Dr Jeffrey Selwyn Crawford
1969-1976 - President
1981 - Gold medal winner
On August 16th 1988 Jeffrey Selwyn Crawford died suddenly at home, the day after celebrating his 66th birthday. He was retired only two weeks.
Jeff (or Selwyn) was born on 15th August 1922 in Newcastle upon Tyne. In 1929 his parents moved to Kingston upon Hull and he entered Hull Grammar School in 1930. His early academic career was biased towards the arts, for his original intention was to become a lawyer. His studies were interrupted by a war-time evacuation to Thorne, near Doncaster. Having decided on a medical career, he was required to spend a summer learning physics and chemistry to obtain the pre-registration examination for admission to medical school.
In 1941 he entered Leeds Medical School, from which he graduated in March 1947. Though he left medical school with an interest in paediatrics, he worked first as a House Physician and then as a Casualty Officer in Dewsbury before becoming a junior anaesthetic registrar there in 1948. It was here that he began his varied and colourful career in anaesthetics.
There followed a period as a “Recognised Anaesthetist” to various Royal Air Force Hospitals which lasted until June 1952. Subsequent posts included a period at Leicester Royal Infirmary, a Senior Registrar post at the Central Middlesex Hospital and practice in Rhodesia and Norway. In 1957 he worked as a locum Senior Hospital Medical Officer in Portsmouth.
In 1956 a publication “Some Aspects of Obstetric Anaesthesia” appeared in the British Journal of Anaesthesia. This gave the first signal of what was to become his major speciality interest for the next thirty years.
In 1956 he left England to take up a Fellowship in Anaesthesia at the University of Pittsburgh, followed the next year by a similar post at the New York Presbyterian Columbia Hospital. He then worked as a staff Anaesthetist at the University of Chicago until returning to the United Kingdom in 1960 as Medical Research Council Fellow in obstetric anaesthesia at Aberdeen. The description of this post as “part-time, with non obstetric clinical duties, specifically emergency and gynaecological sessions” admirably illustrates Jeff’s sense of purpose and all embracing interests in obstetric anaesthesia. He knew what he wanted and generally got his way.
It was in Aberdeen that he met his future wife Eve, then sister on a post-natal ward. He left Aberdeen in 1961 to take up a post at the University of Chicago, returning in 1965 to become Deputy Director of the Research Department of Anaesthetics at the Royal College of Surgeons.
In 1967, his advice was sought about the provision of anaesthetic services for a new maternity hospital to be built on the Queen Elizabeth Campus, in Birmingham. He was subsequently persuaded to take up a post as full-time Consultant Obstetric Anaesthetist with sole responsibility to Birmingham Maternity Hospital. By the early 1970s his unit was already renowned, his international reputation burgeoned and his influence spread. Publication followed publication and a third edition of his textbook “Principles and Practice of Obstetric Anaesthesia” was released in 1971.
He was the Founder President of the Obstetric Anaesthetists Association in the late sixties, and anaesthesia was not the only speciality to acknowledge his contributions. In 1977 he was awarded a Fellowship ad eundem of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. In 1982 he gave a Simpson Oration at the College.
Jeff’s contribution to obstetric anaesthesia and analgesia was immense. Without his stimulus it is unlikely that obstetric anaesthesia would be in the strong position that it is in today. Many future generations of mothers and babies will reap the rewards of his crusades. Not, of course, that everyone agreed with all that he said. His stubborn streak, an asset in many ways, could get him into trouble, even with his friends!
To many it appeared that he opposed formal teaching in his unit. ‘Coffee’ was a ritual enjoyed by most, and hated by a few. This was a time when trainees could listen, discuss, opine, argue and learn not only of obstetric anaesthesia and Birmingham Maternity Hospital, but about practice elsewhere. For Selwyn engendered a vast international correspondence, as a result of his travels, and from the visitors who came to learn how to ‘do epidurals’. Many came to earn their tie or scarf having performed 50 successfully. His methodical approach to the statistical evaluation of obstetric anaesthesia and analgesia is unsurpassed and a lesson to those who only now are being driven into clinical audit.
It was hard to envisage him retiring and indeed that was not his intention. He had found himself an office in the hospital to continue his research, and equipped himself with a word-processor. It was especially poignant to find his editorial in September’s British Journal of Anaesthesia. Moreover he had leisure activities that he had intended to pursue for he had always enjoyed sports, having been a keen cricketer, walker and golfer. He visited the Reddings frequently.
It is fortunate that just before his ‘retirement', his colleagues at the Maternity Hospital had gathered to applaud and celebrate his illustrious career, a moving evening shared with his family and friends. Enduring memories are the best memorials and those who worked with him will share the recollection of Jeff striding through the Maternity Hospital, hair billowing, brandishing his cigarette holder. For many he will always be remembered as “The Master” of the Maternity Hospital. As news of his passing echoes around the world, many will mourn and share the sorrow of his wife Eve and sons Callum, Julian, Iain and Jonathan.
“Jeff’s ideas have been a major catalyst in the obstetric interests of many anaesthetists including my own.
It is his single-mindedness of purpose which has created the good status of Obstetric Anaesthesia throughout the world.”
Tunstall 1988
Adapted from BMJ obituary by Dr Rowland B. Hopkinson, Consultant Anaesthetist, East Birmingham Hospital.
BMJ Obituary 1989;298:955 (paywall)
