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Franklin Adin Simmonds

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Franklin Adin Simmonds F.R.C.S. (10 October 1909 - 14 July 1983) was a British orthopaedic surgeon after whom the Simmonds' test on rupture of the Achilles Tendon is named. He also worked with the pioneering surgeon John Charnley on hip replacement surgery and became expert in this field.

Career

After education at Sherborne School in Dorset he studied at Pembroke College Cambridge and St Thomas's Hospital London. In 1939-41 he worked with W Rowley Bristow at St Nicholas's Hospital Pyrford (subsequently renamed Rowley Bristow Hospital Pyrford and when Rowley Bristow became Brigadier in charge of orthopaedic services of the British Army, he recruited Simmonds into the Royal Army Medical Corps. Lt Col Simmonds commanded base hospitals in North Africa, Sicily, France and the Far East. After the war he returned to Pyrford and worked there and at The Royal Surrey County Hospital Guildford until his retirement in 1975. His simple but effective test for Rupture of the Achilles Tendon was developed in 1956/57 and is still used today.

A golf Blue at Cambridge, his clinical skill with his hands was mirrored in a life long amateur golf expertise; his 0 (zero) handicap for most of his adult life equalled that of a professional.

References

Pembroke College Cambridge Society Gazette Annual Gazette vol 6 1932 Golf Blue

The Diagnosis of the Ruptured Achilles Tendon, F A Simmonds MB FRCS July 1957 The Practitioner 179

The Immobile Meniscus, F A Simmonds FRCS 1964 Postgraduate Medical Journal 40 pp527-528

Obituary 24 September 1983 British Medical Journal vol 287 p919