Sir Francis Avery Jones

The Collection is comprised of four main sections:

Personal items, including memorabilia and photographs.

Correspondence relating to Avery Jones' various areas of interest, including published letters.

Publications and reviews, mostly written by Avery Jones but also including articles by other people which he gathered together throughout his career.

Items relating to Societies and Institutions which Avery Jones was involved with in various capacities.

1934-1998

5 boxes, 1 o/s folder

Arrangement is as follows: A: Personal Items B: Correspondence C: Publications and Reviews D: Societies and Institutions

The majority of this material was given to the Contemporary Medical Archives Centre (known as Archives and Manuscripts following its merger with Western Manuscripts in July 2000) in November 1995 by Sir Francis Avery Jones (Acc 602) Further donations of miscellaneous articles and lectures were subsequently received in 1996. In November 2001 the Archives and Manuscripts Department received a copy of the book: "Marriage Lines" by Ogden Nash from Lady Avery Jones (Acc 992); the book contains a signed inscription to Avery Jones, dated November 1964.

Sir Francis Avery Jones was known amongst his contemporaries as the "Father of Modern Gastroenterology". Born in Briton Ferry, Carmarthenshire on 31st May 1910, he graduated from St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical school in 1934, and received his MD and MRCP in 1936. In 1940 he became Consulting Physician and Gastroenterologist at Central Middlesex Hospital, London, remaining in this position until 1974. Other positions of note include: Honorary Consulting Gastroenterologist at St Mark's Hospital, London, Emeritus Consultant in Gastroenterology to the Royal Navy and Honorary Consultant Physician at St Bartholomew's, London. Avery Jones was a pioneer in the development of the modern approach to the treatment of peptic ulcer disease, publishing a series of important papers on the subject in association with Richard Doll. Doll and Avery Jones identified a number of factors which accelerated the healing of peptic ulcers, including bed rest, cessation of smoking and use of the drug carbenoxolene. Throughout his illustrious career, Avery Jones was actively involved with a number of medical societies, presiding over several, including the British Society of Gastroenterology, the British Digestive Foundation and the Medical Artists Association. Further honours and appointments include a seat on the council of the University Of Surrey; the presidency and gold medal of The Medical Society of London; the vice presidency and gold medal of the Royal College of Physicians; and the Mastership of the Worshipful Company of Barbers, for whom he also held the title of Barber Emeritus. He was made a CBE in 1967 and knighted in 1970. Avery Jones was a strong supporter and constructive critic of the NHS, and his many achievements include setting up the Meals on Wheels service, his involvement in the King's Fund (a medical think tank), and his strong support for nutritional studies. He was also responsible for galvanising his colleagues into official action on cigarette smoking. Towards the end of his career he arranged for the funding and building of the Avery Jones Postgraduate Medical Centre at Central Middlesex Hospital. He died in May 1998 in Chichester, West Sussex.

At Wellcome Collection: Papers of Sir Richard Doll (PP/DOL), Surgeon Captain T.L. Cleave (PP/TLC), Hugh Carey Trowell (PP/HCT), Denis Burkit (WTI/DPB and Sir Robert McCarrison (GC/205). Within the general collections: "Ashes to ashes: witness on smoking" by Sir Francis Avery Jones in "Ashes to ashes: the history of smoking and health: Symposium and Witness Seminar organized by the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine and the History of Twentieth Century Medicine Group on 26-27 April 1995" Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1998 Wellcome Institute series in the history of medicine.

Duplicate items have been weeded.