Professor Bryan Jennett (1926-2008), neurosurgeon

Publications; journals, books, letters to Editors and book reviews. The Professor Bryan Jennett Collection is composed mainly of Jennett’s large numbers of publications on neurosurgery and the advancement of technology in the medical profession as well as book reviews and letters on other articles.

William Bryan Jennett was born on 1st March 1926. Jennett was educated at King George V School, Southport and Kings College, Wimbledon before graduating from Liverpool University in 1949 MB ChB and MD in 1960. He then studied at Oxford University where his dedication and love of head and brain treatment was discovered. Jennett continued his training as a neurosurgeon at Liverpool, Oxford and Cardiff before being appointed as a lecturer of Neurosurgery at the University of Manchester in 1957. Finally, he studied at UCLA in Los Angeles as a Rockefeller Fellow with Horace Magoun, 1961. In 1963, Jennett took up a new position in Glasgow NHS as a consultant Neurosurgeon and by 1968 Jennett was appointed the first full-time chair of Neurosurgery. Jennett was considered the leading academic surgeon of his generation. In 1972 Jennett along with Dr Fred Plum created the term "vegetative state" and in 1974 the Glasgow Come Scale was produced with the help of Graeme Teasdale. In 1981, Jennett stopped operating as he was given the post of Dean of Medicine in Glasgow University which he held until 1986. He was president of the International Society for Technology Assessment in Health Care during 1987-9; the Royal Society of Medicine neurology section, 1986-7; and Headway, the National Head Injuries Patients' Group, 1988-95. Following his retirement in 1991 he received the CBE, an honorary DSc from St Andrews University and he was due to collect an award from the International Brain Injury Association in April. In September 2007 Jennett was the first beneficiary of the medal of Society of British Neurological Surgeons.

Jennett married Shelia Pope a fellow student at Liverpool University a year after they graduated. In 2002, Jennett was diagnosed with multiple myeloma. He died 26th January 2008 with his wife and 4 children surviving him.

Access to some items may be restricted. Please contact Heritage staff at the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow.

4 books written and owned by Bryan Jennett, donated to the College Library by Professor Sir Graham Teasdale in January 2016: An introduction to neurosurgery (4th ed, 1983); Epilepsy after blunt head injuries (1962, proof copy containing Professor Jennett's notes and corrections); High Technology Medicine, benefits and blunders (The Rock Carling Fellowship, 1983); Scientific Foundations of Neurology (1972).