Fletcher, Charles Montague (1911-1995), epidemiologist

The archive is divided into sections as follows:

A Personal Material

B Material relating to Sir Walter M. Fletcher

C Penicillin Story

D Broadcasting

E Euthanasia

F Society of Medical Ethics

G Institute of Medical Ethics

H Pneumoconiosis

J Action on Smoking and Health

K Smoking

L National Asthma Campaign

M Patient Information Leaflet (PIL)

N Royal College of Physicians: Communications & Membership

P The Medical Interview Teaching Association (MITA)

Q Paper for BMJ on communication skills

R Lectures

S Own Publications

T Development of Airflow Obstruction

Charles Montague Fletcher, the son of Sir Walter Morley Fletcher (see PP/WMF), was born in 1911. He was educated at Eton and Cambridge, and was in the team that won the University Boat Race in 1933. He studied medicine at St. Bartholomew's Hospital where he graduated in 1937.

Whilst at the Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford, as a house physician and research student to Professor Leslie Witts, Fletcher was involved in the early clinical investigations of penicillin. He administered the first injection of penicillin to a human patient in 1941. His name appears on the tablet in the penicillin memorial rose garden outside Oxford Botanical Gardens.

He joined the Pneumoconiosis Research Unit in South Wales as Director in 1945 until 1952. It was here that he became aware of the differences in interpreting the same chest x-rays by different observers - "observer error". To ensure better standardisation he designed a semi-quantitive scoring system which is now used worldwide. For his work on pneumoconiosis he was awarded the CBE in 1952.

In 1952, Fletcher wished to return to general medicine. Sir John McMichael invited him to join as a consultant physician and a reader in clinical epidemiology (1952 - 1973) at the Postgraduate Medical School at Hammersmith Hospital, where he later became Professor (Emeritus) of Clinical Epidemiology, 1973 -1976. He spent 20 years studying the history of bronchitis and emphysema, and showed conclusively that chronic bronchitis sufferers would improve if they stopped smoking rather than take antibiotics.

From 1958 until 1965 he presented the BBC series Your Life In Their Hands and Television Doctor, 1969 -70. He continued as a medical advisor with the BBC until 1972. He was criticised by the medical profession for giving information to patients concerning their illnesses as it was deemed as harmful to the patient.

Fletcher was instrumental in founding Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) (see SA/ASH) and was their first chairman (1971 - 1978) and later their president (1979 - 1995). In April 1995 he gave an account of the early years of ASH to the symposium "Ashes to Ashes".

He retired in 1976, spending much if his time in the Isle of White. He died on 15 Dec 1995 after suffering a stroke. He was survived by his wife, Louisa and his 3 children.

For further biographical material on Fletcher see his obituaries in British Medical Journal, vol 312, 1996, p. 117; Munk's Roll, vol 10, p. 146; and Who Was Who, 1991 -1995, p. 186.

At Wellcome Collection:

There are additional Fletcher items in the papers of Action on Smoking and Health (SA/ASH) relating to his involvement with them.

Recordings of Fletcher interviewed by Max Blythe can be found in the Library's Moving Image and Sound Collections.

In addition to the material held in this collection, his father Sir Walter M. Fletcher has his own collection of personal papers in the Library (PP/WMF).

Sir Charles and Sir Walter are both represented as correspondents in the papers of Sir Edward and Lady Mellanby (PP/MEL).

At other repositories:

Further papers of Fletcher are held by Cambridge University: Churchill Archives Centre: Ref: AVHL - Correspondence with A.V. Hill, 1948-1978.