British Journal of Hnsfic Surgery (I 982) 35, 104-l OS 0 1982 The Trustees of British Association of Plastic Surgeons

Obituaries

Randell Champion, MBE, LDS, MBBS, DLOEng, FRCS, Ed

DDSc, BDSc,

A. H. Randell Champion formerly Senior Consultant Plastic Surgeon to the Manchester Regional Hospital Board until his retirement, died on the 15th April 1981 in his 73rd year.

Born in Australia, he first qualified in dental surgery but later decided that medicine offered more scope for his ability and qualified MB, BS, in Melbourne in 1935. Deciding to specialise in ear, nose and throat surgery he came to England and obtained the diploma of DLO in 1938. In the same year he gained the Edinburgh Fellowship in Surgery. With the outbreak of war and his very wide experience in facial surgery, he became attracted to plastic and reconstructive surgery and underwent a course of training at Rooksdown House, Basingstoke under Sir Harold Gillies.

He was then posted with the rank of Major RAMC as surgeon in charge of the No. 1 Maxillo-Facial Unit at Alexandria. During his active service he was not only concerned with dental colleagues in the management of severe facial injuries but dealt with all types of major soft tissue damage and gained particular experience with the extensive burns so often encountered in wartime. He was mentioned in despatches.

On return to civilian life after the war he was first appointed to the Emergency Medical Service, Plastic and Jaw Unit in Leeds but later moved to Manchester working initially with Dr Gabarro from Barcelona, who had been in charge of plastic surgery in Manchester for some years. Dr Gabarro later returned to Spain and Mr Champion became the first Consultant in Plastic Surgery in Manchester when the National Health Service began in 1948. At that time there were 50 beds for plastic surgery at Baguley Emergency Hospital, the Christie Hospital and

Holt Radium Institute and the Duchess of York Hospital for Babies and an out-patient clinic at Manchester Royal Infirmary. Under his enthusiastic and determined guidance the Unit, always closely associated with Dental and Oral Surgical colleagues, began to treat an increasing number of burns and major injuries as well as more facial and other cancer. The treatment ofcleft lip and palate was expanded and over the years clinics and operating sessions were started at several peripheral hospitals; Preston, Rochdale, Bolton and Wigan. By the time he retired Randell Champion had seen the numbers of plastic surgery beds grow to over 200 and he was the most senior of six Consultants in the Region. Gradually the small unit which he had first joined became the nucleus of an integrated regional service. Adults were treated in special departments set up first in Wythenshawe Hospital, the former Baguley Hospital, but later at Withington Hospital when the main unit moved there.

In 1953 a regional unit for the treatment of scalds and burns in children under the age of 16 was set up at Booth Hall Childrens’ Hospital.

His main interests lay in facial surgery, especially the surgery of cleft lip and palate and the problems of cancer of the face in which he worked with the radiotherapists and other colleagues at the Christie Hospital.

He travelled widely and was well known at plastic surgical meetings in America, Australia and Europe. He particularly enjoyed his appointment as Honorary Consultant Plastic Surgeon to the King Edward Memorial Hospital in Bermuda and at one time he spent a considerable period every year working there. He was a dominant personality in Manchester surgical life for many years and in 1967 was invited to become President of the Manchester Surgical Society. He developed a large private practice covering all aspects of plastic surgery, in particular cosmetic surgery and medico-legal work. After retirement from the NHS he reorganised and enlarged his rooms and helped and guided younger surgeons who joined him there. In spite of a minor cerebra-vascular accident he was still working, less extensively, up to the time of his death and in fact should have operated on a case of facial scarring on the day after he died.

Randell Champion was a very active person in every ‘way. In the early years of his career he could be an exacting and difficult taskmaster but his juniors learned from him and in general he supported them unreservedly if he felt they deserved it. He could suddenly act with great severity if he felt that his instructions were not being followed or that they were not pulling their weight. This acerbity became less marked as he grew older although he never failed to express his forthright opinion if he felt it necessary. He retained his Australian enthusiasm for outdoor sports all his life, becoming an expert water skier and enjoying this sport in the English lakes until the year before his death.

FRANK ROBINSON

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