PRCSI (1992-1994), Mr. James Dermot O’Flynn
Recently, the cataloguing of the James Dermot O’Flynn papers has been completed within RCSI Heritage Collections! The collection, which was generously donated by the O’Flynn family, contains records relating to the medical career and life of Mr. James Dermot O’Flynn, RCSI President between 1992 and 1994. As today would have marked his 106th birthday, we are choosing to celebrate by sharing some highlights from the collection and exploring more about who James Dermot O’Flynn was.
Who was J. Dermot O’Flynn?
James Dermot O’Flynn was born on January 27th, 1920, in Cobh, County Cork. In 1937, he passed the matriculation examination which was necessary to gain entrance to university and after five years, in 1942 he graduated from the Medical Faculty, University College Cork with an M.B., B.Ch., B.A.O. Work in hospitals could be difficult to come by in Ireland at this time for a variety of reasons and O’Flynn made the decision to emigrate to England. He took up a position as a resident doctor at Mansfield General Hospital in Nottinghamshire but in order to expand his experience in surgery and take up specialization, he subsequently moved to Lincoln County Hospital where he worked as a house surgeon, before being promoted to senior house surgeon only a short time later. In January 1945, he began his training as part of the Royal Army Medical Corps eventually serving in West Africa.
James Dermot O’Flynn was born on January 27th, 1920, in Cobh, County Cork. In 1937, he passed the matriculation examination which was necessary to gain entrance to university and after five years, in 1942 he graduated from the Medical Faculty, University College Cork with an M.B., B.Ch., B.A.O. Work in hospitals could be difficult to come by in Ireland at this time for a variety of reasons and O’Flynn made the decision to emigrate to England. He took up a position as a resident doctor at Mansfield General Hospital in Nottinghamshire but in order to expand his experience in surgery and take up specialization, he subsequently moved to Lincoln County Hospital where he worked as a house surgeon, before being promoted to senior house surgeon only a short time later. In January 1945, he began his training as part of the Royal Army Medical Corps eventually serving in West Africa.
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| RCSI/IP/O'Flynn/03/01: Image of James Dermot O'Flynn from his Travel Identity Card. |
Unique Highlights: Service in the Royal Army Medical Corps
As mentioned, O’Flynn served in the Royal Army Medical Corps (R.A.M.C.) during the Second World War and surviving documents from this time provide a unique and fascinating albeit small section of the collection. Briefly, the origins of the Royal Army Medical Corps in Great Britain stretch back to the Standing Regular Army which was established in 1660. This saw the addition of a regimental surgeon and an assistant to each regiment of infantry and cavalry. After the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, the Army Medical Department underwent a radical reorganization under Sir James McGrigor who established a system of casualty evacuation, arranged for prefabricated huts to be sent from England to the fronts, instituted large convalescent depots and introduced a system to register casualties. Fast-forward to 1857 and the Medical Staff Corps was reorganized into the Army Hospital Corps and by 1898 there were two distinct organizations within the Army Medical Services, the Medical Staff Corps and the Army Medical Staff. The two organizations merged to create the Royal Army Medical Corps in June of 1898.
As mentioned, O’Flynn served in the Royal Army Medical Corps (R.A.M.C.) during the Second World War and surviving documents from this time provide a unique and fascinating albeit small section of the collection. Briefly, the origins of the Royal Army Medical Corps in Great Britain stretch back to the Standing Regular Army which was established in 1660. This saw the addition of a regimental surgeon and an assistant to each regiment of infantry and cavalry. After the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, the Army Medical Department underwent a radical reorganization under Sir James McGrigor who established a system of casualty evacuation, arranged for prefabricated huts to be sent from England to the fronts, instituted large convalescent depots and introduced a system to register casualties. Fast-forward to 1857 and the Medical Staff Corps was reorganized into the Army Hospital Corps and by 1898 there were two distinct organizations within the Army Medical Services, the Medical Staff Corps and the Army Medical Staff. The two organizations merged to create the Royal Army Medical Corps in June of 1898.
