Dr Dudley William Fram Gotla
Personal Details
Dr Dudley William Fram Gotla MRCS LRCP FFARCS DA
22/01/1910 to 2008
Place of birth: London, England
Nationality: British
CRN: 502265
Education and qualifications
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General education |
Epsom College Surrey 1921-28, winning Sterry Prize and a Queen Anne’s Scholarship |
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Primary medical qualification(s) |
MRCS (Eng.) LRCP (Lond.), 1935 |
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Initial Fellowship and type |
FFARCS |
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Year of Fellowship |
1953 |
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Other qualification(s) |
DA (RCP&S 1946 |
Professional life and career
Postgraduate career
Following qualification Gotla undertook a House Surgeon post at the Prince of Wales Hospital in Plymouth, covering Obstetrics and Gynaecology, ENT and Eyes, and Anaesthesia 1935-36. This was followed by general practice for two years 1936-8. Next he undertook a short period as a “Ships Surgeon” with the P&O Steamship Company, returning to general practice for a while before entering his military war service in 1939.
Initialy commissioned as a Lieutenant into the RAMC in 1939, he achieved the rank of Captain. He served with 198th Field Ambulance in the Malaya and Singapore theatres. In 1942 whilst serving in Singapore he was taken prisoner with the surrender of the garrison, becoming a POW under the Japanese occupying forces and held in POW camps associated with the Burma-Thailand Railway.
After the war he returned to civilian life, continuing his career by becoming an Anaesthetic Registrar at St. Helier Hospital, Carsholton for 1946-7. He continued his anaesthetic training at University College Hospital and The Brompton Hospital in London, as registrar and senior registrar until 1949.
Dr. Gotla was appointed in 1950 as a Consultant Anaesthetist to the Leicester Hospitals Group (LHG). According to a local newspaper announcement on appointment his starting consultant salary was £2,225. Apparently in 1974 he was given the title “Emeritus Consultant”, but he retired from full time NHS practice at LHG in 1976. Apparently following retirement from his substantive post he undertook various consultant locums in hospitals in England, Holland and New Zealand until 1980.
Professional interests and activities
Dr. Gotla during his career held several roles with local medical organisations. He was president of the Leicestershire Branch of the BMA 1964, President of the local Leicester Medical Society 1968, and President of the Sheffield and East Midlands Association of Anaesthetists 1966. He was also a Medical Consultant to the Church Missionary Society
Other biographical information
His father was a doctor who qualified initially in Bombay, India. Dudley Gotla lists several sports that he engaged with earlier in life; however in retirement his main interest appears to have been golf. He lists:- President of The Leicestershire Golf Club 1980-2, President of The Old Epsomian Golf Club 1976-8, President of The Medical Golfing Society of Great Britain 1988.
Dr. Gotla married twice. His first wife (1936) was Daphne Marslen-Wilson and they had two sons, Peter and Andrew; the marriage ended in divorce. His second marriage (1950) was to Patricia Cowney and they had one son Christopher.
Dr. Gotla passed away in 2008 at Crowborough in Sussex aged 98yrs.
The imperial War Museum hold an “oral history” about Dr. Gotla’s war experiences.
Author and sources
Author:
Dr Innes Simon Chadwick
Sources and comments:
A significant amount of the information has been obtained from Dr. Gotla’s self submitted autobiographical College “Boulton Form” dated 1988.
Biographical information accessed online: Ancestry.com
The Medical Registers1941 & 1909 accessed online Ancestry.com
The Medical Directory 1942 & 1905 accessed online Ancestry.com
London Gazette Supplement 19 December 1939 p8394 accessed online.
Leicester Mercury 1949, 15 November p5 accessed via FindmyPast online.
Imperial War Museum. Oral History. Dr. DWF Gotla. WW2.
https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/80022275