Whilst many people are familiar with the work of Archibald McIndoe within the field of plastic surgery, few people are aware of part that East Grinstead plays within the history of eye surgery, especially with the setting up of eye banks.
Rycroft Arrives
The most important person behind this story was Sir Benjamin Rycroft, who worked at the Queen Victoria Hospital after the end of the Second World War. Rycroft was born in 1902, and trained as an ophthalmologist (a doctor who specialises in working with the eyes). When war broke out in 1939, he joined the Royal Army Medical Corps, serving as an adviser in ophthalmology to the Army in both North Africa and Italy. For his work during the war he was awarded an O.B.E.
By 1949, Rycroft started working in a new Corneo-Plastic Department at the Hospital, which was set up with ten beds and an Ophthalmic Sister to assist with his work. Despite the increased publicity for his work, Rycroft was affected by a lack of donors for any procedures largely due to restrictive laws on the donation of body parts for medical purposes. These laws placed the decision for donation with the person’s next of kin, ignoring the donor’s wishes, as in law, the dead body has no property.
The beginnings of the Campaign
On 11th December 1951, a meeting was held at the hospital, which included local politicians from both major parties. to hear Rycroft and Sir Archibald McIndoe talk about the need for donor eyes for the unit. Rycroft was quoted as saying “We have all the facilities we require here at this hospital, but there remains a problem of donor eyes; our list grows week by week”. Immediately after the meeting, a campaign designed to raise awareness and change law was launched. Named the “Sight for the Blind” Campaign, it worked with the Women’s Voluntary Service to distribute forms to people who wanted to have their eyes for corneal grafting. Anyone who signed up received a card signed by McIndoe.
The Campaign’s Success
The publicity from the meeting, and the campaign led to the creation of a private members bill in Parliament in May 1952, and by September it had become law. This removed much of the legal problems for people wishing to donate their eyes for medical reasons. It also set up Eye Banks to help store and use these donated eyes, and the first was set up at the Queen Victoria Hospital. In fact, it is widely remembered by Hospital staff that a train carriage, containing the donated eyes used to arrive in East Grinstead Station and were taken by taxi to the Hospital.
Rycroft was knighted for his work in 1960, but he passed away in 1967.
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- An image of an operation in progress with Sir Benjamin Rycroft operating.
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- Corneal shovel designed by Sir Benjamin Rycroft. Used for transfering the cornea disc from donor to patient after the removal from the donor eye during cornea transplant surgery.
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- Sir Benjamin Rycroft introducing Mr Harry Coveney to HRH Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother. Thanks to Rycroft’s work, Coveney was able to drive a car.
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- A copy of the Memorial Service Programme for Sir Benjamin Rycroft, which was held at St George’s Chapel, Windsor on 2nd May 1967
This story was told using research from the Museum’s collections. To see more of the collections, and to find out more forgotten stories, please visit our online collections.
We've been looking through our collections, and discovered this 1972 photograph from the East Grinstead Observer, o…
Comments(16)
Mike edwards says:
October 13, 2017 at 9:03 amTruly a forgotten story and one which is deservedly given profile here. East Grinstead has reason to be proud of its history as a centre of medical innovation.
Rodney Rycroft says:
August 29, 2018 at 12:28 pmI was delighted when my daughter-in-law sent me this story about my late father,Sir Benjamin Rycroft . Although i visited the hospital with him many times years
ago I regret I did not know there is a museum there,in which he rightly features. My father, brilliantly talented though he was ,was also very modest and never sought the limelight or publicity for himself. He was extremely kind to everyone and a loving and wonderful father and I miss him greatly and always will.
I well remember our trips down to East Grinstead on Christmas Days when he would take the family to help feed the blind patients who were too ill to go home.
The nurses had decorated the wards with lots of colourful Christmas things and we would try to describe it all for the patients,while my father visited every one throughout his wards,usually accompanied by the very special Sister King,who had also been his theatre Sister during the war. They were a great working team.
Father had a great sense of humour fun to be with and a superb friend and companion. Sadly,he died far too young (64) when he still had so much to contribute
and so much good work still to accomplish. He was dedicated to his patients and to his family and i am so pleased that his memory lives on at the Museum.
It should also be remembered that my brother Peter was a very skilled eye surgeon who worked and operated with my father and another surgeon,Abe Werb, at
East Grinstead,Moorfields and the London Clinic. My brother was also very much involved with the Eye Bank Project,which he helped to set up with our father.
Tragically he died in a mysterious motoring accident on the M4 a year after my father passed away and just before he was due to take over father’s practice.
A second great loss for their patients and another successful career cut short when they had so much more to offer and discover.
I often wished that I had had the brains and skills they possessed and followed in their footsteps,but a great lady once told me “My advice would be to do something
different,make your own way, otherwise,as a surgeon, you will always be your father’s son !” Still,that didn’t seem such a bad thing to be and I’m very proud that I am.
