Edward Wing Twining, 1887-1939.

Edward Wing Twining (Fig 1) generally is regarded as the “father” of British neuroradiology. Born on March 18th 1887, he came from a line of doctors, his grandfather and father being in family practice at Salcombe, Devon, in the south of England. He was educated at Epsom College and University College Hospital where he qualified in medicine in 1913. As a student dresser (medical student on a surgical unit), he received what we now refer to as a “stick” injury from an infected needle, an event that set in train a succession of recurrent infections and chronic osteomyelitis of the hip. This crippling condition delayed his qualification and handicapped him throughout his life. He died in 1939, aged 52, as a direct result of the infection, tragically at a time without recourse to modern antibiotics, at the peak of an outstanding career (1–4). At the outbreak of the Great War in 1914, Twining had been rejected as physically unfit for service in the Royal Army Medical Corps, but in 1915, after a spell in general practice, he managed to obtain a post as surgeon to a Red Cross ambulance train in France. The following year he was placed in charge of an x-ray and electrotherapeutic department at Netley Hospital on Southampton Water with the rank of captain. It was there that he began his lifelong interest in diagnostic radiology. After the war, he served until 1922 as radiologist to the Ministry of Pensions. During this time, he published, in collaboration with H. S. Souttar, a book on peripheral nerve injuries. A period of study in St Thomas’s and other London hospitals followed, and in 1923, he was successful in the newly instituted Cambridge Diploma in Medical Radiology and Electrotherapeutics (DMRE). The DMRE, the first formally established radiologic qualification in the world, was the result of an effective campaign organized by A. E. Barclay, the first radiologist in Manchester. Barclay, appointed to the Manchester Royal Infirmary in 1908, had previously horrified the hospital authorities taking over the area in the basement designed for mud baths, “a vast space,” and ordering two new x-ray tubes at £2 ($8 at the old rates!) each (5). He tried in 1916 to raise funds to establish a chair in radiology in Manchester, but monies were not forthcoming. Incidentally, this author came to occupy the first chair of radiology in Manchester almost 60 years later! Barclay therefore approached the University of Cambridge to consider setting up a structured course leading to a diploma in radiology as an alternative. The University, ever cautious about the financial implications, required Barclay’s personal guarantee against loss before agreeing to establish this unique systematic training course in 1920. The early lecturers and teachers worked without reward, and in 1941, when the Cambridge Diploma came to an end, his check was returned! Twining was the outstanding candidate of the 1923 DMRE and so impressed Barclay the examiner, who recorded that “the viva became a friendly talk,” that Barclay invited him to Manchester to fill a specially created post in the x-ray department. Those were the days when salaries for radiologic assistants were few and far between, but Barclay found a little money left in a research fund to create a meager living for Twining until his position could be assured by his joining Barclay’s private practice and by his appointment to the honorary staff of the Manchester Royal Infirmary and as lecturer in radiology to the University of Manchester in 1928. “E.W.” was essentially a logical thinker with a clear, inventive mind and a mechanical ability to carry out his ideas in his own workshop. His Address reprint requests to Professor I. Isherwood, Woodend House,