Clifford Frank Hawkins (1915–1991) was a British gastroenterologist and rheumatologist.

Biography

After education 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 ...

, Clifford F. Hawkins studied at the medical school of

Guy's Hospital Guy's Hospital is an NHS hospital founded by philanthropist Thomas Guy in 1721, located in the borough of Southwark in central London. It is part of Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust and one of the institutions that comprise the Kin ...

, where he graduated

MB BS A Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (; MBBS, also abbreviated as BM BS, MB ChB, MB BCh, or MB BChir) is a medical degree granted by medical schools or universities in countries that adhere to the United Kingdom's higher education tradi ...

in 1939. During WWII he served briefly in the

RAMC 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 ...

before being invalided out. He then served during the remainder of the war in the

EMS Ems or EMS may refer to: Places and rivers * Domat/Ems, a Swiss municipality in the canton of Grisons * Ems (river) (Eems), a river in northwestern Germany and northeastern Netherlands that discharges in the Dollart Bay * Ems (Eder), a river o ...

. In 1946 he moved to Birmingham, where he was mentored by Lionel Hardy. At

Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham The Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham is a major, 1,215 bed, tertiary National Health Service (England), NHS and military hospital in the Edgbaston area of Birmingham, situated very close to the University of Birmingham. The hospital, which ...

, he was from 1946 to 1950 a senior registrar and from 1950 to 1981 a consultant physician. From 1951 to 1981 he was a senior lecturer at the

University of Birmingham 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 ...

. From 1955 he was also a consultant physician at

Droitwich Droitwich Spa (often abbreviated to Droitwich ) is an historic spa town in the Wychavon district in northern Worcestershire, England, on the River Salwarpe. It is located approximately south-west of Birmingham and north-east of Worcester. ...

Hospital. He received the Diploma of Anaesthesiology in 1942 and the higher MD in 1946. He was elected FRCP in 1955. He gave in 1970 the

Bradshaw Lecture The Bradshaw Lectures are lectureships given at the invitation of the Royal College of Physicians and the Royal College of Surgeons of England The Royal College of Surgeons of England (RCS England) is an independent professional body and reg ...

on ''Diarrhoea: changing concepts and new diagnoses''. In 1976 Hawkins and colleagues M. Farr, C. J. Morris, A. M. Hoare, and N. Williamson were the first to report rod-shaped organisms in

synovial membrane Synovial () may refer to: * Synovial fluid * Synovial joint A synovial joint, also known as diarthrosis, joins bones or cartilage with a fibrous joint capsule that is continuous with the periosteum of the joined bones, constitutes the outer bou ...

involved in

Whipple's disease Whipple's disease is a rare systemic infectious disease caused by the bacterium '' Tropheryma whipplei''. First described by George Hoyt Whipple in 1907 and commonly considered as a gastrointestinal disorder, Whipple's disease primarily causes ...

. He was outstanding in writing and lecturing. The ''

BMJ ''The BMJ'' is a fortnightly peer-reviewed medical journal, published by BMJ Publishing Group Ltd, which in turn is wholly-owned by the British Medical Association (BMA). ''The BMJ'' has editorial freedom from the BMA. It is one of the world' ...

'' editor

Stephen Lock Stephen Penford Lock (born 8 April 1929) is an English haematologist and editor who served from 1975 to 1991 as editor-in-chief of the UK medical journal, the ''British Medical Journal'', known since 1988 as ''the BMJ''. A prominent scholar of th ...

recommended Hawkins's book ''Speaking and writing in medicine'' for its excellence on the topic of "listening and speaking to patients" as well as its "commonsense, wit, and wisdom". Hawkins wrote books and articles for medical professionals and for the general public. For about 10 years for the ''British Medical Journal'' he wrote a monthly column entitled "What's new in the new editions". Hawkins was the editor-in-chief for the Rheumatism and Arthritis Council's ''Reports on rheumatic diseases'' from 1959 to 1977. He was the president of the Heberden Society in 1982. (The Heberden Society was formed in 1936 and became in 1983 part of the British Society for Rheumatology.) On 22 September 1945 at Seven Oaks Congregational Church in

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

, Hawkins married Susan Fantes. They had three children.

Selected publications

Articles

*with L. P. J. Holt: * * * * * * *with A. M. Hoare: * * * * *

Books

*two chapters in * https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.159.3810.73.b *page 73page 74
/ref> * *as editor with R. N. Allan, Michael R. B. Keighley, and J. Alexander-Williams: 2nd edition, 1990. *as editor with Marco Sorgi: *with Elwyn Elias: *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hawkins, Clifford Frank 1915 births 1991 deaths British gastroenterologists 20th-century English medical doctors People educated at Dulwich College Academics of the University of Birmingham Fellows of the Royal College of Physicians