William Henry Wynn (1878 - 1956)

Born 2 Feb 1878 in Birmingham, Warwickshire, England, United Kingdom

Ancestors

Husband of Florence (Ashford) Wynn — married 4 Jun 1907 in Church Of The Redeemer, Hagley Road, Birmingham, UK

Descendants

Died 11 Jun 1956 at age 78 in Birmingham, Warwickshire, England, United Kingdom

Biography

William Wynn was born in Warwickshire, England.

William, son of Henry James Wynn & Elizabeth, was baptised on 17 March 1878 in Birmingham, Warwickshire, England.^[1]

He passed away in 1956.

Obituary W. H. WYNN, M.D., M.Sc., F.R.C.P. The death on June 11 of Professor W. H. Wynn, emeritus professor of medicine at the University of Birmingham, has brought to a close a long and valuable life of great distinction and achievement. He was 78 years of age. William Henry Wynn was born and educated in Birmingham, and to Birmingham medicine he largely devoted his life. From King Edward's Grammar School, Aston, at the age of 16 he won an entrance scholarship to Mason College, which, during Wynn's distinguished undergraduate career there, became the University of Birmingham. At 18 he not only graduated B.Sc. (London) with honours but was first in physiology in the primary Fellowship and was awarded the gold medal in physiology at the intermediate examination for the London M.B. As an undergraduate he won a large number of other medals and prizes, and in 1901 obtained the London M.B. with honours and the M.Sc. of Birmingham-this degree being conferred on him at the university's first graduation ceremony. These successes were not, however, achieved by devoting himself wholly to work, for Wynn played hockey for the university and was chairman of the Union and captain of the university cycling club. He proceeded M.D. in 1902, and a year later, after holding the post of house-physician at Queen's Hospital, he was appointed pathologist to the General Hospital, Birmingham. While holding this appointment he contracted typhoid fever and nearly lost his life. In 1904, at the age of 26, he was elected assistant physician to the hospital, and within a few years his erudition had made him one of the outstanding physicians in England and his practice encompassed the whole country. Although much of his success resulted from his high clinical acumen, his encyclopaedic knowledge, and his unfailing kindness to and consideration for his patients and their relatives, he was undoubtedly one of the first fully to appreciate the impact of bacteriology on clinical practice, and he himself was a first-class bacteriologist and clinical pathologist. Many of his early papers were on the treatment of pneumonia and other infections and on prophylactic vaccination. In 1926 he became professor of medicine in the University of Birmingham, and he held the chair with distinction until 1943, when on leaving the active staff of the hospital he became professor emeritus. Though he was a general physician his dominant interest was always in pulmonary diseases, and to him belongs the credit for laying the foundations of the excellent tuberculosis services that exist in the Midlands to-day. He was on the staff of several hospitals in and near Birmingham, including the Birmingham Municipal Sanatorium, and he was also consulting tuberculosis physician to the Derbyshire County Council. His book, The Problems of Consumption, was published in 1912. During the first world war he served as a captain in the R.A.M.C., and during the last war he was regional adviser in medicine to the E.M.S. From 1945 to 1955 Professor Wynn was director of medical graduatestudies in the University of Birmingham, and in this appointment he did much for the future education of the general practitioner and to help those who were training to be consultants. Professor Wynn became a member of the Royal College of Physicians in 1905 and was elected a Fellow in 1922. He was devoted to the College and was an examiner in 1934-8 and a Censor in 1944 and 1945. He was only the second Censor of the College that Birmingham has ever had, the first being John Ash, one of the original physicians to the Birmingham General Hospital. In 1948 and 1949 he gave the FitzPatrick Lectures on the " Pestilences of War," and these reflected his deep interest in and knowledge of archaeology and history. He was one of the original members of the Association of Physicians of Great Britain and Ireland, and it gave him very real pleasure when he received the good wishes of the association after the recent 50th anniversary meeting. Wynn was a pioneer motorist and remained keenly interested in motor-cars to the end of his life. He travelled widely and read avidly: despite his full professional life there was nothing worth reading that he had not read and nothing worth seeing that he had not seen. Though naturally shy and somewhat reserved, he was a most interesting and entertaining conversationalist and his company was always a delight. He had been in failing health for a year and knew that his life was coming to an end. He faced death with the courage and cheerfulness that can only spring from a life in which self has not counted and the opportunity to serve one's hospital, university, country, and fellow beings has been grasped and used to the limit of one's capacity. In 1907 he married Florence Ashford, a fellow graduate of Birmingham University. She died in 1935. There were three children of the marriage, a son and two daughters, all of whom have emulated their father's example of intellectual devotion to the service of others. -A. G. W. W.^[2]

Sources

1. ↑ Baptism: "England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975"
   citing Digital film/folder number: 007567502; FHL microfilm: 1520129; Record number: 522; Packet letter: C
   FamilySearch Record: J9G6-8HF (accessed 19 April 2024)
   William Henry Wynn baptism on 17 Mar 1878, son of Henry James Wynn & Elizabeth, in Birmingham, Warwickshire, England, United Kingdom.
2. ↑ British Medical Journal, June 23, 1956

Acknowledgments

Thanks to John Talbut for starting this profile. Click the Changes tab for the details of contributions by John and others.