Educated at Haileybury College and Guy’s Hospital, where he won the Michael Harris anatomy prize, the Wooldridge physiology prize and the general proficiency prize in 1928
He graduated MB BS in 1931.
He held resident appointments at Guy’s Hospital and clinical assistantships at Great Ormond Street, All Saint’s and St Peter’s Hospitals
1936 Clarke was awarded a Leverhulme travelling fellowship in the USA
Returning to England in 1938 Ruscoe Clarke worked at Mile End Hospital, and then was appointed first assistant in surgery to Grey Turner at the British Postgraduate Medical School at Hammersmith.
During the air raids on London, he worked with an MRC team studying traumatic shock.
1942 he joined the RAMC and served throughout the North African and Italian campaigns.
He reached the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel, and was appointed MBE in 1943 for his work during the Tunisian campaign
Ruscoe was in the Royal Army Medical Corps in North Africa during the Second World War, a German SS officer complained to one of the orderlies that, after his capture, his arm had been set in a cast and a nurse had somehow engraved in the plaster the image of a hammer and sickle. The SS officer demanded to see the commanding officer to complaint about this insult and was duly ushered into a room to see one Dr Ruscoe Clarke, who was a little more than unsympathetic to the SS officer’s plight
Joined the surgical staff, as a medical researcher and a trauma specialist, at the Birmingham Accident Hospital in 1947.
He and his team measured red cell volumes to estimate average blood loss and showed that early transfusion of the correct volume of whole blood appeared to lead to the best chance of quick and full recovery from serious injury
He applied what he had learnt in war to civilian accidents, was a pioneer in the use of large transfusions and advocated early and comprehensive surgery for the severely injured.
He advocated the need to learn more about haemorrhagic shock and the pattern of blood loss following injury
Became Secretary of the Institute of Accident Surgery in 1951
Delivered an Arris and Gale lecture “Prevention of shock and anaemia in trauma” at the Royal College of Surgeons in 1952.
Spent a great deal of time on politics. He directed his energy to such subjects as the abolition of nuclear weapons and testing, and towards world peace
Active member of the Socialist Medical Association and a leading member of the British Peace Committee.
At one time on the executive committee of the Association of Scientific Workers, Clarke was a convinced Communist.
Pioneered in many aspects of injuries, the Major Injuries Unit, the replacement of blood volume loss
Pioneer in the use of large transfusions and advocated early and comprehensive surgery for the severely injured
‘The Golden 20 Minutes’ was coined by Ruscoe Clarke
Haemorrhagic shock and the pattern of blood loss following injury
Tracheotomy to save the lives of brain damaged motor cyclists – a completely new industry grew up around these tracheotomies; new more powerful suckers, not air bottles and new catheters, not soft red rubber ‘Foley’s’, air filters and humification.
In the run-up to the formation of the National Health Service, Avis recalled: “Ruscoe came home white and shaking after a meeting at Birmingham Town Hall in 1947…. All the doctors in Birmingham were opposing the very concept of a National Health Service and supporting the retention of private practice. Ruscoe was the only doctor to speak in favour of the NHS and abolition of private patients.”
He and his wife, Avis, met whilst both worked, she as a nurse and he as a doctor, at Mile End hospital where they had treated the wounded from both sides in the Battle of Cable Street
He had 2 sons and 1 daughter
Died suddenly of cardiac failure on 10 July 1959, aged 51
His medical research work is still highly regarded in the profession, his research papers still being cited, and the Royal College of Surgeons commemorated him in a long-running Ruscoe Clarke Memorial Lecture