Macdonald Critchley

CBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(2 February 1900 – 15 October 1997) was a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English ...

neurologist Neurology (from el, νεῦρον (neûron), "string, nerve" and the suffix -logia, "study of") is the branch of medicine dealing with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of conditions and disease involving the brain, the spinal ...

. He was former president of the

World Federation of Neurology World Federation of Neurology (WFN) was formed in Brussels, Belgium, in 1957, as an association of national neurological societies. It is a UK registered charity with a mission to foster quality neurology and brain health worldwide through promo ...

, and the author of over 200 published articles on

neurology Neurology (from el, νεῦρον (neûron), "string, nerve" and the suffix -logia, "study of") is the branch of medicine dealing with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of conditions and disease involving the brain, the spinal ...

and 20 books, including ''The Parietal Lobes'' (1953), ''Aphasiology'', and biographies of

James Parkinson James Parkinson (11 April 175521 December 1824) was an English surgeon, apothecary, geologist, palaeontologist and political activist. He is best known for his 1817 work ''An Essay on the Shaking Palsy'', in which he was the first to describe ...

and Sir William Gowers.

Biography

Macdonald Critchley was born at Bristol, son of gas collector Arthur Frank Critchley and Rosina Matilda (née White); he was educated in

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city i ...

and received his medical degree there. His professional life centred on ''

King's College Hospital King's College Hospital is a major teaching hospital and major trauma centre in Denmark Hill, Camberwell in the London Borough of Lambeth, referred to locally and by staff simply as "King's" or abbreviated internally to "KCH". It is managed by ...

'' and ''

National Hospital for Paralysis and Epilepsy The National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery (informally the National Hospital or Queen Square) is a neurological hospital in Queen Square, London. It is part of the University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. It was the f ...

'', '' Queen Square'' "for the Paralysed and Epileptic",

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

. He was a

Registrar A registrar is an official keeper of records made in a register. The term may refer to: Education * Registrar (education), an official in an academic institution who handles student records * Registrar of the University of Oxford, one of the sen ...

in 1927, and he was appointed to the staff as a physician in the following year and later became Dean of the Institute at Queen Square. His influence spread throughout the neurological world by teaching and writings and he later became President of the

. He studied under

Gordon Morgan Holmes Sir Gordon Morgan Holmes, (22 February 1876 – 29 December 1965) was an Anglo-Irish neurologist. He is best known for carrying out pioneering research into the cerebellum and the visual cortex. Education He was born as the son of a Louth far ...

Samuel Alexander Kinnier Wilson Samuel Alexander Kinnier Wilson (December 6, 1878 – May 12, 1937) was an American-born British neurologist. His research of hepatolenticular degeneration led the disease to be named after him as Wilson's disease. He was the father of British A ...

and

Francis Walshe Sir Francis Martin Rouse Walshe, FRS (19 September 1885 – 21 February 1973) was a British neurologist. Career He was born in London and educated at Prior Park College, Bath from 1898 to 1901 and at University College School, London from 1901 ...

. During World War II he was a Consulting Neurologist in the

Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve The Royal Naval Reserve (RNR) is one of the two volunteer reserve forces of the Royal Navy in the United Kingdom. Together with the Royal Marines Reserve, they form the Maritime Reserve. The present RNR was formed by merging the original Roy ...

based at

HMS Drake Nineteen ships and a shore establishment of the Royal Navy have been named HMS ''Drake'' after Sir Francis Drake or after the European dragon, drake: * was a 16-gun sixth rate launched in 1653 and sold in 1691. * was a 24-gun sixth rate launched ...

. His contributions to knowledge depended not on technology, but on his power of observation and meticulous dissection of human sensibility and behaviour. The best known of his works were those on

aphasia Aphasia is an inability to comprehend or formulate language because of damage to specific brain regions. The major causes are stroke and head trauma; prevalence is hard to determine but aphasia due to stroke is estimated to be 0.1–0.4% in t ...

and the

parietal lobes The parietal lobe is one of the four major lobes of the cerebral cortex in the brain of mammals. The parietal lobe is positioned above the temporal lobe and behind the frontal lobe and central sulcus. The parietal lobe integrates sensory informa ...

. Headache was also one of his many interests. He started a ''Headache Clinic'' at ''King's College Hospital'' and was one of the founders of the ''"British Migraine Trust"''. He delivered a paper at the "First Migraine Symposium" in 1966 on ''"Migraine: from Cappadocia to Queen Square"'', combining his clinical interest with his love of

history History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the History of writing#Inventions of writing, invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbr ...

. Critchley was a handsome and impressive figure, a superb speaker and a lifelong student of the human mind. His last book on the life and career of

Hughlings Jackson John Hughlings Jackson, FRS (4 April 1835 – 7 October 1911) was an English neurologist. He is best known for his research on epilepsy. Biography He was born at Providence Green, Green Hammerton, near Harrogate, Yorkshire, the youngest son ...

, jointly with his wife Eileen, has been published posthumously. He had married twice: firstly Edna Morris, with whom he had two sons (one of whom being the politician

Julian Critchley Sir Julian Michael Gordon Critchley (8 December 1930 – 9 September 2000) was a British journalist, author and Conservative Party politician. He was the member of parliament for Rochester and Chatham from 1959 to 1964 and Aldershot from 1970 t ...

) and secondly Eileen Hargreaves. He lived at Hughlings House (named in honour of John Hughlings Jackson), at

Nether Stowey Nether Stowey is a large village in the Sedgemoor district of Somerset, South West England. It sits in the foothills of the Quantock Hills (England's first Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty), just below Over Stowey. The parish of Nether Stowey c ...

in Somerset. In 2013 the weekly undergraduate teaching round at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery at Queen Square was named after him - the Critchley Round.

Associated eponyms

* ''Adie-Critchley syndrome'': A syndrome of forced grasping and groping. * '' Klein-Levine- Critchley syndrome'': A syndrome of hypersoomnia and hyperphagia. * ''Levine-Critchley syndrome'':

Acanthocytosis Acanthocyte (from the Greek word ἄκανθα ''acantha'', meaning 'thorn'), in biology and medicine, refers to an abnormal form of red blood cell that has a spiked cell membrane, due to thorny projections. A similar term is spur cells. Often ...

Neuroacanthocytosis with neurologic disorders detailed by Edmund Critchley not Macdonald Critchley).

Bibliography

* ''The Parietal Lobes''.

, Edward Arnold, 1953 * ''The Enigma of Gerstmann's Syndrome''.

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the Un ...

, Brain, 1966 * ''Music and the Brain: Studies in the Neurology of Music'' (with R.A.Henson).

, Heinemann, 1977 * ''John Hughlings Jackson, Father of English Neurology'' (with Eileen A. Critchley).

, 1998 * *

References

External links

Documents relating to Critchley
in the Queen Square Archive {{DEFAULTSORT:Critchley, Macdonald 1900 births 1997 deaths British neurologists Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve personnel of World War II 20th-century British medical doctors