Stanley Aylett Biography

Stanley Aylett (1911-2003) was a distinguished surgeon, known for the fastest fingers in the trade. Having qualified with first class honours at Kings College, London, he served in the Royal Army Medical Corps throughout the Second World War, operating behind the front lines in Europe and North Africa and taking part in Dunkirk, the battle for Tobruk, and D-Day. After the war he joined the Westminster Hospital and specialised in inflammatory bowel disease, (colitis), and chrohn’s disease. He pioneered a treatment that avoided the removal of the lower bowel and a permanent stoma, an approach which soon became standard. He was Hunterian Professor at the Royal College of Surgeons, became a member of the Academie de Chirurgie Francaise in 1974, served as President of the Chelsea Clinical Society and was an honorary member of the American Society of Colon and Rectal Surgeons. He published widely in his field, wrote a memoir on his experiences as a surgeon at war, and defended the best in the National Health Service. For his services in clearing Sanbostel Concentration Camp, he received the French Croix d’Honneur.