Members of Barts Guild pay tribute to the life of a remarkable man, Professor Christopher Hudson, MA, MB, B.Chir, M.Chir, FRCSEng, FRCOG, FRA(NZ), COG.
Having known Chris Hudson as a former student, junior doctor, colleague, and dear friend it is a privilege to write about the extraordinary contributions that Chris made to the specialty of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, and the care of his patients, not just at Barts and Hackney, but in three other continents of the world, Africa, Asia and Australasia.
To understand Chris, it is relevant to know something of his unusual early life. His parents lived in Bombay, where his father, Lovell, worked as an accountant. His mother, Margaret, who had been a nurse, had lost two children due to premature births in India, and hence returned to the UK for future pregnancies. A daughter, Anne, sadly now deceased, was born in 1926, and Chris was born in Oxford four years later.
Chris’s parents remained living in India, while Chris was sent back home to England being rotated around four aunts as child minders, during the holidays, and apparently was in some kind of residential nursery school from the age of two! He only saw his parents when they came back on leave periods from India. He went to boarding school in Reigate at a very young age, and then to Radley College in Oxfordshire, with a strong emphasis on sport. This is where his life-long passion for rowing developed. He was apparently not noted for scholastic achievements, but no doubt his rowing prowess helped him secure a place at Queens’ College, Cambridge, in 1949 for his pre-clinical studies.
From there he went on to Barts Medical School for his clinical training. At that time, so-called “hops” were held on Saturday nights in the Students’ residence. These were the go-to-place for medical students and nurses seeking romance, and it was there that Chris met Caryl, and was soon wooing her with hair raising spins in an ancient Bentley drop-head coupé. It took some time for Caryl to “train him enough” to consider marriage, and this they did in 1957, Caryl supporting him in everything he did in their rich life.
After qualifying as a doctor, he did most of his specialist training at Barts and other London hospitals. It was customary at that time to train first as a Surgeon, and then as an Obstetrician and Gynaecologist. Some 12 years later, he was appointed a Consultant and Senior Lecturer at Barts. There is much to be said of the huge contributions that Chris made during his professional life, extending way beyond the devoted care he gave to literally thousands of patients. Two years after starting as a consultant at Barts, he was asked to take a year out on secondment to the University Hospital of Ibadan in Nigeria, a challenge that he relished. This inspired an interest and knowledge in pregnancy care of different ethnic groups in developing countries, and the lack of facilities in many parts of the world.
On returning to Barts he was upgraded to the academic post of Reader at London University, and Consultant at Barts.
He was among the first Barts Consultants to take on duties at Hackney, and The Mothers’ Hospitals, which dealt with a high proportion of ethnic minority patients, and many living in poor socio-economic circumstances.
He was a brave surgeon, often taking on especially difficult cases, and developed a new radical operation for ovarian cancer, as well as being at the forefront of research into new drug and immunological treatments for this form of gynaecological cancer. He published many important papers on ovarian cancer, and received awards and prizes for his research, which improved survival rates in this form of cancer.
In 1978 he was invited to take the post of Foundation Professor at the new Westmead Medical School in Sydney. This took some consideration, as it meant taking some of his teenage children out of school at a difficult time in their education. He achieved a great deal in building up women’s healthcare services in this new hospital. After eight full and innovative years there, Chris and family felt a call to come back to London. Fortunately there happened to be a vacant Consultant post at Barts and the new Homerton Hospital, and it was no surprise that he was appointed to this, and so returned to Barts, the hospital that he cherished so much.
His research output resulted in 92 academic publications, he wrote five textbooks, travelled all over the world lecturing, and sat on endless university, Royal College and National Health Committees. He was a brilliant surgeon, and devised an operation for advanced ovarian cancer, as well as publishing important research on new medical treatments, which changed thinking on how to deal with this disease.
Later in his career he carried a banner for the management of HIV in relation to pregnancy, which had considerable influence on attitudes and care of these patients.
He loved everything about Barts and he played a major part in the campaign to prevent the hospital from closure. Students loved him for his enthusiasm for the Boat Club, and his clear teaching. He expected high standards from them, and could be stern if they fell short of his expectations, but he was respected for this. He and his wife Caryl were extremely generous in providing hospitality at their home, and generations of us will remember his barbecues and fireworks on 5 November. .
In retirement he took on active voluntary roles in his local community, including being patient representative on the Health Authority. In addition he carried out teaching and examinations for students and postgraduates in Pakistan and India. He continued to play a part in many aspects of Barts life, most notably as the first male Chairman of the Guild of St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, but also as a Friend of the Great Hall of Barts, and the Boat Club.
He was enormously proud of his three children, Graham, a naval officer who changed careers to become a University lecturer, Jayne, a physiotherapist, and Neil, a Veterinary Surgeon, who was elected an MP in December. He bore his debilitating illness of the last 5 years with extraordinary patience, and determination. When Sarah and I visited him just a few weeks before he died, his trademark twinkling of the eye, and raising of one eyebrow was still much in evidence.
He died just a few days before he was due to attend the House of Commons to hear his son, Neil make his maiden speech.
We shall miss his courageous wheelchair visits to Barts, and remember his vigour, energy, gentle humour and integrity.
SIR MARCUS SETCHELL
Professor Christopher Hudson became a member of the Guild in 1990. He was among the first male members following the Guild’s decision to admit men in 1979. In 2007 he was elected Chairman. His wise counsel, knowledge of Barts, foresight and many kindnesses ensured that the Guild was on a firm foundation for the future.
