Dean Abbott SMITH [1909-1960] | Gwulo: Old Hong Kong

Dean Abbott SMITH [1909-1960]

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Submitted by Admin on Sat, 2012-05-05 12:17
Names
Given: 
Dean Abbott
Family: 
Smith
Sex: 
Male
Status: 
Deceased
Birth
Date: 
1909-12-24
Birthplace (town, state): 
London
Birthplace (country): 
England
Death
Date: 
1960-07-27
Tags: 
WW2: Interned at Stanley Camp
Connections: 
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Submitted by brian edgar on Fri, 2015-11-06 23:21.

Dean Smith was born in London December 24, 1909, died July 27, 1960 Guilford (while on leave from Khartoum where he was Dean of the Kitchener School of Medicine).

He first came to Hong Kong with the Colonial Medical Service soon after after taking an M. B. at Cambridge in 1937. He developed a safe and simple form of spinal anesthesia to be used by the non-specialist doctors who carried out this function during operations, and then turned his attention to what was becoming his main interest, malnutrition and its attendant diseases.

At the time of the Japanese attack he was acting professor of medicine at the University of Hong Kong, and during the hostilities was placed in charge of St. Paul's Casualty hospital, where he sustained a serious injury from enemy action.

In Stanley he ran a nutrition clinic - for this and other work there he was awarded an OBE in 1946:

'With his quiet charm, stern sense of duty and selflessness he was an inspiration and example to all.

Obituary, British Medical Journal, August 13, 1960, 543-544