Patrick Steptoe, CBE, MBChB, D.Se., FRCS (Ed), FRCOG, FRS*

Abstract

Patrick Steptoe was born on June 9th, 1913 in Witney, Oxfordshire. He grew up in a family of eight brothers and sisters, the sixth boy and the seventh child of Grace Maud (nee Mimms) and Harry Arthur Steptoe. His mother was an advocate of womens' rights, and worked for the Mothers' Union and Infant Welfare clinics; she died in 1973. His father who was Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages in Witney, died in 1953. As a schoolboy at the Witney Grammar School, Patrick became interested in medicine and music, and the two subjects demanded virtually equal time during his late teens. This musical talent manifested early and lasted throughout his life, for even at the age of 13 he played incidental piano music during matinees for the silent films of Tom Mix, Harold Lloyd, Ramon Navarro and Rudolph Valentino. Later he was organist in St Mary's Church, and director and organist of Christ Church Musical Society, Oxford, when he was 18 years old. He wrote that the heavy weight of the organ keys helped to make his hands and fingers very strong. These early signs of a character full of determination and initiative were apparent later in his life, as he coped with disappointments and opposition during his medical career. He might indeed have become a musician, but medicine finally triumphed when at age 20 he entered King's College, London as a medical student. He qualified in 1939 at the age of 26 with the degrees of MRCS, LRCP from St George's Hospital in London. This hospital retained his affection throughout life, even though he remembered wards full of cases of pneumonia, meningitis and septicaemia since antibiotics had not then been discovered. Steptoe was already a member of the Royal Navy Volunteer reserve, and joined the Royal Navy as the Second World War began. He served between 1939 and 1946, and rose to the rank of Lieutenant Commander. His ship was torpedoed in 1941, off Crete, and he swam for some time until rescued by the Italians. According to reports, he showed a high degree of self-control in surviving this episode, another quality that was to be displayed on many occasions in his career. His rescue by the Italian Navy resulted in his being held a prisoner of war in