Dr Winston Ince was one of the early local innovators in the field of cardiology. During his illustrious career, he introduced echocardiography¹ to the Port-of-Spain General Hospital and secured free open-heart surgery for children. He has written and published several papers, in regional and international journals, in areas such as cardiology and hypertension.

Winston Edghill Ince was born on 2nd December, 1930 in Tunapuna, Trinidad. He started his education in 1935 under the tutorage of Mr Prince Edgar Ferdinand, Headmaster of the La Brea R.C. School. Mr Ferdinand mentored him, giving him personal lessons free of charge, helping to ensure that Ince won an exhibition to St. Mary’s College in 1941. The young student stayed at his grandmother’s home in Curepe to facilitate his studies and excelled, receiving an Island Scholarship in Science and the Dr Stollmeyer Medal for Science in 1948.

Ince then left for the United Kingdom in 1949 to study at the University of Cambridge. In 1952, he obtained First Class Honours in the Preliminary to the Natural Science Tripos and won a College Exhibition and the Tripos Prize. In 1953, he obtained a Bachelor of Arts (BA) Natural Science Tripos with First Class Honours and was again awarded the Tripos Prize, along with the title, Scholar of Sidney Sussex College. He entered medical school at University College Hospital, London and graduated with a Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery (MBBChir) from the University of Cambridge in 1956.

He obtained postgraduate diplomas of Membership of the Royal College of Physicians (MRCP), Edinburgh specialising in cardiology in 1960 and the MRCP, London in 1961. He was subsequently elected to the Fellowship of both Royal Colleges.

In 1962, Ince returned to Trinidad and served as Senior Registrar at the Port-of-Spain General Hospital. He went back to London to become a clinical assistant in the Department of Cardiology at the University College Hospital in 1966, and returned to the General Hospital in 1967 as Consultant Physician in Cardiology and Internal Medicine.

For more than 50 years, Ince’s career was focused on clinical medicine, clinical cardiology and teaching medical students in the UWI Eastern Caribbean Medical Scheme. He managed and developed the Paediatric and Adult Cardiology Services for over 25 years and retired from the General Hospital in 1990 as Medical Chief of Staff. He played a significant role in the introduction of echocardiography, which is important in the diagnosis of heart disease.

Despite his retirement, Ince as Honorary Consultant Physician to the hospital, continues to be involved in the training of echocardiographic technicians. The first batch graduated in 2004. He is currently the Chief Medical Officer for an insurance company and also has a private consulting practice in cardiology.

Dr Ince is the recipient of the Chaconia Medal (Gold) in 1989, the Trinidad and Tobago Medical Association Scroll of Honour in 1990, and an honour award from the Caribbean Cardiac Society in 1999.

He advises that young people with scientific aspirations should “always aim at performing to the best of their ability, work hard, read extensively, and seek after truth, wherever it may be found.”

1. The use of ultrasound to generate images of the heart