Cyril Beatty was born at Stockton-on-Tees and educated at Barnard Castle and the University of London. He was the son of William John Beatty, also a medical practitioner, and his wife, Alice Letitia Fitzgerald, the daughter of John Scott, a clerk in holy orders. His clinical training was undertaken at the London Hospital where, after qualifying in 1911, he held appointments as house physician, house surgeon, emergency officer, and medical registrar. His studies had been interrupted by the outbreak of the first world war when he joined the RAMC, serving until 1917 and winning the Military Cross.

On demobilization, he became clinical assistant at the Hospital for Sick Children, Great Ormond Street. He was later appointed physician to the Royal Northern Hospital, the Evelina Hospital for Children, Chalfont and Gerrard’s Cross Hospital, and Wood Green and Southgate Hospital.

Cyril Beatty had very definite ideas on the National Health Service and, on its inauguration, resigned from the staff of the Royal Northern. He married Constance Hermine, daughter of Arthur Vandeleur Despard, in 1919, and they had three sons, two of whom became medical practitioners. This made five generations of doctors in the Beatty family. Cyril listed his hobbies as ‘living in the country and philately’. After his retirement he was troubled with increasing deafness. He was a very able physician, courteous to patients and staff, and gifted with charm and a quiet wit. His only fault was that he was too shy and retiring.

IGR
Sir Gordon Wolstenholme