Administrative / Biographical History

MB ChB Manch 1904; MRCS LRCP 1907; FRCS Edin 1913.

Middleton-West was born on 17 May 1880; he gained his medical education at Owens College Manchester and was house physician at MRI. He entered the Indian Medical Service in 1908, and by the time of his death was recognised as one of the greatest medical missionaries of the time. During the war, Middleton-West served in the RAMC in France, Belgium and in Mesopotamia, where he was awarded the military cross. He was then posted for civil duty in Burma and in 1926 became civil surgeon at Rangoon and second surgeon to Rangoon General Hospital. Middleton-West retired from the IMS in 1927 to practice ophthalmology in Bristol. However, at the age of 50, Middleton-West returned to Burma with the Bible Churchmen's Missionary Society to undertake medical missionary work in the Hukawng Valley. He served in the second war in charge of the Indian Red Cross in Cairo, returning to North Burma in 1946. Middleton-West was forced out of Burma and worked in India for a short time, but returned again at the age of 73 to begin pioneer work in the Naga Hills. He returned to England but again, at the age of 82, went back to Burma and worked in rebel held territory in the Shan States. Middleton-West died on 7 November 1968.