William Blair-Bell

William Blair-Bell (28 September 1871 in Rutland House, New Brighton – 25 January 1936 in Shrewsbury) was a British medical doctor and gynaecologist who was most notable as the founder of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists in 1929. Blair-Bell was considered the greatest gynaecologist of the 20th century, raising it from what was then a branch of general surgery into a separate medical specialism.

Early life Blair-Bell was the son of William Bell, a general practitioner, and Helen Hilaire Barbara née Butcher (daughter of Major General Arthur Butcher of the Royal Marines Light Infantry); they had a family of nine children. One of Blair-Bell's brothers, John Herbert Bell, was an adjutant at Donington Hall, which was a prisoner of war camp for enemy soldiers captured during World War I. Another brother of was a cotton broker in St Louis, USA in the Antebellum South. At Kings, Blair-Bell won the Tanner Prize for proficiency in diseases in obstetrics and gynaecology.

According to Blair-Bell, the idea of a college of obstetricians and gynaecologists was suggested to William Fletcher Shaw, professor of clinical obstetrics and gynaecology in the University of Manchester, by Sir William Sinclair, founder of the Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology of the British Empire. Shaw was keen on the idea and formed a plan to create the college. Blair-Bell would later anonymously donate the money for the first college building at 58 Queen Anne Street, London.

The Blair-Bell medal is named in his honour.

Later life and death Blair-Bell married his cousin Florence Bell in 1898. She died in 1929, and they had no children.

Contributions Blair-Bell displayed a particular knack for research and writing scientific papers even as a medical student. Those who knew him considered him to be difficult, ruthless, overbearing and complex, but also lucid and interesting, with his achievements outweighing any failings. Lord Dawson, described him as a "...loveable character who never forgot, or allowed anyone else to forget, that he was bearing the torch". He was banned from the University of Liverpool department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology until he was appointed to the chair in 1931. After he turned up a day early, Professor Henry Briggs made the bon mot "Bell, you are an abortion, you are here before your time".

Blair-Bell's early research concentrated on gynaecological endocrinology. Blair-Bell was also interested in the causes and treatment of cancer. From 1909, he started to research and experiment with placental and embryonic extractions. When this proved fruitless, Blair-Bell started to experiment with the use of Lead as a treatment, assuming that as an abortifacient, it could reduce or inhibit the growth of cancer. From 1921, he was using lead in the treatment of Uterine cancer, and colloid lead iodide for the treatment of Breast cancer, but later large scale tests proved this to be both painful and dangerous.