Who’s Who in Orthopedics
surgery and medicine in 1922, and gained his doc- torate of medicine with a thesis of special merit in 1924. He was one of the first four candidates to become master of orthopedic surgery in 1926;
gained the fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh in 1928; and 20 years later in recognition of clinical and academic achieve- ment was elected Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England ad eundem.
The determination to serve crippled children was declared from the beginning: his second house surgeon’s appointment was to the Leasowe Children’s Hospital; at the age of 25 he became assistant consultant to the Royal Liverpool Chil- dren’s Hospital, and shortly afterwards to the Alder Hey Children’s Hospital. He was assistant orthopedic consultant to the David Lewis North- ern Hospital from 1928 to 1933 when he became full consultant orthopedic surgeon to Robert Jones’s own hospital, the Royal Southern.
In earlier years his teaching of undergraduate and postgraduate students was overshadowed by the powerful personality of the late Professor McMurray, whom he served loyally and faithfully as clinical lecturer; but on succession in 1948 as director of orthopedic studies, and later in the pro- fessorial chair of the university, his breadth of vision was given full rein and great qualities of leadership were firmly established.
The postgraduate course of orthopedic studies was modified by insistence on preliminary general surgical training, greater clinical respon- sibility, an introduction to clinical research, the academic discipline of preparation of a thesis, and above all by the broadening of teaching to embrace that of all his colleagues in Liverpool and in many other orthopedic centers. The luster and distinction he added to this historic school of orthopedics will be treasured with pride and affection by MChOrth graduates, not only in Great Britain but in every nation of the British Commonwealth and other countries throughout the world.
The success of his stimulating leadership arose not only from tremendous enthusiasm, unbounded energy, and devotion to duty such that in recent years he was worried and anxious lest the ever-widening field of knowledge in basic sci- ences might not be reflected fully; still more was it from his capacity for friendship. One of his close colleagues has written:
The present spirit of friendly cooperation between Liverpool orthopedic surgeons is almost entirely of his 224
Bryan Leslie McFARLAND
1900–1963
Professor Bryan McFarland, director of orthope- dic studies and professor of orthopedic surgery in the University of Liverpool, past president of the British Orthopedic Association, vice president of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, and president of the International Orthopedic Society, died at his home in Liverpool on January 23, 1963. When the Lady Chapel of the Liverpool Cathedral was thronged with colleagues, students and nurses, sharing with the bereaved family a memorial service as simple yet dignified as he himself would have chosen, the sun gleamed brightly through the stained glass window dedi- cated to service, at the foot of which rest the ashes of Robert Jones.
It was to the Liverpool school of orthopedics and the traditions of Hugh Owen Thomas, Robert Jones and T.P. McMurray that McFarland dedi- cated his life. Indeed the inspiration and magnetic personality of Robert Jones shone through many of his own qualities. He had the same happy twin- kling eyes, warm heart, deep sense of friendship, love of children, gift of humor and fund of anec- dote. He too showed open honesty with disdain of pomp and arrogance. His intuitive simplicity was a heritage of conservative philosophy broad- ened by awareness of new advance. With kind humanity he carried the torch of Robert Jones.
A true son of Liverpool, Bryan’s life was spent on Merseyside, first at the Wallasey Grammar School and then the medical school of the Uni- versity of Liverpool, where he graduated in
making. He was the prime mover in forming the Liverpool Orthopedic Circle in 1944. The informal and frank discussion of cases which follows each monthly dinner of the circle has proved invaluable to its members, not only in their work but in forming the foundations of much closer personal friendships than could otherwise have been possible. McFarland’s con- tributions to the discussions were typical of him, direct and often pungent, and scorning all pretence and humbug. With McFarland at the head, the postgraduate school flourished.
As a founder member of the British editorial board of The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery his quick wit, shrewd judgment, basic common sense and radiant happiness were invaluable. At an early meeting, after two issues of the first British volume had been expensively published, we reviewed the balance sheet with dismayed anxiety, and the board was informed that after months of endeavor, post-war controls had not yet been surmounted and there was no Board of Trade licence even for paper already used. With a chuckle McFarland said “ it seems to me that in pursuing an illegal venture we face financial ruin—but we will go on.” And on we did, in the happiest spirit of collaboration with our American colleagues.
These qualities stood him in good stead in the many councils and associations of which he became president, including the Liverpool Medical Institution, University Club, Merseyside branch of the British Medical Association and Liverpool Philomathic Society. He was clerk to the Robert Jones Dining Club, which meets each year after the eponymous lecture at the Royal College of Surgeons of England—an oration that he himself gave brilliantly, as he did also the first McMurray Memorial Lecture in Liverpool. He prepared assiduously, for example taking coach- ing lessons in French to improve his continental duties, culminating in the presidency of the Société Internationale de Chirurgie Orthopédique et de Traumatologie. We chaffed him that his French was spoken with a strong Liverpool accent; but we loved him the more.
The same assiduous determination was a feature of his recreations. He would leave home at three o’clock in the morning to arrive in Anglesey before dawn for wild-fowl shooting, and a superb shot he was. It was not until after the age of 40 that he became an enthusiastic fish- erman, but so thorough was the preparation and practice that he could equal the skill of any High- land ghillie at Cape Wrath. Within a day or two
of the end, during a brief return of consciousness and momentary recapture of the old sparkle, he instructed his son how to secure and pack a Scotch salmon to fly back to his chief in America with whom he was working on a surgi- cal fellowship.
This tenacity and indomitable courage was epitomized in his presidential address to the Philomathic Society on “The Will to Live,” when he said: “So it is with the will to live: through difficulties surmounted, fear overcome and pain endured the will is strengthened and the core of endurance is tempered hard.” Ten years later these staunch qualities were exemplified in his own long illness, beginning while lecturing to old stu- dents in Australia, and ending so wearily that he was diffident in welcoming visitors lest he might not still seem steel blue and blade straight. With gentle love, and no less firm endurance, he was sustained and comforted by his wife Ethel. He left behind his wife and two sons John and Andrew.
Bryan’s concluding words in his Philomathic address were:
The times are troubled and trying: the present appears treacherous and the future uncertain. But if we put our doubting mind in its place, and if instead we search the hearts within us, we shall find a sense of inevitable success and a feeling of ultimate triumph. This feeling, if unhindered by anxious thought, will grow in strength; and when the troubled times are over we shall be just that little bit more balanced in judgment, that little bit more determined in character, and that little bit stronger in spirit. Of these little bits is built up our national character which renders unconquerable our land and invincible our soul.
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Who’s Who in Orthopedics
