Extract
The Irish cardiologist famous for wearing a red carnation in his coat lapel during ward rounds at The Middlesex Hospital
Walter Somerville who died aged 92 just over a decade ago was one of the Britain's top cardiologists. A consultant at the Middlesex and Harefield Hospitals for 25 years, from 1954 to 1979, he played a crucial role in the success of cardiac surgery at both centres.
Somerville assisted at the first ever cardiac catheterisation, performed at Hammersmith Hospital in 1948. For 20 years, he edited the British Heart Journal (now named Heart). During the second world war, he worked on chemical and biological weaponry and, for the following 20 years, served on international chemical and biological warfare committees. In his early years, whilst in New York, his film-star looks were sufficient to attract the offer of a screen test from Metro-Goldwyn- Mayor which, fortunately for British cardiology, he declined.
