MB BCh Oxon 1939, MA 1940, MCh 1943; FRCS Eng 1942; MD.
Guthkelch was house surgeon, resident surgical officer and chief assistant to the department of neurosurgery at MRI, working closely with Geoffrey Jefferson. He also spent some time at Winwick Military Hospital. He was then appointed neurosurgeon at Salford Royal Hospital and Royal Manchester Children's Hospital and was honorary clinical lecturer in the department of child health at the University of Manchester. Guthkelch was later appointed consultant neurosurgeon at Hull Royal Infirmary where he was the first doctor to write about the dangerous effects of shaking an infant, in an article published in theBMJ in 1971. Guthkelch was a fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine, a member of Manchester Medical Society , the Society of British Neurological Surgeons and the American Association for Neurological Surgery. Guthkelch later moved to America where he became a professor of neurosurgery.