Smith Dean Abbott

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Biografie:
DEAN ABBOTT SMITH
D. A. Smith was born on December 24, 1909, and died on July 27, 1960, at Guildford, whilst on leave from the Sudan, where he was Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Professor of Physiology at the University of Khartoum.
He was educated at Uppingham and Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, where he gained first-class honours in physiology. He continued his medical training at St. Mary's Hospital, London, where he qualified in 1933. He held several resident posts there, including that of resident anaesthetist, but in 1935 he joined the Hong Kong Medical Service, and quickly made his mark, both by his work on anaesthesia and by his studies in malnutrition.
The latter interest was to prove of immense value when he, with his wife and many others, became prisoners of the Japanese after the invasion of Hong Kong in 1941. A Japanese shell severely injured his left elbow and he was left with a permanently damaged arm; he also contracted beriberi. But his interest in malnutrition bore fruit in the internment camps and he played a great role as a camp nutrition officer from 1942 to 1945, his services being recognised by the award of the O.B.E. in 1946.
Dr. Dean Smith left the Colonial Medical Service after the war and worked for a time at the London School of Hygiene on nutritional problems, producing in 1951 for the Medical Research Council a standard work on Deficiency Diseases in Japanese Prison Camps. In 1952 he was appointed first Professor of Physiology at Khartoum.
His eight years in the Sudan proved, perhaps, the finest period in his life. Completely unselfish and with a modesty that tended to minimise his scientific achievements, full of vitality and devoted to the students' welfare, he built up a first-rate medical school and his death will be not only a serious loss to the University of Khartoum but a very personal loss to innumerable doctors and students he had helped, in all parts of the Sudan. In vacations, Dean Smith, with his wife and small daughter, would range over large areas of the Sudan in a Land Rover, visiting the remotest of villages, where he was much in demand as a doctor, and studying general problems of health and hygiene on the spot. A competent mechanic, he could deal with any breakdown in his vehicle; a remarkable shot, he could live on the country without difficulty.
As a mountaineer, Dean Smith's record was a brief one. He commenced climbing in 1925 and was out every year thereafter up to 1930. On a qualification which included the principal peaks round Zermatt, Grindelwald and Chamonix, he was elected to the A.C. on May 5, 1931, at an unusually early age. He had little opportunity for climbing after he went to Hong Kong and his war wound prevented him from undertaking serious climbs in later years. He was a keen yachtsman and won many cups for sailing at Hong Kong.
In The Times (August II), the British Medical Journal (August 13) and The Lancet (August 10) notable tributes are paid to Dean Smith: in the Alpine Club, force of circumstances prevented him from being a familiar figure, but we are glad to join with others in regretting the loss of a man who led a life of dedication and who will be sorely missed.
To his wife and daughter we express our sympathy in their bereavement .
T. S. BLAKENEY.
Quelle: Alpine Journal Volume 66, 1961, Seite 187-188


Geboren am:
24.12.1909
Gestorben am:
27.07.1960