Ode to Professor Walmsley

Professor Thomas Walmsley was appointed to the chair of Anatomy at Queen's in 1919 and held the post until 1951. He graduated in Glasgow in 1912. While lecturing "he combined simplicity of presentation with impressiveness in delivery and held his class spellbound"'. It is said that he had great influence on staff and students alike and was respected by all who came in contact with him; in his time he trained many outstanding British anatomists. He encouraged students to have respect for the cadaver and so introduced in early student life an important element of medical ethics (attitude) which is continued to this day. This would explain very clearly why smoking was banned from the dissection room and why body parts no longer "whistled through the air". These bad habits most likely slipped in between the retirement of Professor Symington in 1917 and Walmsley's arrival in Belfast.