F. Clifford Rose

Frank Clifford Rose (born Rosenberg, 29 August 19261 November 2012) was a British neurologist, active in several journals and societies related to the specialty of neurology and its history, whose research contributed to the understanding of motor neurone disease, stroke and migraine. He developed an emergency stroke ambulance service with early neuroimaging, allowing for the detection of early reversible brain damage. In 1974, he established what would later be known as the Princess Margaret Migraine Clinic, a specialist clinic for headache at Charing Cross Hospital, where in 1965 he became their first appointed consultant neurologist.

Rose completed early neurological training at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery at Queen Square, followed by placements in the United States, Paris, and then at St George's Hospital at Hyde Park Corner and Atkinson Morley Hospital. He subsequently held several consultant posts in London.

He was the secretary-treasurer general of the World Federation of Neurology (WFN), the first editor-in-chief of World Neurology, founding editor of the Journal of the History of the Neurosciences, and founding chair of the WFN's Research Group on the History of the Neurosciences. He coedited the Headache Quarterly magazine for over 20 years, was editor-in-chief of the journal Neuroepidemiology and the Transactions of the Medical Society of London during the 1980s, and he wrote several books.

Early life and education Frank Clifford Rosenberg, also known as FCR to his trainees, was born on 29 August 1926 in London, to Jewish parents, who had immigrated from Fălticeni, Romania, in 1913 and settled in the East End of London, where they ran a bicycle shop. The youngest of six siblings, he attended the Central Foundation Boys' School in Cowper Street, but was evacuated at the age of 13 at the outbreak of the Second World War.

Career

Rose's early medical training consisted of appointments in the specialties of paediatrics, general medicine, cardiology and rheumatology. Between 1957 and 1960, he held training posts at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery at Queen Square, and was then appointed as a senior registrar in neurology at St George's Hospital at Hyde Park Corner, where he worked under neurologist Denis Williams, and at Atkinson Morley Hospital, part of St George's, where he made a reputation for himself working with neurosurgeon Wylie McKissock.

Later in 1960, he trained at the University of California, San Francisco, under neurologist Robert B. Aird for six months, then spent three months at Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital in Paris the following year. In 1963, after turning down a job at the University of Rochester he returned to England to become consultant in neurology at the Royal Eye Medical Ophthalmology Unit at the Lambeth Hospital, where he was part of a team of three physicians including Geraint James.

Other roles Rose was the secretary-treasurer general of the World Federation of Neurology (WFN) when its president was John Walton. He was the first editor-in-chief of World Neurology, founding editor of the Journal of the History of the Neurosciences, and founding chair of the WFN's Research Group on the History of the Neurosciences. He co-edited Headache Quarterly from 1980 to 2001 and was editor-in-chief of the journals Neuroepidemiology from 1984 to 1990 and Transactions of the Medical Society of London from 1980 to 1986.

He played a significant part in the foundation of the International Society for the History of the Neurosciences (ISHN).

In his book Neurology of the arts: painting, music, literature (2004), he included Van Gogh's likely ailments. He co-authored with Marek Gawel a book for patients Migraine the Facts.

Personal life Three days after returning from a trip to the United States in 1963, Rose met musician, Angela Juliet Halsted. They were engaged two weeks later and after a further three months, were married. In 2006, they moved to Little Bedwyn, Wiltshire, where 12 years earlier, he had organised the unveiling of a blue plaque at Thomas Willis's birthplace. Munk's Roll, the British Medical Journal, Cephalalgia, and the Journal of the History of the Neurosciences: Basic and Clinical Perspectives.

His autobiography, By Any Other Name, was published posthumously.

Selected publications Books (Co-authored with Marek Gawel)

(Co-authored with Stuart Neilson)

By any other name: An autobiography. CreateSpace, 2015. (Edited by Angela Rose)

Articles (Joint author)

(Joint author) (Joint author)