The Continuing Development of Shoulder Replacement: “Reaching the Surface”

It is an enormous honor to be asked to give this lecture, particularly when looking at the roll call of my predecessors. Like most of them, I became fascinated by the life and work of Sir Robert Jones (1857 to 1933). He was the nephew of the famous doctor Hugh Owen Thomas. After qualifying as a doctor in 1878, Jones moved to the forefront of hyperspecialism in surgery, as he only did orthopaedics from 1905 onward. He had a multifaceted career. Because he had been appalled at the high rate of industrial injury, he developed a casualty service for workers at the Manchester Ship Canal and saved many lives. He was the founder of the Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Hospital, Director General of Military Orthopaedics at that time, and a founder of the British Orthopaedic Association, hence this eponymous lecture. He was obviously extremely forward-thinking and was a pioneer of day surgery. In a publication in 1908, Robert Jones discussed his eight rules for tendon transplantation and concluded, “All my hospital transplantations are treated as outpatients and return to their homes on the day of operation and no difficulties of any kind arose there from.”1 In his synopsis of Robert Jones’ life, Mercer Rang said, “Most of all he is remembered because he was liked and popularity provides opportunities denied other men.”1 What a wonderful tribute to a great man.