obstacles. The words of one of his friends express his feeling for him: “To know him was to love him, for his magnetic charm, his sincerity, his strong sense of fairness, and his unfailing kind- ness and courtesy endeared him to all who came within his ken. Indeed, only a little with him, and one was convinced that here, indisputably, was greatness.”
Willis Cohoon Campbell died on May 4, 1941, in Chicago. He was survived by his wife, the former Elizabeth Yerger, whom he married in 1908.
Dr. Campbell’s work was his life and he gave his life to it.
Norman Leslie CAPENER
1898–1975
Norman Leslie Capener was born on May 4, 1898, in Hornsey, North London, the third of a family of six boys. All were musical, and all went first to the Temple Choir School and then to the City of London School. For financial reasons, Norman had to leave when 14 to work in a City office for nearly 2 years before becoming an assis- tant master at a preparatory school. Having passed the examination of the College of Precep- tors, he entered the Medical College of St.
Bartholomew’s Hospital. He joined the Inns of Court Officers’ Training Corps, and in September 1917 was commissioned in the Royal Marines.
Thence, being a medical student, he was trans- ferred to the navy in the rank of Surgeon Sub- lieutenant, RNVR. On a change of policy away from the employment of medical students in ships, he was sent back to Bart’s to complete his training. In 1921, while still a student, he married Miss Marion Clarke, the daughter of a captain in the Royal Navy. He qualified in 1922, proceeded FRCS in 1924, and, gaining the Luther Holden and Streetfield scholarships, served for several years as demonstrator of anatomy under Profes- sor Le Gros Clark, for whom he had a lifelong regard. Capener then became a chief assistant on the Surgical Professorial Unit under Professor Gask and Mr. (later Sir) Thomas Dunhill. When Dr. Hugh Cabot took temporary charge of the Unit, he invited Capener to the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, as Assistant Professor of Surgery, where he served from 1926 to 1931 and
53Who’s Who in Orthopedics
Pieter CAMPER
1722–1789
Pieter Camper, Professor of Medicine in Amster- dam, published one of the remarkable books in orthopedic literature, Desertation on the Best
Form of Shoe. It was translated immediately andrepeatedly into several European languages and was considered worthy of reprint as late as 1861.
He was one of the outstanding medical scientists
of Europe in the eighteenth century and his
apology for discussing so lowly a subject as shoes
is amply discussed in his introduction. He inci-
dentally was also one of the superior anatomical
artists of his period and, like da Vinci, illustrated
his own publications.
was influenced by Dr. Fred Coller and Dr. Carl Badgeley.
In the meantime, the Devon Association for Cripples Aid had been established in 1925 under the aegis of Dame Georgina Buller, with the active collaboration of Sir Robert Jones, and the Princess Elizabeth Orthopaedic Hospital had been opened in Exeter in 1927. To this, in 1931, Capener was appointed orthopedic surgeon. He at once set about creating a comprehensive orthope- dic scheme for the whole of Devon, with periph- eral clinics staffed by after-care sisters and centered on the Orthopedic Hospital, which developed its own appliance workshop and a link with St. Loyes Training College for the Disabled.
In spite of improved communications, the periph- eral clinic system still benefits the scattered pop- ulation of Devon.
From 1934 to 1963, Capener served as con- sultant to the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital and to many other hospitals in the county. As chairman of the Dame Hannah Rogers Trust, he was instrumental in founding a residential school for spastic children at Ivybridge.
Capener was president of the orthopedic section of the Royal Society of Medicine in 1951, of the British Orthopaedic Association in 1958–1959 and of the orthopedic section of the British Medical Association in 1960. He was a vice president of the Anatomical Society of Great Britain in 1967 and of the British Association for the Advancement of Science in 1969.
In 1961, he was elected to the Council of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. Here he served on every important committee and rose to Senior Vice President in 1972. He took a partic- ular interest in the library and scientific work of the College and also in its artistic treasures. At the College he was Hunterian Professor in 1941, Arris and Gale Lecturer in 1947, Robert Jones Lecturer in 1958, Thomas Vicary Lecturer in 1971 and Bradshaw Lecturer in 1972. He was also Robert Jones Lecturer of the Hospital for Joint Diseases, New York, in 1947.
