SIR GEORGE FREDERICK STANLEY

Lieutenant Colonel Sir George Frederick Stanley GCSI GCIE CMG (14 October 1872 – 1 July 1938) was a British soldier and Conservative Party politician served as the Governor of Madras from 1929 to 1934 and as Acting Viceroy of India in 1934. The Government Stanley Medical College in Chennai (Madras), Tamil Nadu, India is named in memory of Stanley. The Diploma in Medicine and Surgery program was inaugurated here in 1933 by Stanley when he was the Governor of Madras. The college formerly known as Royapuram Medical School was renamed Stanley Medical School on 27 March 1934 in his honour. It  was renamed posthumously  to Stanley Medical College on July  2nd  1938.

FOUNDER STORY

MATRIAL LIFE : George Frederick Stanley was married to Lady Beatrix Taylor, CBECI in 1903. She was the youngest daughter of the 3rd Marquess of  Headfort. He also served in the First World war. He was mentioned in the dispatches for his efficient and loyal services in the British army. In 1816 he was honored with the Companion of the most distinguished order of Saint Michael and saint George ( CMG ).  George Frederick Stanley acted as Conservative Member of UK parliament for Peterson 1910 – 1922 and later for Willesden East 1924 – 1929. He was appointed as Comptroller of the Household in 1919 – 1921. He also served in several other important positions – as Financial Secretary to the War Office in 1921 – 1922; as Parliament Under-Secretary of state for the Home Department in 1922 – 1923; as Parliament Secretary to the Ministry of Pensions in 1924 – 1929. He was also assigned as a Privy Counselor in 1927.

GEORGE FREDERICK STANLEY IN INDIA : Lieutenant Colonol Sir George Frederick Stanley GCSI GCIE CMG was appointed as Governor of Madras on 26th October 1929 at an annual pay of One Lakh Twenty Thousands Rupees. He arrived to Madras and took official charges on 11th November 1929 from Sir Norman Edward Majoribanks KCEI CSI. The Madras Presidency also known as Presidency of Fort St. George and Madras Province, was an subdivision of British Colonial India. The territory included the most of the southern India – Entire Tamil Nadu, Coastal Andhra, Royalseema regions of Andhra Predesh, the Malabar regions of Kerela, Lakshdeep Islands, Korapet, Malkangari, Nabarangapur, and the Gajapati districts of Southern Orissa and Bellary, Ganjam, Dakshina Kannada, Rayagada and Udipi districts of Karnataka.
George Frederick Stanley assumed the Governorate at a critical juncture. The Great Depression had just broken out and the nation’s economy was deteriorating. The Premier Shri. Subbarayan resigned after the debacle in 1930 elections when his party was voted out. The Swaraj Party boycotted the elections as part of Civil disobedience movement and the Justice Party was voted to Power in both 1930 and 1934 elections. Mr. B. Munusamy Naidu served as Premier from 1930 – 1932 but he had to resign in 1932 because during Naidu’s tenure, Madras was engulfed in a financial crisis arising out of the Great Depression. His tenure is also remembered for his clash with zamindars and his rivalry with the Raja of Bobbili.

METTUR DAM : Sir George Frederick Stanley during his tenure as the Governor of Madras Province officially commenced the Dam around the Cauvery River in Mettur, Madras State on 21st August 1934. The reservoir created by the Dam was named in his honour. He also laid the foundation of Gaudiya Math in Madras on 17th January 1930 and also constructed a Temple in Royapettah, Madras. The Railway service of the Madras Sub urban line of South India Railway Company was commissioned and was flagged off on April 2nd 1931 at Royapuram by Sir George Frederick Stanley.

