Richard Corfield Howard

British Medical Journal 2001 August 18

Consultant orthopaedic surgeon Norfolk and Norwich Hospital 1948-80 (b Allahabad, India, 1915; q Cambridge/St Thomas's 1940), died on 9 June 2001. He was casualty officer at Norwich during the Blitz and received the many casualties when the city was heavily bombed in 1940-41. Appointment as resident surgical officer at the Royal Cornwall Infirmary, Truro, followed. He joined the Royal Air Force in 1942, took his Edinburgh fellowship in 1943, and served as a surgical specialist. Soon after demobilisation in 1946 he returned to Norwich as orthopaedic registrar. In 1948 he was appointed consultant orthopaedic surgeon to the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital and Jenny Lind Hospital for Children. He had particular interests in spinal and hip joint surgery and in hand surgery. He published papers on the Norwich V-arthrodesis of the hip, an operation that, before the evolution and acceptance of total hip replacement, was a reliable operation for disabling osteoarthritis; and on thoraco-scapular fusion for the disabling condition of facio-scapulo-humeral dystrophy, for which he designed a successful technique. He was a talented pianist and watercolour artist. He leaves a wife, Beryl; three daughters; and eight grandchildren.