Edward James Boome
| Dr Edward James Boome MD MB MRCP DPH | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| File:Boome, Edward James.jpg | |||||||
| Born | 1883 | ||||||
| Died | 1954 | ||||||
| Residence |
Grey Stacks, Hill View Road, Woking | ||||||
| Occupation | medical | ||||||
| |||||||
Contents
Notes
Office Notes
House Notes
1922.11.21 nominated; proposed by F.C. Shrubsall, seconded by F.G. Parsons 16 Nov. 1922, elected 7 Jan. 1923 in A63
Notes From Elsewhere
E. J. BOOME, M.B., M.R.C.P., D.P.H.
The sudden death of Dr. E. J. Boome on June 12 was a sad blow to his many friends and colleagues. He was consultant in speech therapy to the London County Council and retired a few years ago from the post of
principal assistant medical officer to the council. Edward James Boome was born on May 20, 1883, and was educated at King Edward School, Birmingham, and at Birmingham University, where he graduated M.B., Ch.B. in 1907. After holding resident posts at the General Hospital and Queen's Hospital, Birmingham, he took the D.P.H. in 1912. Before joining the service of the London County Council in 1913 as assistant in the school medical service he was an assistant medical officer under the Surrey County Council for two years. In the first world war he served overseas with distinction, reaching the rank of major and being mentioned in dispatches. A member of the Territorial Army since 1911, the Territorial Decoration was conferred on him in 1925. In the service of the L.C.C. his work was over the whole field of school medicine. He was expert in the diagnosis and ascertainment of backward and crippled children and for a time was medical officer to the council's Farmfield Institution for Mental Defectives
and lecturer to the nursing staff there. In 1934 he was admitted M.R.C.P.
A pioneer in the study of speech defects, Dr. Boome was largely responsible for the development and teaching
of speech therapy in the L.C.C. service and eventually became consultant to the council. He was a founder member of the College of Speech Therapists and the author of several standard textbooks. He was also a member of the Board of Registration of Medical Auxiliaries, the British Council for Rehabilitation, and the Research Board for the Correlation of Medical Science to Physical Education. Since his official retirement in 1948 he had carried on
working part-time in the staff medical examination section of the L.C.C.'s health department. He had done this work for many years, and his clinical ability and courteous charm earned him respect and affection. He will be greatly missed and long remembered, and the sympathy of all his colleagues goes out to his widow.
F. B. writes: Dr. E. J. Boome's medical work in the hopfields was of great value and interest, but he will be chiefly
remembered for his work on speech therapy. At a time when there were many vague ideas on stammering but little
clear thought or logical treatment, he brought common sense to bear on the problem. This can be seen in his two
books Relaxation in Everyday Life and Abnormal Speech both becoming classics and gaining for his methods of
therapy acceptance not only in England but in America and many other countries. He was responsible for founding the speech centres of the L.C.C. which for the first time alleviated the unhappiness of the large numbers of stammering children and adults of a large city. But his real contribution to medicine was the humanitv and kindness with which he treated patients whom he saw in his official capacity, thus not only demonstrating to the public that medicine can still be human though "official," but also teaching the generations of young public health doctors who worked under him that medicine is greater than bureaucracy, that duty is always to the individual patient and not to the machine. [BMJ]
founder member of the College of Speech Therapists and
Publications
External Publications
Relaxation in everyday life / by E. J. Boome and M. A. Richardson ; with an appendix on stammering
Abnormal Speech