Founder of the GU Dept at The London Hospital
Frank Seymour Kidd was born on 30 March 1878, the son of Dr Joseph Kidd. He was educated at Winchester School and Trinity College Cambridge, and then the London Hospital.
After being appointed to a position as Registrar at The London Hospital, he spent some time in Berlin where he was very impressed by the German School of Urology.
In June 1910, he became Assistant Surgeon to the London Hospital where he was appointed Full Surgeon in 1917. In 1913, he started the Genito-Urinary Department at the London, inspired by his old boss Edwin Hurry Fenwick, a surgeon at the London Hospital who had promoted the use of the cystoscope in Great Britain.
In 1920, Kidd was a member of the Organising Committee that founded the Urological Section of the Royal Society of Medicine and was it's President in 1927. He also founded the British Journal of Urology (now BJUI) jointly with Horace Winsbury-White.
By the end of 1920, he found that his health was unable to stand the strain of both his private practice and his arduous work at the Hospital. So, on medical advice, he resigned from the hospital staff, although he remained a Consulting Surgeon to St Paul’s Hospital.
In November 1931, his health failed again and he had to stop work temporarily. Frank Kidd died suddenly from coronary thrombosis on 12 May 1934, at the age of 56.
Source of the Autograph
The autograph comes from Kidd's book, Urinary Surgery : A Review (frontispiece pictured above right), published in 1910. He has written his name and address (55 Harley Street) in the front of this copy. It is unclear if this was Kidd's own copy or a presentation version.
Purchase a classic reprint of Frank Kidd's book from Amazon
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