Maurice Garretts

Maurice Garretts was enticed into a career in dermatology by William Goldsmith, an eminent senior consultant dermatologist at University College Hospital (UCH), who had been editor of the British Journal of Dermatology from 1939 to 1948. Goldsmith was a stickler for linguistic accuracy and took care to inculcate into his students the importance of using precise language to explain medical problems to patients. Once, when he used as an example a sentence about sandwiches, he overheard Maurice asking a fellow student what might have been in the sandwich. Goldsmith was not amused, and Maurice thought his hopes of a career in dermatology were at an end. Maurice was evidently forgiven as he was awarded the Radcliffe Crocker scholarship, named after …