Obituary - Dr Philip Glazer

1913 to 2004

Philip Glazer, who died in May 2004 aged 90, was a Consultant Anaesthetist at the Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford, for 28 years. Born in the East End of London in 1913, one of five sons of Polish immigrants, he won a scholarship to Whitgift School in Croydon, and then gained a place at Kings College Hospital Medical School, qualifying in 1935 at the age of 22. He bought a single-handed practice in Chiswick, and also gave anaesthetics at the local hospital, gaining the DA. On the outbreak of war in 1939, he joined the RAMC and served in Iraq, Egypt and India for six years, leaving with the rank of Major. He met his future wife Elizabeth in India, where she was a nursing sister with the QARNC. They married in 1948 – the year when he was appointed a Consultant Anaesthetist in Banbury as one of the first Consultants in the new NHS. Two years later he moved to the Radcliffe Infirmary to join the Nuffield Department of Anaesthetics at the instigation of Professor Robert Macintosh. He retired in 1978, moved to Bladon, and worked for two years with the blood transfusion service. His wife died in 2003.

Philip Glazer was an expert woodworker and cabinet maker, and was a councillor on Oxford City Council for a period of ten years. His daughters Amanda and Susan survive him.