He was consultant adviser in accident surgery to the Ministry of Health from 1964 to 1971, and became Chairman of the Medical Commission on Accident Prevention in 1967.
In 1974, just before his illness, he was awarded the Honorary Medal of the Royal College of Sur- geons and the formal presentation was made to him in hospital.
It was natural that, as an anatomist interested in function, Capener should turn his attention not
only to biomechanical subjects but particularly to the function and surgery of the hand and of the spine. He threw new light on the anatomy, phys- iology and pathology of the lumbo-sacral region, but his greatest contribution was to pioneer a direct approach to vertebral bodies by what he called lateral rhachotomy, the basis of the modern operative treatment of spinal infections that has saved innumerable patients from lasting paraplegia.
Capener was quick to recognize the orthopedic importance of engineering principles and prac- tice. This found expression in his membership of the medical group of the Institution of Mechani- cal Engineers, and his chairmanship from 1956 to 1970 of the British Standards Institution Com- mittee on Surgical Implants. From 1960 to 1972 he chaired the Committee on Apparatus for the Disabled under the auspices of the National Fund for Research into Crippling Diseases. His report on the selection, training and qualifications of limb fitters was in advance of its time. A fine administrator himself, he was wont to recall that the duty of an administrator was to minister.
In his adopted city of Exeter he made many contributions as an active member of learned societies. He took a great interest in the valuable collection of medical books at the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital, arranging for the return of the more ancient ones to the care of the splendid Cathedral Library. He interested the late Mr. G.V.
Northcott in setting up and endowing the Devon Medical Foundation in 1961; this made possible the establishment of a pioneer postgraduate medical center. On closure of the Theatre Royal, he was instrumental in securing, through the gen- erosity of the same donor, the creation of the well- known Northcott Theatre in the grounds of the University of Exeter.
Blessed with a fine intellect and an imaginative mind, Capener was a man of unostentatious eru- dition and taste: in music, in literature and in the visual arts. He was fascinated by the meaning of words and horrified by their corruption or, as he would say in its correct sense, sophistication. His writing and his lecturing were clear and precise, and he was in much demand for both. He gave his literary talents and judgment to The Journal of
Bone and Joint Surgery, serving on the editorialboard from its beginning in 1948 until 1950 and again from 1964 to 1967. He acquired much skill in water-colour painting and in abstract sculpture, being much influenced by Dame Barbara Hepworth.
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Who’s Who in Orthopedics
Capener often spoke of medicine’s “general- ity.” In the sense of catholicity, this was evident in his own person and reminiscent of the versa- tility of the learned in the seventeenth and eigh- teenth centuries. Over the portal of the old medical school at Bart’s is inscribed “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might.” A powerful and courageous personality, Capener was tireless and his ardour was infectious. He dis- played the highest standards and expected these in his juniors. He took endless care in their train- ing and the greatest possible interest in their careers. Thus he became one of the few surgeons who have not only created a clinical school but left behind a band of disciples. His outstanding qualities were honesty, steadfastness and good- will towards his fellows.
His first wife, by whom he had one son and three daughters, was an invalid for many years before her death in 1970. Thereafter he married Miss Elsa Batstone, a former orthopedic after- care sister, who gave him great happiness and tended him most lovingly and skillfully during his last illness. Throughout his life he was devoted to all his family and they to him.
Norman Leslie Capener, CBE, FRCS, died on March 30, 1975.
My first meeting with Norman Capener was in 1939 when I was a house surgeon at Oswestry, and I arrived at breakfast to find him sitting there, having driven up from Devon during the night in his Bentley—in which he used to commute regu- larly to London for orthopedic meetings.
When Capener became the first orthopedic surgeon to be appointed in Devon in 1931, the Princess Elizabeth Orthopaedic Hospital, Exeter, one of the pioneer units in this country, had been in existence for 4 years. It had only 48 beds for children and not more than twice that number of patients were admitted annually. The staff was small, and being single-handed with no house surgeon or radiographer, he had to be versatile.
