Sherren Family Tree » James Sherren (Dr.) C.B.E. F.R.C.S. & Colonel (1872-1945)

Personal data James Sherren (Dr.) C.B.E. F.R.C.S. & Colonel 

• He was born on October 31, 1872 in Weymouth, Dorset, England.Source 2
• He died on October 29, 1945 in White Barn, Boadstone, Poole, Dorset, England, he was 72 years old.Source 9
• A child of John Angel Sherren and Ann Eliza "Annie" Wilkinson

Household of James Sherren (Dr.) C.B.E. F.R.C.S. & Colonel

He is married to Madeline Ida THORNE.

They got married on February 24, 1897 at Weymouth, Dorset, England, he was 24 years old.Sources 2, 4, 7

Child(ren):

1. James "Jim" Courtenay Sherren  1902-1970
2. Barbara Annie Sherren  1903-1998 
3. Mary Ruth Sherren  1905-± 1981 
4. Henry John Sherren  1907-1984 
5. David Sherren  1909-2000 

Notes about James Sherren (Dr.) C.B.E. F.R.C.S. & Colonel

The following is an excerpt from this publication on the life of James (1872-1945), son of John Angel, who became a famous Sailor and surgeon in London:
"This son of John Angel Sherren became world-famous. He attended Weymouth College from January, 1885 to July, 1887 when it was a boys school. Later he was active in the affairs of the Old Weymouthians' Club and despite his demanding work in London he undertook its Presidency for ten consecutive years from 1909 to 1918, and always made time to preside at the annual dinner.
Early in life he went to sea, at age 13 serving first as an apprentice in a four-masted ship.at the age of 13 years and 9 months, he sailed from the East Float, Birkenhead. on the new four-masted ship, the Falls of Halladale, loaded with salt and bound for Calcutta, One of the principal exports in those days from Liverpool was salt. The Falls of Halladale, the Crofton Hall and the Loch ?Caron with at least 10,000 tons of salt sailed within 48 hours of each other. In Calcutta, hatches sealed, Customs Officers onboard, the ships were used as bonded warehouses until all the salt was sold. He was trained in both sail and steam. He obtained his Masters Mariner's certificate at the age of 21. James fought in WWI, rising to the rank of colonel in the Army Medical Service, and was awarded the C.B.E. in 1919
Repeated attacks of malaria contracted at Delagoa Bay in Portuguese, East Africa caused him to consider the wisdom of changing his calling and on a run to South Africa when serving as Chief Officer of a liner, his choice was made. Sherren was very friendly with the ship's doctor and had on occasion, assisted him as an anaesthetist. The influence of this doctor played a large part in persuading him to take up medicine.
In May, 1894, Sherren entered the London Hospital as a student. He proved brilliant in this so different sphere and gained the prize in anatomy & physiology. In his final year he gained scholarships in medicine and obstetrics. In the year 1900, he passed the final Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons, England. His parents celebrated this achievement by presenting him with a gold watch, suitably inscribed. The full story of his career, appointments and his multitudinous research is a fascinating one, showing the wide scope of his surgical interests
He possessed sound judgement and his technical skill was such that he could tackle almost any surgical problem. He was associated in research work with some of the most imminent surgeons of the land and he also produced writings, articles in the "Practitioner" chapters of the Choyce's "System of Surgery" and had lectures published in the "Lancet".
University of Illinois. In 1902 he published a Handbook -of Appendicitis, in which he advocated the delayed treatment of this disease. At the same time Sherren championed the cause of the delayed treatment of appendicitis in this country and trained his assistants in its principles. In the Practitioner of June, 1905, he wrote: 'If we are able to see a case within the first 34 to 36 hours when the disease is probably limited to the appendix, operation should be performed and the appendix removed. After this most favourable time has passed I am strongly of the opinion that if possible we should wait until the attack is over and remove the appendix in a quiescent period in three months' time.' He emphasized that this method of treatment, which has come to be known as the Ochsner-Sherren regime, must only be undertaken in a hospital with a fully staffed theatre available at all times in case the patient's condition showed signs of deteriorating and an operation had to be undertaken without delay.
Sherren's description of the appendix triangle, which is outlined by lines joining the summit of the iliac crest, the pubic tubercle, and the umbilicus, refers to an area of skin hyperaesthesia met with in obstructive appendicitis and indicates that the appendix is distended and may burst at any moment. This is a certain indication for immediate surgery. This observation was one of the outcomes of the research he had carried out with Sir Henry Head on the problem of cutaneous hypersensitivity in visceral disease.

