Abstract
AT a ceremony held in the Royal College of Surgeons on September 3, Sir John Parsons was presented with his portrait in oils, painted by Mr. John Gilroy. The presentation was made by Sir Stewart Duke-Elder, in the name of the members of the Faculty of Ophthalmologists and the Ophthalmological Society, and to mark the celebration of Sir John's eightieth birthday. It is good that Sir John's long and strenuous career has met with such a fitting and happy culmination, for he has long been the acknowledged leader in all aspects of British ophthalmology—clinical work, basic research and public activities. For more than a generation he has been the recognized leader in the clinical practice of this specialty, and opthatlmologists of a much wider circle than Great Britain to-day treat their patients better because of his precepts and his writings. So long as ophthalmology is a science, his name will be remembered for the work he did fifty years ago as a pioneer in ophthalmic pathology. To-day he is still the fore-most authority in the fundamental sciences concerning vision—biological, physiological and psychological. In guiding, stimulating and encouraging ophthalmic research he has in his time stood out almost alone. In all problems concerning vision successive Governments and industry have asked and received his help ; he served in the two World Wars, in the First as consultant to the Army, in the Second as adviser to the Royal Air Force ; in international ophthalmology he has consistently been an acceptable and gracious British ambassador; and for years he was the dominant figure in the social and political life of the ophthalmologists of Britain.
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Presentation to Sir John Parsons, C.B.E., F.R.S. Nature 162, 407 (1948). https://doi.org/10.1038/162407b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/162407b0