Sir Tudor Thomas
Ophthalmic surgeon, pioneer of corneal graft surgery
Sir James William Tudor Thomas (23 May 1893 – 23 January 1976) was a Welsh ophthalmic surgeon, born in Ystradgynlais, Breconshire. He is remembered as a pioneer of corneal graft surgery (keratoplasty), the operation that replaces a diseased or scarred cornea with healthy donor tissue.
In 1921 Thomas was appointed Ophthalmic Surgeon at Cardiff Royal Infirmary and the United Cardiff Hospitals, a post he held for 37 years. Working at the King Edward VII Hospital in Cardiff, he combined clinical practice with painstaking research, experimenting on hundreds of rabbits to refine techniques for grafting healthy corneal tissue. In 1934 his work restored the sight of a man who had been nearly blind for 27 years, a case that brought him national attention.
Thomas was not the first surgeon to carry out a corneal graft — that distinction belongs to the Austrian ophthalmologist Eduard Zirm in 1905 — but he made significant advances in suturing technique and in the preparation of donor and recipient tissue. He also conceived the idea of a dedicated donor system for corneal tissue, an idea that led directly to the founding of Britain's first eye bank at East Grinstead in 1955.
He served as President of the British Medical Association in 1953 and was knighted in the 1956 Birthday Honours. Sir Tudor Thomas died in Cardiff on 23 January 1976.