With the passage of time Sherren became more and more interested in abdominal surgery. At first he was a follower of Sir Frederick Treves who had performed the first properly recorded appendicectomy in the London Hospital in 1887, but on the early death in 1908 of Harold Barnard, a surgeon of the highest promise who had written the classic description of subdiaphragmatic abscess, Sherren decided to confine himself largely to abdominal surgery, which was then a rapidly growing speciality, and he quickly made an outstanding reputation.
His predominant surgical interest became the treatment of duodenal ulcer. This condition had first been treated by Codivilla in 1893 by the operation of gastrojejunostomy. During the early years of this century this procedure was developed in great measure by Moynihan, W. J. Mayo, and Sherren.
Shortly before his retirement Sherren reported 537 cases of duodenal ulcer that he had operated on with 10 deaths. At about the same time Moynihan reported 563 cases with a mortality-rate of 0.53 percent, and at the Mayo Clinic in the period 1914-19, 2734 cases were recorded with a mortality-rate of just 1 percent.
In 1921 Sherren published a series of lectures on the stomach and duodenum, and was responsible for the chapters on the stomach and duodenum in Choyce's System of Surgery. In addition to numerous operative procedures, Sherren devised a retrocolic anterior gastrojejunostomy of special use in relieving the symptoms in cases of inoperable carcinoma of the stomach. Donald Balfour of the Mayo Clinic made much use of this procedure.
He played an active part at the Royal College of Surgeons and was elected Vice President of the College in 1925 and in 1926.
He served with rank of Colonel in the Army Medical Service during the First World War, as Consultant Surgeon attached to the War Office, and undertook other hospital duties. In 1919, he was honoured by being made a commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire."
James Sherren's advancement was due to sheer ability and strength of character. For many years, whenever he operated, his theater would be crowded with visiting Surgeons from abroad, especially from the United States, who had come to witness his great technical skill.
Amongst his many gifts Sherren was an accomplished violinist. Sir James Walton, who had been his registrar and on whom the mantle of Sherren descended, spoke of him in the following terms: 'As a chief Jimmy Sherren, as he was affectionately known, was a little frightening but very invigorating. Slackness and slipshod work were intolerable to him and he did not mind saying so. But he liked to be stood up to and respected the sharp retort. In the conventional sense he was ambitious, but his ambition was not of the selfish kind. He wanted the work he was responsible for to be done supremely well. There was a burning zeal about the way he worked and there was something inspiring about that restless, incredibly efficient small man with the sailor's rolling gait.'
He was unceasing in his search for truth. One of his distinguished colleagues said that when he came to know him socially he realized that there was a great humility about him, coupled with a streak of kindness which he was loath to show. It is important to remember that the great surgeon, James Sherren, was working before the discovery of penicillin, and without the benefits of modern anaesthesia, pathological and radiological investigations and the advances in blood transfusion.
In 1926 at the height of his career when he had gained a reputation not only in Britain but throughout the civilized world which he shared only with Lord Moynihan of Leeds, Finisterer of Vienna, and Balfour of the Mayo Clinic he suddenly decided to retire.
Sir Henry Souttar has described the dramatic fashion in which he took his leave of the London Hospital: 'One afternoon when he had finished his operating list, he took off his gloves and said to his senior theatre technician, Macgowan: "Well, goodbye, that was my last operation." He shook hands with everyone in the theatre and then, having changed in the surgeon's room, he went down in the lift alone.
'In the front hall waiting for him was Sir Ernest Morris, the House Governor, the only man who knew that he had resigned, holding his hat and coat. The hall porter came forward to turn off his light on the board, but Sherren waved him away, stood for a moment looking at his name, and then himself turned off the switch. He shook hands with Ernest Morris, and then left the scene of his surgical triumphs for ever'.
James decided to spend his remaining days at his home overlooking Poole Harbour. However, within a few months he went back to sea as a ship's doctor. He served as a ship's surgeon for the P. & 0., the Orient, and the Cunard lines until shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War.
Soon after my own appointment to the consultant staff of the London Hospital in 1934 the staff gave a dinner at the old Langham Hotel in honour of Mr. Sherren, who had just returned from a trip to Australia as a ship's surgeon. My memory of him at this time was that he was a very impressive-looking man with a fine head of white hair and a fresh complexion.
In his speech replying to the toast of his health he told an amusing story. Shortly before the liner entered port he was called to see an elderly wealthy lady in her cabin. He gave her some advice about her abdominal trouble. She was loath to accept this. 'Doctor,' she said, 'thank you for seeing me, but I think I will wait until we land when I will consult a proper specialist.' It happened that the local medical association had heard that the ship's doctor of the incoming liner was the world-famous surgeon, James Sherren. They sent a deputation on board to welcome him and he was seen receiving them on the deck by the lady patient who was being taken on shore by stretcher. On inquiring she was told who the ship's doctor really was. As soon as she was settled in a nursing home she sent him a message of apology for her unwitting discourtesy, and begged him to call on her. He did so the next day, taking her a bunch of flowers.
He told of another amusing incident when he was summoned to see a lady patient in her cabin. It turned out that she was an old private patient who had paid him a large fee for an abdominal operation in London. She was indignant to find that after all he was only a ship's surgeon. His closing years were lived at White Barn, Broadstone, in Dorset, where he was able to indulge in his hobby of sailing and his favourite relaxations of golf and playing the violin.
Soon after my own appointment to the consultant staff of the London Hospital in 1934 the staff gave a dinner at the old Langham Hotel in honour of Mr. Sherren, who had just returned from a trip to Australia as a ship's surgeon. My memory of him at this time was that he was a very impressive-looking man with a fine head of white hair and a fresh complexion.
During the Second World War he served on the staff of the local hospital and he died on 29 Oct., 1945, 2 days before his birthday, after a long illness, at the age of 73. And so passed a figure memorable in the long story of the London Hospital. His life had been full, active, and varied, during the course of which he had earned the respect and admiration of all with whom he had worked and the real affection of his friends. While Britain breeds such men her position in surgery remains assured.
[notes taken from Thea & Frances Clayton and Joseph Sherren's books]

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