Mr Ernest Manning puts on his old school tie, with Dr Arthur Woo, Mr Wong Ka-tsun and Mr B. Pasco watching. Scene was a cocktail party given by the Diocesan School Old Boys' Association. (Staff Photographer)
dr arthur woo dbs oba the china mail page 9 20th june 1953, by eurasian_david
Arthur Woo was born in Hong Kong in 1887 and educated at the Diocesan Boys’ School.
He gained his medical training in England and qualified at the Middlesex Hospital in 1913, specialising in obstetrics and gynaecology, and was house surgeon and assistant at the Middlesex and at the Chelsea Hospital for Women. During this time he designed a modification to the Reverdin needle, a surgical suture instrument particularly good for penetrating thick skin or solid tissue. It became known as the Reverdin-Woo needle.
He served in military hospitals in England during the First World War. In 1916, he was conferred the twin Bachelor’s degrees in Medicine and Surgery (M.B., B.S.) by the University of London. He then won a scholarship with the Rockefeller Foundation to study in New York and Baltimore, including training at the Johns Hopkins Hospital.
In 1919 he registered to practice in Hong Kong. From early on he lectured in gynaecology and obstetrics and was an internal examiner at Hong Kong University.
In 1923 he served as First Assistant at the Peking Union Medical College, where he worked on osteomalacia, showing it was a deficiency disease related to rickets. He was personal physician to President Li Yuanhong of the Republic of China. Woo was the President 1924-1925 of Hong Kong Chinese Medical Association; and later the first Chinese elected since 1928 for 5 years to the office of President of The China Medical Association.
When he returned to Hong Kong in 1925 he established a clinic and as Medical Superintendent (and owner) organised the Babington Hospital, which became the centre of his large practice. His interests included opium addiction, leprosy, and cancer.
In 1935 Woo was decorated by King George V, United Kingdom, the Silver Jubilee Medal.
During the Second World War the status of his practice is unknown but in the book The Yip Family of Amah Rock Dr Woo gets a mention as he was of particular help to Mildred Dibden, enabling her Fanling Babies' Home to survive the War. In May 1944 she was reaching the end of her tether running her Babies' Homein the New Territories. The fifty or so children were not getting enough food, many of the younger ones had died, and the Japanese were still bringing new orphans to the home.
It was decided by Miss Dibden and her two colleagues Ruth Little and Iris Critchell that the children would be better off elsewhere, the fours-and-under in the Roman Catholic Foundling Home and the fives-and-over in the Rural Orphanage Taipo, where the situation was much better – they were partly self-sustaining by producing their own vegetables and they were also supported by influential Chinese families. The three European women staff would then join the internees at Stanley Camp.
Miss Dibden arranged a meeting with Dr Woo, ‘a well-known Christian doctor’, who was in charge of the Rural Orphanage Committee at that time. Dr Woo discerned that the plan suggested to him was not what Miss Dibden and her colleagues really wanted with their ‘kaau meng’ (save life) proposal, and he suggested a kinder alternative which would enable them to stay together with the children they loved. He would supply rice and medicine to the Fanling Home as he did for the Rural Orphanage. In addition he arranged a meeting for Miss Dibden with the wealthy philanthropist Mr Aw Boon-haw of Tiger Balm fame. Mr Aw lent her 3000 yen to start a pig business, which was a great success and saw the Home through the final months of the War, which were particularly difficult both to the Japanese and the people of Hong Kong. The Home survived and continued to grow.
After the War, Woo, a member of the Hong Kong Rotary Club since 1930, revived this body with a lunch for a large group of his friends at the Gloucester Hotel in 1946. During the huge population influx from 1945-51 when Hong Kong grew from 600,000 to 2.1 million, the cosmopolitan Hong Kong Rotarians sought to tailor their community services to their crowded community needs.
In 1947 Woo was instrumental in the formation of the Macao Rotary Club, and the Kowloon Rotary Club on the mainland. He was the fourth member from the Hong Kong Rotary Club to serve as officer of Rotary International. Other than Rotary Club, Woo served with distinction in other charitable bodies, including The Hong Kong International Medical Relief Society; as Medical Officer, Hong Kong St. John Ambulance Brigade, and the first Director 1952-1955 of St. John Ambulance Association.
In 1948 Woo opened his clinic at Alexandra Building, and then moved to Edinburgh House, Central District, in the 1960s.
On 10 June 1954, Woo was decorated an OBE by Queen Elizabeth II.
Many distinctions came to Dr Woo, including the Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons (1949), he was an Honorary Fellow of the International College of Surgeons, Honorary Visiting Professor at Lin Nam University, and consultant to the Cancer Clinic in Macao.
He died in February 1964 in Canossa Hospital, Hong Kong, aged 77, and was survived by his wife, with their son and five daughters. His humour, courage and faith lasted to the end.
Photograph:
Dr Woo may be seen at this dinner party c1950, seated far right. May Woo is seated 2nd from left.
Comments
I've added dates of birth &
I've added dates of birth & death from his entry in the Dictionary of Hong Kong Biography.
