Richard Anthony Stafford (1797–1854), was born at Cropredy, Oxfordshire, the third son of Egerton Stafford (1763/4–1843), vicar of Chalcombe and rector of Thenford in Northamptonshire, and his wife, Mary Lucy, née Wykeham (1769/70–1840) [1]. He was baptized at St Mary’s, Witney. One of his mother’s ancestors was William of Wykeham (1320–1404) the Bishop of Winchester and Chancellor of England. Stafford was educated at Tamworth and was then apprenticed to two famous surgeons of Cirencester: William Lawrence, (the father of the famous surgeon Sir William Lawrence, Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons, Fellow of the Royal Society (1783–1867), who became President of the Royal College of Surgeons of London, and Surgeon to the Queen); and Charles Warner (https://www.victoriacountyhistory.ac.uk/sites/default/files/work-in-progress/vch_cirencester_workhouse_v2.5_0.pdf). Stafford moved to London in 1820 and entered St. Bartholomew’s Hospital and became assistant/student of John Abernethy (1764–1831), the founder of the medical school of St Bartholomew’s, held the office of assistant-surgeon for 28 years, till, “in 1815, he was elected principal surgeon. He had before that time been appointed lecturer in anatomy to the RCS (1814). Abernethy was not a great operator, though his name is associated with the treatment of aneurysm by ligature of the external iliac artery” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Abernethy_(surgeon)). Abernethy appointed Stafford as his house surgeon from 1823 to 1824. Stafford was admitted as a member of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1824. Stafford returned from 1 year stay in Paris to London in 1826 and began to work as a surgeon. The Jacksonian prize [2] was awarded to him for his work: “On Spina Bifida, and Injuries and Diseases of the Spine and the Medulla Spinalis”.

“The Jacksonian Prize was founded in 1800 by Mr. Samuel Jackson, FRS, Member of the Royal Colleges of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland (MRCS), as an annual prize for a dissertation on a practical subject in surgery. The prize was awarded annually to a Fellow or Member of the College or a Fellow in Dental Surgery of the College, with an established record in a particular field of surgery, and who had made a significant contribution to the advancement of surgery.” [3,6,5].

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