James Tulloch Brown FRCS

Born 29th May 1915

Died 15th December 2014

James Brown was born in Hamilton on the 29th May 1915. His father Peter was a children's officer and his mother Magdalene, a Primary School teacher.

When James was 5 years old the family moved to Motherwell, where he attended Hamilton Academy, obtaining the necessary qualifications to be accepted to Glasgow University Medical School.

After graduating in October 1938 he did his House jobs at the Victoria Infirmary in Glasgow before joining the RAMC in 1939 at the age of 24. His initial posting to France was short lived and ended with the Dunkirk evacuation. After promotion to Captain in 1940 he was attached to the 21st Mobile Casualty Clearing Station, supporting the 7th Armoured Division (The Desert Rats) in their North African campaign through Egypt, Sicily and the Italian landings.

By 1944 he was graded as an Orthopaedic Surgeon and attached to the 5th Orthopaedic Centre, which was involved in the treatment of the wounded from the battle for Monte Casino. While working in Italy, his 'boss' was a female American orthopaedic surgeon who saw his potential and encouraged him to go to Edinburgh after the War to study for his surgical fellowship.

This he did, gaining his Fellowship in 1946 while working as Resident Surgical Officer in the orthopaedic Department at Killearn Hospital with Professor Roland Barnes. In June 1948 he was appointed as Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon to the Western Infirmary Glasgow.

It was at this time that he adopted his mother's maiden name of Tulloch, as his middle name, signing himself as JT Brown and known to his colleagues as Jimmy or JTB. After the death of his father in 1955, Jim lived with his mother Madge in Bearsden.

JTB was an outstanding orthopaedic surgeon, one of a very highly respected team who, during the 25 years after the Second World War, developed and then established this branch of surgery in the Glasgow Western Infirmary where previously, it had not existed.

He was an excellent teacher and a junior staff training attachment to him was highly prized despite the fact that he was not always the easiest of men to work with. This was mainly because his standard of care of patients was high and he demanded the same from his staff. However he was always generous with his praise when it was merited.

He could be impatient at times and occasionally a surgical instrument would find its way to the floor when it was not fulfilling its purpose, a situation usually effectively defused by his theatre sisters.

His practical skills were particularly directed at trauma care and in the 1960's he invented two surgical devices for fixing hip fractures. The first of these, the JTB sliding nail plate, was adopted in 1957 to provide improved stability compared to the previous single trifin nail. The device was widely used with success and the results published in the British Orthopaedic Journal in 1964.

He retired in 1980 choosing to live in Lochmaben with his widowed mother until her death in 1984. This was an ideal location to allow him to indulge his favoured hobbies of salmon fishing and sailing his own yacht around the West Coast. When weather prevented these outdoor pursuits, he indulged his other hobbies of photography and wood turning, using his own darkroom and workshop. The quality of his pictures, mainly land and seascapes, was exceptional and he often won prizes in the photographic journals.

As a young man Jim learned the clarinet and through this he developed a love of jazz clarinet music as well as jazz in general.

He will be remembered as a highly independent, deep thinking and private man who knew his own mind and who was very skilled in his field of the surgical management of bone injuries. Many elderly patients with hip fractures owe a debt of gratitude to his innovations.

David L Hamblen

James Graham