Alfred Charles Coles

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Alfred Charles Coles MRCP FRSE (1866–26 September 1944) was an English physician, microbiologist and academic author. He was described as "a master of the microscope".[1] He made major advancements in the understanding of Hodgkin’s disease and in the blood parasites of both animals and man.[2]

Life[edit]

He was born in Bournemouth the son of Alfred Case Coles a pharmacist. He studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh graduating with an MD in 1893.[3] He received a DSc in Public Health in 1903.[4] He became a Member of the Royal College of Physicians (London) in 1907. He worked as a physician at the Royal National Sanatorium from 1914 and as a Consultant at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Bournemouth.

He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1903. His proposers included Sir Thomas Richard Fraser, Alexander Crum Brown, Charles Hunter Stewart and James Buchanan Young.[5] Being beyond conscription age in the First World War he served as a volunteer in a military hospital at Mont Dore in France. This appears to have been independent of any regiment as the only Alfred C. Coles on record in the army does not co-relate to his function as a doctor.[6]

On retiral he continued in his studies plus was a keen ornithologist. He died at his home in Bournemouth on 26 September 1944.

Publications[edit]

  • The Blood, How to Examine and Diagnose Its Diseases (1898) republished 1905
  • Clinical Diagnosis Bacteriology including Serum Diagnosis and Cytodiagnosis (1904)
  • Critical Microscopy: How to get the most out of the Microscope (1921)

Family[edit]

In 1924 he married Frances Edith Bagshaw.

References[edit]

  1. ^ British Medical Journal: 14 October 1944, p.515
  2. ^ British Medical Journal: 11 November 1944, p.646
  3. ^ Coles, Alfred Charles (1893). "Observations on myxoedema with special reference to pathological conditions found in the leucocytes". {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  4. ^ Coles, Alfred Charles (1903). "The acid-fast bacteria : their resemblance to and differentiation from the tubercle bacillus". {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  5. ^ C D Waterston; A Macmillan Shearer (July 2006). Former Fellows of The Royal Society of Edinburgh, 1783–2002: Part 1 (A–J) (PDF). Royal Society of Edinburgh. ISBN 090219884X. Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 January 2013. Retrieved 18 September 2015.
  6. ^ National Archives: war record cards: Coles, Alfred C.