Mr Ernest Manning puts on…
Mr Ernest Manning puts on his old school tie, with Dr Arthur Woo, Mr Wong Ka-tsun and Mr B. Pasco watching. Scene was a cocktail party given by the Diocesan School Old Boys' Association. (Staff Photographer)
Source: The China Mail, page 9, 20th June 1953
Dr Woo in The Yip Family of Amah Rock
Arthur Woo was born in Hong Kong in 1887 and educated at the Diocesan Boys’ School.
He gained his medical training in England and qualified at the Middlesex Hospital in 1913, specialising in obstetrics and gynaecology, and was house surgeon and assistant at the Middlesex and at the Chelsea Hospital for Women. During this time he designed a modification to the Reverdin needle, a surgical suture instrument particularly good for penetrating thick skin or solid tissue. It became known as the Reverdin-Woo needle.
He served in military hospitals in England during the First World War. In 1916, he was conferred the twin Bachelor’s degrees in Medicine and Surgery (M.B., B.S.) by the University of London. He then won a scholarship with the Rockefeller Foundation to study in New York and Baltimore, including training at the Johns Hopkins Hospital.
In 1919 he registered to practice in Hong Kong. From early on he lectured in gynaecology and obstetrics and was an internal examiner at Hong Kong University.
In 1923 he served as First Assistant at the Peking Union Medical College, where he worked on osteomalacia, showing it was a deficiency disease related to rickets. He was personal physician to President Li Yuanhong of the Republic of China. Woo was the President 1924-1925 of Hong Kong Chinese Medical Association; and later the first Chinese elected since 1928 for 5 years to the office of President of The China Medical Association.
When he returned to Hong Kong in 1925 he established a clinic and as Medical Superintendent (and owner) organised the Babington Hospital, which became the centre of his large practice. His interests included opium addiction, leprosy, and cancer.
In 1935 Woo was decorated by King George V, United Kingdom, the Silver Jubilee Medal.
During the Second World War the status of his practice is unknown but in the book The Yip Family of Amah Rock Dr Woo gets a mention as he was of particular help to Mildred Dibden, enabling her Fanling Babies' Home to survive the War. In May 1944 she was reaching the end of her tether running her Babies' Home in the New Territories. The fifty or so children were not getting enough food, many of the younger ones had died, and the Japanese were still bringing new orphans to the home.
It was decided by Miss Dibden and her two colleagues Ruth Little and Iris Critchell that the children would be better off elsewhere, the fours-and-under in the Roman Catholic Foundling Home and the fives-and-over in the Rural Orphanage Taipo, where the situation was much better – they were partly self-sustaining by producing their own vegetables and they were also supported by influential Chinese families. The three European women staff would then join the internees at Stanley Camp.
Miss Dibden arranged a meeting with Dr Woo, ‘a well-known Christian doctor’, who was in charge of the Rural Orphanage Committee at that time. Dr Woo discerned that the plan suggested to him was not what Miss Dibden and her colleagues really wanted with their ‘kaau meng’ (save life) proposal, and he suggested a kinder alternative which would enable them to stay together with the children they loved. He would supply rice and medicine to the Fanling Home as he did for the Rural Orphanage. In addition he arranged a meeting for Miss Dibden with the wealthy philanthropist Mr Aw Boon-haw of Tiger Balm fame. Mr Aw lent her 3000 yen to start a pig business, which was a great success and saw the Home through the final months of the War, which were particularly difficult both to the Japanese and the people of Hong Kong. The Home survived and continued to grow.
After the War, Woo, a member of the Hong Kong Rotary Club since 1930, revived this body with a lunch for a large group of his friends at the Gloucester Hotel in 1946. During the huge population influx from 1945-51 when Hong Kong grew from 600,000 to 2.1 million, the cosmopolitan Hong Kong Rotarians sought to tailor their community services to their crowded community needs.
In 1947 Woo was instrumental in the formation of the Macao Rotary Club, and the Kowloon Rotary Club on the mainland. He was the fourth member from the Hong Kong Rotary Club to serve as officer of Rotary International. Other than Rotary Club, Woo served with distinction in other charitable bodies, including The Hong Kong International Medical Relief Society; as Medical Officer, Hong Kong St. John Ambulance Brigade, and the first Director 1952-1955 of St. John Ambulance Association.
In 1948 Woo opened his clinic at Alexandra Building, and then moved to Edinburgh House, Central District, in the 1960s.
On 10 June 1954, Woo was decorated an OBE by Queen Elizabeth II.
Many distinctions came to Dr Woo, including the Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons (1949), he was an Honorary Fellow of the International College of Surgeons, Honorary Visiting Professor at Lin Nam University, and consultant to the Cancer Clinic in Macao.
He died in February 1964 in Canossa Hospital, Hong Kong, aged 77, and was survived by his wife, with their son and five daughters. His humour, courage and faith lasted to the end.
Photograph:
Dr Woo may be seen at this dinner party c1950, seated far right. May Woo is seated 2nd from left.
Sources:
The Yip Family of Amah Rock by Jill Doggett
Royal College of Surgeons website
Biographical Dictionary of Medical Practitioners, Hong Kong
The Rotary in China website (with photo)