Leslie Pyrah Archive
Please note
Users are advised that this collection may contain descriptions of medical symptoms and treatments and / or graphic images of wounds, injuries or disease and / or medical illustrations and images. General readers may find these upsetting.See the Access and usage section below for further details.
Details
Type of record: Archive
Title: Leslie Pyrah Archive
Classmark: LUA PYR
Original reference: LUA/PER/054
Creator(s): Pyrah, Leslie Norman (1899-1995)()
Date(s): 1894-1992
Language: English
Size and medium: 40 volumes, 70 boxes; manuscript papers, typescript papers, scrapbooks, photographs, slides, index cards, newspaper cuttings, journals, pamphlets
Persistent link: https://explore.library.leeds.ac.uk/special-collections-explore/4020
Collection group(s): University Archive | Medical Collections
Description
Contains the personal and professional papers of Professor Leslie Norman Pyrah, produced or collected in the course of his life and work.
The archives cover Pyrah’s schooling, medical training, surgical career at the Leeds General Infirmary, and activities after his retirement. A large proportion of the archives have been compiled and arranged by Pyrah into 40 separate bound volumes, with various subject themes. There are three separate series of these volumes.
The archive also consists of notes for and text of Pyrah’s speeches and lectures; copies of published and unpublished papers; papers relating to the Wellcome Wing Appeal at the Leeds General Infirmary; papers relating to Pyrah’s membership of various societies, clubs and associations; and research papers for publications, namely for his 1979 publication “Renal Calculus”.
Biography or history
Leslie Norman Pyrah, Emeritus Professor, had a distinguished career in renal medicine at Leeds University between 1930 and 1964.
Born in Leeds in 1899, he went on to read Medicine at the University, graduating M.B., Ch.B. in 1924, having also obtained Hons. B.Sc. and Masters in Physiology. After qualifying he undertook a number of training posts, including with Berkeley G.A. Moynihan (1856-1936) at the Leeds General Infirmary. He became Surgical Tutor at Leeds University in 1930, and continued to rise through a number of appointments until he was elected to a Personal Chair of Urological Surgery at Leeds University in 1956. This was the first Chair in Urological Surgery in the UK.
The Department of Urology at the Leeds General Infirmary and St James's Hospital had been founded in 1950, with Pyrah as Surgeon-in-Charge. He was later appointed as Honorary Director of the Medical Research Council Unit for the Study of Surgical Metabolism in 1956. He also set up the first renal haemodialysis unit in the UK at the Leeds General Infirmary in 1956, which was run by Dr Frank Maudsley Parsons (1918-1989).
In 1948 he was elected to the council of the British Association of Urological Surgeons (BAUS), and he went on to serve as President between 1961 and 1963. Pyrah was elected to the Council of the Royal College of Surgeons of England in 1960 and served until 1968, and he was also a co-founder of the Urological Club of Great Britain, established in 1949. He was appointed CBE in 1963.
Pyrah retired from the clinical staff of the Leeds General Infirmary on 11th April 1964, and from his University Chair and directorship of the Medical Research Council Unit later the same year. He died on 30th April 1995, aged 96.
Further Sources:
The Royal College of Surgeons of England, Plarr’s Lives of the Fellows Online: https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/biogs/E000466b.htm [accessed 07/02/2018]
British Association of Urological Surgeons, Virtual Museum: https://www.baus.org.uk/museum/33/leslie_pyrah [accessed 07/02/2018]
The Independent, Obituary: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/professor-leslie-pyrah-1619968.html [accessed 07/02/2018]
System of arrangement
The archive has been arranged by the archivist into 12 series, to reflect the content of the files and volumes as follows:
LUA PYR/1: Personal Archives
LUA PYR/2: Personalia [Series 1]
LUA PYR/3: Personalia [Series 2]
LUA PYR/4: Research Papers for “Renal Calculus”
LUA PYR/5: Research Papers for “The Development of Urology as a Surgical Specialty in the United Kingdom”
LUA PYR/6: Wellcome Wing Appeal
LUA PYR/7: Unpublished Papers
LUA PYR/8: Published Papers
LUA PYR/9: Speeches and Lectures
LUA PYR/10: Associations, Clubs, Societies and Organisations
LUA PYR/11: Research and Publications
LUA PYR/12: Miscellaneous Papers
Access and usage
Reproduction
Access
This collection is subject to various access conditions. Please see individual catalogue descriptions for further details on access.
Users are advised that this collection may contain descriptions of medical symptoms and treatments and / or graphic images of wounds, injuries or disease and / or medical illustrations and images. General readers may find these upsetting.
View the Cultural Collections sensitivity policy
Material in this collection may remain in copyright but further details are unknown. Photocopies or digital images can only be supplied by the Library for research or private study. It is the responsibility of the researcher to obtain the copyright holder's permission to reproduce for any other purpose. Guidance is available for tracing copyright status and ownership.
Physical and technical conditions
Some items in the bound volumes are fragile, and many of the files contain photographs. See individual catalogue records for further details.
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Subject theme: Medicine
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