Sir Ernest Rock Carling (1877–1960) was a British

surgeon In medicine, a surgeon is a medical doctor who performs surgery. Even though there are different traditions in different times and places, a modern surgeon is a licensed physician and received the same medical training as physicians before spec ...

, war veteran and pioneering

radiologist Radiology ( ) is the medical specialty that uses medical imaging to diagnose diseases and guide treatment within the bodies of humans and other animals. It began with radiography (which is why its name has a root referring to radiation), but tod ...

best known for his association with

Westminster Hospital Westminster Hospital was a hospital in London, England, founded in 1719. In 1834 a medical school attached to the hospital was formally founded. In 1939 a newly built hospital and medical school opened in Horseferry Road, Westminster. In 1994 the ...

Surgeon

Carling joined the staff of the

in 1906 after serving at the Imperial Yeomanry Field Hospital as a medical student during the

South African war The Second Boer War (, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, Transvaal War, Anglo–Boer War, or South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer republics (the South African Republic and ...

. In 1910, Rock Carling was acting as Dean of the Westminster Hospital Medical School.

Radiologist

In 1928, Carling established a

radium Radium is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol Ra and atomic number 88. It is the sixth element in alkaline earth metal, group 2 of the periodic table, also known as the alkaline earth metals. Pure radium is silvery-white, ...

centre at the Westminster Hospital, where with the assistance of his son Francis Carling, he set up the first "radium bombs". An example of a "radium bomb" can be seen at the

Science Museum Group The Science Museum Group (SMG) consists of five British museums: * The Science Museum in South Kensington, London * The Science and Industry Museum in Manchester * The National Railway Museum in York * The Locomotion Museum (formerly the Na ...

in the Medicine: Wellcome Galleries. Rock Carling became a member of the Medical Research Council and the Radium Trust that year. In 1929, Carling authored a ''Course of instruction in radium practice''. His later publications include: ''British Surgical Practice'' (which he wrote with J. P. Ross in 1947). Rock Carling was a member of several committees related to nuclear energy and was chairman of both the

International Commission on Radiological Protection The International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) is an independent, international, non-governmental organization, with the mission to protect people, animals, and the environment from the harmful effects of ionising radiation. Its ...

and the Radium Commission of the Central Health Services Council. He was also Chairman of the British Ministry of Health Cancer Commission. In 1950, following the publication of an estimate of the human toll of a hypothetical atomic explosion over London, Carling stated that "to live in the atomic age is perforce to accept the implications: Fully faced they are robbed of half their terrors." In 1951, he was quoted in American newspapers as stating that efficient medical treatments had been developed to counter the effects of almost all known

biological weapons Biological agents, also known as biological weapons or bioweapons, are pathogens used as weapons. In addition to these living or replicating pathogens, toxins and biotoxins are also included among the bio-agents. More than 1,200 different kin ...

Cancer treatment unit

In 1954, Rock Carling opened Britain's first

Cobalt therapy Cobalt therapy is the medical use of gamma rays from the radioisotope cobalt-60 to treat conditions such as cancer. Beginning in the 1950s, cobalt-60 was widely used in external beam radiotherapy (teletherapy) machines, which produced a beam ...

cancer treatment unit at the

Bristol General Hospital Bristol General Hospital (sometimes referred to as BGH or Bristol General) was a healthcare facility in Guinea Street, Harbourside, Bristol, in the south west of England. It opened in 1832 and closed in 2012. The BGH was managed by the Universi ...

. In 1955, Carling wrote ''British Practice in Radiotherapy'' with B. W. Windeyer and D. W. Smithers.

Charitable work

Rock Carling was a founding member of the City of Westminster Old People's Welfare Association and a long-serving member of the Westminster Medical School Council and the Society for the Relief of Widows and Orphans of Medical Men. Dr A. J. Shinnie wrote of Carling in the ''British Medical Journal'' that "all his life he lived for

", and that the new building there that opened in 1939 was his "child". Carling died in 1960 at the age of 83.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Carling, Ernest Rock 1877 births 1960 deaths British surgeons British radiologists Physicians of the Westminster Hospital