Sorry to report that Brian Creamer (BB 1938-43, Almoner) died on 23 June, according to an obituary in today's Telegraph.
He was a notable gastroenterologist and the first Dean of the United Medical and Dental Schools of Guy's and St Thomas's Hospitals.
The obit is here:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jh ... db3003.xml
You may have to register in order to read it - not sure how the Telegraph site works these days.
Death of Brian Creamer
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Death of Brian Creamer
Last edited by Rex on Sat Jun 29, 2013 1:23 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Copied from Telegraph site:-
Brian Creamer
Brian Creamer, who has died aged 79, was a gastroenterologist and Dean of St Thomas's Hospital Medical School.
The latter role was a poisoned chalice, because the 1968 Royal Commission (Todd) Report on medical education in London had already recommended the creation of larger pre-clinical medical schools by pairing them. Soon after his appointment as Dean in 1979, the University Working Party chaired by Lord Flowers considered the closure of some pre-clinical schools, and Creamer rose to this challenge, realising that the one way to save his beloved St Thomas's School was to amalgamate with that at nearby Guy's Hospital.
Working closely with the Dean of Guy's, Dr JC Houston, he persuaded the University to form, in 1982, the United Medical and Dental Schools of Guy's and St Thomas's Hospitals (UMDS), and later became Dean of the combined schools from 1984 to 1986.
Subsequently, UMDS was incorporated into King's College, joining King's College Hospital Medical School, while Guy's and St Thomas' Hospitals themselves became one NHS Trust in 1994.
Creamer saw that the future had, regrettably, to lie within a larger institution and that this required painful amalgamation and translocation of academic departments. He also had to cope with a series of university cuts in the funding of medical schools, but implemented these with less than the usual acrimony. Thus, he had to transform a previously quiet and honorific post into an active administrative role.
The British Society of Gastroenterology had been founded by Sir Arthur Hurst, physician to Guy's Hospital, in 1937; so when Creamer took up research, in the 1950s, into the gullet, and later the small intestine, he became an early member of a speciality that now boasts 800 consultants.
Not only did he publish widely but, more importantly, he trained a series of young physicians at St Thomas' in clinical research, who then fanned out across the country.
Brian Creamer was born on April 12 1926. After schooling at Christ's Hospital, he entered St Thomas's Hospital Medical School in 1943, qualifying in 1948 with several undergraduate prizes. After house officer appointments and a spell in the Army in Germany, he returned to St Thomas' and joined Professor EP Sharpey-Schafer on the Medical Unit. It was then that he started his work on movement disorders of the gullet, which led him to work in America, with Charles Code at the Mayo Clinic in 1955-56.
Three years later Creamer was appointed the first full-time general physician outside the Medical Unit, and built a research laboratory, affectionately known as the "Gut Hut", with the support of the Special Trustees of the Hospital. He led the design of the extensive research floor donated by Lord Rayne, and the gastroenterology unit moved there in 1976.
Creamer's interest in the small intestine included elegant experiments and histology that established the dynamic turnover of intestinal cells in coeliac disease. He gave the Arthur Hurst Lecture of the British Society of Gastroenterology at the Royal College of Physicians in 1968. In 1977-78 he was visiting Professor to Pahlavi University in Shiraz, studying Mediterranean lymphoma of the bowel.
He remained above all a physician, and was a superb communicator of the principles of medicine to generations of students. While Dean of the Medical School, he raised funds for a new student hostel in the grounds of Lambeth Palace, which is named after him.
His patients received his unremitting care and they were loyal to him; for years he ran a Saturday morning clinic. He drew beautifully, and put his skill to use not only as a hobby, but also when writing on the blackboard, drawing simple teaching slides, or sketching his somnolent colleagues during committee meetings. Because of his interest in art, for many years he helped the architect of the new St Thomas', Eugene Rosenberg, to choose the extensive and striking collection of modern art that now covers its walls.
At the Mayo Clinic, Creamer underwent an emergency stomach operation for a duodenal ulcer, which today would have been cured by antibiotics, and this left him charmingly susceptible to alcohol and on an unvarying, strict diet.
He retired from St Thomas' in 1991.
As well as serving on three health authorities, Creamer was Civilian Consultant in Gastroenterology to the Army (1970-90) and chairman of Trinity Hospice (1987-92).
Brian Creamer died on June 23. He married, in 1953, Margaret Rees, a St Thomas's Nightingale. She survives him with their daughter and two sons, one of whom is a dermatologist.
