Comyns Berkeley

George Harold Arthur Comyns Berkeley (16 October 1865 – 27 January 1946) was an obstetric physician, gynaecological surgeon and medical writer. Berkeley was most notable along with William Blair-Bell and Sir William Sinclair for creating the British College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. Berkeley was also noted for his writing collaborations with Victor Bonney, the book A Textbook of Gynaecological Surgery that is still considered a medical classic. It was as teacher that he excelled.

During his career he was also surgeon to City of London Maternity Hospital and the Chelsea Hospital for Women and consulting gynaecological surgeon to hospitals in Hornsey, Eltham and Clacton Hospitals and the London County Council Radium Centre in Lambeth. He was examiner in midwifery and diseases of women to many universities.

Surgical career Berkley had a long collaboration with his friend, the surgeon Victor Bonney that started in 1898 when Booney was resident surgical officer, and Berkley was his senior as junior assistant surgeon at Chelsea Hospital for Women. Together they developed an operative treatment for cervical cancer during the first two decades of the 20th century. This collaboration would lead them to proving the Wertheim radical hysterectomy that was used to treat cervical cancer.

In 1911–1912, Berkeley and the Middlesex hospital became associated with the use of new compound radium for the treatment of cervical cancer, in the search for treatments using the metal. Berkley also worked closely with the Ministry of Health, organising his departments investigation into mortality in childbirth. He was their honorary treasurer and was one of their representatives in a deputation to the Prime Minister in support of state registration in 1913. He remained active with the RBNA until c.1916 when his support for the College of Nursing was increasingly seen by RBNA members at being in opposition to them.

He was honorary treasurer of the College of Nursing (later the Royal College of Nursing, RCN) from its inception in 1916 until his death in 1946. He sat on their Council, and was chair of their Financial Committee. He was also treasurer of the Cowdray Club (associated with the RCN). He was similarly supportive of the Royal College of Midwives. He was Chair of the regulatory Central Midwives Board from 1936 and a member of its Council from 1931.

On 27 January 1946, Berkley died in hospital where he spent most of his working life. His family buried him at St Marylebone Crematorium.

An administrative building named after him stands on the Luton and Dunstable Hospital site.

Selected publications A Handbook for Midwives and Obstetric Dressers. London, 1906; 12th edition 1943. Gynaecology for Nurses and Gynaecological Nursing. London, 1910; 9th edition 1943. A Textbook of Gynaecological Surgery. London, 1911; 4th edition 1941. (With Victor Bonney) The Difficulties and Emergencies of Obstetric Practice. London, 1913; 3rd ed 1921. (With Victor Bonney) A Guide to Gynaecology in General Practice. London, 1915; 2nd edition 1919. (With Victor Bonney) The Annals of the Middlesex Hospital at Clacton-on-Sea, 1914–1919. London, 1921. (With Victor Bonney) An Atlas of Midwifery. London, 1926; 2nd edition 1932. (Illustrated by Georges M. Dupuy) A Guide to the Profession of Nursing. London, 1931. The Abnormal in Obstetrics. London, 1938. (With Victor Bonney and Douglas Macleod) Pictorial Midwifery. London. 4th edition 1941.