Sir Arthur Peregrine Thomson (1890 – 15 July 1977) was a British physician. Born in

British Guiana British Guiana was a British colony, part of the mainland British West Indies. It was located on the northern coast of South America. Since 1966 it has been known as the independent nation of Guyana. The first known Europeans to encounter Guia ...

the son of Arthur Henry Thomson, a colonial civil servant, he was educated at

Dulwich College Dulwich College is a 2-18 private, day and boarding school for boys in Dulwich, London, England. As a public school, it began as the College of God's Gift, founded in 1619 by Elizabethan actor Edward Alleyn, with the original purpose of ...

and

Birmingham University The University of Birmingham (informally Birmingham University) is a Public university, public research university in Birmingham, England. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Queen's College, Birmingham (founded in 1825 as ...

, where he graduated in 1915 with first class honours in medicine, surgery and midwifery. He was also awarded the gold medal in clinical medicine, the Russell Memorial Prize, and was both Queen's and Ingleby Scholar. After graduation, he joined the

Royal Army Medical Corps The Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC) was a specialist corps in the British Army which provided medical services to all Army personnel and their families, in war and in peace. On 15 November 2024, the corps was amalgamated with the Royal Army De ...

as a Captain and served as a Regimental Medical Officer with the

Guards Division The Guards Division was an administrative unit of the British Army responsible for the training and administration of the regiments of Foot Guards and the London Guards reserve battalion. The Guards Division was responsible for providing tw ...

in France during

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, where he was awarded the

Military Cross The Military Cross (MC) is the third-level (second-level until 1993) military decoration awarded to officers and (since 1993) Other ranks (UK), other ranks of the British Armed Forces, and formerly awarded to officers of other Commonwealth of ...

and the

Croix de Guerre The (, ''Cross of War'') is a military decoration of France. It was first created in 1915 and consists of a square-cross medal on two crossed swords, hanging from a ribbon with various degree pins. The decoration was first awarded during World ...

, and was

Mentioned in Despatches To be mentioned in dispatches (or despatches) describes a member of the armed forces whose name appears in an official report written by a superior officer and sent to the high command, in which their gallant or meritorious action in the face of t ...

twice by the British and once by the French. After the war he was appointed Assistant Physician at

Birmingham General Hospital Birmingham General Hospital was a teaching hospital in Birmingham, England, founded in 1779 and closed in the mid-1990s. History Summer Lane In 1765, a committee for a proposed hospital, formed by John Ash (physician), John Ash and suppo ...

, where he was elected MRCP in 1920 and obtained his MD in 1923. He worked as a physician all his life specialising in diabetes. At the

Birmingham Children's Hospital Birmingham Children's Hospital is a specialist children's hospital located in Birmingham, England. The hospital provides a range of specialist services and operates the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) for the city. The serv ...

he took special interest in Rheumatic Fever and the Baskerville School for children with rheumatic heart disease. Later in life he focussed his research activity on to ageing and chronic sickness, giving the Lumleian Lectures on the subject in 1949. He had been elected a Fellow of the

Royal College of Physicians The Royal College of Physicians of London, commonly referred to simply as the Royal College of Physicians (RCP), is a British professional membership body dedicated to improving the practice of medicine, chiefly through the accreditation of ph ...

in 1930 and gave their Harveian Oration in 1961. In 1947 Birmingham University appointed him part-time Professor of Therapeutics, after which he became Dean of the Medical Faculty and in 1952 vice-principal of the University. He was knighted in 1959. He married Minnie Scott Hutchings (née Lindsley) in Birmingham in 1912; they had one adopted daughter.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Thomson, Arthur Peregrine 1890 births 1977 deaths 20th-century English medical doctors Fellows of the Royal College of Physicians Royal Army Medical Corps officers Health professionals from Birmingham, West Midlands Alumni of the University of Birmingham Academics of the University of Birmingham