John Richard Farndon
Authors: C. Richmond
Journal: BMJ (2002)

Editor who raised the standards and status of the British Journal of Surgery; director of surgery in Bristol who tried to mediate as concerns about paediatric heart surgery emerged

John Farndon, professor and head of surgery in Bristol, who died from a heart attack on 6 February, had a gift for medical editing and was an incisive referee. As editor of the British Journal of Surgery from 1992, he had an eye for the best material, putting together a good journal every month and moving it up the international league table until it was second only to Annals of Surgery. He chose papers that would be widely cited, increased the number of randomised controlled trials, and cut back on case reports. He was firm, fair, and strong minded. In January he stepped down as editor and was, as chairman of the British Journal of Surgery Society, to have furthered the journal's development. He wrote and edited textbooks on endocrine and breast surgery, operative surgery, and a guidebook for house surgeons.

An excellent operating surgeon, his main interest was in his endocrine work, specialising in thyroid and parathyroid surgery. He improved the way in which patients with phaeochromocytoma were prepared for surgery by characterising the way in which these tumours released their hormones. He made important contributions to our understanding of the cellular biology of breast cancer, characterising those patients who would and would not respond to hormone therapy.

He was a former president of the British Association of Endocrine Surgeons and of the BMA's Bristol division, and president elect of the Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland.

From Woodhouse Grammar School, Sheffield, he qualified at Newcastle Medical School, gaining two prizes, a scholarship, and a first in anatomy. Ray Scothorne, the anatomy professor, introduced him to the study of endocrine disease. After surgical training posts in Newcastle from 1971 to 1979—where Ivan Johnson and Ross Taylor were his main influences—he spent two years at Duke University, North Carolina, as a research fellow under Sam Wells; this culminated in an MD thesis on phaeochromocytoma. Returning to Newcastle, he became senior lecturer in surgery and honorary consultant surgeon, and specialised increasingly in endocrine and breast surgery.


He became professor of surgery and honorary consultant surgeon in Bristol in 1988. He achieved numerous other honours and distinctions, including postgraduate prizes and fellowships, and he was invited to lecture around the world. 




He managed a huge administrative burden. He was an external examiner in surgery for a dozen universities in the British Isles and abroad. He served on many committees including those dealing with policy, trials, health technology, and biological protocols for breast screening. As chairman of the curriculum committee he worked hard and did the job well. He was co-ordinator of the students' electives. He failed to become dean of medicine, possibly because he lacked the killer instinct.

As associate clinical director of the Bristol Royal Infirmary when Dr Stephen Bolsin first raised concerns about paediatric heart surgery, some of the parties turned to him as he was professor of surgery. He tried to reconcile the irreconcilable, which was bound to fail; however, his efforts were praised in Professor Ian Kennedy's report. He carried a banner for heart surgeon Janardan Dhasmana, acting as his mentor and supporting his unsuccessful application to the General Medical Council to have his surgery restrictions lifted. The whole experience left him feeling bruised, and he minded the lack of government support to “heal” the hospital afterwards.

He was universally respected and liked: his colleagues and juniors describe him as patient, gentle, straightforward, committed, warm, gentle, humorous, approachable, caring, compassionate, kind, a good listener, and interested in those around him. He could not have been more unlike the surgical stereotype. He enjoyed teaching and he liked the students, who considered him one of their best lecturers. On Sundays he would worry about the patients whose surgery would be cancelled next day for want of a bed, when the hospital had surgeons, theatres, and operating crew available. He felt he had to live a lie to patients, telling people that he and his colleagues were going to help them when he knew that, for want of resources, they were not, and felt the need of more facilities for patients. His unflinching honesty sometimes got him into trouble: he knew that the NHS wasn't improving, and said so. He was concerned about the NHS's inadequate provision for surgical patients and its knock-on effects in undergraduate education and surgical training. Like others in his department, he used the income from his private patients to support his research staff.

He married Christine Louet, a breast screening nurse, in 1972; they had three children: Mark, a surgical trainee, Emily, a primary school teacher, and James, a cadet at Sandhurst.

John Farndon, professor of surgery and head of the division of surgery University of Bristol, and honorary consultant surgeon United Bristol Healthcare NHS Trust; b 1946; q Newcastle 1970; MD, FRCS; died from a heart attack on 6 February 2002.