Rodney Rycroft (83) 29th August 2018 ( My father was born in August)
Janis Tunaley says:
June 30, 2019 at 3:27 pmDear Mr Rycroft. I have just found this website whilst doing some background research for a short story about ‘amazing discoveries’. My father, William Murray, was the beneficiary of your father’s expertise, and, subsequently, that of Mr Werb. In the latter half of the 1950s, as a young married, talented mechanical engineer, my father experienced difficulties with his sight. He saw many of the leading opthalmic practitioners of the day, and was advised at one point not to think of having children (!) due to the apparently genetic, and degenerative nature of his condition. He was eventually fortunate enough to see your father, as a result of reading an article about eye surgery on race horses and found his saviour. In 1962 he underwent corneal graft surgery. As you say, your father engaged fully with his patients. My father could not speak more highly of his skill and, above all, his real care for the people he looked after. His work was truly life changing and, despite his much too early demise, his successors at the eye clinic at Queen Victoria Hospital carried his legacy forward. Although only very young at the time, even I remember Sister King!!
Pamela Goldberg says:
June 25, 2022 at 10:24 pmI was talking about your father today. He and my father, Jack Wolfowitz, met during the war when my father, a South African surgeon, served on a British hospital ship, the AMRA. They struck up a great friendship with extended to our mothers as well. Your parents very kindly invited us for Boxing Day in 1965 which was shortly after we were married and came to live in London. I have many happy memories including their visits to us in South Africa.
Josh Wilcox says:
September 27, 2022 at 10:31 amHello Rodney
I hope you are well!
I am a fourth year medical student at Brighton and Sussex Medical School. I am starting my independent research project this year and intended to potentially write a biography of your father Benjamin Rycroft. I have done some preliminary research and your father seems to have led a fascinating and eventful life. I was wondering whether you would be interested in me contacting you to find out some more information about your esteemed father.
Kind regards, Josh Wilcox
John Briggs says:
April 22, 2018 at 5:39 pmDoes anyone know who Benjamin Rycrofts nurse was please ?
Lynette Lake says:
April 13, 2019 at 4:47 pmSir Benjamin Ryecroft operated on my eye in when I was admitted as a road traffic accident way back in 1965. alongside Mr white, a consultant and to both I am eternally grateful as although my sight could not be saved they ‘popped’ my eye back in for cosmetic sake and I have worn a bandage lens ever since. I remember sister Butcher very well, she dominated the ward and was a wonderful person. I also remember some of the patients and a couple of ‘Guinea Pig’ patients still undergoing treatment and who would take me as an 18 year old then along to the Guinea Pig pub for a Guinness which was encouraged at the time. The night of my accident I was not expected to live for more than a few hours but due to the care of the Queen Victoria staff I am here today and I will always remember each and every one of them with the respect they all deserve.
Rodney Rycroft says:
August 29, 2018 at 12:13 pmI was delighted when my daughter-in-law sent me this story about my late father,Sir Benjamin Rycroft . Although i visited the hospital with him many times years
ago I regret I did not know there is a museum there,in which he rightly features. My father, brilliantly talented though he was ,was also very modest and never sought the limelight or publicity for himself. He was extremely kind to everyone and a loving and wonderful father and I miss him greatly and always will.
I well remember our trips down to East Grinstead on Christmas Days when he would take the family to help feed the blind patients who were too ill to go home.
The nurses had decorated the wards with lots of colourful Christmas things and we would try to describe it all for the patients,while my father visited every one throughout his wards,usually accompanied by the very special Sister King,who had also been his theatre Sister during the war. They were a great working team.
Father had a great sense of humour fun to be with and a superb friend and companion. Sadly,he died far too young (64) when he still had so much to contribute
and so much good work still to accomplish. He was dedicated to his patients and to his family and i am so pleased that his memory lives on at the Museum.
It should also be remembered that my brother Peter was a very skilled eye surgeon who worked and operated with my father and another surgeon,Abe Werb, at
East Grinstead,Moorfields and the London Clinic. My brother was also very much involved with the Eye Bank Project,which he helped to set up with our father.
Tragically he died in a mysterious motoring accident on the M4 a year after my father passed away and just before he was due to take over father’s practice.
A second great loss for their patients and another successful career cut short when they had so much more to offer and discover.
I often wished that I had had the brains and skills they possessed and followed in their footsteps,but a great lady once told me “My advice would be to do something
different,make your own way, otherwise,as a surgeon, you will always be your father’s son !” Still,that didn’t seem such a bad thing to be and I’m very proud that I am.
Rodney Rycroft (83) 29th August 2018 ( My father was born in August)
Lila Howell-Jones, ne e Fisher says:
October 28, 2018 at 8:32 pmI was born with no tear ducts. My father, Group Captain R L C Fisher, an eye surgeon, and a great admirer of Dr Ben Rycroft took me in 1952 to see Dr Rycroft who successfully opened the ducts. I was only 11, terrified, as several previous attempts had failed. The joy of no more wet chapped cheeks.
Roderic Findlay says:
November 16, 2019 at 11:49 amSir Benjamin Rycroft operated twice, very successfully, on my left eye. He was very kind: a truly great man. I remember also with great affection Sister King, the theatre sister, and Sister Mackenzie, the ward sister. I spent some of the happiest days of my life st the Queen Victoria Hospital.
