Herbert Squires was remembered for the great part he played in the foundation and development of the Kitchener School of Medicine, Khartoum. He was born in Bombay, the son of the Rev. Henry Charles Squires and Ada Martha, daughter of Dr Thomas Chavasse. He was a distinguished athlete; at his preparatory school, Dragon, Oxford, at St. Paul’s, at Oxford University, and at St. Thomas’s Hospital he showed prowess in rowing, boxing and Rugby. Following house posts at St. Thomas’s he joined the Sudan Medical Service in 1908; with the Sudan he was to have active connections for forty-three years, for after his retirement in 1930 he represented its Government in London and in 1938 became its consulting physician.
In 1958 he wrote its history (The Sudan Medical Service). For fifteen years he was in charge of various hospitals until in 1924 he became director of the Khartoum Hospital and in 1926 the first lecturer to the Kitchener School of Medicine, the interests of which were to remain close to his heart. He kept personal contacts with his students; anyone from the School received a royal welcome in his London home. A man of strong Christian principles he had nevertheless a deep knowledge of human nature; to him his patient was primarily a human being. The result was that he could undertake his onerous tasks as the officer responsible for a large area with humour and understanding.
At a time when there were few specifics for tropical diseases he pioneered the control of canal irrigation schemes and the medical inspection of school children in an attempt to control the ravages of malaria, trachoma and bilharzia. For these services he was made a Commander of the Order of the Nile in 1926. Yet he was no limited specialist; he had always an interest in psychology and was as eminently suited to be chairman of the Medical Society for Individual Psychology in 1937-8, and editor of its Proceedings, 1935-43, as he was to be consultant to the central advisory council of training for the ministry of the Church of England and medical inspector in nullity.
In 1916 he married Hilda Margaret, daughter of Sir Henry Frederick Norbury, K.C.B., inspector general of hospitals and fleets for the Royal Navy. They had two daughters.
Richard R Trail
[Brit.med.J., 1964, 1, 566; Lancet, 1964, 1, 505-06.]