Terence English

Sir Terence Alexander Hawthorne English (born October 1932) is a South African-born British retired cardiac surgeon.

English went to Parktown Preparatory School for boys in Johannesburg and at the age of ten was sent to board at Cordwallis school in Pietermaritzburg and in 1946 completed his schooling at Hilton College in Natal.

After leaving school at the age of seventeen, English worked for a year in what was then Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), as a diamond driller with the Cementation Company (Africa) Ltd on a dam near Salisbury (now Harare).

This skill was useful in providing opportunities for summer jobs while he was studying for a BSc in mining engineering at Witwatersrand University in Johannesburg, which he completed in 1954.

His qualifications later provided opportunities for employment in mining exploration in Northern Quebec and the Yukon.

In his penultimate year of engineering, he unexpectedly inherited £2,000 from a family trust and decided this would enable him to change to medicine and spend his professional career as a doctor rather than an engineer.

English applied to Guy's Medical School and was accepted by the Dean, George Houston providing he finished his engineering degree successfully.

He did this and George Houston was later to play a key role in English's career when he agreed to readmit him after he had resigned during the 2nd year of his studies.

Later, he was awarded an honorary fellowships of Guy's Hospital at the same time as Houston.

After completing his medical training at Guy's Hospital Medical School, he was stimulated by the pioneering open heart surgery taking place in the 1960s and he embarked on a career in cardiac surgery and then specialised in cardiac transplantation.

In 1961, English captained the Guy's 1st XV team when they won the Rugby Inter-Hospitals Cup.

After completing medical school and internship, English started his surgical training with leading surgeons including Donald Ross and Sir Russell later Lord Brock.

He also made a working visit with Christiaan Barnard at Groote Schuur Hospital in South Africa.

After obtaining the FRCS in general surgery he completed his cardiothoracic training at the Royal Brompton Hospital, London Chest and National Heart Hospitals, with a year's research Fellowship with John Kirklin in Birmingham, Alabama.

This was a result of poor results in most units around the world during the years following Christiaan Barnard's first transplant in December 1967 apart from Stanford University's in California where Norman Shumway had pioneered heart transplantation and Barnard's unit in Cape Town.

It was felt at the time that cardiac transplantation required more research into the management of rejection, more donors and a change in public opinion.

Three months after the moratorium on heart transplantation, English became inspired by a visit to his friend Philip Caves, at Stanford University, who had developed the technique of transvenous endomyocardial biopsy to detect acute organ rejection at an early stage, and was then Chief Resident in Shumway's unit.

Caves had been working with pathologist Margaret Billingham, who devised the scoring system for early rejection.

This advance and better knowledge of how to use drugs for immunosuppression had led to a significant improvement in results at Stanford and he decided that it was time for the UK to have its own programme of heart transplantation based on what he had seen there.

English became consultant cardiothoracic surgeon to Papworth and Addenbrooke's Hospitals, 1972 – 1995.

He was Consultant Cardiothoracic Surgeon, Papworth Hospital and Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge, 1973–1995.

A clinical moratorium on heart transplants in the UK was announced by Sir George Godber, Chief Medical Officer (United Kingdom) in February 1973.

So in October 1973 formal meetings began between surgical colleagues at Papworth and Sir Roy Calne at Addenbrooke's where there was already an active programme of kidney and liver transplantation.

In preparation for this English did some open heart surgery at Addenbrooke's Hospital and also became involved with Roy Calne's pig heart transplant research.

Subsequently, English embarked on his own research at Huntingdon Research Centre directed towards defining the best way of preserving myocardial function during the period of anoxia between the heart's removal from the donor and its transplantation into the recipient.

This comprised a combination of hypothermic, and pharmacological inhibition of metabolism and allowed safe periods of storage of the donor heart for up to 6 hours.

By the end of 1977 English felt ready to embark on a clinical programme and submitted his plans to the Transplant Advisory Panel (TAP) of the Department of Health.

He was received politely when the TAP met in January 1978 but was later informed that there was no funding for a heart transplant programme and they did not want to see any one-off operations.

After starting a career in mining engineering, English switched to medicine and went on to lead the team that performed Britain's first successful heart transplant in August 1979 at Papworth, and soon established it as one of Europe's leading heart–lung transplant programmes.

Born into a family of mixed Irish, Afrikaans, Yorkshire and Scottish descendants, English's father died at age 49, leaving his mother to bring up two children in South Africa.

After completing a degree in Mining Engineering in Johannesburg, he was inspired by a maternal uncle, who was a surgeon, to study medicine, and with the financial aid of an unexpected legacy travelled to London.

However, English managed to obtain permission from the Chairman of Cambridge Health Authority to use his facilities at Papworth for two transplants and after the first failed in January 1979, the second in August 1979 was successful and the patient Keith Castle lived for over five years.

English carried on with developing the heart transplant programme and became Director of the British Heart Foundation Transplant Research Unit at Papworth (1980–1998).

A member of the General Medical Council (GMC) (1983–1989), he has also been president of International Society of Heart and Lung Transplantation 1984–1985 and holds multiple international honorary fellowships and Doctorates of medical colleges and universities.

English became president of the Royal College of Surgeons 1989–92, Master of St Catharine's College 1993–2000, Deputy Lieutenant for Cambridgeshire 1994–2001 and president of the British Medical Association 1995–1996.

He was knighted, KBE in 1991.

Terence English was born in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, to Mavis and Arthur English.

He has an older sister called Elizabeth.

Arthur English died from silicosis when Sir Terence was two years old.

In 2013, Eric Hunter's grandson acknowledged English in his tribute to his grandfather who had three consecutive heart transplants.