Beschreibung:

'Sir Louis Knuthsen, known to all of his friends as "K", was perhaps the best-educated medical man I have known. He had travelled extensively and intelligently in his younger days, and had important friends in every country in Europe. His opinion on almost any subject or event was informed 'from the inside', and was invariably delivered in entertaining fashion. His evident kindness always inspired active affection both in his patients and his friends. As he grew older his ripe wisdom became invariably apparent and was widely valued. After the death of his wife in 1946 he seemed lonely, and his chief pleasure was in the society of his friends, young and old. In summer his tall, handsome figure, dressed in the height of Edwardian fashion, could be seen most afternoons strolling up towards "Lord's."' His obituary, The Lancet of July 1957, refers The important K.C.V.O., O.B.E., K. St. J., group of eleven awarded to Major Sir L. F. R. Knuthsen, Royal Army Medical Corps and British Red Cross Society, who commanded No. 5 B.R.C. Hospital at Wimereux during the Great War, affectionately known as 'Lady Hadfield's Hospital', and later became a hugely respected and admired physician to the Princess Royal, with a particular specialism in diseases of the skin The Royal Victorian Order, K.C.V.O., Knight Commander's set of Insignia, comprising neck Badge, silver-gilt and enamel; breast Star, silver, silver-gilt and enamel, with gold retaining pin, both pieces officially numbered, '506'; The Order of St. John of Jerusalem, Knight of Grace, neck Badge and breast Star, silver-gilt and enamel; The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, O.B.E. (Military) Officer's 1st type breast badge, silver-gilt; The Order of St. John of Jerusalem, Officer's (Brother's) breast Badge, silver; 1914 Star (L. F. Knuthsen. B.R.C.S. & O.St.J.J.); British War and Victory Medals, M.I.D. oak leaves (Major L. F. Knuthsen.); France, Republic Reconnaissance Medal, silver, unnamed as issued; France, Republic, Medaille d'Epidemies, silver (Major L. Knuthsen 1920), good very fine (11) K.C.V.O. London Gazette 1 January 1936. O.B.E. London Gazette 3 June 1919. K. St. J. London Gazette 17 July 1936. Louis Francis Roebuck Knuthsen, formally known as Louis Francis Behagen Knuthsen until 1925, was born in 1871 at Santa Cruz, Trinidad & Tobago, the son of Francis Knuthsen and his wife Anne (nee Roebuck). Educated at Edinburgh Academy and at Edinburgh University, he graduated M.B., C.M. in 1893 and proceeded to become a Doctor of Medicine in 1901. After graduation he was in general practice for a short time in Truro, Cornwall, and later at Falmouth, where he became consulting surgeon to the town hospital and a lecturer on ambulance work for Cornwall County Council. He was also local secretary of the British Medical Association in Falmouth before transferring to Shifnal in Shropshire, where he remained until he finally settled in London in 1903. A busy practitioner, these early and relatively rural placements were interspersed with post-graduate study at Paris, Berlin and Vienna Universities. Whilst in Cornwall - likely dealing with regular injuries associated with the packet ships, fishing and mining industries and agriculture - Knuthsen developed a strong interest in first aid. In London he fostered this passion as a lecturer and examiner for the London County Council, whilst also becoming clinical assistant at the Hospital for Diseases of the Throat at Golden Square, and at the Hospital for Sick Children, Great Ormond Street. In 1904 he determined to specialise in dermatology and was appointed clinical assistant at St. John's Hospital for Diseases of the Skin. He was promoted to casualty medical officer of the hospital, and, in 1908 was appointed assistant physician. During the Great War, Knuthsen served as one of 236 doctors sent overseas by the Joint War Committee of the British Red Cross, and soon became officer-in-charge of the 100-bed, British Red Cross Hospital at Wimere