Rickman Godlee

Sir Rickman John Godlee, 1st Baronet (15 February 1849 – 18 April 1925) was an English surgeon. In 1884 he became one of the first doctors to surgically remove a brain tumor, founding modern brain surgery.

Early life

Godlee was born in Upton, Essex, to a Quaker family, the second son of Rickman Godlee (1804–1871), a barrister at Middle Temple, and Mary Godlee (née Lister), daughter of Joseph Jackson Lister. He was thus a nephew of Joseph Lister — whose biography he later wrote.

He was educated at a school in Tottenham and took his B.A. at University College London before he began his medical education.

An expert draughtsman, and whilst still at University College London, he was employed to make the original plates for Richard Quain's Anatomy — which in 1920 he presented to the Royal College of Surgeons of England.

Medical career

He was admitted a Member of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1872 and four years later was elected to the fellowship, in the meantime he won gold medal at both his Bachelor and Master of Surgery examinations at the University of London.

After periods as house surgeon and house physician at University College Hospital, London, he moved to Edinburgh to practise the new surgical techniques being developed there by his uncle, Joseph Lister. On his return to London, he was appointed assistant surgeon at Charing Cross Hospital and to a similar position at the North Eastern Hospital for Children. After a period as assistant surgeon at University College Hospital, he became surgeon at Brompton Hospital, London, where he made advances in surgery of the chest.