User:PCMorphy72/Max Barrett

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Dr. Arthur Max Barrett

Arthur Max Barrett (28 July 1909 – 11 December 1961), often known as Dr. A. M. Barrett, was an university morbid anatomist and histologist at Cambridge University, and an honorary consulting pathologist to the United Cambridge Hospitals and to the East Anglian Regional Hospital Board. He wrote numerous works, often cited in medical literature. He is known today for the Barrett Room at Addenbrooke's Hospital named in his honour. He is also known to be the father of Syd Barrett, who was the founding member of the band Pink Floyd and pioneering singer-songwriter.

Biography[edit]

Early years (1909-26)[edit]

Eric, Keith, Max, Roy and Doreen Barrett

Arthur Max Barrett was born in 1909 at Thaxted, Essex, England, where he spent his boyhood. He was the son of Arthur Samuel Barrett, who conducted a retail business in Thaxted, and Alice Mary (née Ashford). His mother's father, the Rev. Charles Ashford, was for 19 years Congregational Minister at Thaxted, and his maternal grandmother (née Ellen Garrett) was known as a cousin of Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, although a research on Syd Barrett genealogy has not found any relation yet. Max Barrett had a deeply religious family life. He was educated at the famous grammar school at Newport, Essex (now Newport Free Grammar School) and later, after his parents moved to Cambridge, at the Cambridge and County High School (now Cambridgeshire High School for Boys). He and his sister made numerous expeditions in search of wild flowers and birds; and their appreciation of music made them expert in the recognition of birds by their song. As a boy his open friendship and sense of service also attracted him to scouting. He was a keen member of the Cambridge County School Troop, in which he gained his King's Scout Badge and became troop leader. His early botanical knowledge never left him and in fact expanded in later life with his study of the fungi.

Middle years (1926-46)[edit]

At school he decided on a career in medicine, in which his previous biological studies later proved so valuable. In 1927 he was awarded a State Scholarship to Cambridge University and also a Major Scholarship to Pembroke College. He came up to Cambridge in 1928. His undergraduate career was brilliant: in 1930 he obtained a First Class in the Natural Science Tripos Part I and the Shoolbred Scholarship at Pembroke, and in 1931 he was placed in the First Class in Part II of the Natural Sciences Tripos (Pathology) and was awarded a Foundress Scholarship at Pembroke. In the Part II class in Pathology he first came under the influence of H. R. Dean, who had introduced this course to the Cambridge Natural Science Tripos Part II in 1925. He went to the London Hospital Medical College as an entrance scholar in pathology and won five prizes during his clinical training. He graduated MB BCh in 1934 and then worked in the wards and laboratories of the London Hospital until 1938. He worked as University Demonstrator at Cambridge from 1938-1946. During the war years he was the only University Demonstrator in the Department, and shouldered a very large part of the teaching responsibility. Despite this he found time to take an active interest in the routine pathology services of Addenbrooke's Hospital. Outside his professional activities, after his return to Cambridge, he singularly enriched the musical world of the town. He was for more than twenty years Honorary Secretary of the Cambridge Philharmonic Society. His musical ability included "an enviably deep bass". He enjoyed, among his hobbies, the collection of field fungi. These were carefully preserved, often examined histologically, and recorded with care. His opinion on some rare fungus was greatly valued at the Autumn field meetings of the British Mycological Society.

Later years (1946-61)[edit]

In 1946 the University became responsible for the entire pathological services of Addenbrooke's Hospital and Max Barrett was appointed to the newly created consultant post of University Morbid Anatomist and Histologist. A happier match between man and job can seldom have been made and during the next fifteen years Max Barrett was to develop a massive reputation both as a practising pathologist and as a postgraduate teacher. He believed in the precise use of language, and this was constantly illustrated in the detailed reports which he made on histological preparations. At the microscope, as in the post mortem room, he was often able to discover some small but important clue which enabled a firm diagnosis to be made. He was for many years an examiner for the Institute of Medical and Laboratory Technology. As a morbid histologist his opinion was very highly regarded, and was frequently sought by pathologists in East Anglia and elsewhere. His thesis for the M.D. degree was submitted in 1960 and gained him the Raymond Horton-Smith prize. Another and important part of his task as University Morbid Anatomist was the teaching of recent recruits to pathology. Professor Dean, appreciating the rapidly growing need for hospital pathologists, began a training scheme for would-be pathologists in 1946. This arrangement enabled young medical men interested in pathology, after their preliminary clinical appointments, to spend two or three years gaining a broad experience of all the usual branches of hospital laboratory work. This venture has proved a great success largely due to the firm foundations laid by Barrett.

Death and legacy[edit]

During his final illness, with characteristic bravery, he persisted as busily as ever in his many duties. Indeed up to a week before his death his uniformly perfect pathological work continued. Inoperable cancer was diagnosed and Max Barrett died suddenly on December 11, 1961. In an obituary it was said about him:

As a friend and counsellor he was staunch and always reliable. No decision was taken in haste but only after careful consideration. When he spoke at the Faculty Board of Medicine or as secretary of the Degree Committee everyone recognized it as a carefully balanced statement worthy of consideration. His family life was a happy one: tea with the Barretts was fun, for he had imparted to his family his unbounded curiosity, which was, in the view of many friends, his most endearing characteristic.

The youngest of his five children he left behind, Roger and Rosemary, were 15 and 14 years old respectively. Through Roger, later known as Syd Barrett, he would go on to gain a certain notoriety around the world among subsequent generations of songwriting enthusiasts so far. Later a venue in a private ward at the Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge, used for seminars, training, meeting, consulting and conferences, was named Barrett Room in his honour.

Works[edit]

The following list of A. M. Barrett's works is taken from his obituary on the official journal of the Pathological Society of Great Britain and Ireland (now The Journal of Pathology) published in January 1964. Here the list is in MLA format. Some supposed minor works like the ones on mycology (study of the fungi) were missing there.

  • Bowen, W. H., and A. M. Barrett. "A case of anuria." The Clinical journal 75 (1946): 52-55.
  • Barrett, A.M. "Sudden death in infancy." Recent advances in pediatrics [London], ed. D. Gairdner. 1954: 301-320.

References[edit]

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