Moir, Professor John Chassar

The collection consists of miscellaneous material pertaining to Professor Moir's career which was retained in the family. This includes biographical material; research files, including on ergot, vesico-vaginal fistula, and history of obstetrics; a few case notes; correspondence; and two films of operations.

1921-1977

6 boxes

These papers were given to the library at Wellcome Collection in April and October 1990 by Professor Moir's daughter, Miss Jane Moir.

John Chassar Moir was the first Nuffield Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the University of Oxford, a post he held from 1937 to 1967. At University College Hospital, London, he and Dr Harold Ward Dudley had isolated the new drug ergometrine, responsible for the traditional clinical effects of ergot, which was rapidly and universally adopted for the prevention of haemorrhage after childbirth, and he had written a thesis on rotation of the foetus in childbirth for which he gained his MD and a gold medal from Edinburgh University. At Oxford, he built up the Radcliffe Infirmary, studied the use of diagnostic x-rays in obstetrics, and made an outstanding contribution to gynaecological surgery, the repair of vesico-vaginal fistulae. He was for several years the co-editor and for the sixth edition sole editor, of Munro-Kerr's well-known textbook Operative Obstetrics. He became president of the obstetrics and gynaecology section of the Royal Society of Medicine, and in 1974 was made an honorary fellow. Further biographical details can be found in the obituaries in the "British Medical Journal" and the "Lancet".

At Wellcome Collection: papers of Moir's successor in the Nuffield Chair, Sir John Stallworthy (Ref. PP/JAS). Material at other repositories: other papers of Professor Moir's are held by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (Special Collections, reference S/02). These include professional notes and correspondence with Sir Henry Dale on ergot, c.1930-1938, and with others. Forceps and other items are held in the College Museum. The Wellcome Galleries of the Science Museum hold Professor Moir's domiciliary deliveries case.

This collection has been catalogued and is available to library members. Some items have access restrictions which are explained in the item-level catalogue records.

A small amount of re-arrangement has been necessary, and the removal of original file covers.

The catalogue is available on microfiche via the National Inventory of Documentary Sources (NIDS).