Dr David Frederick Rees
Personal Details
Dr David Frederick Rees MRCS LRCP FFARCS DA
04/10/1913 to 04/05/1992
Place of birth: London, England
Nationality: British
CRN: 534969
Education and qualifications
| General education | Hampton Grammar School, London 1925-31 Medical School, St Thomas’s Hospital, London 1931-37 |
|---|---|
| Primary medical qualification(s) | MRCS Eng., LRCP Lond., 1937 |
| Initial Fellowship and type | FFARCS by Election/Examination |
| Year of Fellowship | 1953 |
| Other qualification(s) | DA (RCP&S), 1946 |
Professional life and career
Postgraduate career
On qualifying Rees was a house surgeon at Royal Sea Bathing Hospital in Margate for a year, followed in September 1938 by resident anaesthetist at the West Suffolk Hospital in Bury St Edmunds. From May 1939 to October 1940 he was Assistant Medical Officer at Battle Hospital, Reading. In December 1940 he joined the Royal Army Medical Corps; he served in the far East attaining the rank of Captain, but in 1942 he was taken prisoner of war by the Japanese in Java. On demobilisation in 1946 he was appointed as an anaesthetic registrar at Edgware Hospital and he proceeded to further registrar experience in Southampton before being appointed Senior Registrar at the West Middlesex Hospital, Isleworth in 1947. He was appointed Consultant Anaesthetist to the Dewsbury group of hospitals, Yorkshire in 1950. Finally he moved in 1962 to be Consultant Anaesthetist at St Mary’s Hospital, Newport on the Isle of Wight, where he remained until his retirement in 1978.
Professional interests and activities
He was a member of the Yorkshire Society of Anaesthetists and of Leeds Medico-Chirurgical Society. Initially at Dewsbury he was the only anaesthetic specialist, leaing a team of general practitioner anaesthetists. He had a bent for devising anaesthetic equipment: as a Senior Registrar he published on anaesthetic apparatus for infants; when a Consultant he devised the Dewsbury unidirectional valve and later a useful modification of Magill’s intubating forceps.
Other biographical information
He married Marie Bowden in 1946 and they had three daughters. He enjoyed boxing and swimming in his twenties, moving on to competition motoring. In middle age he focused on metalwork, painting and decorating, which he continued in retirement – especially painting in both oils and watercolours. He died at the the age of 78 years survived by his family.
Author and sources
Author:
Dr Alistair McKenzie
Sources and comments:
[1] Dr Rees’s self submitted biographical college “Boulton form” dated 1988. [2] James P, Rees W. Obituary DF Rees FFARCS (with photograph). BMJ 1992; 305: 707. [3] Medical Registers and Directories. [4] ancestry.co.uk