James Roderick Johnston Cameron (1902-1997)
Object numberED.CS.2010.45
TitleJames Roderick Johnston Cameron (1902-1997)
Creator Dorothy Cameron (Delineator)
DescriptionJames Roderick Johnston Cameron (1902-1997), Fellow 1931, President 1967-70
Oil on canvas, 1977, by his wife, Dorothy Cameron
James Roderick Johnston Cameron (known in medical circles simply as “J R”, and to his close friends as Derick) was born in Belfast in 1902. His father was a dental surgeon and his mother was the grand-niece of one of the most famous Scottish doctors of all time, Sir James Young Simpson.
Derick Cameron was educated in Edinburgh at George Watson’s College and his original intention was to follow in his father’s professional footsteps. He obtained the College’s Licentiate in Dental Surgery in 1926 but long before this he had decided also to become a doctor and in 1927 he qualified in medicine as a Triple Licentiate of the Scottish Royal Colleges.
After holding junior hospital posts in Edinburgh, he spent some time in Montreal working first in the pathology department of McGill University and later as Resident to Dr Wilder Penfield, OM, Hon FRCSEd, in the Royal Victoria Hospital. With this renowned neurosurgeon he developed a warm and lasting friendship and another Canadian with whom he became friendly at that time was Norman Bethune FRCSEd (q.v.), later to achieve posthumous fame as a hero of Communist China.
Having returned from Canada and resolved to make his career in surgery, Cameron obtained the Fellowship of the College in 1931 and then became a Clinical Tutor in the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary. In 1938 he was appointed assistant surgeon at Leith Hospital and also at the Royal Infirmary but within a few months Britain was at war and he immediately volunteered for duty with the RAMC as a surgical specialist.
He was with the combined British and French force at Narvik in the ill-fated Norwegian campaign of 1940 during which, because he could ski (at that time a fairly unusual accomplishment!), he was seconded to act as Medical Officer to that famous French regiment, the Chasseurs Alpins. Between 1941 and 1944 he commanded the surgical divisions of various military hospitals in Egypt and Palestine and for several months was senior surgical consultant to the British forces in Iraq and Iran (PAI Force). In 1944 he was posted to Italy and to the command of the combined surgical divisions of two base hospitals where, during weeks of fierce fighting with heavy casualties he had ultimate responsibility for nearly 1000 surgical beds.
After demobilisation he returned to civil practice in Edinburgh and it was during these early post war years that, as assistant surgeon in the Royal Infirmary, he developed his special interest and expertise in the surgery of the thyroid gland. His appointment in 1957 as surgeon in charge of wards was the fulfilment of a long cherished ambition and, as such, his commitment to thyroid surgery increased steadily but not to the exclusion of other interests; amongst these was the surgery of malignant skin tumours and his experience of the treatment of melanoma was probably unrivalled in Scotland.
Cameron was a first class clinician and bedside teacher but he was not a spectacular or rapid operator. Nevertheless, his meticulous technique achieved excellent results with a minimal incidence of complications which more flamboyant surgeons found hard to emulate. He was an admirable team leader of a surgical unit which was as noted for its relaxed happy atmosphere as for its efficiency and clinical excellence.
In the 1950s and 1960s Cameron became increasingly involved in the affairs of the College and having served on Council and as Vice President, he was elected President in 1967. During his term of office, he initiated a radical and long overdue revision of the College's Laws, completed under his successor, which has enabled it to function efficiently as a modern corporation without any weakening of its democratic tradition.
Mindful of his early interest in dentistry, Cameron gave special encouragement to the activities of the College’s Dental Faculty, in recognition of which he was awarded the Honorary Fellowship in Dental Surgery. During his term of office he travelled widely on College business and he was particularly proud of having led the first College examining teams to conduct Fellowship examinations in Burma (Myanmar) and in Bangladesh.
His lasting memorial in the College is the triennial Simpson Memorial Lecture, established in 1966 largely through his efforts and associated with the award of the Sir James Young Simpson Gold Medal which is one of the highest honours which the College can bestow. He handsomely inaugurated the endowment fund which supports the lectureship and this was generously augmented by contributions from other members of the Simpson family.
Derick Cameron was a warm-hearted, kindly man with a keen intellect and an abundance of common sense but he sometimes gave the impression of being vague, absent-minded and indecisive. It is quite likely that this image was deliberately cultivated but whether natural or contrived, it combined with his own special brand of whimsical humour and his benign personality to enshrine his reputation as one of Edinburgh’s notable medical “characters”.
Production date 1977 - 1977
Production periodTwentieth century
Object nameJames Roderick Johnston Cameron (1902-1997), Portrait
Object categoryArtworks
Dimensions
- Height: 60 cm
Width: 70 cm
Depth: 3.5 cm