Pioneering heart transplant surgeon Sir Terence English, who undertook the UK’s first successful heart transplant operation and helped Royal Papworth Hospital NHS Foundation Trust to become the world-renowned hospital it is today, has died at the age of 93.
Sir Terence led the operation at our old site, in Papworth Everard, in August 1979 on patient Keith Castle, paving the way for thousands more lives to be saved.
It followed a 10-year moratorium on heart transplantation in the UK after three failed surgeries in the late 1960s in London.
Sir Terence, who worked at Royal Papworth from 1972 to 1995, died peacefully at his home in Oxford on Sunday night (23 November).
One of his daughters, Mary, said she and her three siblings were “immensely proud of what dad did.”
Sir Terence operating at Royal Papworth Hospital
Sir Terence was born in South Africa in October 1932.
He studied mining engineering at Witwatersrand University in Johannesburg before deciding to switch to medicine, at Guy’s Hospital in London.
He married Ann in 1963 and they had four children together – Katharine, Arthur, Mary and William.
As William recalls, ‘dad attributed mum with much of his success, explaining that he wouldn’t have been able to do what he did without her support.’
They then moved to Cambridge and Sir Terence started working in Papworth where he became interested in heart transplantation.
Three previous heart transplant attempts in the UK had failed in 1968 and 1969, with the patients living for just 45, two, and 107 days respectively. None of them made it out of hospital.
With survival rates showing little sign of improving, a moratorium was placed on heart transplantation in the UK.
Sir Terence was therefore not just trying to do something that was proving medically difficult, but he also faced opposition, hostility and criticism from the public and some in his profession.
Sir Terence pictured beside the duck pond at our old hospital
That didn’t deter Sir Terence.
He spent a lot of time back and forth to California to learn about the heart transplant programme at Stanford University where they were enjoying better results, bringing that knowledge back to Cambridge.
“I’d been turned down by various transplant bodies and had been met with an awful lot of criticism, so we knew this was likely to be the last chance,” Sir Terence recalled in an interview in 2019 to mark the 40th anniversary of his pioneering surgery.
“I very much had my back to the wall.”
He undertook his first heart transplant at our hospital in January 1979, but it wasn’t a success.
“I had a second shot and I was going to take it.
“Our recipient was Keith Castle, a 52-year-old builder from London. He was a smoker with peripheral vascular disease and a duodenal ulcer. Not the best of candidates you might think, but what always struck me about Keith was that he was a survivor.”
And the rest, is history.
Keith Castle became a celebrity following his landmark heart transplant
With Sir Terence, our hospital achieved an international reputation for heart transplantation and then, later, heart-lung and lung transplants.
In 1984, alongside Professor John Wallwork, he was involved in Europe’s first heart-lung combined transplant, retrieving the donor organs before Professor Wallwork performed the transplant.
In 1991, for his contributions to surgery and medicine, he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II.
Sir Terence retired in the mid-1990s before later moving to Oxford.
“But he didn’t just retire. He had so many ‘encore’ careers,” said Mary and her brother William.
“He was elected President of the British Medical Association and Master of St Catharine’s College.
“He also became a trustee of IDEALS (International Disaster & Emergency Aid with Long Term Support), and was founding patron of Primary Trauma Care. Both of these charities provided relief in areas of the world affected by conflict.
“Dad was able to take his lessons and learning to all parts of the world. He had an enduring appetite for work and to use his time in a meaningful way.
“He also contributed significantly to the debate about assisted dying through his work with Dignity in Dying.”
Sir Terence was regularly invited back to join us at the hospital for special occasions, including in 2019 just before we moved to Cambridge and to mark the 40th anniversary of Keith Castle’s operation.
His most recent visit to Royal Papworth was in November 2022, weeks after his 90th birthday, where he spent time reminiscing with former colleagues and was reunited with patient Sandy Law, whose heart transplant he performed in 1982.
Sir Terence (second left) on his last visit to Royal Papworth in 2022, aged 90
Sir Terence leaves behind his four children, eight grandchildren and his wife, Judith.
Details about his funeral will be announced in due course.
Other titles
President of the International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation, 1984-1986
President of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, 1989 to 1992 President of the British Medical Association, 1995-1996
Master of St Catharine’s College in Cambridge, 1993 – 2000
Deputy Lieutenant of Cambridgeshire, 1994 to 2001
Honorary Fellow at Worcester College, Oxford
Pictures of a pioneer
Sir Terence with eldest daughter, Katharine
Sir Terence loved the outdoors and nature. Surfing with his two sons, William and Arthur
With his daughter, Mary
Sir Terence was a regular visitor back to South Africa, his country of birth
Sir Terence with his second wife, Judith
