- Sir Trevor Lampington -

Rare Disease Named After 20th Century Doctor

Native of Cambridge, British Statesman Sir Trevor Lampington, MD discovered a potentially fatal disease known worldwide as Lampington’s Disease.

Prominent cricketer, horse breeder and physician Sir Trevor Lampington was the eldest son of conservative statesman Walter Stirling and wife, Victoria Blum. Educated in Oxford Medical School, he received his medical degree during the early 1900s. On May 4, 1908 he married Lady Doreen Hersabella (1888 – 1972) who herself was the eldest daughter of Sir Victor Hersabella. They had three sons and a daughter.

Founding Member of the Royal British Legion

Lampington put his medical skills to use caring for the injured during some of the greatest military campaigns of WWI. In November, 1913 he was given his first ministerial appointment as Minister of State for Health Services. During the War he served in France during 1915-1917 as Camp Medical Officer. After the war, he served as Conservative Member of Parliament for Salisbury from 1920-1929 and was later appointed a Privy Counsellor in 1938.

A founding member of the Royal British Legion from 1921, he received his knighthood in 1946 for his dedicated work providing selfless medical care to war victims as well as to countless private citizens who were without financial means.

Career Spanned Three Decades

As brilliant as were his political, medical and military careers, Sir Trevor will be remembered for more than his time served on the battlefield and in the British Parliament. In the years leading up to his passing, he published a powerful memoir: Living With Lampington’s (1951). The memoir is an account of his most prestigious accomplishment, the discovery of a rare and sometimes fatal disease that bears his name. The book was aimed at helping those so afflicted live as long and pain-free a life as possible given the nature of this unusual disease.

Sir Trevor Lampington CH PC FRS, medical doctor, scientist, famous statesman and source of inspiration for thousands, was born on June 21, 1883. He died on September 29, 1959, aged 76.