William Henry Battle

William Henry Battle was born in Lincoln and educated at Lincoln Grammar School. He gained his medical degree from St. Thomas’s Medical School, London, in 1877, and became F.R.C.S. in 1880. He was a surgeon at St. Thomas's Hospital, London, and was affiliated with the Royal Free Hospital. He became Professor of Surgery and Pathology in the Royal College of Surgeons and also taught in the Medical School for Women. He was the first to report a laparotomy to relieve intestinal obstruction caused by post-operative adhesions. In 1895 he described a vertical incision of the abdominal wall with retraction of the rectus muscle medially, and in 1901 he detailed his operation for femoral hernia. Battle also researched concussion and the following development of optic neuritis.

We thank Alexis Davis, USA, and Taufiek Konrad Rajab, UK, for information submitted.