The seven professorial protégés of John Gillies

Abstract

John Gillies was the founding head of the Department of Anaesthetics at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, which began in 1940. An astute educator, he was instrumental in establishing anesthesia as a medical specialty, on equal footing with surgery, from the start of the National Health Service in 1948. Gillies’ kudos attracted medical graduates from the UK, USA and Canada to work in his Department. The excellence of his teaching and mentoring may be judged from the fact that no less than seven of his protégés became professors of anesthesia/anesthesiology. This paper identifies these seven professorial protégés and reviews their careers. Reasons for the successful consequences of John Gillies’ tutelage are considered.