“A wave of sadness and loss swept across St Vincent and the Grenadines when on Friday 24th March, 2023 the news of the passing of renowned Vincentian physician and surgeon Sir Arthur Cecil Cyrus was released. He was 94 years old,” according to the Vincentian, national newspaper of St Vincent and the Grenadines.
Save for the residents of St Vincent and the Grenadines, other Windward Islands of Dominica, Grenada and St Lucia, and members of the Caribbean medical and squash fraternities, the name Dr Cecil Cyrus will most likely draw a blank look from the region’s population. This lack of awareness of a Caribbean stalwart servant is the kind of shortsightedness aptly captured by Dave Martins of the Tradewinds – another overlooked Caribbean institution – in his classic 1982 composition, “Where are your Heroes?”
Dr Cyrus was one of those rare people whose dedication to a career of selfless service to his fellow man, through the medical profession, affected the hearts and minds of everyone he came into contact with. In the 1930s, as a seven-year-old boy, he observed the district doctor visiting his birthplace, the small leeward village of Layou, in his lovely white sports car. “Arriving at 11 am, he tended those who could pay his shilling fee, and cleared off promptly at noon, leaving the medically and financially needy to the nurse,” Cyrus recalled in an interview with Caribbean Beat (Issue 78 March/ April 2006). At that tender age, he vowed to become a doctor, and right that “unfair practice.”
Cyrus’ pursuit of his dream was not an easy journey. After early education at the Layou Government School and the Kingstown Anglican School, he attended the St Vincent Boys Grammar School, an institution he later taught at, before venturing abroad. According to his contemporaries, he taught himself and passed the University of Cambridge Examination in Biology, Chemistry and Physics, prerequisites for medical school entry. Frugally saving his teacher’s monthly salary of $113 along with his father’s monthly contribution of $87, he managed to accumulate, in two years, $4,800, the equivalent of £1,000, enough money for the first three years of university studies. Accepted at Queen’s University Medical School in Belfast, Ireland, the young medical student persevered in almost monk-like living conditions, applying himself steadfastly to his studies.
In 1950, Cyrus became the first overseas student to capture the Symington Medal in Anatomy among other prizes, before graduating as a doctor in 1957. He went on to achieve the Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons (FRCS) of England and Edinburgh, a designation not common among Caribbean doctors at the time. He specialised in other areas of medicine, including Ophthalmology, Paediatrics, and Obstetrics, and served an apprenticeship with 11 surgeons, before returning to St Vincent in 1963, accompanied by his wife, Kathryn, an Irish nurse, and their five-week-old baby.
At the Colonial Hospital in Kingstown, where he was appointed Consultant Surgeon, he was confronted with a lack of discipline, a backlog of cases awaiting attention, limited facilities, such as beds, and a paucity of equipment to practice. Cyrus quickly realised that he had three choices. “I could go back to Britain, vegetate and do simple things, or I could say to the devil with it and let me make do,” he explained in the AH HA! Productions (Barbados) documentary of his life, “Island Icon: Dr Cecil Cyrus.” He had vowed to serve his people and opted for the latter. Long hours became the order of the day, leaving home as early as 7 am and often not returning until 11 pm. For years, he fought bitterly against the apathy of the entrenched bureaucracy at the hospital on behalf of the patients for improved patient and quality of the facilities, a battle which eventually led to his firing in 1976.
That turned out to be a blessing in disguise for the man who, for many years, was the island’s only surgeon, leading to Barbadian Professor Errol Walrond, former dean of the Faculty of Medicine, UWI Cam-pus, Cave Hill, Barbados, a fellow British-trained surgeon, to anoint him “The Isolated Surgeon.” The indomitable Dr Cyrus and his wife, Kathryn, opened the Botanic Hospital, the island’s first private hospital. It was a relatively small institution, replete with 13 beds, a laboratory, an x-ray department and an operating theatre, which attracted many Vincentians already familiar with his reputation, and quite often he extended gratis service to the island’s poorest. The hospital was operated until his retirement from active practice on 31st August, 2001.
In the spartan working environment of the Colonial Hospital, Cyrus had been forced to create and modify tools to fulfil his obligations of service to his fellow citizens. Along with this resourceful approach, he kept copious notes of the wide range of cases he encountered, along with photographs of the patients (who he claimed were always cooperative) and their injury/problem, and samples of tissues, etc where applicable. As a result of his diligence, Cyrus was able to share his highly unusual experiences at Caribbean Medical Council meetings with his fellow regional practitioners. By the time of his retirement, the ‘Father of St. Vincent’, so nicknamed for having delivered very many babies, with his wife’s urging, converted the hospital into the Dr Cyrus Medical Museum. The treasure trove of medical history, a record of his lifetime commitment of selfless service to the archipelago, gave visitors access to the still intact operating theatre, a display of 4,023 photographs, 800-odd ‘wet samples’ of tissues, bones, etc, x-rays and medical instruments. The fascinating collection of historical memorabilia proudly emulated the medical museums of Europe, an essential teaching tool of the profession. (The museum, now closed, was supposed to be acquired by UWI, Cave Hill.)
There was more to Dr Cyrus than medicine. “He is one of those multi-talented Renaissance men who is excellent at everything he turns his hand to, he is a wonderful gardener, he is a great communicator, he is a great photographer, as well as a great doctor,” his peer, Professor Henry Fraser, Dean of Medical Sciences, UWI Cave Hill, observed in the documentary. An active sportsman, his passion was the game of squash, which he had started playing whilst at medical school. He introduced the game to the island in 1966 when he built the first squash court in the Southern Caribbean under his home in New Montrose. He founded the SVG Squash Association in 1979, and remained its head until 1988. During his presidency he was instrumental in the commencement of the Junior Caribbean Squash Champion-ships which was hosted by St Vincent in its inaugural year in 1981, and the construction of the Squash Courts Complex in Kingstown.
Amidst practicing medicine, raising four children with Kathryn, playing squash, lawn tennis and bridge, and tending to his beloved vegetable garden, Cyrus managed to find the time to pen many medical research papers, and several books including an acclaimed textbook, “A Clinical and Pathological Atlas: The Records of a Surgeon in St Vincent, the West Indies”, and “A Dream Come True – The Autobiography of a Caribbean Surgeon” documenting his childhood and a lifetime of practicing medicine.
As one would expect, Cyrus had many an honour bestowed upon him, including a PAHO Hero in Health award, an Honorary Doctorate of Science from UWI Cave Hill in 2005, and in March, 2019, during a visit to St Vincent and the Grenadines by HRH Prince Charles, he was knighted for his services to medicine and health services.
Dr Cyrus will be best remembered for transforming thousands of lives often in difficult circumstances with his surgical skill and his mantra: ‘compassion is the cornerstone of medical practice’. His invaluable contribution to the improvement of the lives of his countrymen and women and the standards of practicing medicine cannot be readily quantified. In 2018, at a white coat ceremony for new doctors on his native island, Cyrus shared his simple philosophy of a doctor’s mission: “Life is beautiful. And to preserve it is beautiful.”
Rest in peace Dr Arthur Cecil Cyrus, Caribbean legend and humanitarian.
