCS in 1921. Cairns married Barbara Forster Smith, on 24th November 1921.  She was the youngest daughter of Arthur Lionel and Mary Florence Smith. Her father was the Master of Balliol College. He then became the Hunterian Professor of Anatomy, lecturing at the Royal College of Surgeons, in his initial interest in genito-urinary surgery. Cairns developed an interest in neurosurgery, and took leave to travel to the United States to study with Cushing in Boston in 1926. Returning to England, Cairns established a Neuro-surgical unit at the London Hospital, with Geoffrey Jefferson and N. M. Dott. He developed an international reputation as a neurosurgeon. One of his patients was Thomas Edward Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia), who suffered a fatal head injury from a motorbike accident. Cairns then took the position of the newly established Nuffield Chair in surgery at Oxford University in 1937.  Cairns who had been consultant neurosurgeon to the army between the wars, was called to the War Office, in 1938, to discuss the provision of neurosurgical services to the military.

Cairns enlisted in the RAMC, at the start of WW2, eventually reaching the rank of Brigadier. With other senior officers of the services they created St. Hugh's College for head injuries, at Oxford, which opened in February 1940. He inspired and taught a generation of neurosurgeons, neurologists, and neurological nurses in the care of brain and spinal cord injuries. Cairns also trained the first full-time female neurosurgeon. During the war, St Hugh’s College treated some 13,000 service personnel. Cairns was the adviser to the Ministry of Health on head injuries and neurosurgeon to the army. He stressed the advantages of early evacuation for treatment. He formed mobile neurosurgical units. With Florey, also an Adelaide University graduate and Rhodes Scholar, he was responsible for the introduction of the use of penicillin in neurosurgery with dramatic benefits. Dick Jepson, later Professor of Surgery at the University of Adelaide, was also in one of these units. Early in WW2 Cairns persuaded the Army to make it compulsory for dispatch riders on motorcycles to wear helmets, to reduce injuries in accidents. Cairns' work in military medicine and head injury to mitigate and manage brain injury is one of his many legacies now common in modern use.

It was said of Cairns that every patient became his friend for life. He was an exacting exemplar. He expected much of his students and himself. Even after his diagnosis with cancer, he continued to work.  He was flown to treat General George Patton. Cairns authored over a hundred papers. He was appointed KBE in 1946. In 1947 he was the Sims Commonwealth Professor appointed by the Royal College of Surgeons. He was awarded an Honorary MD (Adelaide). Hugh William Bell Cairns died of cancer in the Radcliffe Infirmary, on 18th July 1952, He was survived by his wife, Barbara, and their two sons and two daughters.

Source

Blood, Sweat and Fears III: Medical Practitioners South Australia, who Served in World War 2. 

Swain, Jelly, Verco, Summers. Open Books Howden, Adelaide 2019. 

Uploaded by Annette Summers AO RFD

 

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Biography contributed

From Adelaide High School Magazine, Midwinter 1915. Correspondence.

The following is an extract from a letter sent by Hugh Cairns, who in 1911 was one of
The Magazine Editors. He won a medical scholarship, tenable at the Adelaide University :-
"You will probably be very surprised to receive this letter from me, and to know that I
am sailing for England with the No. 3 Australian Double General Hospital. We go to London
direct to equip, and then our destination is censored.
"Well, I had hankered after going as soon as I heard Drs. de Crespigny and Cudmore -
our best honoraries - were going, but did not like to take the step on account of domestic
arrangements. Father and mother thought that perhaps it was better to stay, but advised me to
see Mr. Noack. He advised me to go, and when I went home on Thursday, May 6 (the
casualty lists had come out). mother and father were keen on my going. I went to Sydney
next day, and went into camp on Monday. The boat sailed from Sydney on the following
Saturday. We arrived in Melbourne on Monday, and I came overland to Adelaide, and had a
day at home before rejoining the boat again on Thursday. It was all done very suddenly, but
really in one way I think it is best to dispense with a lot of these farewells.
"As regards the wisdom of the step, the medical experience will not be of much value
to me afterwards; one may gain experience in operative technique - but the worldly
experience will be good and I hope to be able to come back again and finish my work with a
more experienced outlook on things. Then, again, I would sooner go now than push through
and become qualified at the age of twenty, and have to wait a year for registration. Also I will
be with doctors aforementioned, and they are always willing to teach.
"To cap all, one would have lasting regret if the war finished and one had not helped.
"If we settle in England, and there is a possibility of it, I will probably be able to do
my membership of the College of Surgeons. My scholarship is to be held over for me.
"Will you please give my best wishes to all my former teachers and contemporaries. I
am very sorry that I did not have time to come up and say good-bye to you all. I am realizing
every day more and more how much I gained out of the A.H.S., and will always be keenly
interested in hearing anything about it.
"We have a very fine lot of chaps with us. I am a private at present, but apart from
rank hope to get some good work to do when the hospital starts work."

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