St Thomas's Hospital Medical School

St Thomas's Hospital Medical School in London was one of the oldest and most prestigious medical schools in the UK. The school was absorbed to form part of King's College London.

History

It was part of one of the oldest hospitals in London, St Thomas' Hospital established in 1173 but whose roots can be traced to the establishment of St Mary Overie Priory in 1106.^[1]^[2]^[3] According to historical records St Thomas's Hospital Medical School was founded in about 1550. It was admitted as a school of the University of London in 1900 but remained a constituent part of St Thomas' Hospital until 1948 when it formally became part of the university. In 1982 it merged with the medical school at Guy's Hospital to form the United Medical and Dental Schools of Guy's and St Thomas' Hospitals. In turn UMDS was absorbed by King's College London School of Medicine and Dentistry, but the dentists have since been split out into The Dental Institute.

Name

Unlike the hospital which in recent times dropped the possessive "s", the medical school continued with the original spelling.^[4]

Famous alumni

Famous alumni include

Takaki Kanehiro (1849 - 1920) - Japanese naval doctor, first person to discover the link between beriberi and diet.
Havelock Ellis (1859 - 1939) - Physician, sexual psychologist and social reformer.
W. Somerset Maugham (1874 - 1965) - Playwright, novelist, short story writer.
Eric Anson (1892 - 1969) - New Zealand's first specialist anaesthetist.
Max Theiler (1899 – 1972) - Virologist, awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1951 for developing a vaccine for yellow fever.
Richard Doll (1912 - 2005) - Epidemiologist and physiologist; established link between smoking and cancer.
Dame Cecily Saunders DBE OM (1918-2005) - Nurse, physician and social worker who developed the concept of the hospice and was a pioneer of palliative care.
David Owen (b. 1938) - Labour Foreign Secretary and founder of the Social Democratic Party.
Fiona Wood AM (b. 1958) - Plastic surgeon, Australian of the Year 2005.
Tony Freemont AM (b. 1953) - Current head of Manchester Medical School.
Jeffrey Tate (b. 1948) - Conductor
Tony Osbourne (b. 1972) - Physician, cardiologist.
Rustom Jal Vakil (b. 1911) - Eminent Indian cardiologist, recipient of the prestigious Lasker Prize known as the American Nobel.