Richard Cruise
{{Short description|English ophthalmic surgeon}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
Sir Richard Robert Cruise, GCVO, FRCS (27 October 1876 – 24 December 1946) was an English ophthalmic surgeon. He was Surgeon-Oculist to George V and Queen Mary.
Early life
Cruise was born in Purneah in the British Raj,[https://www.ukwhoswho.com/view/10.1093/ww/9780199540891.001.0001/ww-9780199540884-e-224306 "Cruise, Sir Richard (Robert)"], Who Was Who (online ed., Oxford University Press, 2021). Retrieved 28 July 2021. to Francis Cruise (died 1879) and his wife Frideswide, daughter of Edward Kellet of Waterstown in county Meath.A. C. Fox-Davies, Armorial Families, 7th ed. (London: Hurst and Blackett, 1929), p. 474. He was educated at Harrow School."Sir Richard Cruise", The Times (London), 28 December 1946, p. 7. {{Gale|CS119620508}}
Career
Cruise trained at St Mary's Hospital and qualified as a Member of the Royal College of Surgeons and Licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians in 1900.[https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/lives/search/detailnonmodal/ent:$002f$002fSD_ASSET$002f0$002fSD_ASSET:376305/one?qu=%22rcs%3A+E004122%22&rt=false%7C%7C%7CIDENTIFIER%7C%7C%7CResource+Identifier "Cruise, Sir Richard Robert (1877–1946)"], Plarr's Lives of the Fellows (Royal College of Surgeons). Retrieved 28 July 2021. He became an ophthalmologist and worked as a senior clinical assistant in that specialism at St Mary's. He was also the Chief Clinical Assistant at the Royal London Ophthalmic Hospital. In 1903, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons. He worked as a surgeon at the Bristol Eye Hospital and the Royal Eye Hospital. In 1909, he was appointed to the Royal Westminster Ophthalmic Hospital, where he became a consulting surgeon. He was also appointed to that position at King Edward VII's Hospital in London. During the First World War, he was an officer in the Royal Army Medical Corps and invented a chain mail visor for soldiers (to protect them from being blinded by shrapnel) which was put into use in late 1917. Though they improved safety, the helmets were unpopular with soldiers, who found them distracting; Cruise developed a second model to address some of the complaints, though it is not clear that it was distributed during the war.An example of this invention can be seen at [https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C108905 "Mk I Steel Helmet with Second Pattern Cruise Visor: British Army"], Australian War Memorial. Retrieved 29 July 2021.
Cruise was ophthalmic surgeon to George V (reigned 1910–36); he was appointed a Commander of the Royal Victorian Order in 1917[https://www.thegazette.co.uk/Edinburgh/issue/13099/page/1054 The Edinburgh Gazette], issue 13099 (4 June 1917), p. 1054. and in 1918 he was appointed Surgeon-Oculist Extraordinary to the King.[https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/30892/page/10659 The London Gazette], issue 30892 (10 September 1918), p. 10659. In 1922, he was promoted to Knight Commander. On the king's death in 1936, Cruise was appointed Surgeon-Oculist to Queen Mary, in which office he served till he died. He was promoted to Knight Grand Cross in 1936.
Family and death
Likenesses
Publications
- {{cite journal |last1=Cruise |first1=Richard R. |title=Visor for the Prevention of War Blindness |journal=British Medical Journal |date=18 May 1940 |volume=1 |issue=4141 |pages=53–58 |pmid=2177268 |pmc=2177268 |issn=0007-1447}}
References
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Category:British ophthalmologists
Category:20th-century English medical doctors
Category:Knights Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order
Category:Fellows of the Royal College of Surgeons of England
Category:Honorary medical staff at King Edward VII's Hospital for Officers