Dr. Rodney Maingot was a world-renowned surgeon, writer on surgery, and teacher of postgraduate surgeons. His best-known publication is “Abdominal Operations” (1940), which today remains a key text for aspiring surgeons in Great Britain. He was Editor-in-Chief of the British Journal of Clinical Practice, and a regional consultant in the Emergency Medical Service during World War II.

Rodney Maingot was born on February 27th 1893 in Trinidad. At age 8, he emigrated to England. He studied at Upshaw College, Durham and at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital in London. He qualified in 1916 with Membership of the Royal College of Surgeons, England, and the Royal College of Physicians, London. He obtained the Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons (FRCS), England, in 1920. He also served in World War I.

His popularity as a surgeon (particularly gallbladder surgery) was witnessed at Royal Waterloo and Southend Hospitals in London. There, he was the consulting surgeon and young surgeons came to see him operate, making these key centres for postgraduate instruction. His reputation was widely known, and he was Visiting Professor of Surgery at Ohio State Medical School, Mount Sinai Hospital in Miami, and Maadi Hospital in Cairo. In 1976, he received his homeland’s highest honour, the Trinity Cross. After his death on 3 January 1982, using the assets of his estate, his family established the Maingot Charitable Trust. The Trust provides a grant for young doctors from Trinidad and Tobago to qualify for the FRCS.