Philip Norman Cutner 1904 - 1990

Philip Norman Cutner 1904 - 1990 MB ChB Edinburgh (1931), MRCS Eng, LRCP Lond (1933) FRCSEd (1934) was an orthodox physician who converted to homeopathy. Cutner was an Orthopaedic Surgeon at the Royal London Homeopathic Hospital, and he also participated in the The Missionary School of Medicine at the Royal London Homeopathic Hospital.

Cutner was a colleague of Muriel Francis Adams, Alva Benjamin, Marjorie Grace Blackie, Ronald W Davey, Donald MacDonald Foubister, Thomas Lackenby Maughan, Kathleen Priestman, William Eldon Tucker, Llewelyn Ralph Twentyman, John Weir, Frank Parker Wood, Charles Edwin Wheeler and many others.

Philip Norman Cutner MB ChB Univ of Edinburgh (1931), MRCS Eng LRCP Lond (1933) FRCSEd (1934) 1904–23 August 1990 Philip Cutner was born in Glasgow. As a child, he emigrated with his parents to Australia and was educated at Sydney Grammar School.

He returned to Scotland and entered the Medical Faculty at Edinburgh University, and then trained in surgery and passed the Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. He travelled, and studied chiropractics, in Australia and America, and developed a keen interest in homeopathic medicine.

He had been Director of the Orthopaedic Unit at the St Charles Hospital, London and Orthopaedic Surgeon at the Royal London Homeopathic Hospital (1938-69). He was also involved with Paddington General Hospital, London Foot Hospital and the Florence Nightingale Hospital and had an extensive private practice.

In 1987 he was still a Senior Fellow of the British Orthopaedic Association. As a leading orthopaedic surgeon, he was also subject to advanced treatment himself when during the 1950s, as a result of a traffic accident, he suffered a fractured shoulder and had a ‘plastic shoulder’ (possibly a Neer Hemiarthroplasty) inserted. His good recovery from this procedure was considered exceptional.

He later sustained a hip fracture that required at least two operations to obtain union. At the time of his death from a road traffic accident, he had retired from his NHS post at the Royal London Homeopathic Hospital but still had a small private practice.

Philip Cutner was eternally grateful to both the University of Edinburgh and the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh for his medical and surgical education and their support throughout his career. the cutner bequests Philip Cutner left in his will, shares to the value of £100,000 for the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh (with the Retail Price Index correction these would now be valued at £163,000).

The money was bequeathed to create an endowment fund devoted to the development of orthopaedic surgery. The fund was to be known as the Philip and Eva Cutner Endowment Fund (Eva Cutner being his mother). He left a further £10,000 (with the Retail Price Index correction this would now be valued at £16,300), in memory of Elizabeth Kirkwood Dunlop (his first wife) and her father, Mr George Dunlop. He also bequeathed legacies to the University of Edinburgh and to the Royal College of Surgeons of England. The RCSEd duly invested these donations within the aegis of the College Trust Funds and the current value is slightly over £235,000.

The Missionary School of Medicine at the Royal London Homeopathic Hospital teaching staff included doctors experienced in tropical medicine and other specialities.

The Annual Reports list the teaching staff, many of whom are recognised for their contributions to the development of homeopathy. Donald MacDonald Foubister lectured on Children’s Diseases, as did Kathleen Priestman (who was President of the MSM between 1981 and 1991); Alva Benjamin taught on skin diseases, Charles Edwin Wheeler, John MacKillop and Muriel Francis Adams on general medicine; William Eldon Tucker and Philip Norman Cutner on surgery and H Dodd, who was the vascular surgeon and later became President of MSM in 1952.

Of interest:

Lydia Frances Cutner 1912 – 2004, wife of Philip Cutner:

Lydia Frances Cutner (née Peare) 8 November 1912–18 September 2004 Lydia Cutner was born in Ireland, the fourth and youngest child of James and Annie Peare. Her father was a bank manager in County Cork but died before her fifth birthday. She lived through the Irish War of Independence and the Civil War that followed.

After attending schools in Cork and Dublin she moved to London to train as a nurse at the Royal London Homeopathic Hospital and subsequently became a theatre sister at that hospital. She shared her home in London with her mother. Lydia worked as a nurse in London hospitals throughout the Second World War, and it was during this time that she met Philip Cutner, who later became her husband.

After the war, she worked as his practice nurse and assistant in private practice. In retirement, they lived in Frinton and later in Henley. Mrs Cutner is survived by her sister, Annie (Betty) Caves who was also a nurse, three nephews – Derek Peare, Trevor Peare and Francis (Frank) Caves and one niece – Patricia Cook (née Caves).

In her will, Mrs Lydia Cutner requested that her personal estate should be put towards the development of orthopaedic surgery in memory of her late husband and that any fund was to be known as the Philip and Lydia Cutner Endowment Fund. The RCSEd, as one of the four beneficiaries, will receive between £400,000 and £500,000. Last year, her attorneys gave the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh £25,000 in advance of her death to create such a fund.

Lydia Cutner also left a substantial bursary to the British Homeopathic Association.