Arthur Tudor Edwards

Arthur Tudor Edwards (7 March 1890 – 25 August 1946) was a Welsh thoracic surgeon, who worked at the Westminster Hospital, the Royal Brompton Hospital and Queen Mary's Hospital, Roehampton and pioneered lung surgery, in particularly pulmonary tuberculosis and lung tumours.

Edwards was born in Swansea on 7 March 1890, the elder son of William Edwards and his wife Mary Griffith Thomas. He was educated at Mill Hill School, London, St John's College, Cambridge, and at Middlesex Hospital, London, where he qualified as a doctor in 1913. He was appointed house surgeon and surgical registrar at the Middlesex, and obtained the higher degrees of M.Ch. and FRCS in 1915.

Edwards was commissioned in the Royal Army Medical Corps in World War I, rising to the rank of major. He was the first Director of the Department of Thoracic Surgery at the London Hospital.

He was also responsible for the training of notable surgeons including Dwight Harken, Sir Clement Price Thomas and Sir Russell Brock.

Early life Tudor Edwards was born in Swansea on 7 March 1890, the elder son of William Edwards of Langlands, Glamorgan, Chairman of Edwards Limited and Mary Griffith Thomas. He attended Mill Hill school in London. Following studies at St John's College, Cambridge, he achieved a place in medical training at the Middlesex Hospital, was awarded a university scholarship and was appointed as a dresser (assistant) and house-surgeon to Sir Gordon Gordon-Taylor. Sir John Bland-Sutton was also senior surgeon at the Middlesex at this time.

The interwar years were occupied with pioneering intense surgery. The treatment of war injuries, taught by surgeons Pierre Delbet and G E Gask, were applied to peacetime diseases. He investigated sequentially the surgery of pulmonary tuberculosis, bronchiectasis and lung tumours, and within 10-years, with the backing of his colleague physician R. A. Young and his anaesthetist Ivan MagillI, became renowned in the establishment of thoracic surgery. He was also for many years surgeon to Queen Mary's Hospital, Roehampton where many war pensioners were treated. Here, he operated on gastro-jejunal ulceration and gastro-oesopgaeal fistulae.

Later life On 25 August 1946, Edwards was spending his holiday in St Enodoc, Cornwall. Known to be recurrently unwell, his sudden death was still felt as a surprise. He was 56 years old.

He was buried at St Enodoc's Church. Lord Horder delivered an obituary oration at a memorial service in London. later, ironically competing with another trainee, Sir Russell Brock.

In 1948, his colleagues organised a memorial fund to endow a lecture in his memory. Administered by both the Royal College of physicians and Royal College of Surgeons, the lecture is an honour to give. Past speakers have included Geoffrey Marshall, Sir Clement Price Thomas and Sir Russell Brock.