His leadership came to the fore in 2011 when the Guild celebrated its centenary. He was at the forefront of the planning and overseeing of the celebrations of this auspicious occasion. These celebrations included a thanksgiving service in Barts the Less, followed by a luncheon attended by the Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress. At the AGM which followed, the guest speaker was the broadcaster and historian Michael Wood.
Our Patron, HRH The Duke of Gloucester, attended a reception given by the Lord Mayor at the Guild Hall and spoke warmly of the Guild and its achievements.
A Centenary Fair was held in the Great Hall and the final celebration was a concert held in at the City Temple, compered by Henry Kelly and including celebratory music by Handel – and an appearance by Barts Medical students proudly displaying their trophies, something which was very close to Chris’s heart. The centenary year also saw the publication of “A Century of Service” and the Guild’s first calendar.
Chris enthused everyone into action and the result was a triumph for him and the whole Guild. He retired from the Chairmanship in 2012 but continued to give his support to the Committee. He was elected Vice President in 2017.
Chris’s funeral took place in St Mary’s Church, Theydon Bois on March 11th 2020. Tributes were paid by Jayne Gould and Graeme Hudson (daughter and son) and Sir Marcus Setchell. Neil Hudson (son) read a passage from Ecclesiastes.
We extend our sympathy to his widow Carolyn and to Jayne, Grahame and Neil and their families.
Thank you, Chris, for always being there for the Guild.
ANN WICKHAM
I was aware from a friend, who as a young anaesthetist had once been a part of Chris Hudson’s Barts’ Firm and been in some awe of him, that Chris could be formidable in the standards he expected. Later, I also saw that if he disapproved of an action or opinion he could seem to some to be forbidding. I never found him so. He showed me nothing but encouragement and support. He had medical eminence and I had no medical or hospital association, when I succeeded him as Guild Chairman, but there was no trace of condescension in his manner and when introducing me to the Barts high command. It helped, I think, from Chris’s viewpoint, that I had worked in a renowned national institution – for Chris (and I) thought Barts Hospital to be akin to a national body in its high importance, even if not in its formal name.
At Chris’s funeral Sir Marcus Setchell in a fine tribute said that, when young and old, Chris ‘led from the front’. And he did. It was, however, in the way the best leaders do. He did not take everything to himself but trusted others to come to the fore as well, to play their part, appreciating their different abilities. I admired how, when his health and mobility were in such decline, he still joined us – grace in adversity – for Barts and Guild occasions. It takes an exceptional spirit, not given to very many, to do that, to support your younger colleagues by showing you are still the lion in winter. But, then, Christopher Neville Hudson was an exceptional man.
ANDREW PHILLIPS
Many accolades have, quite rightly, come forward following Christopher’s recent death. His world stature as an eminent obstetrician and gynaecologist, his care for students both in their studies and sporting pursuits, his commitment to Barts Guild, his joy in his family life, and his great sense of humour have all been recorded.
Care and concern for his beloved Alma Mater, St Bartholomew’s Hospital, ran through all the threads of Chris’s long and productive life and led to one aspect of that concern which seems to have been overlooked.
His active support to the campaign to save Barts from closure led to the second legal challenge when the campaign secured a Judicial Review of the public consultation on the proposal to close Barts Hospital.
Chris galvanised the Barts consultant body into commissioning a précis, from academics at the University of York, of the disadvantages of large single sites with no proof of economies of scale. They also identified some financial anomalies in the consultation document which formed the basis of evidence that the public consultation was flawed.
The Judicial Review was not successful in overturning the decision on closure but it was instrumental in preventing John Major’s government from making that final and fateful decision before the General Election in 1997.
The Labour Party landslide was the turning point in Barts’ fortunes; much more work was required to achieve the splendid hospital we have today, but Chris’s part in that triumph must never be forgotten.
WENDY MEAD OBE
When I wrote in Barts Guild News Issue 8 (2016) an appreciation of Chris Hudson as he stepped down from the Guild Management Committee I concluded: ‘Chris will maintain his interest in the Guild and we hope to see him at the Christmas concert on 6 December.’ And indeed, despite his increasing immobility, ultimately confining him to a wheelchair, Chris did continue to put in a faithful appearance at Guild events almost until the end.
His commitment to the organisations he was involved with – both professionally and later as a volunteer – was something I’d always noticed, since my arrival in the Alumni Relations Office at Queen Mary, when he was quick to invite me to become the Secretary to the Barts Alumni Association, soon to be united with the London Hospital Medical Club with the merger of the two medical schools. Chris became the first President of the new Barts and The London Alumni Association (BATLAA), serving also on the Editorial Board of its new alumni magazine, the Barts and The London Chronicle (BLC), of which I was the Editor until my retirement in 2006, and maintaining his long-term support for the student and alumni rowing teams, both male and female.
In my final issue of the BLC an appreciation of his work by leading gynaecological surgeon Tom Ind described Chris’s distinguished career and wide range of interests – and, tellingly, mentioned that during the time of the merger negotiations in the 90s ‘he was voted out of the chair at the Medical Council at Barts for being too pro-The London Hospital and sacked from the Trust Board for being too pro-Barts’.
I think that sums up very nicely Chris Hudson’s whole-hearted commitment to whatever organisations he worked with – and that certainly includes the Barts Guild to which he devoted so much time and effort over the years since becoming one of the first men to join as a member!
SUE BOSWELL
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