Person:Philip Beales (1)

Phillip Hulme Beales was an eminent ENT surgeon.

From The Guardian, Thursday 23 November 2000:

Philip Beales, who has died aged 84, was a visionary ear nose and throat surgeon and a worldwide authority on the middle ear, and on the social problems of noise and deafness. Through his books and his practices came changes in attitudes to the deaf, to general standards and to policies to prevent the increase of industrial deafness.

He was the eldest of three children of the social historian Lance Beales. After a happy early childhood in Lancashire, he grew up in north London, attending Haberdashers' school, and disconcerting the academic ambiance of his family by using a motor bike.

In the intellectual climate of the 1930s he acquired the convictions which later became the cornerstone of his dedication to the National Health Service. Although his father had hoped he would move into academic life, Philip again went against family tradition by studying medicine at Guy's Hospital.

After early experience in general medicine (including service as a RAF doctor) and later experience in plastic surgery, he decided to specialise in ear, nose and throat surgery, and became ENT surgeon at Doncaster royal infirmary. At Doncaster he built up a thriving NHS practice in the north of England.

From his arrival in Doncaster in 1953 to his retirement in 1981, he was awarded many distinctions and prizes. He invented a speculum used for microsurgery of the middle ear, and the Beales instrument, as it came to be known, is widely in use today. He was president of the otology section of the Royal Society of Medicine, 1978-79.

In 1961, he published his first book Otosclerosis, a seminal text on microsurgery of the middle ear, and in 1965 came his Noise, Hearing and Deafness. This was the first comprehensive treatment of both the physical and social aspects of deafness, and brought the immediate impact of modern (and particularly industrial) noise on workers, and indeed all citizens, to the attention of the public.

He reviewed the social problems faced by deaf children, at a time when deafness was termed "the most severe of all social handicaps", and argued that the deaf child should be educated in mainstream schools. He was a tireless advisor to the School for the Deaf in Doncaster, and supported children and their parents struggling with the social and physical impact of deafness. For some years after retiring from surgery, he continued to assess damage to the hearing of miners and other industrial workers, his expert evidence assisting with difficult claims of workers disabled by unprotected exposure to loud noise.

Besides his work, his energies and enthusiasm were vested in his family - his wife Valerie (author of the children's book Emma and Freckles), children and grandchildren. He loved his garden at Rossington Bridge House, the restored coaching inn where he and his family lived throughout their time at Doncaster; and he was a keen sailor, potter, painter and amateur cook. He had a lifelong love of music.

To the end, he provided inspiration, joy and humour to those who were close to him. His wife died in 1994, and he is survived by his four children, David, Martin, Julia and Sylvia.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/2000/nov/23/guardianobituaries1

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