| Description | Papers consisting of offprints of articles by Dawson-Edwards and others on urology including the treatment of patients with renal failure using minicoil kidneys and renal transplant, and on retroperitoneal fibrosis, published in medical journals and as part of conference proceedings in the 1950s and 1960s, and papers relating to Dawson-Edwards' study visit to the United States of America in 1957 where he worked at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston, including a typescript account of his visit, newspaper cuttings and brief biographies of J. Hartwell Harrison and Francis D. Moore, who Dawson-Edwards worked with while at the Brigham, typescript and printed copies of articles co-authored by Hartwell Harrison, and by Paul Dawson-Edwards on renal transplantation, brief itinerary for visits to other hospitals in North America, and map of the national parks, monumuments and shrines of the United States and Canada
The collection also contains a copy of a typed account of the history of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham, from 1938, by 'PJK' and 'AB', 1977, a letter to Paul Dawson-Edwards from G. H. Baines, discussing his memories of staff at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital from the 1930s to the 1950s, dated 1984; pages from article in Aesculapius by A. D. Barnes on the start of renal transplantation in Birmingham and the Midlands, 2001, photocopies of newspaper articles on the first and second kidney transplant operations in Birmingham, and a copy of biographical entry for Paul Dawson-Edwards in Plarr's Lives of the Fellows of the Royal College of Surgeons Online |
| Administrative History | Paul Dawson-Edwards was born in Coventry on 28 October 1919. His father, Albert John Edwards, was an engineer who worked with the 'Alvis' racing team, and his mother, Gladys Dawson, was a milliner. He was educated at Centaur Road Junior School and then from 1930 to 1938 at King Henry VIII School, Coventry. He studied medicine at the University of Birmingham, graduating MB ChB in 1943. He obtained a clinical prize in surgery during his studies and also played in the University Rugby XV and was a member of the athletics team. He played for both Coventry and Moseley first XV teams. He married (Elizabeth) Jean Button, a nurse, on 14 April 1944. They had three children. He was resident surgical registrar at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital from 1944 to 1946, but was called up to the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve during this time, serving as flight-lieutenant, stationed at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital and later at RAF Northallerton, where he specialised in orthopaedics and trama. He went abroad from 1946 to 1947 as squadron leader in charge of Surgical Unit No 10 General Hospital in Karachi, specialising in orthopaedics.
In 1948 he spent a year as demonstrator in the anatomy department of the Medical School at Birmingham and then returned as a surgical registrar to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital. He gained his FRCS in 1951 and became senior surgical registrar in 1953. He was appointed consultant surgeon to the United Birmingham Hospitals in 1957, after a nine month study visit to Boston, Massachusetts at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital where he specialised in transplantation surgery, working with Hartwell Harrison and Francis Moore. When he returned to Birmingham he worked with Hugh Donovan and Guy Baines in urology. The Artificial Kidney Unit was set up at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital as an offshoot of the urology unit, and by 1962 a minicoil artificial kidney had been developed with Denys Blainey. Permission was given to start renal transplantation at the end of 1967, and Dawson-Edwards carried out his first renal transplant in May 1968. He was associated with dialysis and tranplantation for many years, before returning to general urological practice, where he treated a large series of patients with retroperitoneal fibrosis. He was an active member of the British Association of Urological Surgeons and served on its council from 1970 to 1974, and on that of the Urological Club of Great Britain and Ireland. He was a founder member of the Midlands Urological Group.
He was regarded as a fine surgical technician whose advice was sought by others in difficult situations. He was an excellent teacher, viewing it as an essential and enjoyable part of his job. He retired in 1984 and he and Jean spent more time at their cottage in North Wales. He had continued to play sport and also enjoyed mountain walking. In his retirement he took up painting and was a keen photographer. His wife, Jean, died in 2002. Paul Dawson-Edwards died on 6 December 2008.
Sources: Obituary BMJ 2009;338:b1988, http://www.bmj.com/content/338/bmj.b1988 Accessed July 2014; Royal College of Surgeons Plarr's Lives of the Fellows Online http://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/biogs/E000621b.htm Accessed July 2014 |