Surgeon-General
Surgeon-General
Born: September 8, 1929; Died: June 29, 2014.
The distinguished Glasgow-born surgeon, Lieutenant General Sir William Cameron Moffat, who has died aged 84, was an eminent medical practitioner and served principally with the armed forces with much dedication and a fine sense of duty.
As well as advising several important medical committees he also was Surgeon-General from 1985 and implemented the new centralised syllabus with a determined skill. He was appointed honorary surgeon to the Queen in 1983.
William Cameron Moffat was the son of William Weir Moffat and was evacuated to the Isle of Bute during the Second World where he attended the local school.
After the war, Sir Cameron attended King's Park School in Glasgow. The family always returned to Bute for their holidays and Sir Cameron much enjoyed fishing for trout off the harbour wall.
He then read medicine at Glasgow University where he was a keen oarsman and would have rowed in the Commonwealth Games in Vancouver in 1954 had his father allowed him to delay sitting his finals. In fact, Sir Cameron thought he might have failed his first surgery exam as he had spent far too long answering the first question. In fact, he won the Hallett Prize for excellence.
Sir Cameron then served at Glasgow's Western Infirmary and did his national service with the Seaforth Highlanders as the medical officer at Fort George. He also fulfilled the post of Senior Medical Officer in Edinburgh from 1956 until 1957.
He much enjoyed military life and extended his commission for a further three years.
Indeed, when he left the army after the three years he decided to reapply for a regular commission with the Royal Army Medical Corps.
Sir Cameron decided to concentrate on surgery and from 1962 he was seconded to serve at both the Hammersmith Hospital in west London and at the Birmingham Accident Hospital.
In 1965 he was appointed senior specialist in surgery at the Royal Australian Air Force Hospital in Malaysia. During his time in the Far East, Sir Cameron did extensive research into the external fixing of broken limbs which had, until then, been considered inappropriate in the tropics because of the risk of infection.
He served with a medical delegation to China and witnessed at first hand an operation on a patient who had been sedated only by acupuncture.
He returned to the UK and was appointed the surgical consultant to the British Army on the Rhine.
Other posts that Sir Cameron held were Professor of Military Surgery at the Royal Army Medical College, Surgeon General at the Army Medical Services and First Surgeon General Medical Services (1984-88).
But Sir Cameron's incisive and analytical mind was also seen in an advisory capacity on various medical committees.
He lobbied the 1986 Yellowlees Committee not to change the structure for treating wounded servicemen.
The committee was enquiring into how best to implicate savings in the NHS by combining services and reducing empty beds in army hospitals.
As Surgeon-General, Sir Cameron had responsibility for all three services and argued cogently against a centralised surgical system. But once it was implemented Sir Cameron worked with typical commitment to make the new system work.
One of his last appointments was at the headquarters of UK Land Forces.
Sir Cameron wrote widely on medical matters and published several books on the treatment of missile wounds.
He was awarded an honorary degree from Glasgow University in 1991 and, in 1985, was made a Commander of the Order of St John of Jerusalem.
Sir Cameron retired to the Isle of Wight where he continued to play golf with his accustomed zest, write and follow another life-long passion, ornithology.
He was knighted in 1985 and made a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1964; he was one of the youngest ever to receive that honour.
In 1953 he married Audrey Watson. They had been childhood sweethearts having both attended local schools in Glasgow.
She predeceased him by just eight days and Sir Cameron is survived by their son who is a consultant histopathologist.
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