Sir Ivan Magill KCVO, DSc, MB, BCh, BAO, FRCS, FFARCS (Hon), FFARCSI (Hon), DA, (1888-1986)

Ivan Whiteside Magill was born in Northern Ireland, and graduated from Queen’s University Belfast Medical School just before the Great War. In his lifetime anaesthetics developed from an adjunct of surgery to a recognised medical speciality. His personal contributions included greatly improving the apparatus and specific techniques, and most prominently, his endeavour to raise the status of the anaesthetist. He initially showed a preference for surgery but after the Great War took an anaesthetist post in Sidcup, Kent, where he gained experience in anaesthetics for facial surgery. Magill also spent a significant period of his career in the Westminster and Brompton hospitals; this facilitated his further contributions to thoracic anaesthesia. Magill is regarded as a pioneer and inventor, which is attributed to his manual dexterity and obstinate tenacity when confronted with problems. This commentary is a discussion of these contributions and how they came about through Magill’s own qualities and the opportunities that were presented to him. His work gained him many honours, including a knighthood in 1960 (Figure 1).