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Notes
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William Derek Wylie was educated at Uppingham School and Caius College, Cambridge, and went on to St Thomas' Hospital Medical School. He started work at St Thomas' in 1948 and in 1953, he wrote 'The Practical Management of Pain in Labour', which was published in the UK and in the USA and was translated into German. There is a film in the Association's archives which shows the young Wylie and his close friend Harry Churchill-Davidson. The latter is seen administering the recently introduced synthetic substitute for curare, gallamine, to the fully conscious Wylie who is seen to develop fairly marked and widespread signs of muscular weakness. Subsequently, the intrepid duo are seen to demonstrate the dramatic efficacy of neostigmine in reversing the effects of the gallamine! One wonders what the older Wylie would have thought of such experimentation without ethical approval! His association with Churchill-Davidson produced a major textbook, ‘A Practice of Anaesthesia’.
In the early 1950s, the Association of Anaesthetists set up a committee of four anaesthetists, including Wylie, to investigate, on a voluntary basis, the causes of death associated with anaesthesia. This was probably the first national investigation of its kind and serves as a reminder of the speciality's early involvement in clinical audit. Largely as a result of the study, the national studies into maternal mortality and into peri-operative deaths were instituted.
He served on and chaired the major hospital committees, and he was elected Dean of the Medical School. He was President of the Anaesthetic Section of the Royal Society of Medicine in 1963, and became Honorary Treasurer of the Society from 1964 until 1970. He was elected to the Board of the Faculty of Anaesthetists in 1960, and served as Dean of the Faculty from 1967 until 1969.
Royal College of Anaesthetists
London
Title
William Derek Wylie, Dean of the Faculty of Anaesthetists (1967–1969)
Date
c.1970
Medium
oil on canvas
Measurements
H 59.5 x W 49.5 cm
Accession number
RCOA45
Acquisition method
commissioned
Work type
Painting
