Francis Percival de Caux: archives

Section A comprises papers and correspondence relating to Francis Percival de Caux’s career and professional interests in anesthesia and anesthetics. It includes articles by de Caux, letters of application for job vacancies, correspondence with professional peers and his designs for an ergonomic chair.

Section B concerns de Caux's attempts to be reinstated by the Royal College of Physicians and Royal College of Surgeons after serving his sentence. He was struck off the medical register after his conviction. The files include various testimonials and letters of recommendation from medical professionals written at various points in the late 1940s and 1950s.

Section C comprises files regarding de Caux's interest in abortion law and law reform, including papers from the Abortion Law Reform Association and a volume of press cuttings about the Rex vs. Bourne court case, also known as the Bourne Judgement.

c.1886-1970

3 boxes

Acquired June 2024.

Dr Francis Percival de Caux was an anaesthetist who innovated new treatments in anaesthesia practice. He was also a practising abortionist, which led to a prison sentence and struck off the medical register.

Francis Percival de Caux was born in New Zealand on 1892 and moved to England in 1912. His medical studies at St Bartholomew's Hospital were interrupted by the outbreak of WWI which saw de Caux stationed in a military hospital in Yvetot, France. In 1921, de Caux qualified in medicine at St Bartholomew’s Hospital, and soon after began working in anaesthesia. His first role was as an anaesthetist at St Bartholomew's Hospital in 1921. That same year, De Caux co-authored a play titled "Euthanasia" which was banned by the censor for its discussion around the ethics ending the life of a disabled child heir. In 1923, de Caux left St Bartholomew's for a post at All Saints Hospital, Finchley, as well as setting up private practice. of De Caux joined the North Middlesex Hospital in 1927; prior to this he held honorary anaesthetic posts at the Royal Dental Hospital and Kensington Hospital.

De Caux's research interests were in the use of oxygen anaesthesia and nitrous oxide for patients, particularly for dental surgery, as well as for major surgery. He also invented new equipment, such as a modification of the McKesson demand flow nitrous oxide/oxgyen apparatus. In 1928, Francis Percival de Caux was the first to utilise Curare, a muscle relaxant drug to be used during nitrous oxide anaesthesia. De Caux did not publish these findings however, and credit was instead given to a Dr Griffiths and Johnson for the drug's introduction to anaesthesia some years later in 1942. While de Caux published a number of scientific papers, his work was not widely publicised and his contribution to anaesthetic history has largely been overlooked (citation: D. J. Wilkinson, Dr F. P. de Caux-the first user of curare for anaesthesia in England, Anaesthesia, 1991, vol. 46.

De Caux was also an active abortion campaigner, who believed that legalising abortion was the only way to prevent dangerous backstreet abortions. In 1932, de Caux was asked to give a second opinion on a patient who had undergone surgery for an abortion, which led to heavy bleeding and septicemia. De Caux facilitated her admission to a London nursing home. After the patient's death, the case became notorious in the press, particularly following the suicide's of the patient's mother and friend. In 1934, de Caux travelled to Russia for medical work, where he was influenced by the Soviet Union's permissive attitude to abortion. In 1935, he wrote a paper celebrating the USSR's enlightened approach to abortion, placing him at odds with contemporary approaches in the UK. De Caux began practising as an abortionist operating from two clinics, one at his home in Kent which was transformed into a nursing home, and another from a practice in Mayfair. Alongside this abortion work, de Caux continued to maintain an anaesthesia practice and to regular speak and publish on this subject. Following the outbreak of WWII, De Caux's abortion practice fell under close scrutiny, with police surveillance on his sites. Police officers stopped women who had attended his clinic to force confessions from them. By September 1942, de Caux was subjected to a public trial at the Old Bailey, which caught media attention. He was found guilty on eight counts and sentenced to five years in prison. In February 1943, the GMC removed his name from the medical register and his LRCP MRCS qualifications were rescinded.

After leaving prison, De Caux was no longer able to practice in medicine having been struck off. His home was sold while he was in prison, and his wife divorced him shortly after his release. De Caux campaigned for his reinstatement, making a series of applications to the Royal Colleges of Surgeons and Physicians and gathering many testimonials and letters of support from former colleagues. His applications for reinstatement were refused, and de Caux continued to ocassionally provide anaesthesia when requested. De Caux abandoned the textbook in anaeshesia which he had started writing before his prison sentence, instead becoming a medical journalist and travelling. He also made attempts to become a pharmacist and to set up a practice for alternative medicine, and considered restarting his medical education. In 1951 he wrote a book about alternative cancer treatments, titled A New Light on Cancer.

Francis Percival de Caux remarried in the 1960s, and died in 1965 following a period of ill health. He was survived by his second wife.

Information gathered from two articles on Francis Percival de Caux by D J Wilkinson: Wilkinson, D.J. (1991), Francis Percival de Caux (1892–1965). Anaesthesia, 46: 300-305. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2044.1991.tb11503.x and Wilkinson, D.J. (1991), Francis Percival de Caux (1892–1965). Anaesthesia, 46: 300-305. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2044.1991.tb11503.x.

Transferred to Wellcome.

This collection has been catalogued and is available to library members. Some items have access restrictions which are explained in the item-level catalogue records.

Off-prints and articles by others discarded, due to poor condition and availability elsewhere.

None expected.

The donor purchased the papers from eBay around 2004, when he was researching other people's family histories. Francis P de Caux did not have any children or surviving siblings. As the collection includes a few letters written by his second wife after his death, it is assumed that she had kept hold of the papers and that they were disposed of after her death, perhaps via a house clearance.