Clifford Frank Hawkins

Clifford Frank Hawkins
Born(1915-12-23)23 December 1915
London
Died5 December 1991(1991-12-05) (aged 75)
NationalityBritish
OccupationGastroenterologist
Known forSpeaking and Writing in Medicine (1967)[1]

Clifford Frank Hawkins FRCP (1915–1991) was a British gastroenterologist and rheumatologist.[2]

Biography

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After education at Dulwich College, Clifford F. Hawkins studied at the medical school of Guy's Hospital, where he graduated MB BS in 1939. During WWII he served briefly in the RAMC before being invalided out. He then served during the remainder of the war in the EMS.[1] In 1946 he moved to Birmingham, where he was mentored by Lionel Hardy.[2] At Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham, he was from 1946 to 1950 a senior registrar and from 1950 to 1981 a consultant physician. From 1951 to 1981 he was a senior lecturer at the University of Birmingham. From 1955 he was also a consultant physician at Droitwich Hospital.[1]

He received the Diploma of Anaesthesiology in 1942 and the higher MD in 1946. He was elected FRCP in 1955.[2] He gave in 1970 the Bradshaw Lecture on Diarrhoea: changing concepts and new diagnoses.

His research interests in gastroenterology included the development of the first effective rubber-based ileostomy bag, the forerunner of modern ileostomy appliances which have transformed the lives of many patients. His published work includes studies of macrocytic anaemia in gastrointestinal disease; immunological studies of Crohn's disease; oral glucose in the reduction of jejunostomy effluent and gluten subfractions in coeliac disease.[1]

In 1976 Hawkins and colleagues M. Farr, C. J. Morris, A. M. Hoare, and N. Williamson were the first to report rod-shaped organisms in synovial membrane involved in Whipple's disease.[3][2]

He was outstanding in writing and lecturing.[1] The BMJ editor Stephen Lock recommended Hawkins's book Speaking and writing in medicine for its excellence on the topic of "listening and speaking to patients" as well as its "commonsense, wit, and wisdom".[4] Hawkins wrote books and articles for medical professionals and for the general public. For about 10 years for the British Medical Journal he wrote a monthly column entitled "What's new in the new editions".[2]

Hawkins was the editor-in-chief for the Rheumatism and Arthritis Council's Reports on rheumatic diseases from 1959 to 1977. He was the president of the Heberden Society in 1982.[1] (The Heberden Society was formed in 1936 and became in 1983 part of the British Society for Rheumatology.)

On 22 September 1945 at Seven Oaks Congregational Church in Kent, Hawkins married Susan Fantes.[5] They had three children.[2]

Selected publications

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Articles

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Books

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  • two chapters in John W. Todd (1960). Textbook of Clinical Medicine. London: Pitman Medical Publishing Co.
  • Diseases of the alimentary tract. London: Heinemann, 1963. 22 October 2013. ISBN 9781483195520. https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.159.3810.73.b
  • Speaking and writing in medicine, the art of communication. Springfield, Illinois: Charles C. Thomas Publisher. 1967. pp. xiii+159.[6]
  • You and your guts. London: BMA. 1971.
  • as editor with R. N. Allan, Michael R. B. Keighley, and J. Alexander-Williams: Inflammatory Bowel Diseases. Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone. 1983. 2nd edition, 1990.
  • as editor with Marco Sorgi: Research: how to plan, speak and write about it. Berlin; New York: Springer-Verlag. 1985. pp. viii+184. ISBN 0387139923; pbk; foreword by Stephen Lock{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)
  • with Elwyn Elias: Lecture notes on gastroenterology. Oxford: Blackwell Scientific. 1985.
  • Alimentary, my dear Doctor. Oxford: Radcliffe Medical. 1988.

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f "Obituary C. F. Hawkins, MD, FRCP, DA". BMJ. 304 (6818): 51. 4 January 1992. doi:10.1136/bmj.304.6818.51. PMC 1880960.
  2. ^ a b c d e f "Clifford Frank Hawkins". Munk's Roll, Volume IX, Lives of the Fellows, Royal College of Physicians.
  3. ^ Hawkins CF; Farr M; Morris CJ; Hoare AM; Williamson N (December 1976). "Detection by electron microscope of rod-shaped organisms in synovial membrane from a patient with the arthritis of Whipple's disease". Ann Rheum Dis. 35 (6): 502–509. doi:10.1136/ard.35.6.502. PMC 1006593. PMID 64131.
  4. ^ Lock, Stephen (13 May 1978). "In their own write". Br Med J. 1 (6122): 1267–1268. doi:10.1136/bmj.1.6122.1267. PMC 1604607.
  5. ^ "Marriages". Seven Oaks and Kentish Advertiser. 28 September 1945.
  6. ^ Cummins, Harold (5 January 1968). "Review of Speaking and Writing in Medicine. The Art of Communication by Clifford F. Hawkins". Science. 159 (3810): 73–74. doi:10.1126/science.159.3810.73-a. page 73 page 74