Leslie Frederick William Salmon

Former otolaryngologist Guy’s Hospital, London (b 10 December 1913; q Guy’s Hospital 1938; MBE, MS, FRCS), d 27 December 2002.

At school his musical talent earned him leading roles in the annual Gilbert and Sullivan production at Wimbledon town hall, and his enthusiastic membership of the cadet corps eventually culminated in a commission in the 47th (second London) divisional signals of the Territorial Army.

At Guy’s Hospital, which he entered in 1933 on an open sciences and county scholarship, activities outside his medical studies included rugby and membership of the music club, of which he became secretary.

He qualified in 1938, having received the Charles Oldham prize in ophthalmology the previous year, and went on to become house surgeon to distinguished Guy’s personalities such as Mollison, Layton, Massie, Davis-Colley, and Brock, and outpatient officer.

The second world war saw him first as a regimental medical officer in Belgium and France, where he was wounded during the evacuation from Dunkirk. He was promoted subsequently to deputy assistant director of medical services in India, the Middle East, and Sicily, to the command of a field ambulance unit, and thereafter to assistant director of medical services in Italy. For his outstanding service he was made MBE in 1944, mentioned in dispatches the following year, and demobilised in 1945 with the rank of lieutenant-colonel.

His training in otolaryngology at Guy’s was under the tutelage of W Mollison, T B Layton, and R J Cann, the last of whom exerted the greatest influence on his outlook and clinical style.

A year at the Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in New York (1949-50) rounded off his training before his appointment to the ear, nose, and throat consultant staff at Guy’s in 1952, to be followed by an appointment to the Evelina Children’s Hospital and St Helier Hospital, Carshalton.

Apart from his hospital activities, his membership of the section of laryngology at the Royal Society of Medicine was rewarded by election to the presidency of that section (1974-5), and he was also appointed as an examiner in the ENT London fellowship of the College of Surgeons. Such was his prestige that he was elected president of the British Association of Otolaryngologists (1975-8), and to the ultimate accolade of master of the 6th British Academic Conference in Otolaryngology, which was held in Bristol in 1975.

He served the Commonwealth Foundation for 10 years as adviser and visiting specialist to its centre for the deaf at Nguludi, and at the Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital in Blantyre, as well as smaller hospitals and missions up and down the country.

A founder member of the visiting association of Ear and Throat Surgeons of Great Britain, his 89th birthday was marked by a special dinner held in his honour at the Dorchester Hotel.

Following his retirement in 1978, he was also able to indulge his love of music, painting, and reading.

Sam, as he was affectionately known to his friends, was an outstanding ear, nose, and throat surgeon, who adapted skilfully to the far reaching changes that occurred in that discipline over the 30 years of his career at Guy’s. The operation of transphenoidal hypophysectomy, at which he was an expert, typified his approach to surgery with its meticulous attention to detail and delicacy of touch. Equally, the eloquence and clarity of expression for which he was noted and which he brought to the committee room and the lecture theatre were remembered by colleagues and countless generations of medical students.

Distinguished in bearing and manner, he left a legacy of professionalism, patience, kindness, and devotion to his patients, which his junior staff will remember with gratitude and would hope to emulate. [O H Shaheen]