William Renner

William Renner (c. 1846–1917), best known as W. Renner, was a Sierra Leonean surgeon and cancer researcher.

Biography

Renner was born in Sierra Leone to an affluent Creole family. He studied at Liverpool College, University College London and in Dublin and Brussels. He qualified M.D. at the Free University of Brussels in 1881. According to Renner, cancer was rarely found among the hundreds of female aborigines who were treated every year at the Colonial Hospital, nor was it reported by medical officers in large towns at dispensaries where natives had been encouraged to attend for treatment.

John Randle disagreed with Renner's theory and stated that cancer was seen less frequently among aborigines in hospital because natives were superstitious and would instead have preferred to visit local country doctors. Randle also described cases of cancer he had encountered among the aborigines and concluded that "malignant diseases are not a rarity amongst the aborigines in any part of West Africa".

Selected publications

"The Spread Of Cancer Among The Descendants Of The Liberated Africans Or Creoles Of Sierra Leone" (The British Medical Journal, 1910)