HONORS OF SIR GEORGE FREDERICK STANLEY : George Frederick Stanley was honored with the Knight Grand Commander of the most eminent order of the Indian Empire ( GCIE ) in 1929. He was also awarded the Knight Grand Commander of the most order of the Star of India ( GCSI ) in 1934 and also Knighted with Companion of the most distinguished order of Saint Michael and Saint George ( CMG ).
Sir George Frederick Stanley served as Governor of Madras Province twice – first from November 11th 1929 until 6th May 1934 and again second from 16th August 1934 to 15th Nov 1934. He was succeeded by Sir Khan Sahib Bahadur Mohammed Usman KCSI KCIE KI and later by John Francis Ashley Erkshire GCIE GCSI.

STANLEY MEDICAL COLLEGE :
In the year 1933, Sir George Frederick Stanley introduced the 5 years Diploma course of Medicine and Surgery at the Royapuram Medical School, Madras. This was named in his honor as Stanley Medical School on 27th March 1934. He died on 1st July 1938 at the age of 65 in UK. On 2nd July 1938, a 5 years M.B.B.S. course was introduced and the Stanley Medical School was upgraded as Stanley Medical College.

SOURCES :

1) Archives of Madras Province
2) Archives of British Rule in India
3) Historion Mr.S. Muthaiah’s Book (2004)
4) Madras Rediscovered East West Books ( Madras ) Pvt. Ltd

HISTORY ABOUT STANLEY HOSPITAL

Stanley Hospital is one of the oldest Medical centres in India for medical treatment and education, the seeds for it having been sown as early as 1797 by the East India Company. Stanley Medical College is rated one among the top medical colleges in the country.

In 1781, Madras experienced one of the worst famines in its history, affecting one-third of the population. Black Town, the most densely populated and poorest quarter of the Northern  End  of  the city, was  most  badly  hit. In 1782, the Government of Madras Presidency and St. Mary’s Church in the Fort jointly launched what was perhaps the first-ever organised charity in India in a small building rented by the Famine Relief Committee just outside the walls of Black Town. As part of relief operations, kanji (rice gruel) was served to people in a thotti (vessel) – and so the name ‘kanji thotti‘ choultry or rest house. This rented house later became the Monegar Choultry, believed to be named after a village headman, a manugakkaran (‘monegar’), who ran a gruel centre there for the destitute. Many years later, when Stanley Hospital came into being in the same campus, locals called it the ‘kanji thotti hospital’!

An early record notes that in 1797, an  Hospital and dispensary in the premises of the Monegar Choultry called the ‘ Native Infirmary ‘ was established  by  Asst. Surgeon John Holen Underwood . When he offered to construct the buildings himself on government-provided land and “pay rental not exceeding 100 pagodas a month”, the Government agreed and  the operational cost was met by donations. The sick were treated in three different establishments, a dispensary for out-patients, half a dozen sheds for in-patients and special wards for chronic cases. Within a month of formal establishment, the Infirmary had nearly 90 inpatients.

By the end of 1807, the Committee of the Native Infirmary represented to Government on the fact that voluntary contributions had diminished and that funds for the Infirmary needed to be increased. It requested the grant of a village for its permanent support. The MonegarChoultry and Native Infirmary and the two were consolidated on November 1, 1809.

The new institution was designated ‘The Madras Infirmary and Native Poor Asylum. At that point, there was also “an Idiots Asylum, a Lazaretto or Leper Hospital, and a Foundling ward for the accommodation of pauper children”.

Various additions were made to the Native Infirmary from 1868. Four new wards with 40 beds for female patients were constructed. The Northcote Wards, two model wards, for males and females were furnished. Napier Ward was similarly met from a donation from Governor Napier

In 1882, the Raja of Vizianagaram defrayed the expenses for bringing water from Red Hills to the hospitals. In the 1880s, the Rajah Sir Ramaswamy Mudaliar Lying-in Hospital was added, named after its donor.

The Auxiliary Royapuram Medical School (1877)  trained compounders and sub-assistant surgeons. The predecessor of Stanley Medical College was the Royapuram Medical School that was started in June 1903 as a small school housed in the Old Bullet Factory of the East India Company. In 1913, there were 250 or so pupils in the school, which had minimal facilities (only two low power microscopes for teaching and one with an oil immersion lens kept under lock and key for the use of District Surgeons!).

