Rex Woods

Education

Rex Salisbury Woods was educated at Dulwich College. His first attempt at the American Automobile Association Championships was in 1912 when he finished fourth.

Career

He fulfilled a number of house appointments at Street George"s and eventually became a surgical registrar at the hospital. Woods first represented Britain at the shot putt at the Olympic Games whilst president of the Cambridge University Athletic Club. Standing 6"0" (182 cm) and weighing 172 lbs (78 kg), Woods was not large by later standards for a shot putter.

He later became honorary treasurer of the Cambridge University Athletic Club from 1919 to 1939, and was chairman from 1939 to 1952.

His last appearance at the American Automobile Association championships was in 1928 when he finished second. During his involvement with athletics at Cambridge he managed the Oxford/ Cambridge athletic tours of the United States from 1925 to 1949.

Aside from the University of Cambridge, he was also affiliated to the Achilles Club. Woods was also an excellent quarter-miler and in 1913 he beat the 1912 Olympic runner Ernest Haley.

The First World War interrupted his medical career at Street George"s but he became a captain in the Royal Army Medical Corps and was twice mentioned in dispatches whilst serving in the British Expeditionary Force.

He again served in the Royal Army Medical Corps during the second world war at the rank of major and surgeon specialist to the East African Command. Aside from his early years at Street George"s and his distinguished service in the Royal Army Medical Corps, Rex was connected with medicine at Cambridge for 75 years. There he shared a medical practice with Edward Bevan, the Olympic rowing gold medalist.

In his obituary Woods was remembered as: "always seemingly imperturbable, and his friendliness and concern for his patients were a byword.

Foreign those with athletic interests who were injured in the pursuit of their aims he was particularly uplifting and reassuring. He was a first class doctor with an all pervading interest in medicine and surgery, and his life was a model of integrity and kinship."

Rex Woods died in Cambridge on 21 September 1986.

Achievements

• From there he won an exhibition to Downing College, Cambridge, where he excelled academically and gained a first class tripos and from where he won a senior university entrance scholarship to Street George"s Hospital. After graduating in medicine in 1916, he won a research scholarship at Street George"son Rex Woods competed in the shot put for Cambridge versus Oxford four times (1912-1914, 1920) and was the winner on the last two occasions. He won the American Automobile Association Championships shotput title in 1924 and 1926 and represented Great Britain at the Olympic Games in 1924 and 1928. In other sport he came close to winning a rugby blue and he captained the public schools past and present rugby football team in 1919 and was a noted golfer even celebrating his 90th birthday by achieving a hole in one.