Frank Clifford Rose

Frank Clifford Rosenberg, also known as FCR to his trainees,[1][2] was born on 29 August 1926 in London, to Jewish parents, who had immigrated from Fălticeni, Romania, in 1913 and settled in the East End of London, where they ran a bicycle shop.[1][3] Rose had six older siblings and attended the Central Foundation Boys' School in Cowper Street, but was evacuated at the age of 13 at the outbreak of the Second World War.[3]

He gained a scholarship to study medicine at King's College in London for his pre-clinical studies, followed by clinical years at Westminster Hospital, where he gained the confidence of Swithin Pinder Meadows, one of Westminster's renowned neurologists. The encounter possibly led to Rose's later interest in neuro-ophthalmology, having, as a student, impressed Meadows with a diagnosis of primary optic atrophy. He qualified in 1949 by which time he was known as Rose.[1][4][5]

Charing Cross Hospital in Agar Street, Westminster, the home of the hospital from 1834 to 1973

Rose's early medical training consisted of appointments in the specialties of paediatrics, general medicine, cardiology and rheumatology.[4] In 1955, he returned to Westminster Hospital as senior medical registrar and clinical tutor.[6] Between 1957 and 1960, he held training posts at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery at Queen Square, and was then appointed as a senior registrar in neurology at St George's Hospital at Hyde Park Corner, where he worked under neurologist Denis Williams, and at Atkinson Morley Hospital, part of St George's, where he made a reputation for himself working with neurosurgeon Wylie McKissock.[6][7]

Later in 1960, he trained at the University of California, San Francisco, under neurologist Robert B. Aird for six months, then spent three months at Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital in Paris the following year.[1][8] In 1963, after turning down a job at the University of Rochester he returned to England to become consultant in neurology at the Royal Eye Medical Ophthalmology Unit at the Lambeth Hospital, where he was part of a team of three physicians including Geraint James.[8] He also kept sessions at St. Thomas's Hospital.[5][8][7] In 1965 he became the first consultant in neurology at Charing Cross Hospital, where he also founded its Academic Unit. His private practice was based in Harley Street.[2][5]

Rose had an interest in neuro-ophthalmology and his research contributed to the understanding of aphasiology. He made significant contributions to the management of motor neurone disease, stroke and migraine, three areas of neurology which became increasingly important over time. He developed an emergency stroke ambulance service with early neuroimaging, allowing for the detection of early reversible brain damage.[1] In 1974, he established a specialist clinic for headache at Charing Cross. Six years later, it became the Princess Margaret Migraine Clinic, a move endorsed by his friend MacDonald Critchley.[2][6] With regards to the role of alcohol and headaches, following his study of the effect of red wine on preselected red wine sensitive migraine sufferers, he stated that red wine could trigger a migraine, but any alcohol might provoke a headache.[9][10]

Rose was the secretary-treasurer general of the World Federation of Neurology (WFN) when its president was John Walton. He was the first editor-in-chief of World Neurology, founding editor of the Journal of the History of the Neurosciences, and founding chair of the WFN's Research Group on the History of the Neurosciences. He co-edited Headache Quarterly from 1980 to 2001 and was editor-in-chief of the journals Neuroepidemiology from 1984 to 1990 and Transactions of the Medical Society of London from 1980 to 1986.[5][11]

He played a significant part in the foundation of the International Society for the History of the Neurosciences (ISHN).[5] From 1987 to 1995, he was chairman of the Migraine Trust. Between 1988 and 1991, he was the medical advisor to the Motor Neurone Disease Association, an organisation he co-founded, and was chairman of its research committee.[2][12] In 1992, he was made an honorary member of the Neurological Society of Thailand, the Austrian Society of Neurology and the Mexican Association for the Study of Headache.[12]

In his book Neurology of the arts: painting, music, literature (2004), he included Van Gogh's likely ailments.[13] He co-authored with Marek Gawel a book for patients Migraine the Facts.[6] Of the greater than 70 volumes of books either coauthored or edited by Rose, his last was the History of British Neurology, published in 2011.[1][5]

In 1983, Rose was elected president of the Medical Society of London, and in 1990 he became president of the section of clinical neurosciences of the Royal Society of Medicine.[2] He was also a member of the Osler Club of London,[1] and was a liveryman of the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries.[6]

In 1986, Rose received the Distinguished Clinician Award from the American Association for the Study of Headache. He received their Harold Wolff Award twice. In 2002, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award of the ISHN.[5][14]

Three days after returning from a trip to the United States in 1963, Rose met musician, Angela Juliet Halsted. They were engaged two weeks later and after a further three months, were married.[4][5][8] They had three sons.[15] In 2006, they moved to Little Bedwyn, Wiltshire, where 12 years earlier, he had organised the unveiling of a blue plaque at Thomas Willis's birthplace.[1]

Rose died on 1 November 2012, age 86.[7] His obituary was published in The Times,[16] Munk's Roll,[4] the British Medical Journal,[2] Cephalalgia,[6] and the Journal of the History of the Neurosciences: Basic and Clinical Perspectives.[5]

His autobiography, By Any Other Name, was published posthumously.[15]

• F. C. Rose; Publications via PubMed