On December 19, 1913, Governor Pentland laid the foundation stone for the Royapuram Hospital and Medical School

When the five-year LMP course was inaugurated on March 27, 1934 by the then Governor of Madras Presidency, Sir George Fredrick Stanley,  till then known as Royapuram Medical School, was renamed Stanley Medical School in his honour.

On  July  2 nd 1938,  the  Stanley Medical  School  was  upgraded  as  Stanley Medical  College, posthumously  in  memory  of Sir George Fredrick Stanley.

Between 1937 and 1939, the new clinics opened included those for venereal, leprosy, dental, ear, nose & throat, and ophthalmic, and separate clinics were organised for Departments of Medicine, Surgery, TB, Dermatology, Electrocardiography and  Orthopaedics. Bed strength also rose from 462 to 724.

In 1941, three medical and surgical units were created. Permission to start MD and MS courses was given in 1948.  By 1950, the College became independent of Madras Medical College,  when the new Anatomy and Physiology Departments were inaugurated in the new college building for training students in all subjects of the medical curriculum. The number of students admitted increased from 72 to 100.

“As far as known from published records the first successful heart operation in India was done in Stanley Hospital on November 10, 1948, on a girl of 11 years with persistent patent ductus arteriosus. The girl is known to be doing well and is now married and has children.”

By 1952, the Department of Anatomy was upgraded with courses for M.Sc and Ph. D in Anatomy. The institution of a Dean to administer both the College and Hospital was created the same year. The first Dean was Dr. Ananthanarayana  Iyer who established the Institute of Anatomy at Stanley in 1955, attracting students from all over the country. He also established the Anatomy Society of India in 1955 as a platform for research and dissemination of information on developments in anatomy at the annual conferences.

The  opening  of  the  Rural Medical Relief Centre at Alamadhi was a pioneering effort that cast a probing light on the problems of providing medical relief in the villages. Rural Medical and  Social  Service  ( RM&SS ) work  was  started in  1952  by  an  Alumnus  Dr.  Nemiraja MD DGO, in  Alamadhi Village  near  Red – Hills in  the  land  donated  by  Mrs. Kamalammal  an  Philanthropist  from  Alamadhi  Village  and  inaugurated  by  Dr. Ida  Scudder, a Medical  and  Social Philanthropist.  Subsequently  with  the  help  of  Our College  Faculties  and  Alumnus Prof. Dr. S. Kalyanaraman M.S. M Ch. – Neurosurgeon,  Alumnus Prof. Dr. Raghuram  M.S. and  other eminent  faculties,  regular medical services  on  Sundays  were  provided;  in 1955  these  services  were  extended  to near  by  hamlet Grand – Line  and  Chithranjan  near  Poonamallee,  headed  by  Prof. Dr. M.K. Mani  M.D. (  Chief Nephrologist  Apollo  Hospitals). Holding of a World  Medical  Students’ Conference  and the organising  Medical exhibitions ( 1977   in  commemoration  of  silver  Jubilee  of  Old  Students’  Association  of  Stanley  Medical  College ) to finance the rural medical relief activities are some achievements worth mentioning. These extraordinary achievements of the infant college, which evoked the envy of the sister college, were solely due to the oneness of mind and spirit that prevailed between staff and students. This identity of purpose –this sublime intimacy – came to be referred as the Stanley Spirit

By January 1963, the  Silver  Jubilee  year  of  Stanley  Medical  College, annual admission rose to 150. There were by then seven medical and surgical units. Bed strength increased to 840 sanctioned beds besides accommodating 100 more extra patients.

The foundation stone for construction of  the  Silver  Jubilee  Auditorium  for the College was laid by the then President of India , Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, on October 30, 1964, as a part of its Silver Jubilee celebrations,  the  Stanley  Alumni  contributing  Rs.  One  lakh,  then..

On the indomitable  ‘Stanley Spirit’, talk to any  Stanlean  and everyone will wax eloquent on the SMC Hostel, the College magazine, NCC and other activities that added considerably to the growth and development of “that unique personality – the Stanley Medico. Students imbibed not only scientific knowledge and technical skill but also the Stanley Spirit of cooperative endeavour, where staff and students moved and worked together as members of a family with affection and mutual respect,” says an early note by  Prof.Dr. M. Viswanathan –  the  founder  of  Old  Students’  Association  of  Stanley  Medical  College,  in  1952.

Dr. A. Ananthanarayanan  Iyer, former Dean and Director of the Central Institute of Anatomy, SMC, and Dr. S. Balasubramaniam, former Dean, endorse these words.

From early note “We never bought textbooks, they were all donated by our seniors who guided us in important exams too. All the top university rankers were from Stanley, which was known for its sports prowess and cultural activities too. Students came mostly from middle class backgrounds or were first gen learners, and so were more close-knit. Our homely hostel canteen was known for its ‘Oil Chicken’ and attracted students from other colleges too!” The College had a well-equipped gym.

The plastic surgery unit, at Stanley Hospital  officially began in 1971 by the efforts of Alumnus Prof. Dr. R. Venkataswami.  In 1973, the Hand Injury Service Centre, the first in the country, was started.  In 1980, the Centre introduced microsurgery for hand injuries, the first in the country. In 1987, the Department was upgraded as the Institute for Research and Rehabilitation of Hand and the Department of Plastic Surgery (IRRH & DPS), one of the best centres in South and Southeast Asia.  Today the Institute has performed more than 330,000 hand injury surgeries and more than 70,000 plastic surgeries, and is even slated to perform the first hand transplant., the only medical college that could boast of one at the time.

Prof. N. Sivarajan M.D., FACC ( Cardiol)  was  instrumental  to  start  the  department  of  Cardiology  on  6th  May, 1979.  He  attached  ICCU  in  1980 and  started  a  Cardiac  Cathterisation  Laboratory  in 1985.  He  was  instrumental  to  get  2 D.M.  ( Cardiology )  post  graduate  seats  with MCI  approval  in  1991.  Now  currently  under  the  able  guidance  by  Prof.Dr. K. Kannan M.D., D.M. ( Cardiol )  Primary  Cardiac  Intervension,  PTCA  and  Pace  maker  implantation are  being  done  daily.  The  number  of  D.M. Cardiology  Postgraduate  seats increased  to  4  per  year, at  present.

In  early  80’s  Alumnus  Prof.  Dr. P.  Chandra developed  the  department  of  Paediatrics  into  an  Institution  attaching  Social  Paediatrics  as  a  main medical  service, to  cater  the  real  downtrodden  North  Chennai  Public.  She  was  instrumental  for  a  separate Seven  Storied  Paediatric  Block  inaugurated  in  1982.

A  Eight  Storied  New  Surgical  Block  was  constructed  in  1984 , under  the  Dynamic  Supervision of  Prof. T.  Srinivasan M.D. ( Anaes)  HOD  of  Anaesthesia  who,  housed  all  the  Surgical  Units  and  allied  Surgical  Specialities  with 20 operation rooms, under  one  roof.

