Professor John “Jimmy” James
It is with great regret that we announce the passing of Professor John “Jimmy” James MB ChB FRCS Ed., on the 4th December 2019 after a short battle with cancer.
He was beloved husband of Judith and father of Emma, William and Michael.
Having qualified as a plastic surgeon in 1968, Jimmy moved to Ethiopia, working with ALERT doing Reconstructive Surgery in leprosy in 1973-74. From 1977 to 1981 he worked in Kenya with AMREF and the Flying Doctors, visiting leprosy hospitals in Kenya and Tanzania, doing Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery in Moshi and Nairobi.
He returned to the UK during his children’s education, where he was Consultant Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeon in Shotley Bridge and Sunderland. In 1996 he retired from the NHS and worked in Malawi running the Burns Unit in the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Blantyre and employed in the College of Medicine, Blantyre, teaching Anatomy. In 1999 he was asked by the officials of the Association of Surgeons of East Africa (ASEA) to be General Secretary with the remit to set up a training college for surgeons; he believed passionately that surgeons should be able to train, and qualify, in the region. He moved to Arusha to run the newly-formed College of Surgeons of East, Central and Southern Africa (COSECSA) where he trained and examined medical graduates in Surgery. A generation of surgeons in the region were trained or examined by Jimmy.
He will be laid to rest at Gask Parish Church in Perthshire on 13th of December.
Messages of condolence may be sent to his son-in-law: [email protected].
Dear relatives of Professor “Jimmy” James,
I was saddened to hear of your tragic loss. My heartfelt thoughts and prayers are with all of you at this difficult time.
He was a remarkable person and led an exemplary life, to all of us.
Pericles Foroglou
Dear Judith
I was very saddened to see Jimmy’s obituary in the BMJ. I just wanted to send my condolences. Although I did not work very long with Jimmy, I did appreciate his skills and in particular his independence of thought and action, often quite bold and brave. I hope you and the family are all well, I assume you are no longer living in Durham.
all the best
Peter
To the family of Jimmy James …
I was sorry to hear of the passing away of Jimmy, who I had great respect for over many years, since first becoming aware of his work in East Africa during a period in Tanzania during the early 80’s. His knowledge of working in a diverse array of hospital and health centre facilities was almost unique as a plastic surgeon in that era – following on from the late Sir Michael Wood’s foundation of AMREF.
Jimmy later became a stalwart of BAPS (now BAPRAS…) overseas Interest group, and was a great supporter of any work towards furthering the teaching and availability of reconstructive plastic surgery in the developing world – and especially his beloved Africa. It was no surprise when he later returned to co-found COSECSA and develop a highly structured system for training, setting standards and examining across the entire region.
He was truly a pioneer of his generation, in a field which has now burgeoning into ‘global surgery’ and become far more widely accepted and attractive in which to work. I cannot imagine many having such a breath of experience again, and he is much missed.