Records of Donald Whatley Roy, FRCOG

Scope and Content

Records relating to the medical career of Donald Whately Roy, Foundation Fellow and Honorary Librarian of the RCOG, including his academic and professional certificates, testimonials, correspondence relating to his military career during the First World War, photographs and reprints of his articles. A correspondence file relates to his medical positions and military service during the First World War as operating surgeon on the Hospital Carrier 'Asturias' and RN Hospital Ship 'Plassy' (August 1914 - January 1916) until resignation of his commission due to ill-health, including discussion of his ill-health after the war, the respect in which he was held by his peers, and the invitation to submit an article on abortion for the British Encyclopaedia of Medical Practice.

Administrative / Biographical History

Donald Roy was born in Appleton, Roebuck on 22 May 1881. He obtained first-class honours in the natural science tripos from Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge and went on to qualify at St George's Hospital, London in 1906. He started working in various London hospitals (the General Lying-in Hospital, the Royal Free, St George's and the Samaritan Hospital for Women) prior to World War One. He served first in the Navy then transferred to the Royal Army Medical Corp in 1917; by the end of the War he was working in Northampton War Hospital. He returned to London and was finally appointed to the consulting staff of St George's Hospital, where he remained for the rest of his professional life.

A Foundation Fellow of the College, he also served as the College Librarian from 1 October 1937 to the 25 January 1941 when he stepped down due to ill health.

Access Information

Open to researchers by appointment, Monday to Friday, 10am to 4pm. mailto: archives@rcog.org.uk

Acquisition Information

Gift to the Archive from the son of Donald Roy in 1996.

Archivist's Note

Catalogued by Penny Hutchins, College Archivist

Conditions Governing Use

Copyright is vested in the estate of Donald Roy until 70 years after his death in 2030.

Reproductions are available at the discretion of the College Archivist.