George Henry Makins

Born in 1853, George Henry Makins was a British surgeon who built a distinguished medical career in London. He was associated with St Thomas' Hospital and became known as a skilled operator and teacher at a time when surgery was changing rapidly.

Makins is especially remembered for his work as a military surgeon. He served during the Second Boer War and later in the First World War, where he treated gunshot and other combat wounds and wrote influential medical accounts based on what he saw in military hospitals.

His experience at the meeting point of surgery and war made him an important voice in early modern trauma care. Today he is often noted both for his medical service and for the books and reports that recorded how surgeons learned to deal with the new realities of battlefield medicine.