William Branson was born in Calcutta, the third son of James Henry Arthur Branson, barrister, of Bedford, and went to Bedford Grammar School and Trinity College, Cambridge, for his education. After graduating as B.A. in 1896, he completed his medical training at St. Bartholomew’s, taking his M.B, B.Ch, degrees in 1900. He was then given house appointments by his Hospital and worked in the pathological laboratory with Hugh Thursfield—a partnership which bore fruit in their authorship of Medical Morbid Anatomy and Pathology (1909). Branson served on the staff of the East London Hospital for Children as assistant physician for a time, but his main connections were with the Royal Free Hospital and St. Andrew’s Hospital, Dollis Hill. On the outbreak of war in 1914, he joined the Duchess of Westminster’s Hospital at Le Touquet, and in 1916 was made consulting physician to the 5th Army, B.E.F, with colonel’s rank. He received the C.B.E. in 1919. Branson examined in medicine for London University. Widely read and a diverting talker, he was a man of many hobbies and recreations—among them fruit-growing, watch-repairing, shooting and fishing. He died at his house near Bury St. Edmunds.

G H Brown

[B.M.J., 1950; Al.Cantab., i, 365]