Jonas Kellgren
Jonas Henrik Kellgren (11 September 1911 – 22
February 2002) was a British physician and the first Jonas Kellgren
professor of rheumatology in the United Kingdom at Born Jonas Henrik Kellgren
the University of Manchester. He became Vice- 11 September 1911
Chancellor of the university and dean of the Hindhead, Surrey, England
institution's medical school. He was an expert adviser Died 22 February 2002 (aged 90)
to the World Health Organization and earned a Canada Ulverston, Cumbria, England
Gairdner International Award for his work. Other names Jonky / Yonky Kellgren
Alma mater UCL Medical School
Early life and education St George's, University of
London
Kellgren was born in Surrey to father Jonas Henrik Spouses Ruth Rushton
"Harry" and mother Vera. His mother was a Russian
(m. 1934; div. 1940)
refugee, and his father was from a Swedish family of
Thelma Reynolds (m. 1942)
doctors.[1] He grew up in London where his father and
uncle co-ran a practice on Eaton Square, but it ended Children 5; including Nina
up failing and Kellgren's father died of influenza in Relatives Jessica Kellgren-Fozard
1919. Kellgren received financial aid from a "grateful (granddaughter)
patient" for his education at Bedales School and UCL James Cyriax (cousin)
Medical School. He also studied in Scandinavia on a
scholarship and at St George's, University of London alongside his brother Ernst.[2]
Career
Post graduation, Kellgren worked as a researcher for University College Hospital under Thomas Lewis.
His work focused on referred pain.
Just as Kellgren received the Belt fellowship, the Second World War broke out. During the war, he
became a surgeon at Great Ormond Street Hospital in the children's ward and on Dunkirk survivors at
Leavesden Hospital. He then joined the Royal Army Medical Corps as a major stationed with the Allied
Armies in Italy and North Africa.
After the war in 1946, Kellgren resumed his pain research and experiments at Wingfield Morris Hospital
in Oxford, with a focus on peripheral nerve injuries. He became a physician and director at the Centre for
Research in Chronic Rheumatism in Manchester the following year and joined the Arthritis and
Rheumatism Council. He worked with John Lawrence, who had conducted research on rheumatism in the
mining industry. They established the Mobile Field Survey Unit in 1954.
Kellgren conceptualised nodal osteoarthritis, characterised by nodes on the distal joints on the fingers and
other parts of the body, often genetic and found in older women. He also studied gout and ankylosing
spondylitis. He discovered the benefits of exercise in cases of the latter, distinguishing it from other forms
of arthritis.
Kellgren was appointed professor of rheumatology, the first role in the United Kingdom of its kind, at the
University of Manchester in 1953. He was president of the Heberden Society and also lectured at the
Royal College of Physicians. He established teaching programmes and postgraduate centres in the region
and country. He was made dean of Manchester's new medical school, a position he held from 1968 to
1973. He also served as Vice-Chancellor of the university from 1969 to 1972. He was given the title of
emeritus professor upon his retirement in 1976 and remained a medical advisor.
A member of a number of organisations and committees, Kellgren was named an expert advisor to the
World Health Organization in 1961 and joined the Manchester Regional Hospital Board in 1965.[3] He sat
on the Flowers committee in 1984.[4][5]
Personal life
Kellgren was married to Ruth Rushton from 1934 until their divorce in 1940. They had a daughter, Judith.
He married his second wife, Thelma Reynolds, an American nurse from Amesbury, Massachusetts, in
1942 in St Marylebone.[6][7] They retired to the South Lakes in Cumbria. They had four daughters:
Joanna, Nina, Ingrid, and Lee.[8] He is the grandfather of YouTuber and television personality Jessica
Kellgren-Fozard.
Accolades and legacy
Kellgren was awarded a Canada Gairdner International Award in 1961.[9]
The Kellgren Centre for Rheumatology at Manchester Royal Infirmary is named after him.[10] In
addition, there are the JH Kellgren laboratories at the university, named as such when they were new in
1996.
Kellgren's radiological criteria for the severity of arthritis remain in use today.
References
1. "Jonas Henrik Kellgren" (https://history.rcplondon.ac.uk/inspiring-physicians/jonas-henrik-kel
lgren). Royal College of Physicians. Retrieved 29 May 2021.
2. "Kellgren, Jonas Henrik" (https://archives.sgul.ac.uk/kellgren-jonas-henrik). St George's.
Retrieved 3 May 2021.
3. "Professor Jonas Henrik Kellgren, 1911-2002" (https://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/search/archive
s/30ac920b-4c0f-3422-a80e-0e29e9a7e85c?component=fd122d5d-8b5c-371d-8fd2-73e604
d34f28). Jisc. Retrieved 29 May 2021.
4. Dixon, Allan (3 March 2002). "Jonas Kellgren" (https://www.theguardian.com/news/2002/ma
r/04/guardianobituaries.obituaries). The Guardian. Retrieved 17 January 2021.
5. "NHS 70 research discoveries: Jonas Kellgren, the UK's first Professor of Rheumatology" (h
ttps://research.cmft.nhs.uk/news-events/nhs-70-research-discoveries-jonas-kellgren-the-uks
-first-professor-of-rheumatology). NHS Manchester University. 29 May 2018. Retrieved
17 January 2021.
6. "Thelma Kellgren (Nee Reynolds)" (https://war-experience.org/lives/thelma-kellgren-nee-rey
nolds/). SWWEC. Retrieved 20 April 2021.
7. Barrows, Nat A. (1943). "Harvard Medical Unit Going From England to Ireland" (https://www.
newspapers.com/clip/22503432/the-boston-globe/). The Boston Globe. Retrieved 17 March
2021 – via Newspapers.com.
8. "Jonas Henrik Kellgren 1911–2002" (https://academic.oup.com/rheumatology/article/42/5/70
8/1784848). Oxford Academic. Retrieved 17 January 2021.
9. "Jonas H. Kellgren" (https://gairdner.org/award_winners/jonas-h-kellgren/). Gairdner.
Retrieved 17 January 2021.
10. "Rheumatology" (https://mft.nhs.uk/mri/services/rheumatology-kellgren-centre/). NHS
Manchester University. Retrieved 17 January 2021.
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