Alfred White Franklin

Early life and education Alfred White Franklin, also known as "the bishop", was born in London on 2 June 1905, to Philip Franklin, an Ear, Nose and Throat surgeon in Wimpole Street, and Ethel Julia.

At 6.30am on 10 November 1935 there was a fire at number 27, where his parents lived. Five people died, including his mother. From a letter in The Times newspaper, this incident led to the 999 emergency number being implemented on 30 June 1937.

After completing his early schooling at The Hall School, Hampstead, Franklin attended Epsom College, where he was a prefect, studied the classics and won numerous prizes including the Engledue Essay and Rosebery English Literature Prize.

He graduated from St Bartholomew's in 1933.

Neonatology Franklin became one of the UK's earliest neonatologists, assisting under Alan Moncrieff at Queen Charlotte's Maternity Hospital. During the Second World War, he worked at Hill End and St Alban's Hospitals as a paediatrician for Sector 3 of the Emergency Medical Service. and the subsequent historical landmark book, Concerning Child Abuse.

Selected publications His publications include;

Authored Pastoral paediatrics (1976) Widening horizons of child health: a study of the medical health needs of children in England and Wales (1976)

Edited The care of invalid and crippled children (Oxford University Press, London, 1960) World-blindness or specific developmental dyslexia (Pitman Medical Publishing Company, London, 1962) Cancer report 1948-1952 with M P Curwen (E & S Livingstone, Edinburgh & London, 1963) Children with communication problems (Pitman Medical Publishing Company, London, 1965) Selected writings of Lord Moynihan (Pitman Medical Publishing Company, London, 1967) Assessment and teaching of dyslexic children with Sandhya Naidoo (London, 1970) The Tunbridge Wells study group on non-accidental injury to children: report and resolutions (Tunbridge Wells, 1973) (compiler) Concerning child abuse: papers presented by the Tunbridge Wells study group on non-accidental injury to children (Churchill Livingstone, Edinburgh, 1975) The challenge of child abuse: proceedings of a conference sponsored by the Royal Society of Medicine, 2–4 June 1976 (1977) Child abuse: prediction, prevention and follow up (1977) The abused child in the family and in the community: selected papers from the second international congress on child abuse and neglect, London, 1978 with C Henry Kempe and Christine Cooper (1980) Family matters: perspectives on the family and social policy (1983)