“In my years as Professor of Surgery at Wits, I have become aware of a disproportionately large number of students, doctors and academics associated with Wits Medical School who were educated at St John’s College. I have come to suspect that there is a St John’s Medical Mafia at work.”
In his address to the College in December 1978, renowned surgeon and then Vice-Chancellor of Wits University, Prof DJ “Sonny” du Plessis, tongue firmly in his cheek, coined the term “the St John’s Medical Mafia”, referring to an incredible production line of Old Johannian medical doctors that has continued, remarkable not only in its number but for its impact on the field of medicine.
Pioneers
The name Isidore Jack Block will probably not mean much to either Johannians or Johannesburgers. Born in 1893, Isidore matriculated from St John’s College in 1909 before leaving for Edinburgh to study medicine. He was the first Johannian medical graduate, specialised as a surgeon and practised at the Hospital for Women, Soho Square, London, Chalmers Hospital in Edinburgh, and Queen's Hospital in Birmingham, before settling in Johannesburg. He was a Member of the Honorary Visiting Staff at Johannesburg Hospital, and a lecturer in Clinical Medicine at the University of the Witwatersrand. One might therefore regard him as the first “mafioso”.
Dr Isidore...
