Joseph Griffiths

His interest now turned to surgery. He took the English Conjoint qualification in 1891, served as assistant to Sir G M Humphry, FRCS and after taking the Fellowship in 1892 was appointed assistant surgeon to Addenbrooke's, becoming surgeon in 1895, and retiring in 1928. He was consulting surgeon to St Leonard's Hospital, Sudbury, Suffolk and to the County Hospital at Huntingdon. He was a Hunterian professor at the College in 1894-95, giving three lectures on the testis. After Professor Humphry's death in 1896 Griffiths was appointed reader in surgery in 1898; believing that there ought to be a professorship in surgery at Cambridge he resigned in 1903. F Howard Marsh, FRCS was appointed to the revived professorship in 1903. During the 1914-1918 war Griffiths commanded the 1st Eastern General Hospital at Cambridge with the rank of colonel, RAMC, gazetted 8 May 1908. He had personally built up the hospital organization in readiness for war and introduced a Spartan régime of open-air wards with excellent result. He was created CMG 1918 for his war service.

Griffiths always retained his interest in pathology, and, as became a keen huntsman and agriculturist, gave much attention to comparative pathology. Injuries of the bones and joints were his first interest, but he also studied the surgery of urogenital disorders, in particular prostatic enlargement, and he made many contributions to professional journals. He formed a fine pathological museum at Cambridge, and gave his private collection to the Hunterian Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons.