STEELE, Arthur David McGowan (1935-2019)
Arthur Steele was born 16 December 1935 in Pyramid Hill to Dr D McGowan and Agnes Steele. He was enrolled at Geelong College in September 1944. In his final year he was School Prefect and Vice Captain of Shannon, and served on the PFA, Library and Music committees.
Arthur served as captain in the RAAMC 1955-1960 and completed his studies at the University of Melbourne in 1960 with the degrees Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery. He then moved to London, where he achieved a doctorate at the Royal College Surgeons, 1970.
His medical career was focused on opthamology, becoming senior house officer Croyden Eye Unit, Surrey 1969-1971; Resident surgical officer, senior resident officer Moorfields Eye Hospital, London, 1971-1974; Lecturer department clinical ophthalmology Moorfields Eye Hospital, 1974-1976, consultant ophthalmologist, since 1976, director Eye Bank, since 1980.
He was a Fellow Royal College Surgeons, Ophthalmological Society of United Kingdom (treasurer since 1979), Royal Society Medicine (vice president 1983-1985).
Professor D. Gartry spoke a eulogy at the funeral:
So why did Arthur pursue a career in ophthalmology? While he was studying for his general surgical exams in London a fellow student suggested that he might consider it. Arthur went to the library and selected the smallest book he could find on the subject (Lecture Notes in Ophthalmology by Patrick Trevor Roper). He decided it couldn’t be all that difficult if the entire subject fitted into such a small tome and he decided to take the matter seriously. He went to seek career advice from the Dean of the Institute of Ophthalmology who unfortunately told him not to bother as “he was too old and had no experience”. Fortunately, Arthur didn’t heed the advice. Undeterred, he then applied to the Croydon Eye Unit and had an excellent grounding in anterior segment surgery under the very capable tutelage of Mr Dermot Pierse before being appointed to “the house” at Moorfields and then to the consultant staff of the hospital in 1976.
Initially, Arthur continued the work of his predecessor, Mr Derek Ainslie, in the field of refractive surgery – namely epikeratophakia and radial keratotomy, but he also excelled in extracapsular cataract surgery with lens implantation, at a time when Moorfields had been slow to adopt the new technology. He was a key member of the Intraocular Lens Implant Club, the Oxford Congress, and an early supporter of our 3 international cataract and refractive surgery societies (ESCRS, UKISCRS and ASCRS). He was Cataract Service Director at Moorfields for several years, published numerous scientific papers and three textbooks (all considerably larger than the small book he had found in the library several years before – this is his excellent manual on corneal surgery). He was also a gifted and meticulous corneal graft surgeon, highly skilled in numerous corneal surgical procedures. He was an early adapter and teacher of phacoemulsification cataract surgery and excimer laser corneal refractive surgery (this is the well-known laser eye surgery that is used to eliminate the need for spectacles and contact lenses).
... He was a meticulous surgeon, a gifted teacher and a generous mentor to many of the budding eye surgeons of the time, several of whom (myself included) owe their current consultant posts at Moorfields to him. But more importantly, he was a caring doctor and always put his patients first.
Sources: The Telegraph December 2019, J. Williams and Professor D. Gartry, OGC 1949