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| World War I: the Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC) on active service. Oil painting by H.R. Mackey, ca. 1918. Wellcome Collection. Source: Wellcome Collection. In copyright. |
Dermot O’Flynn was called upon to serve as an officer in the Royal Army Medical Corps in December 1944 and began his training with the Corps in January 1945 and was granted an emergency commission on February 10th, 1945. He was posted to West Africa serving in the 37th West African Hospital in Accra, Ghana as a ‘graded surgeon’. From the limited records in the collection, it appears that he was later posted to the Military Families Hospital in Tidworth, England to begin service on March 31st, 1947, however it appears right before this (March 14th, 1947) he was selected for service overseas in B.A.O.R. (the British Army of the Rhine). These were the British occupation forces in Germany after both World Wars. The records do not make it clear which post he was ultimately sent to; however, O’Flynn was released from active military duty on March 26th, 1948, and was granted the honorary rank of Captain. Besides this unique file of records. J. Dermot O’Flynn’s great coat from his time in the R.A.M.C., was also donated alongside the other records in the collection (pictured below).
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| RCSI/IP/O'Flynn/03/01: 'Authority to Purchase Uniform' for service with the Royal Army Medical Corps |
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| RCSI/IP/O'Flynn/03/02: Great Coat belonging to James Dermot O'Flynn. |
The Post-War Years & RCSI
According to ‘Plarr’s Lives of the Fellows (Royal College of Surgeons of England)’, O’Flynn obtained his fellowship from the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh in 1948 and in the same year became registrar to David Band and Selby Tulloch, two of the founding fathers of the British Association of Urological Surgeons. By 1952, O’Flynn had obtained the MCh in Edinburgh and was appointed as assistant surgeon to the Meath Hospital the same year. At the time the Meath Hospital was renowned for transurethral prostatectomy thanks to Mr. Tom Lane who studied the cold punch technique at the Mayo Clinic, when O’Flynn won the Ainsworth scholarship, he was sent by Lane to the Mayo Clinic to learn the latest advances in the method. However, sometime later this method would be replaced by the hot wire resectoscope method and O’Flynn, along with Mr. Victor Lane soon made the Meath Hospital the centre for this surgical method and proved that the method was able to reduce mortality by a factor of ten. The Meath continued to innovate and much of this was due to the punch-card record system which O’Flynn had introduced. By using the punch-card database, the team in the Meath Hospital contributed to the treatment of a variety of illnesses such as testicular tumours, tuberculosis calculi, neuropathic bladder and bladder cancer.
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| Portrait of James Dermot O'Flynn (PRCSI, 1992-1994) by Declan Hillinsey. |
In addition, O’Flynn lectured in Urology at Trinity College Dublin, was elected or government appointed as a Board Member or Chairman of all the hospitals he worked in and was also a Medical Council of Ireland member between 1983 and 1993. O’Flynn was awarded the fellowship ad eundem from RCSI in 1968 and in 1992 he was elected President of RCSI. He received the Presidential gold medal from the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh and was Chairman of the surgical section of the Royal Academy of Medicine of Ireland. He was also President of the Irish Society for Urology.
The Collection at a Glance
The collection includes nine sections: ‘Biographical Records on James Dermot O’Flynn’, ‘Certificates’, ‘Royal Army Medical Corps’, ‘Hospital Records’, ‘Medical Research’, ‘Records relating to the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland’, ‘Correspondence’, ‘Ephemera’ and the ‘Photographic Collection’. The records mainly record the career progression of Mr. J. Dermot O’Flynn and his time as President of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (1992-1994); however, there is a small selection of personal photographs. The collection provides a small glimpse into the life and career of Mr. James Dermot O’Flynn and the impact he had on the development of surgery in Ireland and particularly that of the urological specialization on this isle. The records are now available on the RCSI Heritage Collections Catalogue.
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| The O'Flynn Papers catalogued in archival boxes in the RCSI Heritage Collections storage area. |
References:
The O’Flynn Papers. Heritage Collections, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. Dublin, Ireland.
“History of the Royal Army Medical Corps.” Museum of Military Medicine online. Accessed December 9, 2025. The Royal Army Medical Corps.
Gillam, Sarah. “O’Flynn, James Dermot (1920-2014), Plarr’s Lives of the Fellows.” Royal College of Surgeons of England online. Last modified April 15, 2016. O'Flynn, James Dermot (1920 - 2014).
“James Dermot O’Flynn.” Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland online. Accessed December 9, 2025. James Dermot O'Flynn - Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland.