Russell Brain, 1st Baron Brain

Dr Walter Russell Brain, 1st Baron Brain (October 23 1895–December 29 1966) was a British neurologist. He was principal author of the standard work of neurology, "Brain's Diseases of the Nervous System", and longtime editor of the neurological medical journal titled Brain. He is also eponymised with "Brain's reflex", a reflex exhibited by humans when assuming the quadripedian position.

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Brain studied medicine at Oxford, where he obtained his BMBCh in 1922 and a DM in 1925. He became a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in 1931 and specialised in neurology. Apart from his clinical practice, he was a member on a large number of government committees pertaining to physicial and mental health, and was involved in the care of Winston Churchill on the latter's deathbed in 1965.

He was knighted in 1952, made a baronet in 1954, and in 1962 created Baron Brain, of Eynsham in the County of Oxford. He married Stella Langdon-Down and had a daughter, Janet, and two sons, Christopher (b. 1926) and Michael (b. 1928). Christopher succeeded him as the 2nd Baron Brain.

He became a Quaker in 1931 and gave the Swarthmore Lecture in 1944, ‘Man, society and religion’, in which he stressed the importance of a social conscience.

Sources

• The Peerage
• Roster of physician writers

This page incorporates information from Leigh Rayment's Peerage Page.

• Oxford Dictionary of National Biography article by George Pickering, Brain, Walter Russell, first Baron Brain (1895–1966), revised online edn, Oct 2006 [1]], accessed 8 Dec 2006.