Serjeant Surgeon

The Serjeant Surgeon is the senior surgeon in the Medical Household of the Royal Household of the Sovereign of the United Kingdom. The origin of the post dates back to 1253. Early serjeant surgeons were military surgeons who followed their king into battle.

John Arderne, later famous as the Father of Proctology, accompanied Edward III at the Battle of Crecy in 1346. But the title did not refer to a military rank; the word "serjeant" comes from the Latin "serviens" or "serving".

Over the years, other duties of the Serjeant Surgeon have included embalming of the royal corpse, oversight of torture to ensure the prisoner was not killed, and the screening of applicants to be touched by the king for the cure of the King's evil (tuberculous glands of the neck).

The first knighthood to be granted to a serjeant surgeon was in the reign of Henry VIII, to John Aylef, who was said to have cured the king of a fistula. The first serjeant surgeon to receive a peerage was Joseph Lister, the founder of antiseptic surgery, who was created Baron Lister of Lyme Regis in the County of Dorset by Queen Victoria.

Pre-twentieth century

• Claudius Amyand 1715-1740
• Robert Adair 1773-1789
• Robert Keate FRCS 1841
• Benjamin Travers 1857–1858
• Sir William Lawrence, Bt FRCS FRS 1858
• Caesar Hawkins FRS 1862
• Sir Prescott Hewett, 1st Bt. 1884
• Sir James Paget
• Joseph Lister, 1st Baron Lister 1900 (to Queen Victoria)

List of serjeant surgeons from the beginning of the twentieth century

• Joseph Lister, 1st Baron Lister, OM, FRS 1901 (re-appointed to King Edward VII)
• Colonel Sir Frederick Treves Bt GCVO CB 1902-1910
• Major-General Sir Richard Havelock Charles, 1st Baronet 1910-1928
• Colonel Sir Hugh Rigby Bt KCVO 1928-1932
• Wilfred Trotter MD MS FRCS FRS 1932-1939
• Sir Thomas Dunhill KCVO CMG 1928-1957
• Brigadier Sir Arthur Porritt Bt KCVO CBE MA MB MChir FRCS 1946-1966
• Sir Ralph Marnham KCVO MChir FRCS 1967-1971
• Sir Edward Muir KCVO MS FRCS 1972-1973
• Sir Edward Tuckwell KCVO MCh FRCS 1973-1975
• Sir Hugh Lockhart-Mummery KCVO MD MChir FRCS LRCP 1975-1983
• Sir William Slack KCVO MD MCh BM FRCS 1983-1990
• John Leonard Dawson CVO MS FRCS 1990-1991
• Sir Barry Jackson MS FRCS 1991-2001
• Adam Lewis CVO 2001-2006
• Sir Roger Vickers KCVOFRCS 2006-10
• George Hamilton CVO MD FRCS 2010-2016
• Satyajit Bhattacharya CVO MB MS MPhil FRCS 2016-2023
• Ranan DasGupta MA MD MRCS FRCS(Urol) 2023-

Honorary serjeant surgeons

• Sir William MacCormac, Bt., KCB, KCVO 1901
• Sir Thomas Smith, Bt. 1901-1909
• Sir Frederick Treves, Bt., GCVO, CH, FRCS 1901 (he was appointed Serjeant Surgeon the following year)

References

1. Thomas Greenhill (surgeon)
2. Claudius Amyand (surgeon)
3. Sir Frederick Treves, 1st Baronet
4. Surgeon-General (United Kingdom)
5. Barry Jackson (surgeon)
6. William Slack (surgeon)
7. Medical Household
8. Roger Vickers
9. King's College Hospital
10. Gilbert Primrose (surgeon)
11. Sir William Lawrence, 1st Baronet
12. Robert Keate
13. St George's Hospital
14. James Crerar
15. Robert Adair (surgeon)
16. Havelock Charles
17. Wyggeston Grammar School for Boys
18. John Dawson
19. Household of Edward VII and Alexandra
20. William MacCormac