Philip Harker Newman (1911-1994): Dunkirk hero, war psychologist and orthopaedic surgeon to Sir Winston Churchill.

Abstract

Philip Harker Newman an orthopaedic surgeon and a major in the Royal Army Medical Corps was left behind to man a casualty clearing station during the evacuation of Dunkrik in 1940. Newman was made a Prisoner of War and studied the adverse psychological effects of incarceration on his fellow officers. He escaped from Germany eventually returning to Europe for its liberation in 1944. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Order and Military Cross for his bravery. In 1946, Philip Newman was appointed consultant orthopaedic surgeon to The Middlesex Hospital and The Royal National orthopaedic Hospital, London. He became an internationally recognised authority on the management of spinal conditions including spondylolisthesis. In 1962, he operated with Sir Herbert Seddon (1903-1977) on Sir Winston Churchill who had sustained a fractured neck of femur following a fall in the South of France. Newman became President of The British Orthopaedic Association in 1976 and chairman of the Editorial Board of The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery. In 1976, he was also awarded a CBE and wrote his wartime memoirs, Safer than a Known Way published in 1983.