Historical perspectives of The American Association for Thoracic Surgery: Edward S. Welles (1891-1967)

Abstract

the British Expeditionary Forces in Belgium. 1,2 While still a medical student, Captain Welles ipso facto became the chief chest surgeon of a field hospital in Flanders on the Western Front (Figure 1). 1 Welles operated at a grueling pace in austere conditions, often interrupted to take cover from incoming bombs. He somberly remembered weeping when the Scottish Regiments marched by on their way to the front to ''die and suffer'' in the mud-soaked trenches. 3 The pivotal battle of Ypres that first summer ended when the British Forces recaptured Passchendaele, later described as a ''smudge of ruins which had been the village.'' 2 With members of the other 2 volunteer units from Columbia University under George Brewer and from Cleveland under George Crile, Welles served admirably until January of 1919, and received a Royal Commendation of ''warm appreciation'' for his ''invaluable service'' from the King of England, personally signed George R. I., a memento that Welles' second-and third-generation descendants cherish to this day.Shortly after returning from Europe, the distinguished veteran married his childhood sweetheart, Ruth Carver, in Sioux City, Iowa, the daughter of a Corn Belt Circuit Judge. The newlyweds were persuaded to move to Saranac Lake in upstate New York in 1921 by Dr Edwin Baldwin, a charter AATS member, inaugural AATS councilor, and long-time colleague of Dr Edward Livingston Trudeau, both renowned phthisiologists (tuberculosis specialists). FIGURE 1. Captain Edward S. Welles (second from the right in the back row) near the Western Front, 1917.