Brian Joseph Main

Brian Main was born in the town of Rugby. After attending local state schools he won a major foundation scholarship to Rugby School in 1951. He was a keen all-round sportsman.

In 1955 he was awarded a leaving scholarship, and then an exhibition to Queens’ College Cambridge to read natural sciences in 1956-59. He then went to Guy’s Hospital Medical School  in London for clinical training 1959-1962 and qualified as a doctor in 1962.

After junior posts at Guy’s Hospital, in 1967 he became a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England (FRCS), and embarked on training as an orthopaedic surgeon at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital (RNOH) in London.  He received his Certificate of Completion of Training in 1974.

In 1973 Brian was awarded the Sir Herbert Seddon Medal and Prize for research at the RNOH for in vivo measurement of bone density, and he also had papers published aspects of congenital dislocation of the hip and fractures of bones in the foot.

By 1975 he decided he did not wish to continue working in London in academic surgery and in 1976 he was appointed Consultant in Trauma and Orthopaedics at the West Suffolk Hospital in Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk.

In 1978 he was awarded the degree of Master of Surgery by examination on General Orthopaedic Surgery and a thesis entitled ‘Immobilisation Osteoporosis in Man’ for which he also received the Sir Robert Jones Gold Medal and Prize of the British Orthopaedic Association.                                                   

In 1986 he was a founder member of BSCOS, British Society of Children’s Orthopaedic Surgeons.

Brian retired from surgical practice when he was 60 in 1998. In retirement he developed an interest in archaeology and as a result of excavations in the garden, his home in Suffolk became an official Registered Roman Site.  He was also interested in the arts in general and served as chairman and then president of the Sudbury, Suffolk branch of Nadfas (the National Association of Decorative and Fine Arts Societies, now the Arts Society). Together with his second wife he travelled widely, often to wine growing countries and to opera houses in Europe. His first marriage ended in divorce in 1974 and in 2004 he married Dr Kwee Matheson a Consultant Anaesthetist, after 25 years living together. She survives him. There were no children. 

Written by Kwee Matheson.