Henry Souttar

Sir Henry Sessions Souttar (14 December 1875 – 12 November 1964) was a British surgeon with a wide breadth of interests. He trained first as a mathematician and engineer. His engineer’s training enabled him to design and make new types of surgical instrument. His mathematical training made him a leader in setting out the first British guidelines for Radiotherapy. In 1925 he pioneered "blind" open heart surgery on a patient with congenital heart defect. This was not repeated until 1948.

Biography Henry Sessions Souttar was born at Birkenhead on 14 December 1875, the only son of Robinson Souttar, Member of Parliament for Dumfries (1895–1900), and his wife Mary. He was educated at Oxford high school and Queen's College, Oxford (1895–8). He gained a double first in mathematics and also studied engineering. In 1904 he married Catharine Edith, daughter of Robert Bellamy Clifton, professor of experimental philosophy at Oxford. They had a son and a daughter.

Souttar was instrumental in the foundation of the faculties of Dental surgery and Anaesthetists at the Royal College of Surgeons.

After his retirement in 1947 from the London Hospital Souttar retained his active interest in surgery. Following the death of his first wife in 1959, Souttar married again in 1963; his second wife was Amy Bessie, widow of Harry Douglas Wigdahl. Souttar died at his London home on 12 November 1964; the funeral service was held at St Marylebone Church, of which he had been a churchwarden for many years.

Souttar was a good linguist and a competent musician. He is said to have made a violin which he himself played. He illustrated his own textbook, The Art of Surgery (1929). He was a very tall and powerfully built man, dark in his younger days, and impressive looking. He was noted for his extreme courtesy and kindness, and for his ingenuity and ideas.

Honours

Royal College of Surgeons Member of council 1933 to 1949 Vice-president 1943–4. Bradshaw lecturer 1943 Hunterian orator 1949

British Medical Association President 1945–6

Honorary fellow American College of Surgeons, Royal Australasian College of Surgeons

Trinity College, Dublin Awarded him an honorary MD 1933

Knighted 1949