Tudor Thomas

Sir James William Tudor Thomas, known as Tudor Thomas (1893 to 1976), was a Welsh ophthalmic surgeon born in Ystradgynlais, the only child of a headmaster and the daughter of a colliery proprietor. He studied at the Welsh School of Medicine in Cardiff and at the Middlesex Hospital in London, specialised in eye surgery early in his career, and served in the Royal Army Medical Corps during the First World War. After a spell as clinical assistant at the Royal London Ophthalmic Hospital he returned to Wales, and in 1921 became Ophthalmic Surgeon at Cardiff Royal Infirmary and the United Cardiff Hospitals, a post he held for 37 years. As a clinical teacher at the Welsh National School of Medicine he did pioneering work on corneal grafting, which in 1934 restored the sight of a man who had been nearly blind for 27 years. He conceived a donor system for corneal grafts, and an eye bank was established at East Grinstead in 1955. He was knighted in 1956.