When Robert Jackson FRCS sat down to write his life story it was intended only for family and friends, but so many people asked for a copy that he decided to go ahead and publish. His book, Memoirs of a Surgeon, Climber and Orienteer is the result.
It spans his years as an orthopaedic surgeon in the Southampton and Lymington hospitals, where he pioneered the treatment of scoliosis (the distressing condition where there is side-to-side curvature of the spine). But it also covers much more – as the title suggests, Robert has been a keen climber, climbing with the likes of Joe Brown, and since retirement he has been an equally keen and competitive orienteer.
Robert’s childhood in the Lake District formed his interest in natural life, resulting in him keeping an ark of animals on National Service in the British Cameroons and, more recently, in his work as a voluntary warden with the Hampshire Wildlife Trust.
When Robert retired with his wife, Maggie, to a New Forest village near Lymington, he was quickly drawn into the life of the parish and the setting up of the new Lymington Hospital. Prompted by Maggie’s insistence that he should not leave it too late, Robert has now produced a book that is part of our collective history and of interest to a wide scope of readers – his only regret being that Maggie is no longer here to see it.