Robert William Johnstone

The Scottish educational system was traditionally based on exposure to a breadth of subjects across the curriculum, rather than the in- depth study of a few. Supporters of this approach will cite examples of the scientist, or the doctor who is at the same time a connoisseur of arts and fluent with language. Professor R W Johnstone will be remembered as much as a master of the written and spoken word, as a respected Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. The quality of his writing is evident in his “Textbook of Midwifery” which ran to 21 editions, while his after dinner speeches, meticulously prepared, were delivered in Churchillian style. Yet his contemporaries, and his students, remembered him as a courteous, majestic figure, with a twinkle in his eye, and his trademark pince-nez dangling from its black cord or nonchalantly twirled in his right hand.

Robert William Johnstone was born a son of the Manse in Edinburgh, educated at George Watson’s College and Edinburgh University, graduating MA, and then MBChB with honours. Having decided on a career in obstetrics and gynaecology, he spent some months in Vienna where he watched Wertheim and in Prague where he attended von Franque’s clinic. His research from this period resulted in 1906 in an MD with honours. In that same, eventful year he became a Fellow of the College, a Member of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh and private assistant to Sir Halliday Croom (q.v.). There is no doubt that much of Johnstone’s prowess as an orator and teacher was learned from Croom. He adopted the same technique of preparing a speech or a lecture - writing, re-writing, learning by heart, then annotating and delivering with a relaxed spontaneity.

During the 1914-18 war, he became Medical Officer to the Royal Victoria (Red Cross) Hospital, going on to a commission in the RAMC and becoming a Surgical Specialist to the No 3 General Hospital in France. Towards the end of the war he was recalled to become Commissioner at the headquarters of the Ministry of National Service in London. For his war service he was awarded the CBE in 1920. After the war he lectured in the School of Medicine of the Royal College and shortly thereafter was appointed Physician to the Royal Maternity Hospital and Gynaecologist to the Royal Infirmary. In 1926 he succeeded Sir Halliday Croom as Professor of Midwifery and Diseases of Women. In 1936 he became Vice President of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, having been one of its foundation Fellows. During the Second World War he served as President of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh.

His “Textbook of Midwifery”, first published in 1913, became a standard work throughout the English speaking world and ran to 21 editions before he passed on the authorship. After the war he became Chairman of the Central Midwives Board for Scotland and President of the Edinburgh University Graduates Association. The University awarded him an Honorary Doctorate of Laws in 1950.

Many of his students and trainees remember him for his impeccable command of written and spoken English. His lectures were lucid and were delivered with authority and with style, laced with illustrative stories and anecdotes. To patients he was immaculately dressed and courteous, and his ward rounds were grand events at which even the simplest task could be undertaken with great ceremony and ritual. Several of his trainees went on to become Professors of Obstetrics and he was held by them, and by others, in a degree of awe, but remembered with esteem and affection.