| Notes |
- PRIVATE
- Physician----specialising in Cardiology
Obituary:
ROBERT LAURIE GIRDWOOD, M.B., Ch.B., M.D. (Edin.)
Drs. F. P. Reid, A. J. Tinker and R. J. Sailer, of Johanllesburg,
write:
Col. R. L. Girdwood, D.S.O., born on 6 March 1883, died
on 20 October 1967, leaving behind him many affectionate
memories. We who were for long associated with him wish
to pay tribute to him and to his remarkable character.
The son of a missionary in the Transkei, he was himself
imbued with the missionary spirit and a desire to leave the
world a beller place than he found it. His earlier education
was at Butterworth. Intending to follow in his father's footsteps
and become a minister, he took his M.A. in Edinburgh,
but he switched to medicine when his brother, A. L. Girdwood,
joined him there as a medical student.
Broadly, his life seems to have been three-channelled. His
private life was beset by misfortune. The loss of his only
child, Ruth, at the age of I I years, followed some years later
by the death of his wife after a protracted illness, caused
sadness and loneliness. However, this did not result in a
slackening of endeavour, but seemed to strengthen his desire
to help others in distress. No African (and there were many)
ever came to him for half-a-crown and went away with less
than a ·fiver'. In his latter years he spent much time and
money on the care of sufferers from cerebral palsy.
His public life was in the military sphere. This seemed to
reflect his lively sense of adventure, and he often spoke with
enthusiasm and humour of his participation in three wars. He
cheated gleefully about his age in order to fight in the South
African War. For his service in the East African campaign
during World War I, he was awarded the D.S.O. In the
second world war he was Assistant Director of Medical Services
and Consultant Physician to the Union Defence Force.
He saw service in the Mediterranean and North African
spheres. His fund of true stories was enormous, his memory of
military and personal events being clear, detailed and accurate,
but unfortunately, despite many requests to do so, he never
recorded them.
His professional life as a doctor was inextricably interwoven
with his army career.
His student days found him often grievously short of money
-to the point of actual hunger. After qualification he entered
general practice in Johannesburg. doing his visiting on a
motor cycle.
In 1910 he and his brother, Dr. Girdwood, reported
on an outbreak in Kentani, Transkei, of the well-known and
dreaded 'black fever of the Transkei'. They considered it to
be due to epidemic typhus fever, a diagnosis disputed by the
medical authorities of the Cape at that time, and it was not
until 1917 that, through Dr. l. Mitchell. their views were
vindicated with the aid of the new Weil-Felix test.
He collaborated closely for years with the scientists of the
South African Institute for Medical Research in regional
studies of typhoid, typhus, tick-bite fever and leuco-erythroblastic
anaemia.
After World War I he set about fulfilling a wish to work
under Sir James Mackenzie. With difficulty he- found his way
to London and the University Hospital, only to be told by Dr.
Thomas Lewis that Sir lames had left for an unknown address
in Scotland. Lewis accepted him as an assistant. but after a
few weeks he decided to go to Scotland, traced Sir lames to
a small house outside St. Andrews and worked enthusiastically
under him.
On returning to South Africa, he started practice as a
specialist physician, the second one 10 do so in Johannesburg,
Dr. Arthur Bloom having preceded him. Or. Girdwood became
one of the leading physicians in the country. On 12 June 1923
he joined the staff of the Johannesburg Hospital as Honorary
Registrar, became Honorary Assistant Physiclan on I 'ovember
1923. and was appointed Senior Honorary Physician on
16 ovember 1926. He was appointed External Examiner in
Tropical Diseases to the Universiiy of the Witwatersrand in
1938 and continued in this capacity until 1950.
He retired from the Hospital on 6 February 1947, devoting
himself to private practice, with more time for his favourite
Source: S.A Medical Journal 13 Jan 1968.
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Abt 1883 - 1967 (84 years)
