Wakeley, Sir Cecil Pembrey Grey (1892-1979)

Identity Statement

Reference code(s)	: GB 0114 MS0185
Held at	: Royal College of Surgeons of England   Click here to find out how to view this collection at https://www.rcseng.ac.uk/museums-and-archives/archives/ ›
Full title	: Wakeley, Sir Cecil Pembrey Grey (1892-1979)
Date(s)	: 1915-1965
Level of description	: Collection (fonds)
Extent	: 3 boxes
Name of creator(s)	: Wakeley | Sir | Cecil Pembrey Grey | 1892-1979 | Knight | surgeon

Context

Administrative/Biographical history:

Sir Cecil Pembrey Grey Wakeley was born near Rainham, Kent, in 1892. He started attending King's School, Rochester in 1904, later attending Dulwich College, and King's College Hospital in 1910. He qualified in 1915 and joined the Royal Navy for the next four years as Surgeon-Lieutenant, spending most of his time aboard the hospital ship Garth Castle at Scapa Flow. His link with the Navy lasted all his life, first as a consultant and in World War Two as Surgeon Rear-Admiral when he worked at the Royal Naval Hospital, Haslar. He was appointed to the staff at King's in 1922, and was senior surgeon by the age of 41, remaining so for the next quarter of a century. He was consultant to the Belgrave Hospital for Children, the Royal Masonic and the Maida Vale Hospital for Nervous Diseases. In addition he was a member of Council of the College and eventually President from 1949-1954. This was a period of immense importance since it witnessed the completion of the College's very ambitious rebuilding programme, the establishment of the Faculties of Dental Surgery and Anaesthesia, and the setting up of the academic units and their laboratories. He was also President of the Association of Physiotherapy, Hunterian Society, Medical Society of London and the Royal Life Saving Society. He examined for both the Primary and Final Fellowship examinations as well as the medical degrees at many universities in the UK and overseas. He was also a Hunterian Orator, Hunterian Professor five times and Erasmus Wilson, Bradshaw, and Thomas Vicary Lecturer. He was Chairman of the Trustees of the Hunterian Collection and received the College's Gold Medal for his services. For twenty years he edited the British Journal of Surgery and in 1947 he founded the Annals of the Royal College of Surgeons of England which he continued to edit until 1969. He was for a long time editor of the now defunct Medical Press and Circular.

Content

Scope and content/abstract:

Papers of Sir Cecil Pembrey Grey Wakeley, 1915-1965, comprising letters to Sir Cecil Wakeley on relinquishing the Presidency of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, 1954; register of Sir Cecil Wakeley's publications, 1915-1965; scrapbook, 1924-1965; album of clinical photographs, 1932-1941; signature book of House Surgeons and Registrars working with Sir Cecil Wakeley at King's College Hospital and other hospitals, 1922-1957; and Temporary Surgeon Rear Admiral's Warrant, 1939-1940.

Access & Use

Language/scripts of material:
English

System of arrangement:

As outlined in Scope and Content.

Conditions governing access:

By written appointment only.

Conditions governing reproduction:

No photocopying permitted.

Finding aids:

Additional manuscripts catalogue.

Archival Information

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

The majority of the material was donated by Sir Cecil Wakeley, 1945-1979.

Allied Materials

Related material:

Letters written by Sir Cecil Wakeley in the Autograph Letters Series.

Publication note:

Description Notes

Archivist's note:
Compiled by Anya Turner.
Source: British Medical Journal, 1979, 1, 1633; King's Gazette 1980, Summer, 11-12; The Times 19 Jun 1979; and The Lives of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, Volume 6, page 401

Rules or conventions:
Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

Date(s) of descriptions:
Sep 2008