His talk will be on ‘Nelson’s Three Great Battles: The Nile, Copenhagen and Trafalgar’.
Peter was educated at Rugby School and qualified in medicine from St George’s Hospital, London, in 1966, when he joined the Royal Navy.
He served at sea and then at RN Hospitals Haslar (Gosport), Stonehouse (Plymouth), Mtarfa (Malta) twice, Gibraltar and attended the senior officers’ Staff Course at Latimer. He qualified as a consultant gynaecologist in 1978.
He retired from the Royal Navy in 1982 in the rank of surgeon commander. He gained his MRCOG (Member/Fellow of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists) in 1976 and FRCOG (Fellow of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists) in 1989, choosing to specialise in fertility and assisted reproduction (IVF etc.).
He was appointed medical director of Bourn Hall Clinic, the world’s first IVF clinic in 1989, following the death of Mr Patrick Steptoe CBE FRCOG, the pioneer of IVF.
Following his semi-retirement in 2006 Peter acted as consultant medical director of Bourn Hall Clinic until 2016.Peter has Honorary or Visiting Professorships at the Capital Medical University, Beijing; Peking Union Medical College (where he was born) and China Southern Medical University, Guangzhou.
He has travelled widely to lecture, especially in the Middle East, India and China. He has led three delegations of gynaecologists from the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists to China in the past six years.
Peter is editor of three editions of A Textbook of In Vitro Fertilization and Assisted Reproduction; co-editor of A Manual of Intrauterine Insemination and Ovulation Induction and An Infertility Manual.
He has published more than 100 peer-reviewed articles in medical journals, mainly on assisted reproduction and more than fifty book chapters.
He served as president of the British Fertility Society from 2009 -2012. He was vice chairman of the Nelson Society 2008-2011 and his other hobbies include wildlife photography, exploring Dartmoor, sailing and his grandchildren.
He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society (FRGS) in 2017.
Admiral Lord Nelson is hailed as our greatest ever sea hero. He achieved remarkable victories over the French or combined French and Spanish fleets at the battles of the Nile (1798), Copenhagen (1801) and Trafalgar (1805). These victories, particularly at Trafalgar, ensured that Emperor Napoleon would never be able to invade England and that Britain became the predominant naval force in the World for the next century.
The events leading up to these three great sea battles, the battles themselves and their aftermaths are reviewed in this presentation.