LOCAL PEOPLE
An ‘essentially normal boy’ Peter Brinsden’s numerous interests and abilities could have taken him in many directions, however he chose to study medicine, focusing on infertility treatment and working with Patrick Steptoe in the early stages in the development of IVF.
Navy as a ship’s medical officer. He then chose to focus on gynaecology, training in military and civilian NHS hospitals and becoming a consultant gynaecologist in 1978, later specialising in infertility treatment.
Cambridge, the world’s first IVF Clinic, to work with Patrick Steptoe who had pioneered conception through IVF with Robert Edwards, leading to the birth of the world’s first ‘test-tube baby’ Louise Brown in 1978. IVF was still in its early days and it was a fascinating time to be involved in its research and development, although this also included resolving many ethical dilemmas. When Patrick Steptoe died, Peter was appointed as medical director at the clinic, later becoming group medical director of Bourn Hall International, then consultant medical director at Bourn Hall Clinic.
Peter was born in 1940 in Peking (now Beijing). His father was English, while his mother was American – she was the third generation of a family who had worked as Presbyterian missionaries in China since 1870. A Christian church in Shanghai was built to honour the memory of her great grandfather George Field Fitch. Peter and his family spent the second world war years in California and Canada, before returning to China to live in a beautiful old palace in Peking until the Communists assumed power in 1949. At this point the family moved to Hong Kong, and a couple of years later, Peter and his brother started boarding school in the UK. After attending Rugby School, Peter went on to study at King’s College London and St George’s Hospital Medical School. Peter qualified in medicine in 1966 and joined the Royal
While he was working at Sutton General Hospital in 1966, he met a nurse called Gillian, who was to become his future wife – in his words it was ‘love at first sight’. During his time in the Royal Navy, he and his family moved multiple times as he took up posts in London, Portsmouth, Plymouth, twice in Malta, Gibraltar and Hong Kong. Later, unwilling to commit to a desk job, he resigned from the Royal Navy in 1982 with the rank of surgeon commander. After a couple of interesting years working in Saudi Arabia, Peter joined Bourn Hall Clinic in
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Peter has travelled extensively to lecture on the subject of fertility and assisted conception, in Europe, America, India, the Middle East and also China, where he holds four honorary professorships, including one from Peking Union Medical College where he was born - and where his birth notes describe him as an ‘essentially normal boy’ (he is very proud of that!) Although he has now retired from medical roles, he still lectures on the historical and ethical aspects of assisted reproduction, including a recent Zoom talk for the Royal Asiatic Society in Beijing. A few years ago, Peter and Gillian moved to Tavistock to be close to family, and also for its proximity to
