'A Knife, Fork and Spoon Surgeon:The Life of Captain Jacob Markowitz RAMC

Teatime talk series (2 of 6)

by Paul Watkins

The exhibition opening will be extended until 5.55pm, the lecture will start 6pm prompt.

The Gallery café will not be open, but there is a variety of venues selling refreshments in the vicinity. You can take lidded drinks into the lecture theatre.

Admission Free but booking essential via Eventbrite

When Markowitz left Jarvis Collegiate School in 1918, his teachers wrote ‘We shall hear of him again.’ They were right. Over the following years he made significant contributions to medical research, pioneering the experimental technique of heart transplantation.

However, it was during captivity in the Far East that he made his greatest contributions, treating the sick and injured on the Burma Railway. His expertise knew no bounds, treating cholera, developing a blood transfusion service and carrying out surgery under the most austere conditions.

This talk will describe his life, focussing on his time as a prisoner of war and his remarkable contributions in medicine. It will be of interest to students and an

Paul Watkins is a veterinary surgeon with an interest in medical and military history. He has recently published From Hell Island to Hay Fever, the biography of Dr Bill Frankland, the oldest surviving Far Eastern Prisoner of War.

This talk will be of interest to medical and military historians, health and medical professionals and students and those who would find out more about the stories behind exhibition.