RCGP Archives - Personal Papers
GB/2134/B/HUN John Hunt (1905 - 1987)
Biography
John Henderson Hunt was born on 3 July 1905 in Secunderabad,
India, eldest son of Edmund Hunt, surgeon in charge of staff of the
Nizam of Hyderabad's State Railways and Chief Medical Officer of
the Railway Hospital, Secunderabad, and Laura Mary Hunt, daughter
of a tea plantation owner.
Hunt grew up in England with his mother and
his siblings, whilst his father lived and worked in India until
1931, attending pre-preparatory school and then Temple Grove
Preparatory School, Eastbourne. He was then educated at
Charterhouse School from 1918. In 1923 Hunt achieved an exhibition
to Balliol College, University of Oxford, where he graduated with a
2:1 in Physiology in 1927. Hunt was awarded the Radcliffe
Scholarship in Pharmacology, St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical
School. He was registered BM, BCh, MRCS/LRCP with the General
Medical Council in 1931.
Hunt worked as House Surgeon at St Bartholomew's Hospital in
1931 and did a locum tenens at Duffield, Derbyshire. In 1933 he
became second assistant at the Medical Unit at St Bartholomew's
Hospital and in 1934, for two years, he was House Physician at the
National Hospital for Nervous Diseases. In 1936 he went on to be
Chief Assistant to the Consultative Neurological Clinic at St
Bartholomew's Hospital. In 1934 he passed the membership
examination of the Royal College of Physicians, and in 1935 he
obtained his DM Thesis, University of Oxford, on the subject of
Raynaud's disease. A published work of the thesis appeared the
following year in the Quarterly Journal of Medicine.
Hunt chose to become a general practitioner, and in 1937 joined
Dr George Cregan in practice as a partner at 83 Sloane Street,
London. The reaction of his teachers and colleagues was that he was
'committing professional suicide' (John Horder) as the differences
in education, pay and status were indeed considerable. During the
Second World War Hunt served as a neurologist in the Royal Air
Force, at Blackpool and Ely, held the rank of Wing Commander. When
the war was over he returned to set up independent practice at 54
Sloane Street, London. The practice had its own laboratory and
x-ray department. Hunt choose not to enter the National Health
Service (NHS) in 1948, continuing to run a private service, having
an already well-established clientele since establishing the
practice at the end of the war.
Although Hunt had not entered the NHS he was acutely aware of
the uncertain and unsatisfactory position of general practitioners
during the crucial NHS planning stages. It was felt that there was
justification for general practitioners to have a college of their
own. The notion of an academic body to promote the efficiency of
general practice had been proposed as long ago as 1844, but to no
effect. However, over a hundred years later the ideas were again
being put forward.
In October 1951 Hunt and Dr Fraser Rose wrote a letter,
published in the British Medical Journal and The Lancet, proposing
'a possible College of General Practice'. Memoranda published two
weeks later provoked both favourable and unfavourable responses,
with many influential people, particularly the Presidents of the
established Royal Colleges, expressing their opposition. Hunt
brought together a group of influential figures, including former
Minister of Health, Sir Henry Willink, to form a steering committee
which looked into the practical aims and needs of the proposed
institution. The Steering Committee, with Hunt as Secretary,
persevered and on 19 November 1952 Memorandum and Articles of
Association of the College of General Practitioners were signed and
in December the Committee's Report was published.
Within six months the College had 2000 doctors as members, and
had widespread support of both medical and non-medical bodies. Hunt
continued his steadfast commitment to, and hard work for, the
College, displaying determined leadership as the first Honorary
Secretary of Council, 1953-66, and then as President, 1967-70, and
developing the College's role and influence both at home and
abroad, throughout the rest of his professional life.
In the College's first annual report the Foundation Council of
the College put on record its appreciation of Hunt, 'in the events
leading up to the formation of the steering committee, Dr John Hunt
was mainly responsible for bringing together the right individuals
and for enlisting the interest and support of the leaders of
medical opinion everywhere... the measure of success so far
achieved by the College would not have been possible without him'
(1st Annual Report 1953, pp.12-13).
'A History of the Royal College of General Practitioners',
edited by Hunt, along with John Fry and Robin Pinsent, tells the
story of the College's first 25 years. Published in 1983 this was
the last of many publications for which Hunt was responsible. A
complete collection of his published papers is held at the Royal
College of General Practitioners, Princes Gate, London. The
writings cover many topics including the foundation of the
College.
Hunt was honoured by both medical and lay organisations
worldwide, he was appointed CBE in 1970 and in 1973 was given life
peerage, as Lord Hunt of Fawley, in the House of Lords. He
participated in many debates on medical affairs, with a voice of
authority gained from his wide experience, and was responsible for
steering the Medical Act of 1978 through the Upper House. It has
been suggested though that the keynote speech of his life however
was his Lloyd Roberts Lecture, 'The Renaissance of General
Practice', delivered in 1957, which illuminated proposals for the
future work of the College and of general practitioners. Hunt
received many awards including the W Victor Johnson Medal, in 1973,
when he was made Honorary Member of the College of Family
Physicians of Canada, and the Gold Medal of the BMA in
1980.
Hunt was supported throughout his career by his wife Elisabeth
who he had married in 1941. They had five children, two daughters,
a son who died in childhood, and two twin sons, both of whom became
general practitioners. Hunt was forced to retire due to failing eye
sight in 1981, and died 6 years later on 28 December 1987 at his
home in Fawley, near Henley-on-Thames.