Hugh Cairns (surgeon)

Hugh Cairns
Born	26 June 1896 Port Pirie, South Australia
Died	Oxford
Nationality	United Kingdom
Fields	neurosurgery
Known for	crash helmets

Sir Hugh William Bell Cairns KBE, DM, FRCS (26 June 1896 – 18 July 1952) was an Australian neurosurgeon. For most of his life he lived in Britain. His concern about despatch rider injuries sparked research which led to increased used of motorcycle helmets.

Early years and education

Hugh Cairns was born in Port Pirie, Australia, but went to Adelaide for his secondary education at Adelaide High School and tertiary education at the University of Adelaide. He was awarded the 1917 South Australian Rhodes Scholarship and went to the University of Oxford to read Medicine. He was president of the Balliol Boat Club and represented Oxford as bow in the Boat Race of 1920.

Career

Cairns worked as a neurosurgeon at the London Hospital and with Harvey Cushing at Harvard before setting up the Nuffield Department of Surgery in Oxford, in which he became the first Nuffield Professor of Surgery. He was a key figure in the development of neurosurgery as a specialty, the formation of the University of Oxford Medical School, and the treatment of head injuries during the Second World War. The Cairns Library at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford is named after him, as is the medical school surgical society. A blue plaque for him at his 1920s residence at Loughton has been erected.

Profoundly affected by treating T. E. Lawrence for head injuries during the six days before the latter died after a motorcycle accident, Cairns began a long study of what he saw as the unnecessary loss of life by motorcycle despatch riders through head injuries. His research led to the use of crash helmets by both military and civilian motorcyclists. As a consequence of treating Lawrence, Sir Hugh Cairns would ultimately save the lives of many motorcyclists.

He died of cancer at the Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford on 18 July 1952. The Society of British Neurological Surgeons established an annual lecture in his name. There is a road named after him at Bedford Park, South Australia, adjacent to Flinders Medical Centre.