• CStJ 1972
• MBE 1951 
• MRCS LRCP 1944 
• MB BS London 1944 
• FRCS 1950 
• MFOM 1980 
• FACEM 1985
• Peter London, known by all as ‘PSL’
• Born on 30^th April 1922 in Mejillones, Chile
• 1967 Having established himself as a consultant with by then extensive experience of injury management, he wrote “A practical guide to the care of the injured” which became the bible for all junior surgeons passing through his unit and was written in classic PSL style of clarity and brevity
• He was an imposing, upright, immaculately dressed and moustachioed speaker at numerous meetings both in the UK and worldwide
• He introduced himself as ‘London, Birmingham’
• He was a pupil at the King’s School, Wimbledon, he preceded to St Thomas’s for undergraduate training, qualifying in the summer of 1944 (a year early because of the Second World War) with a distinction in surgery.
• After being a Following junior house appointments at St Thomas’ Hospital, he did his National Service (from 1946 to 1948) in the Royal Air Force
• He began working in trauma and was called out to retrieve a man whose leg had been crushed under a tank, which was very likely to collapse further and crush him as well. For this heroism he was awarded an MBE in 1951. 

The London Gazette – Friday 1st June 1951 

“Dr London was in charge of the Mobile Surgical Unit which was summoned and on his arrival he immediately went to the trapped man and commenced anti-shock treatment. In order to release the man, hawsers were fixed to the tank which was then slowly raised from the wall on which it was resting. To prevent further injury to the man, Dr London jumped into the cavity between the wall and the still-moving tank so that he could support him. The Doctor was fully aware of the danger that the tank might fall back on him during the lifting operations, but without regard for his own safety he remained with the injured man until the latter had been released and removed to hospital.”

• 1972 he was made a Commander of the Order of St John, for his continuing support of the Order and advocacy of this cause and the advancement of first aid techniques.
• After his military service he gained his FRCS in 1950
• 1980, be became a member of the Faculty of Occupational Medicine and, in 1985, was made an honorary fellow of the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine. He was a very strong supporter of the Medical Society of London and was an outstanding editor of their *Transactions* for many years. In 1945 he married Alice Patricia Gerahty and they had three children, two sons and one daughter
• Tragically, in 1977, his eldest son, Nick, fell during military training in the Brecon Beacons in Wales, rupturing his kidney and the emergency staff in the local hospital missed the diagnosis and tragically he bled to death. He was told of his son’s death whilst presenting a lecture, but in typical style went on to complete it.
• His whole professional life had been directed to improvements in the management of the severely injured and the irony of this disaster undoubtedly and understandably had a serious impact on him and the rest of his family.
• He led team three at the Acci
• There was an almost military atmosphere within the team and many of the registrars were indeed on secondment from the Army. Their roster was based on a three-week cycle and 24-hour days on ‘take’. On a three-week cycle, this resulted in seven 24-hour periods on resident duty for all the housemen and women, senior house officers and registrars, with several of the intervening days used to clear the cases needing operating time, ward rounds, more definitive later surgery and out-patient follow up and fracture clinics. It was a busy and stimulating environment. It also defined a way of giving 24-hour cover for emergencies, with a dedicated team and continuity in the management of injured hospitalised cases, from the entrance through to out-patient follow up with the same team 
• All those many surgeons who had the privilege of joining him on team three remember their time with both affection and respect for what he and they did and for the outstanding results his unit managed to achieve. The roster itself resulted in more than 80-hour weeks in the hospital for the junior staff, something unthinkable under the present European Working Time Directive.
• One of the idiosyncrasies of team three were the midnight suppers held on nights on call when the registrar would shop for a takeaway meal and Peter would supply one or two brown pharmacological two litre Winchester brown bottles of cider to complement the meal. It was extremely rare for a major incident to happen after midnight, so the meal allowed the team to discuss the ‘take’ of that day and learn lessons in a convivial environment
• His colleague, Mike Porter, continued this tradition when he was heading the team
• He wrote extensively and was one of the founder editors of “Injury”, now a worldwide reference source on all aspects of trauma
• Though now seriously out of date, his book still exemplifies how sensible logic and advice can make substantial inroads into the management of numerous injuries, giving victims the chance of active and productive long term futures.
• Believed fervently in improvements in the treatment and prognosis of victims of trauma. 
• was one of a group of far-sighted surgeons
• He died on 24 January 2015, aged 92.