291107 Captain Stuart Radcliffe Mawson "Dr Mawson"
291107 Captain Stuart Radcliffe Mawson was born on 4th March 1918 to parents Alec Robert Mawson and Ena Mawson
(née Grossmith) in London.
He studied medicine at St. Thomas’ Hospital, London. The Electoral Registers of 1939 shows he was living at 25
Chatsworth Court, South Kensington.
In March 1943 he qualified as a doctor and was working as a very junior doctor in a London Teaching
Hospital.
Six months later he was called up to the army. Two weeks after joining the army, he volunteered to join the 11th
Parachute Battalion after being encouraged to join the Airborne Forces by a fellow graduate.
During the Battle of Arnhem, on 20th September 1944 Stuart, along with
Private Adams and Sgt Dwyer was captured and taken prisoner of war. He was initially
taken to Stalag XIB Fallingbostal, given the PoW number 01676, and was later taken to Stalag IV-G Oschatz,
Saxony.
In 1945, Stuart was liberated by the American First Army. He briefly met up with Private Adams and Sgt
Dwyer
‘in the immediate post-battle phase when the captured personnel of the Royal Army Medical Corps were operating
a large military-type hospital in a converted barracks at Apeldoorn, north of Arnhem. However, they soon parted
ways and never reconnected.
After returning home, and continuing his medical career, Stuart found romance and in September 1948 a marriage between Stuart and June Irene
Percival (aka Julie) was announced in Sussex.
They married in October 1948.
Stuart pursued a very successful medical career, in 1951 becoming an Ear, Nose and Throat [ENT]
consultant at the King’s College Hospital and the Belgrave Hospital for Children where he worked
until his retirement in 1979.
In spite of his busy career as a medical consultant, Stuart still found time to become an accomplished author,
publishing an ENT textbook which became essential
reading for all medical students. He also wrote two Memoirs, Arnhem Doctor and Doctor After
Arnhem.
Stuart and his wife remained in Sussex and happily raised 4 children, later becoming grandparents to 13
grandchildren. Stuart was a keen yachtsman, golfer and active parishioner of the Church.
Stuart survived his wife, Julie, who sadly died in 2006.
Stuart died just 2 years later, on 20th February 2008.
Speaking at his father’s funeral, his son summed up his father’s life:
“Stuart was a warm, stubborn, courageous perfectionist; forged in war, never offering less than total commitment to his country, his profession, his family, and his god.”
We are still researching the life of Captain Mawson. If you are a relative or have any information about him, please contact us.
Source: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2292322/