Background
George Forbes Abercrombie was born on March 28, 1935 in Edinburgh, United Kingdom; the son of George Francis and Marie (Underhill) Abercrombie.
George Forbes Abercrombie was born on March 28, 1935 in Edinburgh, United Kingdom; the son of George Francis and Marie (Underhill) Abercrombie.
George was educated at Charterhouse School and completed his undergraduate medical training at the Medical College of St. Bartholomew’s Hospital in London. In 1959 he graduated from Cambridge University and received his Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery, Doctor of Medicine degree.
In 1958, George became house surgeon at St. Bartholomew's Hospital to Alec Badenoch, who had a major influence on his subsequent career by stimulating his interest in urology. He was the first solely urological consultant appointment at St Mary’s Hospital in Portsmouth and, with his colleague John Vinnicombe, formed a urology department that quickly became recognised for the value of its teaching by the Specialist Advisory Committee (SAC) in Urology.
G. F. Abercrombie had a major interest in reconstructive urology, particularly hypospadias repair, and in 1967 took his family to Philadelphia to work with John Duckett and learn about the new techniques that Duckett had developed in this field. He was a keen and enthusiastic teacher who encouraged all his trainees to do clinical research and present their results at the Section of Urology of the Royal Society of Medicine, of which he was a strong supporter. He became its honorary secretary and ultimately president in 1993, when he ran a memorable overseas meeting in Breckenridge, Colorado. After retiring from Portsmouth, he took up a urological post in Tasmania. He died after a long illness Parkinson.
He was a member of the Council of the British Association of Urological Surgeons (BAUS) and a liveryman of the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries.
George was married to Jennifer Elizabeth on January 29 and had 2 sons.