Apart from his orthopedic activities, Norman Capener will rank as perhaps the most famous of Exeter’s surgeons. His only rivals are John Sheldon (1752–1808), who was also a member of the Council of the Royal College of Surgeons, and John Haddy James (1788–1869), who did much to further the Hunterian tradition in Exeter and founded a short-lived medical school. Norman also pursued these two aims, for he was an enthu- siastic teacher and was one of those concerned in
the establishment of the University of Exeter in 1955. It was his ambition to see Exeter become a center for medical education. He was disap- pointed when his efforts to start a medical school were frustrated, but he was gratified to see the first postgraduate institute in the country without an undergraduate medical school inaugurated in 1962.
He exhibited a flair for the mechanical aspects of orthopedics and prosthetics. With the late Mr.
F.M. Suter he set up a superb splint shop and de- vised the “lively” splints for physiological control, which he applied so effectively to the hand.
In spite of his great preoccupation with work, he found time to interest himself in medical history and art. In 1955, when president of the Devon and Exeter Medico-Chirurgical Society, he organized an exhibition of books, documents and pictures from the Exeter Medical Library and the Exeter Cathedral Library, which will never be for- gotten. He was interested in amateur theatricals, and for many years staged the annual Christmas show, at which he was able to display his consid- erable musical talent. He was no mean artist and himself produced many of the illustrations in his numerous papers.
Barbara Hepworth instructed him in modern sculpture and those who visited Haldon Grange when the British Orthopedic Association met in Exeter in 1959 will remember his exhibits in the gardens. Later he held an exhibition of his work under the pseudonym of “Noel Caerne” at the Exeter Museum. Although most of his recreations were intellectual, for many years he was an active farmer, keenly interested in the ancient crafts he was most anxious to preserve.
In a brief summary, it is impossible to record all his activities in Exeter and Devon. He was a most remarkable man, one might almost say a phe- nomenon, and it has been a privilege and an unfor- gettable experience to have worked with him.
While Norman Capener was known internation- ally and tributes to his life and work will come from the whole world, it is perhaps not generally known that he had a particular interest in, and is owed a special debt by, Northern Ireland.
It may truly be said that he was an initiator of the development of orthopedic services in North- ern Ireland, being perhaps the chief influence in the setting-up of the Council for Orthopedic Development and the Orthopedic Service in the 1940s. He subsequently visited the Province on
55Who’s Who in Orthopedics
numerous occasions, always stimulating, encour- aging and advising. His efforts for the develop- ment of a modern orthopedic hospital on the Musgrave Park site eventually culminated in the building of the Withers Orthopaedic Centre. His well-known work on tuberculosis of the spine greatly influenced the treatment of this condition, once so common in Northern Ireland. He encour- aged, indeed arranged for, young surgeons to go to the Princess Elizabeth Orthopaedic Hospital for further specialist training and always took a most helpful and abiding interest in their careers.
In Italy, he met Heneage Ogilvie who became a lifelong friend. He was, thus, a founder member of the surgical travelers, a club formed by Sir Heneage Ogilvie shortly after the war, and as a member of the club he visited most of the leading surgical centers in Europe during the years between the two wars.
In his younger days he practiced as a general surgeon, but perhaps owing to his war experience he always took a special interest in traumatic and fracture surgery. He held the position of Profes- sor of Surgery at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland and was a noted clinical teacher. Those who had the privilege of working with him will always remember the many truths he passed on to them, based always on sound common sense. In his later years he confined himself to orthopedic surgery. He was Vice President of the British Orthopaedic Association in 1954–1955. For many years he was Chairman of the Board of Gover- nors of Dr. Steevens’ Hospital.
He had many outside interests, chief of which were golf and racing. He was Honorary Surgeon to three of the leading racecourses in Ireland and took a personal interest in the treatment of any injured jockey who came under his care. He was always happy entertaining his friends in his lovely Georgian house in Merrion Square and was a charming host. Arthur Chance died on June 24, 1980, in his 91st year, after a long illness borne with much fortitude. He was survived by his wife, Harriett, who nursed him devotedly during his long years of incapacity and by his only child, Gillian.
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