The Hospital’s Department of Surgical Gastroenterology was the first public sector hospital in India to perform a successful liver transplant in  1995, under the leadership of Prof. Dr. R.P. Shanmugam M.S. M. Ch ( Surgical Gastro) .  Several successful  cadaveric liver transplants were performed  since  2000 by  an  Alumnus  Prof. R. Surendran M.S. M.Ch ( Surgical Gastro )  the  then  HOD  of  Surgical  Gastro Enterology  who  also  was  instrumental  for  ISO 9001 certification (acquired in 2000) of  the  Department  of  Surgical  Gastroenterology) , the First  public sector institute  to  obtain  an  ISO 9001 Certification  and  also  a  creation  of  Stem  Cell  research  Center  in  our  institution.  This  ICMR Stem Cell and Diagnostic Laboratory  Under  Prof. Dr. Rosy Vennila  M.D. ( Micro ) , Ph.D. ensures, a zero infection rate that is critical for a transplant programme, and is involved in ongoing research on liver progression cells as a therapeutic option in end-stage liver disease. Currently, the Institute of Surgical Gastroenterology and the Centre for Liver and Pancreatic  Diseases  at  Stanley  perform the maximum  number of  surgeries related to cancer of the pancreas and form to successfully perform liver transplants.  Since then, this institute  has performed over 35 successful liver transplants. Recently  world  renowned  Liver  transplant  Surgeon,  also  an  Alumnus  of  Stanley  Prof. Dr. Mohammed  Rela  M.S. from  King’s  Hospital  London,  U.K., has  joined  the  Liver  transplant  team  as  Head  and  with a Sophisticated medical infrastructure facilities,  Stanley Surgical  Gastro-enterology  Department,  remains as good as a top  corporate  Hospitals.

The  Students’  Community  with  the  help  of Stanley  Alumni  Sponsorship  and  Isha  Foundation a  religious  organisation, started  a  Green  Hands  Project  in  the  year  1997,  and  so  far  planted  around  1,25,000  saplings in  and  around  the  Chennai  city.

Today  with nearly 1300 beds for in-patient treatment, the hospital now has an out-patient attendance of around 5000 patients a day, a unique 8-storey surgical complex equipped to perform up to 40 surgeries simultaneously, a separate Paediatrics block  and  an  upcoming  New  Multistory Building  with all specialities under one roof, and the RSRM Hospital attached for obstetrics and gynaecology care.

The  Department of Nephrology  performed  Renal  Transplants  in  1991, under  the  able  guidance  by  Prof. Dr. M.S. Amaresan  M.D. D.M. ( Nephro )  and now  currently up to fifty kidney transplants an year,  are  being  performed, under  the  untiring  efforts  of  Prof. Dr.  Edwin  Fernando – Nephrologist.  He  was  instrumental  for  the  MCI  approval  of  2  D.M. Nephrology  post  graduate  seats  every  Year.

Today, most of the old buildings have been replaced by newer structures in order to cater to the needs of larger patient population. A rare surviving bit of heritage in a forgotten corner is an obelisk with the Aesculapius insignia raised in Maj. E.W.C. Bradfield’s time to remember 12 doctors who sacrificed their lives in the Great War. What continues unchanged at Stanley are the old traditions of committed service in an institution that today, as in the past, provides affordable healthcare to the underprivileged!

We  are  proud  to  say, that  Stanley  Medical  College,  is  the  first  Govt.  Medical  Institution  in  Tamil  Nadu  to  get  a  MCI – Sanction  for 250  undergraduate  Medical  Students.

In memory of those from Stanley who fell in the Great War.

The  very  first student  journal  of  the institution,  issued  in March 1933, was called The Royapuram Medico!

SECRETS OF STANLEY MEDICAL COLLEGE – 1940

Though  the  Stanley  Medical  College was  inaugurated on  July 2nd 1938,  the  Building  of  the  Current  College  Structure was  built in  1940  on  the  Second  World  War  Bunker,  that  exists  even  today,  under  the  ground  floor  of  the old  College  building,  as  basement.			Right  underneath  the central  hall where  the  stair  case  starts  and  a  bust  of   Sir  George Frederick  Stanley ( 1872 – 1938 ),  erected  by  1996  Naviyam  Batch  exists.  There  are  two  wooden  stair  cases,  lead  us  down  to  the  basement  War  Bunker,  one   just  in  front  of  the  Old  College  Library entrance  and  the second    near  the  south  side  of  the  Sargent  room. Their  entrance,  down  to  the  basement  is  covered  by  wooden  slabs.