Marshall Pauline says:
March 6, 2020 at 5:31 pmMy paternal grandmother, Mrs Mary Alice Marshall always spoke very highly of Ben, as she called him, and they had a very loving relationship until he died. She referred to him as her nephew although I’m not sure this was true but we had a Doris Luxford nee Rycroft in the family. He sometimes came to take Gran for a ride in his car, which was a Rolls Royce and she constantly complained to him in her broad Yorkshire accent that it was too smooth and made her queasy. They laughed a lot together. I was so happy to read about his son. I was also born in August : 8/8/38. My grandmother died at age 100 and three months. She also spoke about Benjamin successfully grafting a cornea on a blind lion. Wonderful, incredible and human man. So proud that my family had a connection with him and wish I had met him.
Pauline Marshall
Carol Christmas says:
February 5, 2022 at 1:21 pmI have no evidence but family lore is that my Grandfather was taught opthalmics by Benjamin Ryecoft and had a practice in the West Midlands in the 1930s. It is interesting to read how Dr Ryecroft’s family carried on the profession. The same is happening in mine as my son will be starting a degree in optometry this autumn. Dr Ryecroft’s legacy lives on.
Skyler Rycroft says:
March 18, 2022 at 5:31 amMy father told me about Benjamin. It sounds like he was a great person, and I’m glad that this site exists, so I can learn a bit about my great grandfather, and I wish I could have met him.
Josh Wilcox says:
October 13, 2022 at 2:48 pmHello Skyler
I hope you are well!
I am a fourth year medical student at Brighton and Sussex Medical School. I am starting my independent research project this year and intended to write a biography of Benjamin Rycroft. I have done some preliminary research and your great-grandfather seems to have led a fascinating and eventful life. I was wondering whether you would be interested in me contacting you or your family to find out some more information about your esteemed relative.
Kind regards, Josh Wilcox
Jonathan Hazell says:
January 26, 2023 at 5:23 pmI am so delighted to have found this site and, I hope, be able to send to his son Rodney my profound gratitude for persuading me to become a surgeon. Just after the war, in 1946, I moved, aged 4, with my widowed mother back to London and being poor we took in lodgers. One of these was Eileen Hollis who was part of the theatre team working with Sir Benjamin. She told me amazing stories of restoring sight to burnt airmen, and very generously arranged for me to meet the great man. I remember him well aged about 7 and he was so kind and interested in my juvenile ambitions. He showed me his consulting rooms and I remember a cabinet with trays of glass eyes or all shapes and colours! But most of all he encouraged me in my then totally focussed goal to become an eye surgeon. Only later did I discover you must become a doctor first! Eventually I chose ENT and became an ear surgeon and consultant at UCH (now UCLH) with a small research unit at UCL funded by the RNID. I was part of the first team in the UK to perform cochlear implants for total deafness. Rodney, what your father gave me was a gift almost more precious than sight, the direction and impetus to become, albeit to a lesser degree, a follower in his footsteps. I have never forgotten that meeting.
Judith Earwicker says:
February 9, 2023 at 9:53 pmI remember with great affection, the visits to Sir Benjamin’s Harley Street practice. He was like a: favourite Uncle and Grandfather all rolled into one. We had suffered a recent tradgey as a family, and compounded with the needs of the five year old with Congenital visual loss that I was 1963 was not one of my families finest years. That was until the intervention, of our wonderfuly perceptive: eccentric, and although we had no idea at the time was herself suffering from Inopabrable Cancer. So the Harley Street visits began. As a young child, I hated and in feared soft toys teddies that kind of thing. My Mother told Sir Benjam. He told her to close her eyes, this she did. He placed something horrible and soft in her hand, and she jumped. “Now you know how your blind child feels when you do the same to her”. He said. He removed the Cataract from my right eye. The left eye was no longer viable, he said that had my Parents been able to consult him, when sugurey was about to be performed, he may well have been able to have saved it. Fast forward to 2023 I have been registered, as a blind person since 1961 I also have Congenital Nystagmus, which brings it’s own challenges. My Cornea has now begun to bulge which has resulted in the loss of my Peripheral vision. But still Sir Benjamin I want to say thank you, thank you to a truly wonderful man. Like many others I was also operated at the Queen Victoria. Many years later I attended a specialist collage, for the blind in Reigate. I was required to present myself in front of a rather bored Consultant Ophthalmic Surgeon who made it very clear that he would rather be anywhere other than where he was on that particular afternoon. Eho performed your last sugurey he enquired in a bored voice? Sir Benjamin Roycraft I replied, I have never seen anyone move so quickly or grab an Opthalmascope as that particular consultant did that day. If I can be of any further assistance with regard to this matter, it would indeed be an absolute pleasure, and privilege to be able to do so. It is also with saddness that I heard about Peter’s accident not long after we’d relocated from Buckinghamshire to Norfolk and we went to register with a local Optician who informed us.