1. Contributions to neurology by Symonds include a highly accurate description of subarachnoid haemorrhage in 1924, and idiopathic intracranial hypertension in 1931.
20 Facts About Charles Symonds
1. 2.
Charles Symonds served in both the First and Second World Wars, initially in the ranks as a motorcycle despatch rider on the Western Front.
3.
Charles Symonds was born in London on 11 April 1890 to the Canadian-born Sir Charters Charles Symonds, surgeon to Guy's Hospital, and his wife, Fanny Marie.
4.
Charles Symonds was educated at Rugby School and then proceeded to New College, Oxford on a classics scholarship.
5.
Charles Symonds soon changed his degree course to medicine, and took a second class honours degree in physiology in 1912.
6.
Charles Symonds then continued his medical training at Guy's on a scholarship.
7.
Charles Symonds was wounded at the start of the Race to the Sea in September 1914, and was awarded the Medaille militaire, and then returned to his medical studies at Guy's.
8.
Charles Symonds was initially attached to the Royal Flying Corps at Farnborough, gaining his first experience of aviation medicine.
9.
Charles Symonds married Janet, daughter of Edward Bagnall Poulton in 1915, they were to have two sons, one of whom was the political satirist Richard Symonds.
10.
Charles Symonds completed his medical studies in 1919, gaining his MB BCh and his Oxford Master of Arts and Doctor of Medicine.
11.
Charles Symonds was then appointed to the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery and in 1920 to Guy's as assistant physician for nervous diseases.
12.
Charles Symonds returned to the National Hospital in London in 1926, and was appointed consultant in neurology to the Royal National Throat, Nose and Ear Hospital.
13.
Charles Symonds initially worked on the RAF medical boards at the RAF's Central Medical Establishment, RAF Halton, and organised the establishment of the Military Hospital for Head Injuries at St Hugh's College, Oxford in partnership with Hugh Cairns.
14.
Charles Symonds was appointed Companion of the Order of the Bath in the 1944 New Year Honours, by which time he was an acting air commodore and on 16 January he was promoted acting air vice marshal.
15.
Charles Symonds retired from the RAF in 1945, and was appointed Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 1946 New Year Honours.
16.
Charles Symonds then returned to hospital practice, publishing more important papers, and becoming a highly regarded teacher.
17.
Charles Symonds was visiting neurologist at Johns Hopkins; an honorary member of both the American Neurological Association and the New York Neurological Association; corresponding member of the Societe de Neurologie de Paris; president of both the neurological and psychiatric sections of the Royal Society of Medicine ; and an honorary fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.
18.
Charles Symonds retired from practice in 1963, moving to Ham, Wiltshire and was elected an honorary fellow of the RSM in 1964.
19.
Charles Symonds continued to publish, in particular a 1970 edition of his own papers entitled Studies in Neurology.
20.
Charles Symonds died in Totteridge, north London on 7 December 1978.