Brian Creamer
Brian Creamer, who has died aged 79, was a gastroenterologist and Dean of St Thomas's Hospital Medical School.
The latter role was a poisoned chalice, because the 1968 Royal Commission (Todd) Report on medical education in London had already recommended the creation of larger pre-clinical medical schools by pairing them. Soon after his appointment as Dean in 1979, the University Working Party chaired by Lord Flowers considered the closure of some pre-clinical schools, and Creamer rose to this challenge, realising that the one way to save his beloved St Thomas's School was to amalgamate with that at nearby Guy's Hospital.
Working closely with the Dean of Guy's, Dr JC Houston, he persuaded the University to form, in 1982, the United Medical and Dental Schools of Guy's and St Thomas's Hospitals (UMDS), and later became Dean of the combined schools from 1984 to 1986.
Subsequently, UMDS was incorporated into King's College, joining King's College Hospital Medical School, while Guy's and St Thomas' Hospitals themselves became one NHS Trust in 1994.
Creamer saw that the future had, regrettably, to lie within a larger institution and that this required painful amalgamation and translocation of academic departments. He also had to cope with a series of university cuts in the funding of medical schools, but implemented these with less than the usual acrimony. Thus, he had to transform a previously quiet and honorific post into an active administrative role.
The British Society of Gastroenterology had been founded by Sir Arthur Hurst, physician to Guy's Hospital, in 1937; so when Creamer took up research, in the 1950s, into the gullet, and later the small intestine, he became an early member of a speciality that now boasts 800 consultants.
Not only did he publish widely but, more importantly, he trained a series of young physicians at St Thomas' in clinical research, who then fanned out across the country.
Brian Creamer was born on April 12 1926. After schooling at Christ's Hospital, he entered St Thomas's Hospital Medical School in 1943, qualifying in 1948 with several undergraduate prizes. After house officer appointments and a spell in the Army in Germany, he returned to St Thomas' and joined Professor EP Sharpey-Schafer on the Medical Unit. It was then that he started his work on movement disorders of the gullet, which led him to work in America, with Charles Code at the Mayo Clinic in 1955-56.
Three years later Creamer was appointed the first full-time general physician outside the Medical Unit, and built a research laboratory, affectionately known as the "Gut Hut", with the support of the Special Trustees of the Hospital. He led the design of the extensive research floor donated by Lord Rayne, and the gastroenterology unit moved there in 1976.
Creamer's interest in the small intestine included elegant experiments and histology that established the dynamic turnover of intestinal cells in coeliac disease. He gave the Arthur Hurst Lecture of the British Society of Gastroenterology at the Royal College of Physicians in 1968. In 1977-78 he was visiting Professor to Pahlavi University in Shiraz, studying Mediterranean lymphoma of the bowel.
He remained above all a physician, and was a superb communicator of the principles of medicine to generations of students. While Dean of the Medical School, he raised funds for a new student hostel in the grounds of Lambeth Palace, which is named after him.
His patients received his unremitting care and they were loyal to him; for years he ran a Saturday morning clinic. He drew beautifully, and put his skill to use not only as a hobby, but also when writing on the blackboard, drawing simple teaching slides, or sketching his somnolent colleagues during committee meetings. Because of his interest in art, for many years he helped the architect of the new St Thomas', Eugene Rosenberg, to choose the extensive and striking collection of modern art that now covers its walls.
At the Mayo Clinic, Creamer underwent an emergency stomach operation for a duodenal ulcer, which today would have been cured by antibiotics, and this left him charmingly susceptible to alcohol and on an unvarying, strict diet.
He retired from St Thomas' in 1991.
As well as serving on three health authorities, Creamer was Civilian Consultant in Gastroenterology to the Army (1970-90) and chairman of Trinity Hospice (1987-92).
Brian Creamer died on June 23. He married, in 1953, Margaret Rees, a St Thomas's Nightingale. She survives him with their daughter and two sons, one of whom is a dermatologist.
Julian Taylor-Gadd
Leigh Hunt 1985-1992
Founder of The Unofficial CH Forum
https://www.grovegeeks.co.uk - IT Support and website design for home, small businesses and charities.
Leigh Hunt 1985-1992
Founder of The Unofficial CH Forum
https://www.grovegeeks.co.uk - IT Support and website design for home, small businesses and charities.