Clubbe, Charles Percy Barlee (1854 - 1932)

Summary

Charles Clubbe was a pioneer of paediatric orthopaedic surgery and specialised in the treatment of club-feet and bow-legs. He was a founding fellow of the College of Surgeons of Australasia (later Royal Australasian College of Surgeons) and consulting surgeon at many hospitals including the Coast Hospital and Sanatorium (later the Prince Henry Hospital), the Institution for the Deaf and Dumb and the Blind, and the Greycliffe (Lady Edeline) Hospital for Babies. Clubbe appointed Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE) in 1927 for his contribution to medicine in Australia and the world.

Details

After completing medical studies at St Bartholomew's Hospital (England), Charles Percy B. Clubbe was admitted as a member of the Royal College of Surgeons (1876) and as a licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians, London in 1877. One of his first appointments was as a house surgeon to the Kidderminster hospital. He left this post in 1879 to work as a civil surgeon with the Army Medical Department of Natal during the Zulu War. Upon his return to England, Clubbe was appointed chief resident medical officer to the (Royal) Manchester Children's Hospital. This was the start of his lifelong interest in paediatric medicine.

For health reasons Charles Clubbe decided to migrate to Australia in 1883. He immediately set up a private practice in Randwick, New South Wales and within a year was working as an honorary surgeon to the Hospital for Sick Children, Glebe Point. By 1889 Clubbe was appointed an honorary assistant surgeon to the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and had developed a reputation as an expert in the surgical treatment of children. His text book The diagnosis & treatment of intussusception (1907) gained world-wide praise and went into its second edition in 1921. He also wrote a series of papers for the Australasian Medical Gazette (1889-1891) on the surgical treatment of club-feet and of bow-legs which lead to the development of orthopaedic surgery in Australia.

Advanced surgical techniques were not the only contributions Charles Clubbe made to paediatric medicine. He also established a diptheria treatment centre at the Glebe hospital where he treated patients with a new diptheria antitoxin and carried out emergency traceotomies. When not dealing with patients, Clubbe gave lectures in clinical surgery at the University of Sydney (1895-1907); managed the board of the Royal Alexandra Hospital for Children; served on the Medical Board of New South Wales; was president of the New South Wales Bush Nursing Association, the District Nursing Association, the Infantile Paralysis Committee of New South Wales, and the Royal Society for the Welfare of Mothers and Babies; and was chairman of the Baby Clinics, Pre-maternity and Home Nursing Board.

Chronology

1876 -

Career position - Member of the Royal College of Surgeons, London

1877 -

Career position - Licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians, London

1879

Career position - Civil Surgeon with the Army Medical Department of Natal

1880

Career position - Chief Resident Medical Officer at the (Royal) Manchester Children's Hospital, UK

1883

Life event - Migrated to Australia (Sydney) and set up a general practice in Randwick

c. 1884 -

Career position - Honorary Surgeon at the Hospital for Sick Children in Glebe Point

c. 1889 -

Career position - Honorary Assistant Surgeon at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital

1895 - 1907

Career position - Lecturer in Medicine, University of Sydney

1897 - 1898

Career position - President, British Medical Association, New South Wales branch

1900

Career position - Private practice established in Macquarie St, Sydney

1904 - 1932

Career position - Head of the Board of Management at the Royal Alexandra Hospital

1907

Career event - The diagnosis and treatment of intussusception published

1907

Career position - Visiting Surgeon at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, USA

1914

Career position - Chairman, Baby Clinics, Pre-Maternity and Home Nursing Board

1915 - 1916

Career position - Member of the Medical Board of New South Wales

1924

Career position - Honorary Fellow of the American College of Surgeons

1927

Career position - Foundation Fellow, College of Surgeons of Australasia (now the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons)

1927

Award - Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE) - Service to the Commonwealth

Related entries

Published resources

Books

• Clubbe, Charles P. B., The diagnosis and treatment of intussusception (Edinburgh: Young J. Pentland, 1907), 92 pp. Details

Book Sections

• Dods, Lorimer, 'Clubbe, Sir Charles Percy Barlee (1854-1932), surgeon' in Australian dictionary of biography, volume 8: 1891 - 1939 Cl-Gib, Bede Nairn and Geoffrey Serle, eds (Carlton, Vic.: Melbourne University Press, 1981), pp. 30-1. https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/clubbe-sir-charles-percy-barlee-5687. Details

Resources

• Wikidata, http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q21537909. Details
• 'Clubbe, Charles Percy Barlee (1854-1932)', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-1474009. Details

See also

• Kenny, P. J. and Miller, I. D., 'The founders of the College: New South Wales', Australian and New Zealand journal of surgery, 51 (3) (1981), 319-25. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1445-2197.1981.tb05970.x. Details